26 ▼ june 2, 1 09 5 T ju s t o u t
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ANNOUNCING THE 1995
T RANSFORM ATION
tts*
A new dance composition by Minh Tran portrays the
poignancy o f reconnecting with the past
v
by Risa Krive
e-LESBIAN
inh Tran, dancer/choreographer
extraordinaire, traveled many ar
tistic and actual miles before
embarking on The Road Home.
This new dance concert prom
ises to be a performance of dazzling dance and
stunning choreography. But the path to this point
in Tran’s brilliant career began in peril for the
Portland-based artist. His is a story of transforma
tion—from his birth in 1966 in war-ravaged Viet-
M
IIIIMJT
FILM FESTIVAL
TWO OPENING NIGHT PREMIERES! 11
Friday, June 23,1995
T ° benefit Advocates for Gay & Lesbian Equality
Pt/AiA*
(For more Information call Advocates at 286-0191 )
doesn’t play
by the rules.
Zoæ
Showtime: 7:00 p.m.
Tickets: $10 in advance*
A C e l e b r a t i o n o f L if e ,
L ib e r ty a n d
th e p u r s u it o f
B ig H a ir !
Showtime: 9:30 p.m.
Tickets: $10 in advance*
*$12 at the door if tickets are available
Other Festival Films Scheduled June 24
- July 9. Watch for Dates & Times!
Ballot Measure 9 • Midnight Dancers • Only The Brave • Playing
The Part • Dyke Drama • Muscle • Love And Human Remains •
Devotion • Highway Of Heartache • Wild Reeds • I. The Worst Of
All • World And Time Enough • Eclipse • Fast Trip, Long Drop • A
Darker Side Of Black • Black Is... Black Ain't • Super 8 And 1/2 •
A M A JO R Studio Sneak Preview
Benefit Premiere tickets go on sale June 9th at: all FASTIXX
outlets, The Jelly Bean, 23rd Avenue Books & It’s My Pleasure.
(CINEMA2!)
616 NW 21st Ave. • 223-4515
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nam, his tortuous journey to a refugee camp, his
adjustment to an alien culture, to his early achieve
ment of artistic eminence.
Tran escaped the violence of Vietnam at age
13 with his older brothers and other “boat people.”
He spent most of the three-day journey on the
perilous sea clinging to the side of
a fragile fishing boat. The night
mare ride included being attacked
three times by pirates. The young
boy watched while they raped a
woman. Tran recounted, “Then,
early in the morning on the third
day, I saw a light, and there were
hundreds of dolphins swimming
next to our boat, leading us to
land. It w as...a magic moment.”
M ê | „ ÉÉ&IËÉÉlÉy
Tran landed in a refugee camp
in Thailand. He eventually immi
grated to Oregon in 1980 with his
brothers. He was reunited with
his parents and other siblings here
a few years later.
Tran began rigorous dance
training at age seven at the distin
guished Saigon School of Per
forming Arts. He continued his
dance studies at Portland State
University on a Presidential
Scholarship, where he received
PSU’s Award of Excellence. He
studied with various leading danc
ers and eventually developed his
own style of dance. His choreog
raphy is a creative fusion of many
cultures— classical Vietnamese
opera dancing, ballet and modem
dance. His outstanding artistry as Minh Tran
to explore various experiences which may be
a dancer has earned him endless accolades.
common to most immigrants.” Tran invites us to
Willamette Week chose him in 1987 as “Outstand
experience the agony and excitement of the jour
ing Emerging Artist”; The Oregonian selected
ney home.
him as one of the “Art Stars of the ’90s”; The
Tran embarked on his trip back to Vietnam for
Downtowner chose him as one of 1993’s ‘T en
an intensely personal purpose: It was his respon
Most Interesting People,” based upon achieve
sibility as the youngest son to record the family
ment and contribution to the Portland commu
history and to remove ancestral ashes to this
nity.
country. In sharing his dance journal, he trans
Considered by many to be Portland’s top male
forms the personal into a universal experience.
modem dancer, Tran is acclaimed throughout the
Out o f the ashes o f the past he rises—
Northwest as a compelling choreographer and a
phoenixlike— to transform tragedy into art, bru
dynamic dancer. Critics describe him as being
tality into beauty.
able to look two-dimensional, his feet skimming
The Road Home is a journey of many miles. It
the stage without seeming to touch the ground, his
frail frame and apparent weightlessness belying a
spans great artistic, emotional and physical dis
tance. We are invited to share the ride of this rising
strength rooted in the physical power to use the
boundaries of his body to express limitless fluid
star. Sit back and soar.
ity.
The main theme of Tran’s work and his com
The Road Home runs Thursday through
mitment to breaking down barriers between cul
Sunday,
June I-June II, at the Portland Center
tures and races is the value of diversity. One does
fo r the Performing Arts, Southwest Broadway
not have to be a dance critic to appreciate Tran’s
and
Main Street. Sunday shows are at 2 pm, all
artistry. His gravity-defying leaps, clarity of line,
others are at 8 pm. Tickets are $13-$ 15 and
breathtaking speed and electrifying technique
are available at the PCPA box office or
move audiences to momentous applause. If life is
through TicketMaster 224-4400. Price includes
a dance, then this dancer/choreographer’s com
user fee and service charge.
mand of movement bespeaks an enormous range
PHOTO BY CAROLYN ALTMAN
■Gite ItW ^ e
of experience as well as talent— from playful
lightness to martial precision, from elegant sim
plicity to sinuous sensuality.
Tran’s encompassing eclecticism was seen by
the general public at Artquake ’91 when he was
commissioned to perform his solo piece Unend
ing Sorrow. Based on ancient Chinese legend, it is
the story of a concubine who was forced to kill
herself. Tran was supremely convincing as the
doomed woman with full makeup, authentic cos
tume and classically feminine dance phraseol
ogy. His works have been inspired by such di
verse subjects as the wildness of rain forests and
the abstract painting of Paul Klee.
This newest dance concert, The Road Home,
incorporates prominent dancers, musicians and
photography to chronicle Tran’s 1994 visit back
to Vietnam. It is an archetypal journey of lyric
proportions: returning to the homeland, renewing
relationships, reconnecting the present with the
past. Tran envisions this piece “as an opportunity
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