A unique community dance festival shows
that dancing isn’t limited to the able-bodied
while encouraging people to express themselves artistically
Photos courtesy Alito Alessi
(Above) Dancers Alito Alessi (left) and Emery Blackwell perform one of their works, challenging audiences to rethink their stereo
types of both the disabled and dancing as a form of artistic expression. The first Eugene Community Dance Festival will feature a
performance by the pair. (Below) Previous workshops have helped participants discover the joy of dance.
stereotypes
By Jessica Blanchard
Oregon Daily Emerald
A new local dance festival aims
to break down stereotypes about
the disabled, while exposing
more people to the joy of dance.
The Van Ummersen Dance
company, headed by Margo Van
Ummersen, and Joint Forces
Dance Company, led by Alito
Alessi, will be the featured acts at
opening of the Eugene Communi
ty Dance Festival tonight.
The festival will include per
formances on the University cam
pus at 8:30 p.m. today and Friday,
and three free workshops this
weekend that are open to every
one, regardless of skill or physical
ability.
Alessi said the idea for the com
munity festival came after he and
Van Ummersen brainstormed
ways to open up dance to a greater
number of people.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Alessi
said of the festival.
Alessi, who has worked in the
Eugene area since 1973, formed
his own company in 1979 and has
been performing ever since.
This year, he’s teamed up with
longtime Mend and fellow dancer
Margo Van Ummersen to produce
the first Eugene Community
Dance Festival. The festival kicks
off with live dance performances
at 8:30 p.m. today and Friday.
Alessi and dance partner
Emery Blackwell will use skates
and a wheelchair to perform
“Emerald City: The Wizard of
Odds,” which Alessi said is the
matically based on “The Wizard
of Oz.” In that film, the Cowardly
Lion already had courage, the Tin
Man already had a heart, and the
Scarecrow already had a brain —
the Wizard just helped them dis
cover it. Alessi said the “Emerald
City” dance plot line is similar.
“It’s really about people finding
something they already had,”
Alessi said. “If they’d look a little
closer to home, they’d be able to
see it.”
Alessi said he and Blackwell
are leaving May 28 to take their
“Emerald City” performance on a
tour through Europe. Alessi
added that he was excited to be
able to premiere the dance in Eu
gene before leaving for the tom.
Van Ummersen’s dance compa
ny, a contemporary dance per
formance group, will present a
newly commissioned work, “Low
Road,” which was choreographed
by Eric Handman. There will also
be collaborative improvisational
dances by Alessi, Van Ummersen,
Handman and Pamela Geber.
Another part of the live festival
performance will be a duet, “Mo
Bility,” between Lynne Braver
man-McKinney and Caitlin
McKenney. The pair choreo
graphed the piece themselves and
have performed it in Portland and
Salem, where Alessi said it was
well-received.
“People are generally really
quite inspired by it,” he said. “It
really changes their perceptions
about the disabled.”
McKinney said the perform
ance is about liberation and the
freedom that a wheelchair can
give a disabled person.
“It’s kind of the story of my
life,” McKinney said. “Even
someone who has a disability can
still deliver a message and do it in
a way that’s entertaining. That’s
the whole point — that people
with disabilities can also con
tribute to the arts.”
McKinney added that every
time the pair have performed
“Mo-Bility” or done a workshop,
there are always people in the au
dience who are moved by it —
sometimes even to tears.
“It shatters every stereotype of
people with disabilities,” McKin
ney said. “Even for people with
disabilities.”
Weekend Events
The workshops will run Satur
day and Sunday. Van Ummersen
will teach the first workshop,
“Contact Improvisation,” from 9
a.m. to noon Saturday at the Lane
Community College Dance Stu
dio.
Van Ummersen said her goal
with the workshop and the festi
val overall is to present new cho
reography and new forms of
dance, such as improvisation.
“It’s beautiful work,” she said.
A second workshop, titled
“Sounds of Celebration,” will fo
cus on ways to make music, using
voice, percussion, tonal instru
ments and simple movement.
The workshop will be taught by
Rich Glauber, and will be held at
the Eugene School of Ballet, 436
Chamelton St.
The festival will wrap up with
the DanceAbility workshop from
11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday in the
Gerlinger Annex in Room 350.
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