UrbanBush Women / Jessica Lang / Compania Jesus Carmona - White Bird Dance

White Bird

DANCE 2017-18

®

DISCOVERING A WORLD OF DANCE FOR 20 YEARS

URBAN BUSH WOMEN March 1-3, 2018 | Newmark Theatre

JESSICA LANG DANCE March 8-10, 2018 | Newmark Theatre

COMPAÑIA JESÚS CARMONA March 14, 2018 | Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

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AT TH E P E R FO R M A N C E A CIT Y PL AYBILL AND PERFORMING ARTS MAGA ZINE

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CONTENTS 7

WELCOME FROM WHITE BIRD

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THANK YOU FLOCK MEMBERS

10 URBAN BUSH WOMEN 18 JESSICA LANG DANCE 24 BALLET FLAMENCO JESÚS CARMONA 30 ARTSLANDIA

ARTS CALENDAR

34 FROM THE EDITOR-AT-LARGE

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38 CHRIS COLEMAN: EXIT TO DENVER

The Artistic Director for The Armory reflects on his tenure.

42 VEDEM: A JEWISH RESISTANCE ‘ZINE FROM THE HOLOCAUST

The story of a teen-written magazine that united a Nazi concentration camp.

49 THE GRASS DANCE

FLOURISHES

42

Gerry RainingBird nurtures powwow dance tradition.

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54 WHO IS SUSANNAH MARS? Get to know the artist.

M A RCH | A PRIL 2018

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A MONTH OF DIVERSE MOVEMENT We have often heard from our audience members how much they appreciate the diversity of White Bird programming.

The three companies, appearing with us in March over three consecutive weeks, demonstrate that without a doubt.

First up is Urban Bush Women, returning for the fifth time to White Bird. UBW made its White Bird debut back in December 2001 with their humorous and poignant Hair Stories. Now, close to 17 years later, we are delighted to present their brand new Hair and Other Stories, expanding on the important themes of race, gender, and identity.

We want to extend huge thanks to our good friend Renee Mitchell for helping

sponsor, through MRG Foundation, tickets for 100 young people to attend the UBW performances. Renee is also organizing a Hair Party community event with UBW Founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar on Saturday, March 3 at the June Key Delta Community Center, 1:00–2:30pm (For more information, please contact Renee, create.artfully@yahoo.com.)

Flamenco has played an important role in White Bird’s history. On March 14 we cannot wait to introduce you to Jesús Carmona, who in recent years has become one of the most acclaimed and dynamic figures in Spanish flamenco. Jesús will arrive at the Schnitzer with his sizzling show Impetu’s, featuring a remarkable ensemble of dancers, singers and musicians.

On March 8–10 we are delighted to have the Portland debut of Jessica Lange Dance.

We have followed Jessica’s highly musical, strongly visual work for several years. Her multi-faceted program illustrates the impressive range of her movement, set to Bach and Beethoven and contemporary composers.

Our 20th anniversary season is moving along quickly, and we look forward to seeing you often during the month of March.

Paul King Walter Jaffe

White Bird is proud to belong to Dance/USA, the national service and advocacy organization for the dance field.

For more information, please visit danceusa.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

THE WHITE BIRD TEAM

Paul King, President Walter Jaffe, Secretary/Treasurer Kendall Acheson Sheryl Acheson Albert E. Chaffin, MD, FAAP Ann Edwards Ken Edwards Kim Allchurch Flick Fabian Genovesi Sandra Holmes Carol Ihlenburg Gary Nelson Minh Tran Vinh Wong

Walter Jaffe, Co-Founder, wjaffe@whitebird.org Paul King, Co-Founder, pking@whitebird.org Chelsea Bushnell, Director of Audience Services, chelsea@whitebird.org Christopher Roesing, Director of Revenue & Community Partnerships, chris@whitebird.org David Nolfi, Director of Finance, david@whitebird.org Elizabeth Whelan, Communications Manager, elizabeth@whitebird.org Jeff Forbes, Technical Director Lauren Bayard, Volunteer Poster/Flyer Coordinator Karen Stahr, Manager of Merchandise, karen@whitebird.org Liz Sandoval, Volunteer Group Sales Coordinator Natalie Anthony, Graphic Design Dave Weaver, Web Designer Office Volunteers: Connie Guist, Morgan Meister, Stephanie Sussman, Jessica Vasi

Nancy & George Thorn, Founding Board Members Emereti

WHITE BIRD

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THANK YOU FLOCK MEMBERS.

YOU MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE! ESPECIALLY IN OUR 20TH ANNIVERSARY! IF YOU ARE NOT YET CONTRIBUTING, PLEASE CONSIDER A GENEROUS GIFT TO WHITE BIRD. IF YOU ARE CONTRIBUTING, WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO GO HIGHER!

WHITE BIRD PLATINUM PATRONS XX In celebration of White Bird’s 20th anniversary this season, we have created a new donors circle Platinum Patrons XX (PPXX).

We extend great thanks to those who have made a generous increased donation in honor of our milestone season.

Please join PPXX. For more information on how to become a member, please contact Walter Jaffe, wjaffe@whitebird.org or Paul King, pking@whitebird.org

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Anonymous (3) Carole Alexander Tomas Ancona & Laura Tarrish Laurie Balmuth Terrence P. Bean Audry & Chris Bond Kathleen Bristow Mary Lou Cavendish & Michael Hughes Ed Clark & Janet Roberts Jack & Terri Duncan Carol & Jeana Edelman George Eighmey Kim & Gregory Flick Margaret W. Frank Kit Gillem & Deborah Horrell Christine & Robert Gilmore Valarie Grudier Ivan Gold & Grace Serbu Jamey Hampton & Ashley Roland Jan Hurst Lola Jaffe Becky Jones Norm Kalbfleisch & Neil Matteucci Clara & Martin Kubeja Gary Leavitt Barbara Lovre Gary Maffei & Marcus Lintner David Magilke & Butch Williams Erin and Christopher Manwaring Alice & Hal McCartor Sarah McNary Kathleen & James Meyer VeAnna Morgan & Pamela Town Phyllis Newmark McKay & Jay Nutt Marthel Porter Dean Richardson David Ritchie & LaJean Humphries Joanne & Steven Rizzo John & Marti Rosenthal Donna Silverberg & Charles Wiggins Jaymi & Francis Sladen Peter Vennewitz Ellen Walkley Sarah & Alan Wizemann Patricia & Jack Wong (List current as of February 15, 2018)

WHITE BIRD FLOCK

Our Flock List is current as of February 15, 2018. Contributions after this date will be reflected in the next program.

Any questions, please contact Walter Jaffe, wjaffe@whitebird.org , (503) 245-1600, Ext. 202.

Generous contributors to the White Bird /MKG New Works Fund since September 2008.

PPXX Members of the new Platinum Patrons XX Circle TITANIUM PLUME ($10,000+) Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Ken & Ann Edwards PPXX Lola Jaffe Walter Jaffe & Paul King Ronni Lacroute Hugh & Mair Lewis James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust Gary Nelson & Minh Tran Gary Nelson & Minh Tran in Memory of Michael Magaurn Oregon Arts Commission Oregonian Media Group PGE Foundation Regional Arts & Culture Council Starseed Foundation Darci & Charlie Swindells Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation George & Nancy Thorn Wells Fargo Willamette Week Work for Art PLATINUM PLUME ($5000+) PPXX Anonymous Sheryl Acheson/Bonhams Joan Cirillo & Roger Cooke Columbia Bank & Columbia Trust Robert & Mercedes Eichholz Foundation Carol Ihlenburg The J and J Foundation Magaurn Video Media Neil Kelly Oregon Cultural Trust PosterGarden WESTAF TourWest GOLD PLUME ($2500+) The Autzen Foundation Albert Chaffin MD Chris Greenaway Enterprise Holdings Foundation PPXX Deborah Horrell & Kit Gillem Fund for Arts and Conservation of The Oregon Community Foundation Juan Young Trust Murray Koodish Dorothy Lemelson Trust PPXX Dave Magilke MD & Butch Williams DMD Reed College PPXX Joanne & Steven Rizzo Arlene Schnitzer Trust Susan & Jim Winkler Sarah Wizemann/ Lille Boutique

SILVER PLUME ($1000+) Anonymous PPXX Carole Alexander Association of Performing Arts Presenters PPXX Terrence Bean Jamie Beckland & Michael Pope PPXX Janet & Ed Clark Deanna Cochener Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest Carol Edelman PPXX Gregory R. & Kim A. Flick PPXX Margaret W. Frank Ann & Edward Galen Fabian Genovesi PPXX Jamey Hampton & Ashley Roland Maryanne & David Holman Sandra & Stephen Holmes Christopher Johnson & Rex Bills PPXX Jessie Jonas Norm Kalbfleisch & Neil Matteucci Gary Leavitt Ellen Lippman & Steve Rosenberg PPXX Maffei/Lintner Advised Fund of Equity Foundation PPXX Barbara Lovre Jeff & Lynn Malzahn PPXX Phyllis Newmark PPXX The Nut House Fund Ronald & Shirley Pausig Janet & Frank Phillips Robert & Jane Reed PPXX Dean Richardson PPXX Jaymi & Francis Sladen Al Solheim Linda & Jon Twichell PPXX Peter J. Vennewitz Vibrant Table Catering PPXX Ellen Walkley Vinh Wong BRONZE PLUME ($500+) PPXX Anonymous

AJ Arriola & Alice Jacobson PPXX Tom Ancona &

Laura Tarrish PPXX Chris & Audry Bond

Robert Aughenbaugh PPXX Laurie Balmuth

Liz Bothwell & Gail Webb PPXX Kathleen Bristow

Richard & Marcia Bushnell PPXX Mary Lou Cavendish &

Michael Hughes Debi Coleman Dennis Deming & Corky Cortwright PPXX Jack & Terri Duncan Friends of the Cultural Center Inc. PPXX George Eighmey Ann Emmerson Leslye Epstein & Herman Taylor

Charles & Kyle Fuchs PPXX Jamey Hampton &

Ashley Roland PPXX Jan Hurst PPXX Christine & Robert Gilmore

Ivan L. Gold & Grace Serbu

PPXX PPXX Valarie Grudier

Karen Henell PPXX LaJean Humphries &

David Ritchie Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith PPXX Becky Jones Stephen & Marge Kafoury PPXX Norm Kalbfleisch & Neil Matteucci Anna S. King PPXX Clara & Martin Kubeja Kirsten Lee Mike & Bonnie Leiser Claire Lindsay PPXX Barbara Lovre PPXX Erin & Christopher Manwaring Keith & Bradley Martin PPXX Hal & Alice McCartor PPXX Sarah McNary Richard H. Meeker & Ellen F. Rosenblum PPXX Kathleen & James Meyer Michael Curry Design PPXX VeAnna Morgan & Pamela Town Alex Nicoloff & Lesley Otto Jennifer & David Nolfi Stanley & Susanne Penkin & Jean Krosner Por Que No Taqueria PPXX Marthel Porter PPXX John & Marti Rosenthal Carol Schnitzer Lewis Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation PPXX Donna Silverberg & Charles Wiggins David & Chris Sinner Aaron Tersteeg & Jessica Vasi UBS Brian & Nikki Weaver Western Partitions Sam Wheeler Fund of The Oregon Community Foundation PPXX Patricia & Jack Wong ANGEL ($250+) Anonymous Susan Agre-Kippenhan & Mike Kippenhan Sue Armitage Rebecca Boley Matthew Boyes & Frederic Koeleman Steve Buchert & Herb Trubo David Cassard Deborah Correa & Mark Wilson Yvonne De Maat & Kenneth Murphy Elizabeth Eckstrom

Meredith English Stuart Farmer Chris Gauger & Lee Leighton Bruce Guenther & Dr. Eduardo Vides, MD Hollywood Lights Inc. Ava & Charlie Hoover Illinois Tool Works Foundation Intel Corporation Judy Jacobson Tom Kane & Donna Shu Paula Kanarek & Ross Kaplan Karen Kemper Paula Levinrad Judith Bieberle Marks JS & Robin May Monique’s Boutique Martin C. Muller Ken & Colleen Murray Steven Neighorn New England Foundation for the Arts Nielson Insurance Robert Olsen Steven P. & Eileen O’Neill Odum Oregon Children’s Theatre Elizabeth B. Pearce Cheryl & Dave Pfaff Judith E. Posey & Edward J. Doyle, MD Bonnie & Pete Reagan Sarah & Nathan Roe Jone Sampson Carol Smith-Larson Leah Swetnam Jane Unger Kim Ziebell FEATHERED FRIENDS ($100+) Anonymous Steve Albert & Janie Goldenberg Markus Albert Hagen & Emily Amen Marlene Anderson Ruby Apsler Elizabeth Arch Jan & Winston Asai Bill Bard & James Donder Nila Baker Kathie Bayer Dr. Diana Bell Bernard Schmidt Productions, Inc. Toni Berres-Paul Joanna Bonime Phil Brady & Pat Evenson-Brady Martin & Diane Brandt Dennis Brown Marianne Buchwalter Sarah Byrne Amy Campbell Claire Carder & Jim Scherzinger Don Caniparoli & Sarah

Ken Carraro Suzi Carter & Michael Weaver Lisa Chickadonz Nancy Clement Pam Greenough Corrie Bradley Coffey Aaron Creurer & Fred Ross Charles Curb & Janne Stark Susan Cyganiak Susan Dale Deborah Danielson Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Davids Tomika Anne Dew Kathleen Diack Anne Driscoll Kent Duffy & Martha Murray Robin J. Dunitz Earl Dyer Anne Egan & Tim McNichol David Fanger & Martin Wechsler Edward Feuerstein Carolyn & Ruthie Ferguson Nick Fish & Patricia Schecter The Fishbein Family Barabara Fishleder & John Wolfe Jerry Fong Eileen & Arlene Fromer Jerome & Mary Fulton John Gadon Lucile Gauger Laraine Gladstone Arthur Glasfeld & Susan Mikota Benjamin Gerritz Nancy Goodwin & Albert Horn Deborah & Sid Green Connie Guist Debra Gwartney & Barry Lopez Evelyn Hamann John Hamer & Kirsten Chapman Darlene Hardie Gary & Lynne Hartshorn Terry Hasegawa Jeff Hawthorne Jennifer Heilbronner Hewlett-Packard Stephen Hillis Bill Hogsett Mark Holloway Meghan Hoopes & Nicholas Nelson Martha Ireland Rachel Jacky Bob & Jill Jaffe Michael Johnson Becky Jones & Barbara Gardner Alan T. & Sharon Y. Jones David Jensen Daphna & Iddo Kadim Mary Kane John Kellerman Kathryn King-Goldberg Peter Kost Richard & Jann Leeuwenburg Matt & Rachael Lembo Drs. Dolores & Fernando Leon Jerry & Judith Lesch John Light & Patricia Barnes-Light Andrew Lintz & Brian Stief Lydia & Derek Lipman Joyce Lozito Holly Macfee, Lookout Co. David Maier & Kaye Van Valkenburg Bel-Ami & Mark Margoles Phillip Margolin Anna Marti Pamela Matheson Carolyn McFadden Kristen & Justin Monahan

Laurence Morandi & Karen Pazucha Billie Moser Patricia Navin & Bill Poleson Rowena & Luke Norman Daniel & Kathy Norton Robert Olds Christine & Paul Omara Robert & Carolyn Palanuk Toni Parque Judith & Jerry Paul Sondra & Gordon Pearlman Lake Perriguey Peter Corvallis Productions Heriberto Petschek Scott Philips Laurie Pino Kathy & Art Placek Christina Pratt Judy Renzema Sarah & Rhys Quinn Sheila Ford Richmond Von Roberts Ruth Robinson Charles & Judith Rooks Zach Ruhl Saif Corporation Dan Saltzman Virginia Sewell Hope Shaw Roger & Janice Shea Jon & Ann Sinclair Stefanie Silverman Joyce Skokowski Alix & Mark Smith Valarie Smith Carl Snook Susan Sorensen Wendy Squires The Steinfelds Jim & Nita Stell Kathleen Stephenson-Kuhn Laura F. Stockwell Corby Stonebraker-Sole Stephanie & Stephen Sussman Gary Taliaferro Christine Tarpey & Richard Yugler Kathy Taylor Beverly Trover Lyle M. Tucker Jenny & Tony Vaught William Wells Beth & Gary Westbrook Patricia Wetzel Carolyn Wieden Christina Wiley Edyth Willard Margaret Willer in Honor of Anne Willer Robert Woods & Jeff Pittman Anthony Yeznach Gary & Kay Zimmerli FRIENDS ($50+) Anonymous Anthony Altucher & Collette Young Sona Andrews Naomi Angier Michele & Bill Bader Katherine S. Bang Susan Bard Claire Barnett Linda Barnwell Ann Bellman & Michael Woods Belinda Beresford Edward & Aimee Berg Kristi Bigio Amelia & John Bishop John H. Bourke Warren & Donna Brown Bill Bulick & Carol McIntosh Carol Bunten & Daniel Rosenberg

Cynthia Chilton & Ed Abrahamson Richard Colman Eliza Crockett Eloise Damrosch & Gary Hartnett Helen M. Daltoso & James Wilcox Brian Diehl Robert Dodson Jessica Duke & Scott Urbatsch Lucile Gauger Nona Glazer Andreanne Gingras David Goldberg Ignacio Gonzales-Reyes & Stacie Hall Todd Guenzburger & Bill Kline Connie & Greg Korn Don Hagga Constance Hammond J. Benjamin Havris-Brown Caroline Henry Maureen Herndon Joan Hoffman Brook & Ann Howard Jacqueline Hoyt Mark Huey & Wayne Wiegand Georgia Lee Hussey James Hutchinson Mary James Faith Jennings Sharon Johnson Peggy Kavka Janice Kettler Daniel Kirk & Eric Skinner Carol Kneeshaw Cheryl Kolbe The Kroger Co. Joni Kutner Fuchsia Lin Grant Lindquist Jonathan & Vida Lohnes David Lewis & Liz Sandoval Sidne Lewis Martha Logan Frances Lynch in mem. of Marion Jenks Mimi Maduro Katherine MacKenzie Sue D. McCulloch Katherine McKearnan Gary McLaughlin Michael McManus Cassandra Mercer Bonnie Merrill Max & Lori Miller Kristen Minor & David Corser Amy Monroe Sara Nosanchuk Margaret Olney & Steve Marsh Kathleen O’Reilly Vicki Perrett Pfizer Foundation David & Kay Pollack David & Nancy Pribnow Naomi Price Denise Reed Michael Reper Meredith & Bill Savery Beth & Amy Segal Bruce Simmons Amelia Simpson Robert Simpson Cassandra Scholte Penelope Schott & Eric Sweetman Suzanne Silverstein Betty Smith Judith Sobol Connie Speros-Literal Laura Stepp Harriet Stiller Erica Swartz David Threefoot Robert Welsh

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS White Bird extends great thanks to the following foundations and government agencies for their support of the 2017–18 twentieth season.

The Regional Arts & Culture Council, including support from the City of Portland, Multnomah County and the Arts Education & Access Fund, Work for Art, including contributions from more than 75 companies and two thousand employees, Starseed Foundation and Multnomah County Cultural Coalition

OUR GENEROUS COMMUNITY PARTNERS artistic directors jamey hampton + ashley roland

artistic directors jamey hampton + ashley roland

OUR GENEROUS RESTAURANT PARTNERS

WHITE BIRD IS A 501(C)(3) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO BRINGING EXCELLENCE IN DANCE TO PORTLAND, OREGON.

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MARCH 1–3, 2018 NEWMARK THEATRE

URBAN BUSH WOMEN FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, JAWOLE WILLA JO ZOLLAR

HAIR & OTHER STORIES Crafted from personal narratives from our communities, kitchens and living rooms, social media and YouTube, Hair & Other Stories debates the center of perceived American “values” and celebrates the persevering narrative of the African Diaspora. Hair & Other Stories explores disquieting perceptions of body image, race, gender identity, economic inequities and what constitutes freedom, liberation, and release in our everyday struggles to rise to our Extra-ordinary Selves in extraordinary times.

This is the urgent dialogue of the 21st Century.

CHOREOGRAPHED BY Chanon Judson and Samantha Speis in collaboration with The Company

STAGE DIRECTION Raelle Myrick-Hodges

DRAMATURG Jawole Willa Jo Zollar

THE COMPANY Du’Bois A’Keen, Courtney J. Cook, Chanon Judson, Tendayi Kuumba, Stephanie Mas and Samantha Speis LIGHTING DESIGNER Xavier Pierce

COSTUME DESIGNER DeeDee Gomes

SOUND DESIGN Everett Asis Saunders

PROJECTIONS DESIGNER Nicholas Hussong

MUSIC COMPOSED The Illustrious Blacks (Manchildblack and Monstah Black)

WHITE BIRD UNCAGED 2017–18 IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM

White Bird’s presentation of Urban Bush Women’s “Hair and Other Stories” is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

MEDIA SPONSOR

Special thanks to First Republic Bank for their generous hospitality toward the company.

The taking of photographs, videos and the use of recording devices are strictly prohibited. Program and casting subject to change.

Latecomers will be seated only during intermissions. Please turn off all cell phones during the performance.

THERE WILL BE ONE FIFTEEN MINUTE INTERMISSION URBAN BUSH WOMEN • WHITE BIRD

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ADDITIONAL MUSIC: Own That Sh*t by Tendayi Kuumba and Greg Purnell; Break It Down by Tendayi Kuumba; I Am Not Yours by Du’Bois A’Keen; The Issue of Colorism by Dr Grills; (used with permission by Dr Grills and D.Channsin Berry)

Move B*tch by Michael L. Tyler, Craig Stephen Lawson, Jonathan H. Smith, Bobby Wardell Sandimanie Jr., Jeffrey Ray Grigsby, Lola Chantrelle Mitchell, Paul D. Beauregard, Ricky Dunigan, Sean Paul Joseph, Stephanie C. Martin, Jordan Michael Houston, Jason Williams as sung by Ludacris is used with permission from Universal Music, Resevoir Media and Ultra Music.

Original Concept for HairStories (2001)

by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Elizabeth Herron

URBAN BUSH WOMEN COMPANY HISTORY Urban Bush Women (UBW) burst onto the dance scene in 1984, with bold, innovative, demanding and exciting works that bring under-told stories to life through the art and vision of its award-winning founder Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The company weaves contemporary dance, music, and text with the history, culture, and spiritual traditions of the African Diaspora.

Under Zollar’s artistic direction, Urban Bush Women performs regularly in New York City and tours nationally and internationally. The Company has been commissioned by presenters nationwide, and includes among its honors a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”); the Capezio Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance; a Black Theater Alliance Award; and two Doris Duke Awards for New Work from the American Dance Festival. In March 2010, UBW toured South America as part of DanceMotion USAsm, a cultural diplomacy initiative spearheaded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In recent years, Zollar has been awarded the 2014 Southern Methodist University Meadows Prize, the 2015 Dance Magazine Award and the 2016 Dance/USA Honors Award. In 2017, Zollar received a Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance.

Off the concert stage, Urban Bush Women has developed an extensive community engagement program called BOLD (Builders, Organizers, & Leaders through Dance). UBW’s BOLD program has a network of facilitators that travel nationally and internationally to conduct workshops that bring the histories of local communities forward through performance.

UBW’s largest community engagement project is its Summer Leadership Institute (SLI), established in 1997. This 10-day intensive training program serves as the foundation for all of the company’s community engagement activities. Ultimately the SLI program connects dance professionals and community-based artists/activists in a learning experience to leverage the arts as a vehicle for civic engagement.

As an extension of UBW’s mission and core values, UBW launched the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center in January 2016. The center supports the development of women choreographers of color and other underheard voices.

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WHITE BIRD • URBAN BUSH WOMEN

JAWOLLE WILLA JO ZOLLAR

FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND VISIONING PARTNER After earning her B.A. in dance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, she received her M.F.A. in dance from Florida State University.

In 1984 Zollar founded Urban Bush Women (UBW) as a performance ensemble dedicated to exploring the use of cultural expression as a catalyst for social change. Zollar developed a unique approach to enable artists to strengthen effective involvement in cultural organizing and civic engagement, which evolved into UBW’s acclaimed Summer Leadership Institute.

She serves as director of the Institute, founding artistic director and visioning partner of UBW and currently holds the position of the Nancy Smith Fichter Professor of Dance and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.

Awards: 2008 United States Artists Wynn fellowship, 2009 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial, 2013 Arthur L. Johnson Memorial award by Sphinx Music, 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. 2014 Meadows Prize from Southern Methodist University, 2015: Dance Magazine Award. 2016: Dance/USA Honor Award; Black Theater Alliance Award. 2017: Bessie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance.

URBAN BUSH WOMEN | BIOGRAPHIES Aminata Balde

(PERFORMER) is making her debut performance with Urban Bush Women.

She is excited to celebrate this landmark in her two years of being on the Earth.

Chanon Judson

(ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/PERFORMER) began her relationship with UBW in 2001. She has had the privilege of serving the company as rehearsal director, Director for UB2–Urban Bush Women’s performing apprentice ensemble, and now furthers her work with UBW as Associate Artistic Director and Co-Coordinator of BOLD (Builders Organizers and Leaders through Dance). An avid arts educator, Chanon has instructed for Ailey Arts in Education (Dir. of Ailey Camp MO), BAM, Earl Mosley’s Institute for the Arts, and is the founder of Cumbe’s Dance Drum and Imagination Camp for Children as well as Family Arts Movement LLC, which offers creative movement and art making for children. She gives thanks to her dad for his help on research for Hair & Other Stories.

Courtney J. Cook

(PERFORMER) is a Virginia Native now residing in Brooklyn, NY. She began her formal dance training at the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts.

She later attended and graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, receiving her B.F.A in Dance and Choreography. In addition to being a company member with Urban Bush Women, she also performs in projects, working with astounding choreographers and artists of the community such as Christian Von Howard, Jennifer Archibald, Brotherhood Dance, and The Indigo Artists Collective. She looks forward to continuing her journey in the Arts and community organizing with Urban Bush Women.

DeeDee Gomes (COSTUME DESIGNER) is a self-taught fashion and fiber artist based in New York. She has created stage attire and done fashion styling for musicians and bands, including Meshell Ndegeocello; Nation Beat; and individual singers from Enrique Iglesias’ band. She designed costumes for Brazilian band Fihos de Jorge that were featured in one of their music videos that had over 6 million views. She also designed costumes for dance ensemble, The Pulse Project. She did the styling

and costumes for a girl band called Funky Diamonds, of which she was a member, that toured internationally. DeeDee is owner of DeeDee’s Street Boutique in New York, which features her remarkable one-of-a-kind repurposed, recycled clothing.

Du’Bois A’Keen

(PERFORMER) a true renaissance spirit: born and raised in Albany, GA. A’Keen began his formal dance training at age 19.

After receiving his BFA in Dance from Florida State University; He was accepted as an MFA candidate. While studying in NYC A’Keen was asked to joined UBW in December 2014.

Aside from his work with UBW as a company member and Marketing/Branding consultant. A’Keen serves as the Founder & leader of the rapidly growing creative movement and global community “The Tuesday Thing”.

A’Keen is the Co-Founder & Creative Director of AKEEN BRAND, LLC and ‘KEEN Thinking, lifestyle brand and blog platform.

A’Keen is also a IFP Screen Forward Lab Fellow for the 2017 cohort. While working in the industries of film, fashion and music (as a singer/songwriter): A’Keen looks forward to continued growth and success, along side his beautiful wife and life partner Camry Vonyae’ A’Keen. He is guided by his faith and life mantras, “JUST BE.”

Everett Asis Saunders

(SOUND DESIGNER) is the founder and creative director of Flux Innovations, a sound and audio services company. Their recent clients include PBS, Sony Music, and Columbia Records. Saunders is a producer, composer, songwriter, and performer. He has specific knowledge and practice in arranging, editing and mixing for theater, film and music entertainment. His work spans across genres with original compositions for numerous independent films and New York/LA dance community, with his latest commissions including Marjani Forte & Works Memoirs of a.. Unicorn. Film works include PBS March on Washington (2013), Print Shop (2016), and Project Imagination winner TRANSPORTER directed by Damon Colquhoun.

The Illustrious Blacks

(MUSIC COMPOSER) Manchildblack & Monstah Black comprise this fabulous musical duo who have arrived on a mission to fuse futuristic funk, hypnotic house and cosmic pop into pulsating positivity for the planet. Their entertaining weekly radio show on WBAI 99.5 FM in NYC, On Air w/The Blacks, invites audiences to listen in as they

conduct interviews, feature live performers and discuss the latest happenings in global pop culture.

Nicholas Hussong

(PROJECTIONS DESIGNER) Off-Broadway credits include: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), These Paper Bullets!

Drama Desk Nomination (Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep) Regional credits include: Grounded (Alley Theatre), Two Trains Running (Arden Theater), The Mountaintop (Playmakers Rep), I Saw My Neighbor on the Train and I Didn’t Even Smile (Berkshires Theatre Group) as well as productions with Esperanza Spaulding, Abrons Art Center, Premieres NYC, Ars Nova, Heartbeat Opera, Cantata Profana, Nashville Symphony, Hartford Symphony, I am a Boys Choir, Summerworks Toronto, LaMaMa Summer Share, and Joe’s Pub. Nicholas was the Artistic Associate at Triad Stage in Greensboro, North Carolina where he continues to design new works based on Appalachian life written by Preston Lane.

Raelle Myrick-Hodges (STAGE DIRECTOR) With a study of theater and science, Raelle Myrick-Hodges is ecstatic to be working with Urban Bush Women for the first time. RMH has directed plays nationally and worked as a stage director internationally in devised works. She is the founder of Azuka Theater located in Philadelphia, an award-winning theater company now in its 23rd year. Raelle has presented works in dance, music, theater as and film as Curator of Performing Arts for the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans.

Raelle has worked with artists in different aesthetics and disciplines including Denis O’Hare, Miriam Hyman, Meryl Streep, Antonio Brown (Choreographer), Jeffrey Wright, Chinaka Hodge, among others. Currently, Raelle is working on two works for her newly created theater ensemble Elephant Room which premiere works in January 2019. Raelle’s creative contribution on Hair & Other Stories is dedicated is dedicated to the memory of Ebony McKinney, co-founder of Elephant Room. Upcoming works directed by Raelle: The Bluest Eye written by Toni Morrison adapted by Lydia Diamond at the Arden Theater Company and a world premiere of the 1947 play, In Splendid Error written by William Branch. The fictional telling of the day before John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. (R.I.P Ebony McKinney and Robert Langston.)

Samantha Speis (ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC

DIRECTOR/PERFORMER) is a movement artist based in New York City. She has worked with Gesel Mason, The Dance Exchange, URBAN BUSH WOMEN • WHITE BIRD

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URBAN BUSH WOMEN | BIOGRAPHIES Jumatatu Poe, Deborah Hay (as part of the Sweet Day curated by Ralph Lemon at the MoMA), Marjani Forte, and Liz Lerman.

She is currently a member of The Skeleton Architecture, a collective of black womyn and and gender non-conforming artists who use the practice of improvisation to create, organize, advocate, gather, play and challenge. Speis was the 2012 recipient of the Alvin Ailey New Directions Choreography Lab and recently was awarded a Bessie for Outstanding Performer. Her work has been featured at the Kennedy Center (Millennium Stage), Long Island University, Joyce SoHo, Hollins University, Danspace Project, Dixon Place, Dance Place, and The Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Speis’ solo, The Way it Was, and Now, was commissioned by the Jerome Foundation to be performed at Danspace Project for the Parallels Platform Series, and was later invited to the Kaay Fecc Dance Festival in Dakar, Senegal. She has developed a teaching practice that explores pelvic mobility as the root of powerful locomotion and as a point of connection to the stories, experiences and lineages that reside in each of us. She has been a guest artist and taught workshops throughout the United States, South America, Senegal, and Europe. Recent projects include, Walking with Trane co-choreographed with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and her collaboration with Chanon Judson-Johnson and Raelle MyrickHodges on Hair and Other Stories.

Stephanie Mas

(PERFORMER) is a Miami native, has been a performer with Urban Bush Women since her entry into the company in June 2013. Throughout her time with Urban Bush Women she has had the opportunity to tour world-wide, performing and co-facilitating workshops/master classes in the different communities they have been invited to visit. She also works as a freelance performing artist and has had the opportunity to collaborate and create with artists such as Paloma McGregor, Millicent Johnnie, Megan Bascom, Megan Kendzior, Kate Weare, BODYART, and Kirstin Kapustik.

Mas is also certified and received her 200hr Yoga Certification in 2013.

Susan Hamburger

(PRODUCTION MANAGER) has designed the lighting for Urban Bush Women for over 13 years and has worked with such notable artists as Craig Harris, Lucinda Childs, Mark Rucker and Mark Morris. Other notable

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WHITE BIRD • URBAN BUSH WOMEN

dance companies she has designed for include Bessie winner Nora Chipaumire, Troika Ranch, Ellis Wood, Urban Tap and Alice Farley. She has also designed The Mystery of Edwin Drood, On The Town, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Little Shop Of Horrors, Suddenly Last Summer, The Great Highway, West Side Story, The Cryptogram, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing and Waiting for Godot as well as many other plays and performance pieces Susan is an adjunct professor at New York University and received her MFA from Yale School of Drama. susanhamburger.com

Tendayi Kuumba

(PERFORMER) is a graduate of North Atlanta High School of Performing Arts and Spelman College.

Her training ranges from Buffalo Inner City Ballet, Ballethnic, Callanwolde Fine Arts, and Moving in the Spirit. Currently, Tendayi is a company member of Urban Bush Women, ASE Dance Theater Collective, and Axam Dance Theater Experience.

Past works include Liberata Dance Theater, Marjani Forte of LOVE/FORTE Collective, T Lang Dance, and Nathan Trice/Rituals Performance Project StrangeLove. Tendayi performs regularly as a resident Jazz vocalist at the Williamsburg Music Center with the Gerry Eastman Quartet every Friday night.

She gives thanks and blessings for life, love, breath, and the pursuit of happiness.

Xavier Pierce (LIGHTING DESIGNER) Xavier’s credits include Shakespeare in Love (Oregon Shakespeare Festival Festival dir Christopher Moore ) Smart People (Arena Stage dir Seema Sueko ) Harvey (The Guthrie, Dir. Libby Appel), Fences (Long Wharf / McCarter Theatre co-production, Dir. Phylicia Rashad), Fly (Florida Studio Theatre / Handy Award for Best Lighting), Two Trains Running (Two Rivers Theatre, Dir. Ruben Santiago-Hudson), A Raisin in the Sun (Westport Country Playhouse, Dir. Phylicia Rashad), Common Enemy (Triad Stage, Dir. Preston Lane), The Piano Lesson (Olney Theatre Center, Dir. Jamil Jude), Two Trains Running (The Arden, Dir. Raelle Myrick Hodges), and 4,000 Miles, Peter and the Starcatcher, and The Mountaintop (PlayMakers Rep). Upcoming: Native Gardens (The Guthrie & Arena Stage , dir. Blake Robison), Blithe Spirit (The Guthrie, dir.

David Ivers) . Othello, (Oregon Shakespeare Festival dir Bill Rauch) Xavier is a graduate of New York University Tisch School of the Arts MFA in Design Stage and Film.

Aminata short film and publicity videography

by Ramy Mam. Additional sound recording by Jared Hassan Foles at World Eater Recordings.

Special Prop design by Kofi.

Photos by Hayim Heron

URBAN BUSH WOMEN STAFF Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Founder/Visioning Partner Renee Taylor-Foles, Organizational Advancement Partner Chanon Judson & Samantha Speis, Associate Artistic Directors/Associate BOLD Coordinators Michelle Coe, Producer Tahnia Belle, Operations Manager Cheri Stokes, Company Manager Zoe Walders, Administrative Assistant Henry Liles, Finance Manager Jennifer Calienes, Strategic Advisor, Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Susan Hamburger, Lighting Designer/Production Manager Jose Santiago, Lighting Supervisor Ross Daniel, Stage Manager/ Sound Supervisor Bennalldra Williams, Training Specialist

URBAN BUSH WOMEN BOARD OF DIRECTORS Tammy Bormann, Chair; Ashly Nikkole

Davis; Mary Jamis; Yvahn Martin, ViceChair; Ngozi Ogbonna Tanisha Ross; Alice Sheppard; Jennifer Smith, Treasurer; Jawole Willa Jo Zollar Regina Bain,UBW National Advisory Board; Theodore S. Berger, UBW National Advisory Board

URBAN BUSH WOMEN CREATIVE CATALYST CIRCLE The UBW Creative Catalyst Circle invites the partnership of individuals, teams of individuals, and institutions who believe in the vision and mission of UBW and who wish to bring this vision to the stage through their philanthropic gifts.

Alfred and Patricia Zollar Tracey and Phillip Riese

MAJOR FUNDING FOR URBAN BUSH WOMEN IS PROVIDED BY: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation - Leadership Grants Program; Ford Foundation; Howard Gilman Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation; Nathan Cummings Foundation; National Endowment for the Arts; New Music USA; New York Community Trust; New York State Council on the Arts; Silicon Valley Community Foundation; and The Surdna Foundation Hair & Other Stories was commissioned by the Virginia Arts Festival and had its proscenium stage premiere as part of the 2017 Festival at the Attucks Theatre, Norfolk, VA, on April 22, 2017.

Hair & Other Stories (audience-engaged version) is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by Junebug Productions in partnership with Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, Dance Place and NPN. For more information: www.npnweb.org.

Hair & Other Stories is made possible by: Engaging Dance Audiences, which is administered by Dance/USA and made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; the Lincoln Center Cultural Innovation Fund, which is generously supported by The Rockefeller Foundation and administered by Lincoln Center; the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the MAP Fund, which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; and Acton Family Giving and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. It is also supported, Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Hair & Other Stories was made possible by residencies at Baruch College and City College Center for the Arts through the City University of New York (CUNY) Dance Initiative, which receives major support from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Jerome Robbins Foundation and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. CDI is spearheaded and administered by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College.

Hair & Other Stories is informed by our ongoing partnership and work with The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s Understanding and Undoing Racism workshop. www.pisab.org Special thanks to Talvin Wilks for early dramaturgical support for Hair & Other Stories; to Stephanie McKee and Laurie Uprichard for their continued support during the development of Hair & Other Stories; and to Jonathan D. Secor, Lai-Lin Robinson, and Thamar Fedestin for shepherding Hair & Other Stories during their tenure at Urban Bush Women.

UBW, Inc., dba Urban Bush Women, is a not-for-profit organization: 138 S. Oxford St., Suite #4B Brooklyn, NY 11217 (718) 398-4537

Learn more about UBW and its programs: BOLD: Chanon Judson and Samantha Speis: cjudson@urbanbushwomen.org; sspeis@urbanbushwomen.org SLI: Tahnia Belle: tbelle@urbanbushwomen.org Donations: Renee Taylor Foles: rtaylorfoles@urbanbushwomen.org

For booking information:

Matthew Bledsoe, IMG Artists at 212.994.3565 or mbledsoe@imgartists.com.

Michelle Coe, UBW Producer at mcoe@urbanbushwomen.org www.urbanbushwomen.org facebook.com/urbanbushwomen twitter.com/ubwdance instagram: ubwdance

URBAN BUSH WOMEN • WHITE BIRD

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WHITE BIRD • URBAN BUSH WOMEN

Photos by Hayim Heron

URBAN BUSH WOMEN • WHITE BIRD

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Photo by Sharen Bradford

JE SS ICA L A N G DA N CE

MARCH 8-10 N E W M A R K T H E AT R E

MARCH 8–10, 2018 NEWMARK THEATRE

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR JESSICA LANG DANCERS PATRICK COKER, JULIE FIORENZA, JOHN HARNAGE, EVE JACOBS, KANA KIMURA, MILAN MISKO, THOMAS RAGLAND, RACHEL SECREST, JAMMIE WALKER PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER DANIEL DILLER LIGHTING SUPERVISOR KATE BASHORE COMPANY MANAGER CALLEN GOSSELIN FOR BOOKING INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Margaret Selby-President, Selby/Artists Mgmt: 212.382.3261 | mselby@selbyartistsmgmt.com | selbyartistsmgmt.com

SPONSOR

MEDIA SPONSOR

ALBERT E. CHAFFIN, MD, FAAP Special thanks to Neil Kelly for their generous hospitality toward the company.

The taking of photographs, videos and the use of recording devices are strictly prohibited.

Program and casting subject to change. Latecomers will be seated only during intermissions.

Please turn off all cell phones during the performance.

JESSIC A L ANG DANCE • WHITE BIRD

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAM LINES CUBED (2012)

glow (2017)

CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Lang MUSIC: John Metcalfe, Thomas Metcalf SET DESIGN: Jessica Lang with molo products designed by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen LIGHTING DESIGN: Nicole Pearce COSTUME DESIGN: Lisa Choules

CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Lang MUSIC: Owen Clayton Condon and Ivan Trevino SET DESIGN: Jessica Lang and Nicole Pearce LIGHTING DESIGN: Nicole Pearce TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Greg Rowland

Patrick Coker, Julie Fiorenza, John Harnage, Eve Jacobs, Kana Kimura ,Milan Misko Thomas Ragland, Rachel Secrest, Jammie Walker

BLACK

Ensemble

RED

Kana Kimura with John Harnage, Milan Misko, Thomas Ragland, Jammie Walker

YELLOW

Patrick Coker, Julie Fiorenza, and Rachel Secrest

BLUE

Eve Jacobs and Milan Misko Rachel Secrest and Jammie Walker

ALL

Ensemble molo: softblocks + softwalls. Parkstone, Constant Filter by John Metcalfe. © 2008 St. Rose Music Publishing Co., Inc. o/b/o Manners McDade and McCleary Music Ltd. Used by Permission. A, B, E, F from album ‘ONE’ by Thomas Metcalf. cdbaby.com/cd/metcalf.

Costumes: www.elevedancewear.com.

PAUSE THE CALLING (Excerpt from Splendid Isolation II) (2006) CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Lang MUSIC: Trio Mediaeval COSTUME CONCEPT: Jessica Lang COSTUMES: Elena Comendador ORIGINAL LIGHTING: Al Crawford, Recreated by Nicole Pearce KANA KIMURA (March 8) JAMMIE WALKER (March 9) JULIE FIORENZA (March 10)

JOHN HARNAGE, MILAN MISKO, THOMAS RAGLAND, RACHEL SECREST, JAMMIE WALKER (March 10) This piece was co-commissioned by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

This piece was made possible with support from Charles and Deborah Adelman.

2+1 composed by Ivan Trevino, performed by Bryson Teel and Neal Schassler Fractalia composed by Clay Condon, used by arrangement with Third Coast Percussion

INTERMISSION Solo Bach (2008) CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Lang MUSIC: Johann Sebastian Bach LIGHTING DESIGN: Nicole Pearce COSTUMES DESIGN: Bradon McDonald JAMMIE WALKER (March 8) JOHN HARNAGE (March 9) PATRICK COKER (March 10) Works from Bach The Six Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo; Lara St. John, violin performed courtesy Ancalagon Records and Lara St. John. Partita No. 3 in E Major, BMV 1006: Gavotte en Rondeau.

PAUSE Sweet Silent Thought (2016) CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Lang ORIGINAL SCORE: Jakub Ciupinski LIGHTING DESIGN: Nicole Pearce COSTUME DESIGN: Bradon McDonald

Commissioned by Ailey II.

JULIE FIORENZA, JOHN HARNAGE, KANA KIMURA, MILAN MISKO (March 8 & 10) PATRICK COKER, EVE JACOBS, RACHEL SECREST, JAMMIE WALKER (March 9)

PAUSE

This work inspired by Shakespeare’s sonnets features readings from sonnets 30, 64, 40, 105, and 71. Vocals by Nilanjana Bose-Ciupinska, Chukwudi Iwuji, and Chris Myers.

“O Maria, stella maris” Performed by Trio Mediaeval (p) ECM Records 2005. Used by arrangement with ECM Records, Munich.

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PATRICK COKER, JOHN HARNAGE, MILAN MISKO, THOMAS RAGLAND, JAMMIE WALKER (March 8) PATRICK COKER, EVE JACOBS, JULIE FIORENZA, KANA KIMURA, RACHEL SECREST (March 9)

WHITE BIRD • JESSIC A L ANG DANCE

This work has been made possible by a commissioning grant from the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation

PAUSE Thousand Yard Stare (2015) CHOREOGRAPHY: Jessica Lang MUSIC: Ludwig van Beethoven LIGHTING DESIGN: Nicole Pearce COSTUME DESIGN: Bradon McDonald PATRICK COKER, JULIE FIORENZA, JOHN HARNAGE, EVE JACOBS, KANA KIMURA, MILAN MISKO, THOMAS RAGLAND, RACHEL SECREST, JAMMIE WALKER This work was generously underwritten by Geoff Fallon and was co-commissioned by Des Moines Performing Arts.

Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 15, Op 132.

Third movement: Adagio “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (Holy song of thanksgiving of a convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian Mode). Performed by Takás Quartet.

JESSICA LANG DANCE Founded in 2011, Jessica Lang Dance (JLD) is a New York City based dance company whose mission is to enrich and inspire global audiences by immersing them in the beauty of movement and music.

Since the company’s inception, Jessica Lang has created numerous original works for JLD, whose diverse repertoire demonstrates a commitment to artistic collaboration and a style that resists categorical definition. JLD has performed at premier venues and festivals worldwide including Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival, New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Joyce Theater, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, The Music Center, Winspear Opera House, Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Helikon Opera and Palacio de Bellas Artes, among others.

In the upcoming 2017-18 touring season, JLD will be presented by venues including Artis-Naples, UMASS Amherst, Carpenter Performing Arts Center, DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, White Bird, and SUNY Purchase, among others. In May 2018, JLD will premiere a new work celebrating the music and artistry of legendary singer Tony Bennett.

JESSICA LANG (ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) leads the creative vision of the organization which has garnered remarkable acclaim since the company’s founding in 2011. Under her artistic leadership, the company now offers more than 50 performances annually at some of the world’s most prestigious performing arts centers. Noted for her dedication to educational activities, Lang developed a unique curriculum for JLD called LANGuage, which is offered as part of the company’s programming on tour and locally in New York City, focusing on the Queens community.

As one of the most celebrated choreographers of her generation, Lang choreographs and teaches throughout the world. She has created original works for companies including American Ballet Theatre, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the National Ballet of Japan, and Joffrey, among many others. Lang has also worked in opera on the production Aida, directed by Francesca Zambello, for San Francisco Opera and Washington National Opera. She is the recipient of a 2014 Bessie Award and the 2017 Arison Award.

Lang grew up in Bucks County, PA and has a diverse dance training background. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School under the direction of Benjamin Harkarvy and a former member of Twyla Tharp’s company THARP!

JLD has received numerous grants and funding from organizations including The New York Community Trust, Howard Gilman Foundation, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, SHS Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Irving Harris Foundation, the O’Donnell-Green Music and Dance Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Harkness Foundation for Dance, Dance/NYC, and the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. For more information on the company visit jessicalangdance.com.

JESSIC A L ANG DANCE • WHITE BIRD

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JESSICA LANG DANCE | BIOGRAPHIES PATRICK COKER (DANCER) grew up in Chester, Virginia.

In May 2014, Coker graduated magna cum laude from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program, where he apprenticed with Ailey II in his final year. He has performed with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Joshua Beamish’s MOVE:the company, Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance and the Mark Morris Dance Group (in The Hard Nut and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato). Coker began working with choreographer Jessica Lang in 2015 and in January 2016 Coker became a member of JLD.

JULIE FIORENZA (DANCER) was born in South Korea and grew up in Massachusetts where she trained at the Academy of Dance Arts and the Boston Ballet School. She earned a B.F.A. in Dance from The Ailey School/Fordham University, graduating with honors, and has performed throughout the country as a member of Ailey II, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and Adams Company Dance. Fiorenza has danced at the Metropolitan Opera in its productions of Turandot and Mark Morris’ Orfeo ed Euridice. She has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in Romeo & Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare, The Hard Nut, and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and appeared with MMDG in the television debut of L’Allegro which aired in March 2015 on Great Performances. In 2011, Fiorenza became a founding member of JLD. She has also worked with Lang in collaboration with visual artist Shinichi Maruyama appearing in the film White.

JOHN HARNAGE (DANCER) is a native of Miami, Florida who studied dance with the Miami City Ballet School and New World School of the Arts.

In May of 2014 he graduated from The Juilliard School under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, where he performed works by choreographers such as Jose Limón, Alexander Ekman, Pina Bausch, and Lar Lubovitch among others. John is also a modern dance finalist from the 2010 NFAA YoungArts competition. In 2014, Harnage began working with JLD and in 2015 he became a member of the company.

Harnage has also staged Lang’s work on Booker T. Washington HSPVA.

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EVE JACOBS (DANCER) is an NYC based dance artist from Chicago. She trained in ballet at North Carolina School of the Arts and received her B.F.A. in Dance from The Juilliard School in 2014. At Juilliard, Jacobs performed in works by iconic choreographers such as Pina Bausch, Ohad Naharin, and Lar Lubovitch, and began to create her own work. A recipient of the Hector Zaraspe Prize for Choreography, Jacobs’ work has been featured at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Brooklyn’s White Wave Dance, in Juilliard’s Performing Educational Programs, and in Bridge Production Group’s Richard III at Fourth Street Theater. Jacobs joined JLD in 2015. In addition to performing, she has staged Lang’s work for the Des Moines Dance Project and currently assists her for the American Ballet Theater’s Make A Ballet program.

KANA KIMURA (DANCER) was born in Hiroshima, Japan, where she began her ballet training at the age of four and studied contemporary dance with Takako Asakawa. After graduating from The Juilliard School, Kimura worked with Wally Cardona Quartet.

She also appeared in Nixon in China at The Metropolitan Opera, choreographed by Mark Morris, worked on a dance video performance for Shanghai Expo, and has also performed with Japanese Arts Organization J- Collabo in NYC. She was in an OffBroadway show The Nutcracker Rouge with Company XIV. In 2011, Kimura became a founding member of JLD. She has also worked with Lang on collaborative projects with visual artist Shinichi Maruyama including the film White and print series Nudes.

THOMAS RAGLAND

(DANCER) of Richmond, Virginia, began his dance training with Annette Holt and the Parks and Recreation City Dance Program. He then continued his training with The School of Richmond Ballet, eventually attending both its trainee and apprentice programs. Ragland attended the Juilliard Summer Intensive and danced with the City Dance Troupe. He was a member of Richmond Ballet for ten seasons.

Ragland joined JLD in 2017.

RACHEL SECREST

(DANCER) is originally from Carmel, Indiana, where she grew up training under Suzann DeLay. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Ailey/ Fordham BFA program with degrees in Dance and Political Science. There she had the opportunity to perform works by Alvin Ailey, Ronald K. Brown, Dwight Rhoden, Camille Brown, and Adam Barruch, among others. She has attended training programs at Hubbard Street, Joffrey Ballet, Northwest Dance Project, and Springboard Danse Montreal. Rachel has been a company member with Abarukas, and also worked with Omar Roman de Jesus, River North Dance Chicago, and Parsons Dance. In 2017, she began working with Jessica Lang Dance, where she is currently a company member.

MILAN MISKO (DANCER) was raised in Missouri, where he began his dance training with Jo Noth’s White Oak Dance Academy and the Kansas City Ballet School. He holds a BFA from the Purchase College Conservatory of Dance. Misko has worked with Kansas City Ballet, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company RUG, Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater, Adams Company Dance, and Setsuko Kawaguchi Ballet, Japan. He has created dances for Take Dance, Bucknell University, and directed his first short dance film, Transportation, which was selected for Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival 2013. Misko became a member of JLD in 2012. In addition to performing the work of Jessica Lang, Misko has staged her work on Rutgers University.

JAMMIE WALKER

(DANCER) began his dance training at Western Arkansas Ballet under the direction of Melissa Schoenfeld. He earned his BFA from the University of Oklahoma School of Dance under the direction of Mary Margaret Holt. Walker has had the honor of touring in China and Austria with Oklahoma Festival Ballet. He danced with the Dayton Ballet for three seasons, performing works by such choreographers as Septime Webre, Amy Seiwart, Jessica Lang, and Stuart Sebastian. He has performed with Dance Grand Moultrie as well as with Clawson Dances. Walker became a member of JLD in 2016. In addition to performing, Walker has staged Lang’s work on Dayton Ballet and currently assists her for the American Ballet Theatre’s Make A Ballet program.

JESSICA LANG DANCE | BIOGRAPHIES JAKUB CIUPINSKI (COMPOSER), a

NICOLE PEARCE (LIGHTING DESIGNER)

Polish composer living in New York City has collaborated with Lang on her works i.n.k. and Within the Space I Hold for JLD, Eighty One for Ballet San Jose, Droplet for The NY Choreographic Institute, and most recently WINK for Birmingham Royal Ballet which premiered in May 2016. His concert music has been commissioned by the Metropolis Ensemble, The New Juilliard Ensemble, and violinists Anne Akiko-Meyers and Philippe Quint, among others. His works have been performed at prestigious venues such as Tonhalle in Zurich and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Ciupinski studied composition at The Juilliard School, the Cracow Academy of Music, and the Birmingham Conservatoire. Ciupinski.pl

Previously with Jessica Lang: 20 works (Jessica Lang Dance, National Ballet of Japan, Pacific Northwest Ballet, & American Ballet Theater). Selected dance with Mark Morris, Aszure Barton, Robert Battle, Sonya Tayeh, Andrea Miller, John Heginbotham, Brian Brooks, Alexander Ekman, Kyle Abraham, & Annabelle Lopez-Ochoa, and companies including Joffrey Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Houston Ballet, Hubbard Street, Malpaso, Finnish National Opera, Gallim, Mark Morris Dance Group, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, & Nederlands Dance Theater. Selected theater credits includes work with directors: Edward Albee, Maria Mileaf, Amir Nazir Zuabi, Ed Sylvanus Iskandar, & Jade King Carroll. With companies including The Cherry Lane, The Play Company, McCarter Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theater Festival, Juilliard School Opera, & Minnesota Opera. www.nicolepearcedesign.com

CLAUDIA MACPHERSON (REHEARSAL

DIRECTOR) received her B.F.A. from The Ailey School/Fordham University. As a founding member of Jessica Lang Dance, she performed at Jacob’s Pillow, the Joyce Theater, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music among other stages around the country.

MacPherson assisted Lang in her creation of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater when it debuted at the 2013 Glimmerglass Opera Festival. She has performed with the Mark Morris Dance Group in The Hard Nut, Romeo & Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare, and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, as well as in Morris’ production of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Metropolitan Opera. MacPherson is currently the Rehearsal Director for Jessica Lang and her company Jessica Lang Dance.

BRADON MCDONALD (COSTUME

MOLO (SET DESIGN), based in Vancouver, Canada, is a design studio led by Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen that is dedicated to an exploration of sensory experience in space making and works within the overlapping realms of art, architecture and design. Recognized for poetic beauty and pragmatic innovation, Forsythe + MacAllen’s products and buildings have received numerous international awards and have been acquired into museum collections worldwide including MoMA, New York. molodesign.com

JLD would like to thank its Board of Trustees and generous donors who made tonight’s program possible.

We are especially grateful to our Sponsors’ Circle members for making our 2017–18 touring season and the new work we create and present possible: Underwriting Sponsors Sarah Arison Jay Franke and David Herro Brian J. Heidtke Ann and Weston Hicks

Presenting Sponsors Dau Family Foundation Deidra Wager and Rick Munsen

Supporting Sponsors Elizabeth and Mark Striebeck Dancewear and dance shoes courtesy of Gayle Miller & Capezio NYC.

JESSICA LANG DANCE STAFF JESSICA LANG, Artistic Director KANJI SEGAWA, Artistic Associate CALLEN GOSSELIN, Company Manager DANIEL DILLER, Production and Stage Manager CLAUDIA MACPHERSON, Rehearsal Director MADELEINE KIM, Assistant to the Education Program Coordinator JULIE FIORENZA, Administrative Assistant MILAN MISKO, Video Content Manager JOHN HARNAGE, Social Media Coordinator JIM LANG, Graphic Designer ALLAN HATTA, Website Developer TINA FEHLANDT, CHARLA GENN, LAUREN GRANT, DAVID LEVENTHAL, AKUA NONI PARKER, THERESE WENDLER, DEBORAH WINGERT, WILLIAM WHITENER, Company Teachers

DESIGNER) is a dancer turned designer and

has had a diverse career in the performing and visual arts. A graduate of Juilliard, he performed with Mark Morris Dance Group for a decade, and also with the Limon Dance Company. Upon retiring from the stage, he returned to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Los Angeles where he earned two fashion design degrees. After his success on the Emmy award winning Project Runway Season 12, he has been creating custom garments for private clients, designing stage costumes for Dance and Opera productions including ABT, PNB, and LAOpera, and has a dancewear collection: BRADON X CAPEZIO.

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

JESSIC A L ANG DANCE • WHITE BIRD

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Ballet Flamenco Jesús Carmona

Photo by Marcos G. Punto

MARCH 14 ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

MARCH 14, 2018 ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

BALLET FLAMENCO JESÚS CARMONA IMPETU’S DIRECTOR

Jesús Carmona ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION

Jesús Carmona Lucía Campillo Águeda García Marta Gálvez Ángel Reyes Cristian García VOCALIST Jonatan Reyes GUITAR Daniel Jurado Oscar Lago VIOLIN Alexis Lefevre PERCUSSION Francisco Vega CHOREOGRAPHY Jesús Carmona MUSIC Daniel Jurado y Oscar Lago COSTUME DESIGN Belen De La Quintana FOOTWEAR Begoña Cervera LIGHTING DESIGN David Pérez SOUND ARTIST Juan Luis Vela SOUND TECHNICIAN Juan Luis Vela LIGHTING TECHNICIAN David Pérez US TOUR MANAGER Belén Castres EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION ART & DANZA Carmen Cantero PRODUCTION Jesús Carmona & Cía JESÚS CARMONA’S US TOUR IS PRODUCED BY:

DIRECTOR: Miguel Marín MARKETING, PRODUCTION AND LOGISTICS: Isabel Aranda TECHNICAL PRODUCTION: Belén Castres

MEDIA SPONSOR

The taking of photographs, videos and the use of recording devices are strictly prohibited.

Program and casting subject to change. Latecomers will be seated only during intermissions.

Please turn off all cell phones during the performance.

BALLE T FL A MENCO JESÚS C ARMONA • WHITE BIRD

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TONIGHT’S PROGRAM

IMPETU’S

6 · BULERIA

1 · ASTURIAS

(LYRICS: MANUEL DE MOLINA)

BY ISAAC ALBENIZ

(Adapted by Óscar Lago)

7 · MARIANA BY ÓSCAR LAGO

2 · TARANTA “ALACAZAR DE CRISTAL”

(popular lyrics)

BY RAFAEL RIQUENI

8 · SEGUIRILLA

3 · TANGOS BY OSCAR LAGO (Adaptation by Rafael Riqueni) 4 · ANAK

BY DANI JURADO

(popular lyrics) 9 · CAÑA BY ÓSCAR LAGO AND DANI JURADO

(popular lyrics)

BY DANI JURADO

5 · ÍMPETU

BY MARIO ESCUDERO

(Adapted by Oscar Lago) TONIGHT’S PERFORMANCE WILL BE PERFORMED WITHOUT AN INTERMISSION.

ABOUT JESÚS CARMONA Born in Barcelona in 1985, Jesús Carmona began his dance training at age seven. He graduated with a degree in Spanish Dance and Flamenco from the Institute of Theatre and Dance of Barcelona in 2004.

Carmona made his professional debut at the Teatro Zorrilla in Barcelona at age 16. Since then, he has worked with diverse companies such as the Ballet Nacional de España as first dancer, Nuevo Ballet Español, Carmen Cortes, El Guito, and Antonio Canales, amongst others. Carmona’s technique, style and art have been well received by the critics.

Carmona won the prestigious First Dance Award at the 52nd Festival de cante de las Minas de la Union 2012, the “First Outstanding Dancer” in the XX Flamenco and Spanish dance Contest 2011, and the 3rd prize for choreography in the competition Nou Barris in 2001.”

©MarcosGPunto

Carmona’s desire to showcase his personal side and pave his way into the arts led him to leave the National Ballet of Spain and embark on a new adventure in “Black and white crib”. The show was a critical and audience success at the Bienal de Sevilla 2012, Madrid en Danza 2012 and Festival de Jerez 2013. In 2014, he presented 7 Balcones, the second production with his own company. In this same year he participated in tribute-to Carmen Amaya La Capitana presented at the National Theatre of Catalonia alongside Rocío Molina, Mayte Martín and Ramón Oller. He was principal dancer alongside Antonio Canales, Karime Amaya and Carlos Rodríguez at the Flamenco Festival Gala Flamenca, “There was a floridness, too, but a much different touring around the world and obtaining great reviews from kind, in the American premiere of Mr. Carmona’s press and audience. The Miami Nuevo Herald said: “2014 will be in our memories as the year that Jesús Carmona Ímpetu, a showstopping closer with gorgeous visited Miami”. live music by Daniel Jurado. On top of brisk,

26

cutting zapateado (percussive footwork), Mr. Carmona added voluptuous swerves of the torso, uncommon for men in flamenco. Fall for Dance, at its best, yields discoveries like this, new faces that leave us hoping they’ll come back soon.”

–THE NEW YORK TIMES

WHITE BIRD

In 2015 he premiered his third production, called Impetus’ (“bursting with energy”). A piece of it was presented successfully in the 2015 Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center. He also presented in Miami and Los Angeles in 2017. In January 2018, he created Camino for the famous Corral de la Moreria (Madrid).

©Paco Manzano

JESÚS CARMONA, pioneer in flamenco’s evolution, is a former dancer with Ballet Nacional de España. The flawless footwork and ballet-infused moves that make him a dynamo of a dancer translate masterfully to the work he creates for his own company. For the Portland premiere, Jesús Carmona and his company of 11 dancers, musicians, and vocalists perform the emotionally charged Ímpetus (“bursting with energy”). This work about the boundless energy that drives artists to realize their dreams stars the spellbinding and charismatic Carmona and features famed Spanish scores by Albéniz, Riqueni, and Escudero.

Jesús, from his early career with other companies, his first steps with his own company through to artistic maturity,has always sought to showcase our culture in his work by experimenting further this time, by presenting a fresh artistic interpretation of our country’s great musical scores.

©MarcosGPunto

In this show he wants to reflect on all the works that have enabled him to grow as an artist and that have influenced his life and his character, both professionally and personally. His strength and energy can be defined in a single word: ÍMPETU’S!!

The production skillfully merges outstanding choreography and our country’s superb musical scores, with a fresh insight which is reflected in the emblem, the logo, the image: ÍMPETU’S.

©MarcosGPunto

©MarcosGPunto

Various pieces from the great composers have been adapted to create a new, innovative program which, by maintaining the underlying great musical scores, ensures an emotionally-charged performance.

WHITE BIRD

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2017-18

ourcommunity community White Birdininour CELEBRATING CELEBRATINGGEORGE GEORGETHORN THORNDAY DAYAT ATPORTLAND PORTLANDCITY CITYHALL HALL MONDAY, MONDAY,FEB. FEB.5,5,2018 2018

An event to honor George Thorn, who has inspired and impacted the lives of countless artists and arts organizations in the Portland region. City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly read a Proclamation at the end of the evening declaring Monday, February 5, 2018 as George Thorn Day. White Bird was thrilled to participate in the planning of the event as George and his wife Nancy helped found White Bird as a nonprofit and served on the White Bird Board for 18 years.

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Clockwise top to bottom: Nancy and George Thorn, with former White Bird Board Member Mary Meyer; Paul, Walter and Barney; Paul with Bravo Youth Orchestra; George with Pepper Pepper and Poison Waters.

Photos by Paul King and Elizabeth Whelan, White Bird.

Dancing through the years...

Complexions Contemporary Ballet kicked off the 20th Anniversary season this past October

2012 Master class with American Tap Master Jason Samuels Smith

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Barney, 1999

Thank you Portland for 20 years of love and support!

BodyVox, presented in the 1997-98 inaugural season BodyVox, presented in the 1997-98 inaugural season

Over community members participate Over 150150 community members participate in in Sylvain Émard’s Grand Continental at Pioneer Sylvain Émard’s Le Le Grand Continental at Pioneer Courthouse Square in 2012 Courthouse Square in 2012

Co-Founders Paul King and Walter Jaffe give one of their traditional curtain speeches at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (note the red shoes on Paul!)

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WHAT TO SEE IN ARTSLANDIA ARTS CALENDAR

ALICE (IN WONDERLAND)

OREGON BALLET THEATRE Follow an exuberant young girl as she plunges down a rabbit hole into an extraordinary, imaginative world. OBT is thrilled to bring you the West Coast premiere of a new full-length ballet suitable for families. Created in 2012 by Septime Webre with an original score by American composer and violinist Matthew Pierce, the mad adventure is brought to life with surreal sets, zany costumes, puppetry, and powerfully expressive dance. Don’t be late!

FEBRUARY 24–MARCH 4; KELLER AUDITORIUM

KODACHROME

PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY A world premiere from the 2015 JAW Festival! Welcome to Colchester, a small town where everybody knows each other, and the pace of life allows the pursuit of love to take up as much space as it needs.

Our tour guide is Suzanne, the town photographer, who lets us peek into her neighbors’ lives to catch glimpses of romance in all its stages of development.

A play about love, nostalgia, the seasons, and how we learn to say goodbye.

FEBRUARY 3–MARCH 18; PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE AMORY, ELLYN BYE STUDIO

BLIND PILOT

OREGON SYMPHONY Since forming in 2008, Blind Pilot has emerged as one of the most innovative indie bands to arrive on the national scene. Now they return to Portland, sharing the stage with their hometown orchestra to perform from their third album, And Then Like Lions, as well as old favorites. Conducted by Norman Huynh.

MARCH 1; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

THE MAGIC PLAY

PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY A theater is a realm of illusion. So is a magic show.

Playwright Andrew Hinderaker mashes these traditions together with alluring results. The Magic Play follows a young magician trying to get through a live show, just hours after his partner has left him. As the performance progresses, he confronts the fact that the spectacular tricks that impress people onstage don’t serve him as well when it comes to building truthful personal relationships. This mesmerizing new play questions the extent to which we must be honest with ourselves to be so with those we love.

MARCH 3–APRIL 1; PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY, U.S. BANK MAIN STAGE

ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL

OREGON SYMPHONY Young travelers head out on a musical journey that spirits them on an adventurous musical tour of the Wild West and the great Northwest. Conducted by Norman Huynh.

MARCH 4; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

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ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

MUSIC

DANCE

THEATER

VERDI’S REQUIEM

OREGON SYMPHONY Verdi’s Requiem combines the dramatic thrust of opera with powerful symphonic music, vocal solos, and choruses of breathtaking emotional intensity. Conducted by Carlos Kalmar.

MARCH 10–12; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

HEDDA

NW DANCE PROJECT Sarah Slipper’s distinctly dark, theatrical, and vivid choreography takes on Henrik Ibsen’s incomparable 19th-century play, Hedda Gabler, a classic of realism and world drama, with an original score by Owen Belton and a striking set

by Luis Crespo.

For the first time since his U.S. choreographic debut with NW Dance Project in 2007, world-renowned choreographer Cayetano Soto, Ballet BC Resident Choreographer, makes his way back to unveil a full-company work filled with whimsy and pounds of pink.

MARCH 15–17; NEWMARK THEATRE

BRAHMS’ VIOLIN CONCERTO

OREGON SYMPHONY One of the greatest violin concertos ever written, Brahms’ work is a stunning display of the violin’s emotional and virtuosic qualities. A colleague of Brahms’ exclaimed, “It is a concerto for violin against the orchestra—and the violin wins!”

Conducted by Carlos Kalmar.

MARCH 17–19; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

A CELTIC CELEBRATION (BAGPIPES, GREEN BEER, AND CELTIC-INSPIRED MUSIC)

VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Extend your St. Patrick’s Day observance an extra day by joining The VSO for their jamboree in celebration of all things Celt. Bagpipes and green beer round out this presentation of music inspired by the Celtic speakers of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany (France), and Galicia (Spain). Distinct in rhythm and melody, the genre dates back to the 1600s and is known for both its rousing dance tunes and heartbreaking ballads.

MARCH 18; KIGGINS THEATRE, 1011 MAIN ST., VANCOUVER

JURASSIC PARK IN CONCERT

OREGON SYMPHONY One of the most exhilarating science fiction adventures ever made, Jurassic Park transports audiences to a wondrous island theme park of cloned dinosaurs. What could go wrong?

Masterfully directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring one of John Williams’ most iconic scores performed live by the Oregon Symphony, the only thing more thrilling might be Jurassic Park itself! Conducted by Norman Huynh.

MARCH 24 & 25; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

CULTURE

ONE NIGHT ONLY

FAMILY SHOW

AND SO WE WALKED

PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY A frank, funny, and sometimes misguided story of a contemporary Cherokee woman who goes on a sixweek, 900-mile journey with her father along the Trail of Tears in search of her heroic self. Through this personal odyssey, her sense of identity—both as a contemporary Cherokee and as a woman—is tested by the people and places she encounters.

MARCH 31–MAY 13; PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE AMORY, ELLYN BYE STUDIO

RAVEL’S DAPHNIS AND CHLOE

OREGON SYMPHONY Enjoy the rare opportunity to hear Ravel’s complete score for his 1912 ballet. Widely regarded as his finest orchestral music, Ravel’s self-titled “choreographic symphony” is full of passion and the gorgeous, color-saturated harmonies of French impressionism. Conducted by Carlos Kalmar.

APRIL 7–9; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

RICK SPRINGFIELD

OREGON SYMPHONY Don’t miss Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Rick Springfield—whose 17 Top 40 hits include Jessie’s Girl, Don’t Talk to Strangers, An Affair of the Heart, I’ve Done Everything for You, Love Somebody, and Human Touch—with the Oregon Symphony. Conducted by Norman Huynh.

APRIL 12; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

MAN/WOMAN

OREGON BALLET THEATRE This five-part program juxtaposes all-female and all-male ballets to explore gender stereotypes, and adds in one of Resident Choreographer Nicolo Fonte’s most successful works to bring the two sexes together. They open with one of the most iconic female roles in all of ballet, that of The Dying Swan. Created by Michel Fokine for the legendary Anna Pavlova, this masterpiece epitomizes the ethereal beauty and fragility of a romantic-era ballerina.

APRIL 12–21; NEWMARK THEATRE

VSO POPS SERIES: ADVENTURES IN FILM & FANTASY

VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The musicians of The VSO showcase their versatility with the performance of music from legendary films and symphonic video games.

Selections from Lord of the Rings, Back to the Future, Magnificent Seven, Legend of Zelda, and more ensure a delightful family outing for all generations. Please visit The VSO website for additional information.

APRIL 14 & 15; SKYVIEW CONCERT HALL, 1300 NW 139TH ST., VANCOUVER

MARCH & APRIL 2018 MAJOR BARBARA

PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY When her daughters Sarah and Barbara are both engaged to be married, Lady Britomart decides to ask her estranged industrialist husband for support.

Barbara, a Major in the Salvation Army, agrees to let her father visit her mission in the East End of London. In exchange, she promises to visit his munitions factory. The clash between Barbara’s philanthropic idealism and her father’s hardheaded capitalism are at the heart of this witty and timely appraisal of capitalism, war, religion, and politics.

APRIL 14–MAY 13; PORTLAND CENTER STAGE AT THE ARMORY, U.S. BANK MAIN STAGE

ANNUAL SCHOOL PERFORMANCE

OREGON BALLET THEATRE The School of the Oregon Ballet Theatre showcases student dancers with inspiring works that demonstrate the versatility and artistry of this program.

APRIL 21 & 22; NEWMARK THEATRE

SAINT-SAËNS’ ORGAN SYMPHONY

OREGON SYMPHONY Saint-Saëns’ most popular symphony combines a full orchestra, the emotional quality of a tone poem, and the majestic sound of the organ. So powerful is the grand finale that film composers, Disney World, and pop musicians alike have adapted it. Conducted

by Sascha Goetzel.

APRIL 21–23; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

THE HOT SARDINES

OREGON SYMPHONY Called “simply phenomenal” by The Times (London), The Hot Sardines add a hip, modern twist to the sounds of New York speakeasies, Parisian cabarets, and New Orleans jazz halls, making those wonderful old sounds new again. Conducted by Jeff Tyzik.

APRIL 28 & 29; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

LOOKING AHEAD.

3RD ANNUAL EVENING OF JAZZ

VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The VSO’s Third Annual Evening of Jazz, a live benefit concert, features the extraordinary jazz clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski. From the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and the Benny Goodman Band to Dixieland and jazz, the award-winning Mr. Peplowski has played with legendary figures from Mel Torme and Peggy Lee to Madonna and Woody Allen. His life on the road has taken him from small clubs to the Hollywood Bowl, headlining in Las Vegas, the Newport Jazz Festival, pops concerts, and European festivals and clubs. On this night, he’s all yours.

APRIL 28; CLARK COLLEGE, 1933 FORT VANCOUVER WAY, VANCOUVER

JOSHUA BELL

OREGON SYMPHONY There’s not much Joshua Bell hasn’t done throughout his phenomenal career.

The Avery Fisher Prize winner and bestselling recording artist has played for First Lady Michelle Obama, commissioned and premiered new concertos, and performed the solo violin role in John Corigliano’s Oscar-winning filmscore for The Red Violin. Now Bell returns to Portland to perform Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade with the Oregon Symphony, a work that won him a Grammy nomination and a reputation as one of Bernstein’s greatest interpreters.

MAY 12–14; ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL MARCH | APRIL 2018

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®

AT TH E P E R FO R M A N C E

M ARCH | APRIL 2018

PUBLISHER + FOUNDER Misty Tompoles EDITOR-AT-LARGE Barry Johnson MEMBERSHIP MANAGER Katrina Ketchum COPY EDITOR Kristen Seidman DESIGNERS Lisa Johnston-Smith Dan Le Jackie Tran EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Blanche Minoza MEDIA DIRECTOR Chris Porras SALES DIRECTOR Lindsey Ferguson PUBLISHING COORDINATORS Bella Showerman Janelle Bonaficio CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Hannah Krafcik Nim Wunnan PHOTOGRAPHERS Christine Dong Max McDermott PODCAST HOST Susannah Mars

Artslandia at the Performance is published by Rampant Creative, Inc. ©2018 Rampant Creative, Inc. All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

Rampant Creative, Inc. /Artslandia Magazine 6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. #207 | Portland, OR 97202

ARTSLANDIA.COM 32

ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

FROM THE EDITOR-AT-LARGE

HELLO, NEW YORK TIMES !

Who is Poppy?

“Poppy is...an Android-themed pop star.”

If The New York Times had a digital assistant, it might sound like Poppy: The content would be less important than the autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) her voice generates, that “tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine,” as Wikipedia defines it. And yes, the assistant’s voice would “sound feminine.” Thus, the gender-specific pronouns.

She would sound like Siri or Alexa or Cortana or the nameless Google Assistant. She would supply information that is readily available. Her voice would have the faintest of computer-generated catches and a fetching computer stiffness. And it would generate the same ASMR effect as they do.

And as Poppy does…

Poppy is not a robot, not computer-generated.

She’s a YouTube star. She’s a pop music star.

She’s an internet pop phenomena. She’s also an actress who is difficult to dislodge from her Android theme, but human nonetheless.

In her pop single, Bleach Blonde Baby, she sings, in her breathy monotone, “Being flawless every day, that’s my only skill.” Her long, straight blonde hair is immaculate; so is her make-up and the gloss on her full lips; and on her model-thin body, her expressive little-girl fashions hang as perfectly as though Poppy were a mannequin.

But Poppy is a human playing a robot.

34

ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

“Humans are merging with the technological world—not just adapting to it but taking on the aspects of the technological themselves, just as technology has produced increasingly persuasive simulacra of humans.”

That’s the point of Amanda Hess’ Critics Notebook article, The Rise of the Social Media Fembot, in The Times online on Feb. 4, 2018. Humans are merging with the technological world—not just adapting to it but taking on the aspects of the technological themselves, just as technology has produced increasingly persuasive simulacra of humans. We, tech interfaces with the human, and humans themselves imitate each other.

Pinocchio wanted to be a real boy. Poppy wants to be a puppet.

Or a human playing a puppet. Lots of people want to see her do it: According to the article, Poppy’s videos, masterminded by her creator/handler/director Titanic “Not My Real Name” Sinclair, have had 257 million views. Why? Poppy herself suggests an

“We’re just a bunch of monkeys with big brains swiping on glowing rectangles.”

answer: “Poppy’s world is a magical place... and it’s the most free part of the entire universe.” Maybe Poppy and Titanic are offering us an escape, an internet dream vacation, where nothing truly bothersome ever happens, and if it did, you just wouldn’t like it.

Titanic admits that Poppy can make even the pop-besotted uncomfortable at times.

In an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon: “I think it’s fun to be uncomfortable sometimes—being able to have that kind of Goldilocks zone where you’re not too hot, not too cold with comfort is missing a lot. I think it motivates a lot of what we make.”

The Oregon Community Foundation can help your tax-deductible gift pave the way toward a bolder, brighter outlook for Oregon’s future.

That discomfort is revelatory: Titanic and Poppy are making art, a splendid homage to Warhol that uses Japanese and Korean pop forms and attitudes, merging them with the fembots that Hess names in her article. Later on in the interview with Simon, Titanic observes, “We’re just a bunch of monkeys with big brains swiping on glowing rectangles.” Poppy is his way of showing that to us. Maybe.

But what if we really embraced it, that “magical place,” that “flawless” place, where we could go and escape the ugliness around us in “real” life, fight it with fashion and cosmetics. Hess observes that Kylie Jenner (and lots of other celebrities) uses Instagram and Snapchat constantly to update her image, push her cosmetics line, represent a specific representation of herself. And her affect is...blank. Hess quotes Chris Wallace of Interview magazine, who called Kylie (NOT Poppy) “sex-doll sanguine.” And she notes the similarity to the CGI fembots of recent science fiction films and TV series (Ex Machina, Westworld, Humans)—who only become dangerous when they develop minds of their own.

Minds of their own. >>>>

oregoncf.org

QUIETLY

by Owen McCafferty Directed by Gemma Whelan

Apr 13 – May 6, 2018 Thu – Sat 7:30pm, Sun 2pm

at New Expressive Works, 810 SE Belmont St, Portland Two middle-aged men meet in a Belfast bar where a horrific event transformed their lives over 30 years before. A powerful story of violence and forgiveness in the aftermath of The Troubles.

Contemporary Irish theatre in Portland, Oregon

corribtheatre.org

Use code “Artslandia” for $3 off

MARCH | APRIL 2018

35

Grand opera returns to Portland this spring!

Photo by Cory Weaver/Portland Opera

VERDI

May 4 – 12

Keller Auditorium DIRECTED BY

Christopher Mattaliano CONDUCTED BY

George Manahan

A Season of Legendary Tales APRIL 14

BIG NIGHT Keller Auditorium

Don’t miss it: a one night only celebration of opera’s greatest hits!

JUNE 8, 10m, 14, 16

JULY 13, 15m, 19, 21, 25, 28

JULY 27, 29m, 31 | AUG 2, 4

GOUNOD

ROSSINI

GLUCK

Keller Auditorium

Newmark Theatre

Newmark Theatre

FAUST

A haunting new vision inspired by the art of John Frame—with Angel Blue and Jonathan Boyd.

LA CENERENTOLA Rossini’s classic opera will glitter as brightly as Cinderella’s royal ball gown.

ORFEO ED EURIDICE Celebrate the transformative power of love and music in this epic myth.

Single tickets start at $35 portlandopera.org | 503.241.1802 concierge@portlandopera.org 36

ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

FROM THE EDITOR-AT-LARGE Continued from page 35

“I think people are getting to a point where they don’t want to think, and this is easier.”

>>>> Here’s Warhol in a 1963 radio interview: Q: “Do you think pop art could survive, let’s say, without PR people?”

A: “Oh, yeah.”

Q: “You do?”

A: “Well, because I think people who come to the exhibition understand it more. They don’t have to think. And they just sort of see things, and they like them, and they understand them easier. And I think people are getting to a point where they don’t want to think, and this is easier.”

Think how much more mediated the space we share is now. Poppy offers an escape— from thinking too deeply about things, from worrying. We’re living in the dystopia. We want to escape it.

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Hello Google/Siri/Alexa! What is the relationship between “art” and “beauty”?

“I’m not sure. I have noticed that you’ve spent a lot of time hovering over Tolstoy’s What Is Art?, which demolishes any argument equating the two. Has that helped you get more friends or followers, clicks, likes, or shares? Are you a YouTube star yet? (I know the answer to that one!)”

Like Poppy, Lil Miquela is another YouTube sensation. Unlike Poppy, she’s computer-generated. My favorite line from her pop hit, Not Mine: “I’m just out here living my life.”

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Visit www.energytrust.org or call us at 1.866.368.7878.

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That’s because “here” and “living” and “my life” put me in a Goldilocks zone, not too real and not too virtual, and yet never “just right.” And that gives Poppy and me an autonomous sensory meridian response. .

MARCH | APRIL 2018

37

Chris Coleman:

EXIT to

DENVER

By Barry Johnson Photo by Christine Dong

WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE PORTLAND for jobs in another city, all good journalists understand that they have just opened a door, not just on a new future for themselves but on the past, too.

Or at least a more candid view of the past they shared with us while they were here. Nothing like putting a city and a job in the rearview mirror for loosening the tongue about the place they are leaving.

Not that anyone leaving Portland for Denver these days—as Portland Center Stage Artistic Director announced he was doing last November after 17-anda-half years here—can feel entirely unrestrained in conversation with a journalist. The more “dynamic” parts of such an interview will inevitably cross the Rockies. But still, at the very least, the leave-taking interview, the exit interview, can lead to a reflective state of mind that can be very valuable for those of us who remain.

In February, just after Coleman’s epic farewell to Oregon, Astoria: Part Two, opened, we got together on the mezzanine level of The Armory building, home to PCS to talk about anything Coleman wanted to discuss. For our purposes here, I’ve focused on the very first topic and slightly edited Coleman’s responses for length and clarity.

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ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

WHAT WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU FACED WHEN YOU STARTED AT PORTLAND CENTER STAGE? THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU FACED IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR RUN HERE? THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOUR SUCCESSOR WILL FACE? The biggest challenge when I got here was moving the programming. I think the board was hungry for more adventure; the staff was hungry for more adventure, but nobody had checked in with the audience. And so I leaned forward at their encouragement, and I leaned too far forward, I think, initially.1 If I had to do it over again? Julie Vigeland [who was the board President of Center Stage when Coleman was hired] and I have wrestled with this over and over. If I had it to do it over again, I think I would have been a little more evolutionary than revolutionary, because I think I could have kept more people in the fold longer, and it would have made for a less difficult first couple of years. Julie feels like, you know what, we needed to say things have changed, and this is where we’re going.

It was painful emotionally. It was painful financially. And it was scary initially. So it was definitely trying to figure out, where is this community or this audience for this organization aesthetically, and how does that fit with what I want to do, and how do we line up a little bit better? That was huge.

And then, the organization was tremendously under-resourced for a company that was trying to fill 900 seats [in the Newmark Theatre]. The budget my first season was $3.2 million, and boy, that is a brutal equation. So selling the vision, trying to figure out where the community was, and trying to increase our resources so we could put better work onstage, those were the biggest challenges early on.

WHAT ABOUT THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR TIME HERE? We’re sitting in the middle of the biggest challenge, in the middle. It’s profoundly challenging to build a new building, and it ended up being a $38.6 million project.

And that in itself, if you have all the winds at your back, is profoundly challenging.

we needed to say things have changed, and this is where we’re going.

There were so many people in the community—and probably rightly so—who didn’t believe we were ready or that we could pull it off.2 We were 15 years old at the time, and we didn’t have the deep donor base that could give those big gifts. So that was hugely challenging. And there were so many times when it looked like we just should have said, ‘OK, it’s not going to work. Good try.’ But luckily we’re here in Year 11 in the building [The Armory], and it’s been humongously successful. It’s a fantastic building. >>>>

1. Coleman’s first show as Artistic Director of Center Stage was Elizabeth Egloff ’s adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Devils, which featured simulated sexual molestations and other sexual activity onstage. A few years later, a Merchant of Venice that included male nudity generated angry emails, too, Coleman said.

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MARCH | APRIL 2018

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>>>> WHAT CHALLENGES ARE YOU LEAVING CENTER STAGE WITH THAT YOUR SUCCESSOR IS GOING TO HAVE TO WRESTLE WITH? They are just beginning the search for my successor. What will they have to wrestle with? Luckily, there’s not much to fix right now. The senior management team is super strong and talented and creative and funny.

Ticket sales are up: Ten thousand more tickets last year than the year prior. And subscriptions are up this year by almost a thousand. Donations are increasing. So there are a lot of trendlines that are moving in really good directions. I think the challenge will be coming in and inspiring the board and the audience base and patron base through the work and through your vision to take it to the next level. Because I really do think the organization is poised.

I think it’s really thought of very well nationally, and it’s poised to be one of the top five, six, theaters in the country. And that’s going to take a deeper financial investment than we have inspired yet. But the pieces are in place if the next person comes in and inspires people.

WHAT DOES THAT NEXT LEVEL LOOK LIKE? It’s more resources to say “yes” to more work of scale, so Astoria is not such a once-in-alifetime thing, and it is the ability to say yes to more development of new work, perhaps the development of new musicals. That is the area that I think we’re just right behind the top five or 10 regional theaters in the country. They just have deeper resources to be able to say yes to projects that then go on to raise the profile and create more of a national conversation about the work that the organization is doing.

Every play you do is a risk. Whether it’s Hamlet or Oklahoma, every play you do is a risk.

You cannot predict who is going to show up, [whether you’ve] set your income numbers well, but a new work that’s untried with an

www.PosterGarden.com | Portland, OR

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ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

2. A Willamette Week article about The Armory project attacked the financial arrangements, the role of Bob Gerding (who was both developer of the Brewery Blocks, including The Armory, and President of Center Stage at the time), and the use of public money in the project. Coleman: “Some guy that I vaguely knew said, ‘Oh, my God, I read that article. What are you going to do now?’ I said, ‘Well, we’re going to raise a bunch of money and rehab The Armory. What do you think we’re going to do? Do you think we’re going to sit down and cry?’”

“just when you think you’ve figured out what the audience is going to show up for, they surprise you, and I think that’s just the nature of this business.”

March 20

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HAMLET

author that may or may not have marquee value is an added risk. Like any R & D in any organization, you have to have financial support that lets you invest in a way that you are not expecting an ROI (Return On Investment) immediately the way you would on a regular production.

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I think artistic risk is the same question. It is a lot easier to have the appetite to lean forward if your financial house is in good order, and you know that you are not endangering the solvency or long-term health of the organization by putting the play onstage. OK, maybe you’re going to take a hit on that one, maybe the audience didn’t show up for that one. OK, what can we learn from it? But it’s not putting the organization’s future at risk.

TUE - WED | 7:30 PM

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I learned it over and over and over. I think just when you think you’ve figured out what the audience is going to show up for, they surprise you, and I think that’s just the nature of this business. So especially on new work, you try to be conservative on your income goals. But there’s always a battle in my head between the part that just wants to leap forward and go for it artistically, and the part that is really aware of the institutional costs if the audience doesn’t show up or it alienates a particular pocket of the audience too deeply. .

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41

VEDEM

A JEWISH RESISTANCE ‘ZINE FROM THE HOLOCAUST

By Nim Wunnan

The first exhibits at the new home for the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education include the story of a teen-written, underground magazine

T

he Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education has a new home and big plans.

Founded in 1990 as a “museum without walls” in the Multnomah County Central Library, the museum has been “peripatetic” ever since, according to Director Judith Margles. It has found temporary homes at Montgomery Park, an Old Town storefront, and a more comfortable, longer-term but still-temporary location on Northwest Kearney street.

They’ve now found their forever home in the former location of the Museum of Contemporary Craft, on the North Park Blocks at the corner of Northwest Davis Street.

Many of us in Portland still feel the sting of the sudden closure of the beloved contemporary craft museum that was considered, in the words of Oregon ArtsWatch’s Bob Hicks, “a pacesetting institution [by] both the city and a tightknit national craft art scene.” Luckily, the unexpected announcement of MoCC’s closure came at a time when the Oregon Jewish Museum had already begun a formal study to find a permanent location. That space was “too good to miss,” according to Margles. After initial discussions with the owner, Pacific Northwest College of Art, a 45-day exclusivity period was extended to OJM, giving them much-needed time to complete a fast, dedicated, and ultimately successful fundraising campaign that raised more than $5 million, mainly in large donations.

The new location is part art gallery, curated by Bruce Guenther, and part historical museum, with engaging exhibits from Bryan Potter Design and Janice Dilg at HistoryBuilt, and part cozy café. Add those parts together, and it sums to something more like a cultural center—a place for history, issues, and exploration of what it means to be Jewish and Jewish in Oregon. They’ve already begun hosting events in their 100-seat auditorium, most recently the panel discussion, “Never Again: A Jewish Response to the Rohingya Crisis.”

The new location of the OJMCHE at 724 Northwest David Street includes museum exhibits, an art gallery, gift shop, café, and a children’s play area. Photo by Max McDermott.

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Most of the second floor of the museum is dedicated to their three “core exhibits.” The first, Discrimination and Resistance, An Oregon Primer, looks at the history of official state discrimination—against Jews, African Americans, and others—while documenting and celebrat-

ing the resistance techniques that have been used to combat it. The second, Oregon Jewish Stories, gets specific and personal about the stories of the Jewish community of Oregon with a collection of artifacts, photographs, and historical accounts arranged to encourage exploration and curiosity.

Next to these exhibits, which directly address current issues of oppression and discrimination, The Holocaust, An Oregon Perspective presented by the Center for Holocaust Education offers a somber and weighty cautionary tale with stories of Oregon and southwest Washington residents who survived.

Egypt in the context of Holocaust survivorship. Wander’s prints use iconography from concentration camps and World War II to link the story of liberation from Ancient Egypt to the living memory of the Jews who survived the Holocaust.

captives of Terezin, who had been taken from their lives in the thriving intellectual culture of pre-war Prague. Vedem itself was more than a publication—the boys who produced it, led by Ginz and later also Sidney Taussig, called themselves “The Republic of Shkid” in reference to a Russian book about a children’s orphanage shared with them by Walter Eisinger. Eisinger supervised the boys in the foster home where they lived together in a converted schoolhouse on three-tier bunks. There, they found a discarded typewriter.

The initial issues of Vedem were typewritten on smuggled supplies, and when the typewriter ribbon wore out, the boys of Shkid handwrote the magazine.

THESE READINGS BECAME AN IMPORTANT SOCIAL AND CULTURAL HUB FOR THE CAPTIVES OF TEREZIN, WHO HAD BEEN TAKEN FROM THEIR LIVES IN THE THRIVING INTELLECTUAL CULTURE OF PRE-WAR PRAGUE. VEDEM ITSELF WAS MORE THAN A PUBLICATION.

The first floor hosts the main gallery, which recently closed I AM THIS, an excellent collection of paintings and sculptures by Jewish artists with a connection to Oregon, including Mark Rothko. A promising R.B. Kitaj retrospective will be opening in June, following two remarkable, newly installed book-arts exhibits—To Tell the Story: The Wollach Holocaust Haggadah and Vedem: The Underground Magazine of the Terezin Ghetto.

To Tell the Story: The Wollach Holocaust Haggadah Commissioned by Helene and Zygfryd B. Wolloch, the Wollach Pessach Haggadah in Memory of the Holocaust is a richly illustrated modern take on the Haggadah. With lithographic prints by David Wander and calligraphy by Yonah Weinreb, this beautiful, handmade tome places the traditional text of the Jewish liberation from slavery in

Vedem: The Underground Magazine of the Terezin Ghetto Called “the Dead Poets Society of Terezin” by the Jewish Journal, Vedem was an extraordinary, vibrant, handmade magazine produced by a collective of teenagers under terrifying conditions in the Terezin ghetto/concentration camp during WWII. With a title that means “in the lead” in Czech, Vedem was founded in Terezin by a 14-year-old artistic prodigy, Petr Ginz. Born in Prague, Ginz was a writer, poet, and artist who had written several novels while still a child. Creating Vedem and driving its weekly production became his final and most influential achievement before he was deported to Auschwitz and killed at the age of 16.

Vedem ran for 83 issues, published every Friday and distributed by being read aloud at secret meetings. These readings became an important social and cultural hub for the

More than 60 boys contributed under various pseudonyms over the run of Vedem, and Ginz was the engine behind the project. Many of the printing supplies came from Ginz’s parents, who still lived in Prague and were thus protected by the Nuremberg Laws. They regularly sent their son packages of art materials and food. He assigned projects to other children such as interviewing other residents of Terezin, writing poetry, or drawing illustrations of their daily life. As these were children risking their lives to produce the articles, they were often delivered as notes scribbled in secret on scraps of paper. Ginz groomed them to the editorial standards of Vedem. When there weren’t enough articles for the week’s issue, he’d bribe children to write with treats from his parents.

If that didn’t work, he’d write the whole thing himself, under multiple pseudonyms. >>>>

Vedem Editor, Petr Ginz (age 12).

Photo courtesy of Rina Taraseiskey.

Pages from the Holocaust Haggadah, commissioned by Helene and Zygfryd B. Wolloch, illustrated with lithographic prints by David Wander and calligraphy by Yonah Weinreb.

MARCH | APRIL 2018

43

VEDEM Continued from page 43 >>>> Taussig first joined as a sports writer but became essential to the magazine’s survival.

His father was employed in the administration of the camp, and Taussig himself had the job of delivering corpses to the crematorium.

Urged by Ginz to write something more substantial than his sports column, he eventually produced an account of the operations of the crematorium, one of the most harrowing and significant contributions to Vedem. Partially because of his father’s position, he was the only member of the Shkid boys to remain after the rest of them were shipped to Auschwitz about two years after the founding of the magazine.

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Alone, Taussig retrieved all the existing magazine material from the empty schoolhouse where his friends once lived and, with the help of his blacksmith father, built a metal box to store the archive along with 120 of Ginz’s paintings. He then smuggled the box to the edge of the city, where he interred it in the wall of the city moat, out of sight but above the waterline. After liberation, Taussig dug the box up and carried it with him on the journey back to Prague by horse and carriage, preserving the legacy of Vedem and Petr Ginz.

Taussig currently lives in Florida.

In the years since, Vedem has been recognized as a singular artifact of the Holocaust. The first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, even carried a drawing by Ginz into space. However, this traveling exhibition is the first major survey of the art and history of Vedem.

The exhibit is the brainchild of Rina Taraseiskey. A documentarian and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and resistance fighters, Taraseiskey was moved to begin work on a documentary about Vedem and Petr Ginz after learning about the magazine at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust. She flew to Prague with survivors, including Taussig, and interviewed Ginz’s sister.

While working on the documentary, the richness of the material in Vedem made her feel “selfish that she was keeping it all to herself.” Taraseiskey partnered with designer Michael Murphy and writer Danny King to create a dynamic, highly visual exhibition.

Cartoons from the pages of Vedem are blown up to wall-sized graphics that frame the facts of life in the Terezin ghetto/camp. Sixteen of the Shkid boys, including Ginz and Taussig, are profiled in the “masthead” section, identified by their nicknames and drawn portraits. The highly-designed presentation of this material emphasizes the subversive, youthful nature of Vedem. Taraseiskey wants to show how the

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO CONSIDER THE DEEPLY POLITICAL ROOTS OF INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING IN PORTLAND, BEYOND THE CONTEMPORARY “ZINESTER” CULTURE.

Only one art town comes with views like this.

rebellious humor, subversive art, and spirit of resistance that drove Vedem is as energetic and vital as the youth movements of resistance, independent publishing, and music of today.

It’s very clear from the museum’s current programming, updated collection, and these upcoming exhibits that, though the stories the Oregon Jewish Museum tells are from a Jewish perspective, they with all of us, one way or another, regardless of our beliefs or backgrounds. .

C

cannonbeach.org

EL

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EBRATIN G

Given how prominent independent publishing and progressive politics are in Portland’s present identity, this exhibit shouldn’t struggle for relevance here. Just as the museum encourages connections between the history of Jews in Oregon and the present issues facing all marginalized populations and voices, this is an excellent opportunity to consider the deeply political roots of independent publishing in Portland, beyond the contemporary “zinester” culture. For example, influential anarchist newspaper, the Firebrand, was published out of Sellwood in the 1890s before being shut down for “obscene materials,” which included a Walt Whitman poem. Then there’s Oshu Nippo, a Japanese-language daily that became essential to the large Japanese community in Portland in the first half of the 20th century.

Oshu Nippo was seized by federal agents the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed, and its printing press was later used by the U.S. government to print anti-Japanese propaganda while its founder, Iwao Oyama, was held in an internment camp in New Mexico. It’s worth noting that The Oregon Jewish Museum now stands just a few blocks from the waterfront Japanese American Historical Plaza, which commemorates the executive order that destroyed Portland’s Japantown by sending its residents, including Oyama, to internment camps. Likewise, the exhibits documenting the forced demolition of Jewish neighborhoods in Southwest Portland in the 1950s make the obvious connections to the destruction of Black communities after the Vanport flood, using the same language that we currently use to discuss the economic displacement of gentrification.

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MAR. 31 – MAY 13

THE GRASSf lourishes DANCE GERRY RAININGBIRD NURTURES A POWWOW DANCE TRADITION

“OH, I FOLLOW ALL KINDS OF DANCE,” says Gerry RainingBird of the Nehiyaw Tribe (Cree) of his eclectic interest in the subject after casually mentioning that American Ballet Theatre’s Misty Copeland had recently taken a ballet class in town at BodyVox. “The expression through physical movement can be really emotional, and it’s very dynamic for me.”

By Hannah Krafcik. Photos courtesy of the artist.

TOP: CEREMONIAL DRUM. LEFT: GERRY RAININGBIRD DANCING IN FULL REGALIA.

RainingBird, the new Executive Director of Portland-based nonprofit Wisdom of the Elders, Inc., has cultivated his practice as a grass dancer for more than five decades.

Grass dance has historically been practiced mostly by young men at powwows—gatherings of Native communities in North America. This style sits within an array of powwow dances, each with their distinctive traditional elements. Grass dancers move swiftly, sometimes with legs swinging in arcing motions and feet skimming, alighting, and touching down to the earth, again and again, on the beat of the drum. “I think, because it was such a powerful dance, that people were pulled to it,” says RainingBird, noting that he and many of his peers were drawn to practice the dance at a young age.

Unlike ballet or other proscenium dance performance, a powwow is “not a show,” according to RainingBird. “It’s a very spiritually based and symbolic connection to our culture, our history, and our ancestors.” RainingBird describes participation in powwows as both an “important part of being Native,” and also an opportunity to share with the general >>>> MARCH | APRIL 2018

49

THE GRASS DANCE FLOURISHES Continued from page 49

>>>> public “that we’re still here—Native people are still alive. They’re still very much a part of this particular community.”

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RainingBird grew up with the powwow experience. He remembers watching his father create regalia for powwows at the local community center in Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, located in north central Montana, where the community and tribe would come together weekly to feast and socialize during the winter months. Dancers in regalia were joined by drummers—usually of four to eight men each— surrounding large, traditional drums. As with other forms of dance, the movements tell a story. RainingBird offers a beautiful example: There was once a young man who was without the full use of one of his legs. He turned to his grandfather for wisdom because he could not join his peers for activities such as hunting parties. Upon receiving advice, the young man went to a hill where he had a vision in which horses, excited by an impending storm, began to jump and move in response to the thunder and lightning. Strong winds swayed the surrounding tall grass, and as the storm subsided, a rainbow appeared in the sky, and the horses began grazing peacefully.

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ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

The young man shared the experience with his grandfather, and his grandfather interpreted it as relating to the young man’s purpose— part of which was to share this “dance” of the horses from his vision. With the support of his grandfather, the young man danced for his tribe, repeating all movements with both the right and left sides of his body—miraculously healing his leg in the process. From then on, the young man led teams of men to scout out new hunting and camping grounds, stomping down the tall grass in advance of the tribe.

– THE NEW YORKER

In fact, the tradition of the powwow is also a symbol of the Native peoples’ resilience. Given a history of systemic oppression by the U.S. government, it is also no surprise that Native dances fell under scrutiny. In 1923, for instance, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles H. Burke, worked to cap the number of times per year that Native peoples could gather in dance.

“The ceremonies that we performed and held dear were outlawed and basically forbidden, and our people were punished, taken to jail,” RainingBird reflects. However, he continues, “our people, especially those that were very connected to our spiritual principles, continued to practice and to encourage our people not to be deterred.”

According to RainingBird, the grass dance will always be a “healing dance for ourselves and for the people.” In describing his own practice, he expresses a desire to create movement that allows for a spiritual connection to those present who are not dancing or are unable to dance. “That’s when the real power and the sense of healing takes place, for both dancer and spectator.”

“It’s all about being a part of the circle where everyone has a voice; everyone has an opportunity to contribute,” he explains. “It’s not just about dancing. It’s not just about attending a powwow or putting on some moccasins. It’s about the values, the principles, the philosophy, and the spiritual power of the whole.” .

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RainingBird emphasizes that the dancers’ regalia is not a “costume.” The ceremonial dress has direct ties to the stories surrounding the tradition—fringe reminiscent of swaying grass; porcupine hair, eagle feathers, and beadwork or other elements representing the rainbow color spectrum and connection to the animal world. “Many people make that mistake of asking about our costumes.”

In response, RainingBird finds it especially important to share “about something cultural that many people may see as just being a public display of entertainment or a dance recital...It’s more than that.”

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ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

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53

WHO IS

SUSANNAH MARS?

Artslandia podcast host and Portland theater arts luminary SUSANNAH MARS pulls back the curtain on her long and illustrious career.

When playing a widow of a “certain age,” I want to challenge potential groupthink about who she can be based on her age.

How is this role or project a different experience than any you've done previously?

New work is thrilling, and the opportunity to be engaged with the playwright and composer (in this case, they are one person) is a real delight. Michelle (Horgen) is very generous and interested in conversing about the process and my character’s storyline.

What would you consider one or two highlights of your career thus far?

I’d say singing with the Oregon Symphony has been of the greatest thrills of my career, in addition to playing Diana in Next to Normal at Artists Rep, which (sadly) was a confluence of events, including the death of 54

ARTSL ANDIA AT THE PERFORM ANCE

my father. Being able to work on that show, at that particular time, was very healing and gratifying.

What role has been the most out of your comfort zone?

Recently, I’d say that the role that was out of my comfort zone, so to speak, was Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd at Portland Opera. Not that it was really out of my comfort zone, but my expectations for myself were so high. I have seen, in the past, such great actors in the role—Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone—that I challenged myself probably more than ever. It was an absolute thrill, and now that I think of it, belongs in the top two most thrilling opportunities in my career! Knowing that I blasted through the same pie shop door as Ms. Lansbury was a thrill!

How do you work most effectively and efficiently?

I am a firm believer that whatever I am doing in the moment is where I am most efficient, and I continue to practice that idea. When I am in the zone, I am in the zone.

Who has been an exceptionally memorable guest on the podcast so far?

Each podcast is unique; for instance, yesterday I interviewed three comedians, two players from the Oregon Symphony, and an independent producer. All three provided me total enjoyment. I may be a Pollyanna, but I guess I was in the zone! That’s where I hope to be when I’m keeping company with any of these amazing artists with whom I have the pleasure to connect.

What do you hope the rest of 2018 has in store?

More compassion, more love, more art! .

See Susannah in Scarlet, a world premiere musical in partnership with Bitch Media and PHAME, at Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., Portland, February 28– March 25. Call (503) 488-5822 for tickets.

Subscribe to Adventures in Artslandia with Susannah Mars at podbean.com or iTunes.

Photos by Max McDermott

What are the most fun and challenging parts of your current production, Portland Playhouse's Scarlet ?

I love having the opportunity to work with a large cast. That, coupled with the fact that it is a new work, is very exciting and energizing.

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