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.
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