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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2001)
march 16.2001 » f these nine men were standing still, you probably wouldn’t take them for dancers. But they are hard at work learning a complex dance routine. Their teacher and coach is in constant motion as he explains and demonstrates the movements. He applauds energeti cally, jumping up and down, when they get it right. He is always upbeat, always encouraging. “I don’t want you to just throw your head back here,” he addresses the group while using one man’s body as a prop. “The motion starts in the foot— first your heel goes up, then your knee, then your hip, your torso, your chest, and then you throw your head up and back. It has to move through you like a wave.” The men work on the motion, a bit mechani cally at first. Very quickly it becomes a smooth and sensuous undulation that fits perfectly the lyrics of the song they will be dancing to. The dancers are members of Cascade, a song-and-dance subgroup of the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus. The teacher is Paul Scardina, choreographer for the chorus for the past 10 years. They are preparing for the Spring Fever! concerts March 24 and 25. The rehearsal takes place in Scardina s stun ning loft apartment—dark, highly polished stonelike floors reflecting the gleaming black baby grand piano, architectural-sized planters with ceiling-high trees mounted on rollers and warm wood paneling along one side. “I designed this space to accommodate rehearsals like this," he says as a few of the guys help him roll the large table, which is shaped vaguely like a cubist piano, back into place. The rehearsal space then reverts to the kitchen area. When it came to designing the space, he clearly knew what he was doing. That’s hardly surprising, as he is the owner of Scardina Design Studio, which he describes as “a full-service space planning and interior design practice.” A framed poster in the apartment announces a 1978 performance in San Francis co of the Paul Scardina Dance Company. Obviously, he was a professional dancer— is design a second career, then? No, he says, third is more like it. And his eyes sparkle as he says so, because the remark leads him to a story. And Scardina loves to tell stories. A native of Youngstown, he was working on a master’s in painting at Kent State University in Ohio. He sought a model to pose for his thesis project, and a young dancer answered his ad. At the first sitting, she asked for some time to warm up before posing. He agreed, of course, and while watching her warm-up routine got the idea to try to capture some of her move ments with rapid sketches. Rendering human bodies in motion on can Stepping out Choreographer infuses Portland Gay Men’s Chorus with fancy footwork you eA ** by A ndy S imon vas became the theme of Scardi- na’s thesis project The model invit ed him to her dance class so he could learn more about dance movements. Eventually, human bodies in motion became the canvas for the project. Bob Mensel is out in front of the PGM C again, and Paul Titled “Dance Scardina (inset) has them dancing for a Gallery Space,” the work featured several ects, Scardina says. He also dancers in nude body stockings, dancing to a enjoys working on retail stores recorded soundtrack while shapes were pro and public spaces. He especially jected on them. likes personalizing spaces to suit It was a success. He was awarded his degree the needs of individuals. and took a job at a fine arts center in Ohio. That’s not how his design career In the meantime he continued studying began, he notes. When he went to work as a dance, which he grew to love more and more. designer in San Francisco, Scardina worked on By this time he was in his 20s and realized, office space, sometimes designing as much as owing to the physical demands, he was facing a 21 floors of office space as a single project. now-or-never kind of decision about whether “Then romance changed everything,” he to attempt a career in dance. says. Again, his eyes sparkle, this time with a Scardina decided to give it a decade and touch of sadness. We’re off on another story. headed out to San Francisco to seek his fortune Scardina had been a designer in San Fran in choreography. Once again, success stalked cisco for eight years when he met a man from him. He joined an established dance company, Portland. Rick Rease was also a former profes and after several years of working for them as a sional dancer. They met at a square dance con choreographer and teacher, he was able to vention in Arizona. Rease was ill with AIDS— found his own company in the late 1970s. Scardina knew that from the start— but that The Paul Scardina Dance Company was didn’t stop them from falling in love. critically acclaimed and its dance school was At first they kept up a two-city relationship. self-supporting, but by the mid-1980s— the But that was hard, especially on Rease, so he Reagan years—arts funding had dried up signif moved to San Francisco and the two did very icantly. His dance decade was coming to an well as a couple. But Rease’s illness was pro end just as funding problems were beginning to gressing, and it became clear to both of them overshadow the joy of creating and performing. that he needed the support of his friends and Scardina saw the need to make a change. He the familiarity of his home in Portland. So, went back to school and earned a degree in inte Scardina agreed to move. rior design with a background in architecture. Rease owned a couple of stores, which Scar “Design and dance are not so far apart,” he dina undertook to redesign. He found he observes. Both are about space and about how enjoyed working on small-scale, people-orient people move through it. It is not surprising, ed projects, and they became the focus of his design work. then, that when he describes one of his custom home projects he falls back on musical terms: Rease also insisted that Scardina go out and rhythm, harmony, theme and variation. get involved in some social activities. Rease Custom homes are among his favorite proj was getting weaker, and he wanted his partner W h Me J— to have a network of friends to fall back on when he was gone. He urged Scardina to check out the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus. “He practically pushed me out the door to go to that first rehearsal,” Scardina recalls. “And I’ve been going to rehearsals ever since.” It is obvious that participating in the chorus is one way Scardina keeps Rease’s memory alive. There is more joy than pain in his reminiscence. “The chorus was receptive to my ideas about choreography right from the start,” he says enthusiastically. “And their commitment has grown.” At first he worked on adding ges tures and movements to the whole chorus. The challenge, he says, is to integrate the singing and the movement. But the choreography can add a lot. He mentions a current piece, the straight love song “Let’s Fall in Love”: “Adding a few campy gestures gives the song a distinctly gay innuen do, and everybody has a good time with it.” A few years ago, the chorus was per forming a medley of some ’60s rock ’n’ roll tunes. It required some dance, Scardina recalls emphatically. So, they created Locomotions, the first exclusively dance-oriented subgroup of the chorus. Locomotions is revived as needed. Scardina expects the group to be part of a com missioned piece focusing on gay seniors slated for next year. The Cascade subgroup has been around for more than 14 years. They were originally a singing group, but they, too, have been caught up in the new commitment to choreography. Is it frustrating to a professional dancer to work with men who, far from being professionals, have no dance training at all? Not to Scardina. “Dance isn’t always about technique,” he says. He finds it satisfying to work with pedes trian movements and feels challenged to push the range of ordinary movements, which he thinks can be wonderfully expressive. JH The S pring F ever ! concerts begin 8 p.m. March 24 and 2 p.m. March 25 at Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium, 3203 S.E . Woodstock Blvd. Tickets are $12-$20, available through Fastixx, from any Portland Gay Men’s Chorus member or at the door. ANDY S imon is a Portland teacher and free lance writer. U itfcultnt p k ti Make Bender Properties your real estate home. Put your feet up and relax! Details are our business. 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