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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2002)
32 6.2002 DANCE Z a iu U f Q u i £ a lu u j Q u i CcU-uUf Q u i C o lu ta Q u i C a lu u ^ Q u i £ c U i*u j Q u i £uU*u¿ Q u i C a llu p ..............▼.............. (fofa, (¡a/d (r (bhwi dwmh ! Contact Lawuf, Mcudát ot Eun á t5 0 3 - 2 3 6 -1 2 5 3 (oí Malti on oWi neo/ (UÁt-e/kctLw L l Ù - BC&l wtcumntcuti. Coming in Jcuuuvtg té a J u ít O ut neon goo/ THREESQUARE GRILL •LUNCH •BRUNCH •DINNER - , Hi FAMOUS PIE! 503 244-4467 • 6320 SW Capitol Highway H Portland • www.threesquare.com A round the Block,” may take as long as two years o f nurturing and experim enting. “I tell them: ‘Here is an idea, here’s a con text, these are the confines for it. Together we create the movement.” For improvisation like this to succeed by F loyd S klaver requires exceptional skill, coordination and wo men dance separately on stage. Deli trust. Do Jump! performs more than 300 shows a year, including school performances and corpo cately they lift and twirl their partners, rate events. Some members were originally stu fabric billowing and floating through the dents in the movement and acrobatics classes air like kites. But these men are not danc ing with women; in fact, they taught by Lane and her associates; aren’t even dancing with humans. others have been with Do Jump! for more than 10 years. Their partners are tuxedo jackets removed only moments before. This level of experience This arresting image is one of enhances the company’s ability to many in the Do Jump! production create new work together. “It’s of N O W !, which returns to Echo about precision and also perform Theatre weekends through ing,” says Lane. Dec. 29. The eight-member com This precision is particularly pany is in its 25th year of provid evident in “Line Dance,” a piece ing a provocative blend of dance, where duos, trios and quartets of acrobatics, aerial movement, bodies intermingle— mixing and humor and original music, and morphing into cohesive units that N O W ! (originally presented in then move apart (as do our own June) is a visually stunning con relationships). As each new body tinuation of that work. enters, it fits itself into the shape of Robin Lane leads Do Do Jump! is led by its founder, the existing form like human jigsaw Jump! into its 25th year Robin Lane, a lesbian who has puzzle pieces. The effect is riveting. been dancing her entire life. Among her earli Do Jump! calls itself “Extremely Physical est influences was Alwin Nikolai, whose dance Theatre,” and it certainly is— extremely physical company was famous in the 1970s for improvi and extremely dangerous. A t the opening of the sation, fascinating visuals and mysterious show, a dancer gracefully ascends to the ceiling sounds. Lane also admired the way Nikolais of the auditorium, then proceeds with the aid of dances conveyed human emotions despite their some exposed piping to move over the audi abstract forms. ence’s heads before disappearing into the ceiling. This latest production is a personal work for The show also uses circus imagery for emotion the choreographer, who says she wanted “to al effects, as when two women hold each other make a show about how our culture is always lovingly on a trapeze. Although not specifically striving madly for something we don’t have,” intended to be homoerotic, Lane favors images how the speed we moYe “in this horrible rat that are a “nonfixed view of what anyone can be.” race to nowhere" affects our well-being and our In her world, it’s “very natural that the relationships. “I wanted to do a show where women are just as strong as the m en .. .and the audience had a visceral experience to that there is no fixed view of who lifts who, who’s feeling," she explains. “W hat would rest feel tender with whom. It’s intentional that things like? W hat would movement feel like.7" are reciprocal,” she continues, “so that when Lane points out that “life is always shifting there’s a duet on the floor it’s not the person and transitioning; the beginning or the end is who holds and the other who is held; it goes always moving.” Likewise, Do Jump! perform back and forth. I think it’s a powerful image ances are always changing, too. that the women just grab the men in the air.” “T h e show will continue to grow until W hen the company performed in New York after about 100 performances,” she notes, City last year, Newsday compared the show to because so much of it is based on improvisa Cirque du Soleil “except utterly lacking in pre tion. "Otherwise it’s like a writer only sending tension." The New York Tones called it “highly a first draft out.” creative,” exclaiming that Do Jump! “furnishes fun in profusion.” ane began working on N O W ! five years Portland audiences should not miss this before even moving into rehearsals. In her opportunity to see the latest work by this high head, she sees that it “starts this way and ly inventive, highly lauded company. JF1 ends this way, and these are the skills we need to get this idea across.” Do J um p ! E xtremely P hysical T heatre But until she’s in the studio with the cast per-forms NOW ! at 7:30 f>.m. Thursdays through “creating the vocabulary,” she doesn’t know Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 29 at exactly what a dance will look like. A n indi Echo Theatre, 1515 S.E. 37th Ave. Tickets are vidual piece, such as the one titled “A Walk i $I5~$20 from Fastixx. Robin Lane creates another extrem ely physical w inner J & M Cafe Dinner 2 0 2 0 N. P ortland B>lvd. tuesday through Saturday .5 0 3 .2 2 3 ^ 7 3 1 537 se ash 503 230 0463 ( ^ ñ R A L D /'S enatssance Open New Years Eve, Call for Reservations W atch for the R e-opening o f our Second (original) Location in N W Portland with Full Bar Fresh homemade soups daily • Organic salads Daily dinner specials • Expanded wine selection 3 4 4 NE 28th & Flanders 5 0 3 -2 3 6 -8 1 6 5 2 1 0 8 NIA/ Glisan Mon. " Sat. Open Ham to 10pm T
