32
6.2002
DANCE
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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
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