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dance
Back in the Studio
Oregon Ballet Theatre's founding artistic director creates new dances as an independent choreographer
hen James Canfield resigned from his position as
artistic director of Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2002,
he told Gia Kourlas of The New York Times that his
next move might he to sell suntan lotion in Maui.
Kourlas couldn’t tell if he was joking.
Turns out he wasn’t.
After leaving OBT, Canfield did move to Maui for a year. He
didn’t peddle suntan lotion, although he did sell duct tape wallets
made by the folks at Portland’s own DB Clay in Maui’s markets.
“Those guys are friends of mine, so 1 went to the marketplaces and
sold [their wallets], just to get into the local culture.. .that was a lot of
fun as a way to meet people,” says Canfield.
After 13 years at OBT—and six years as a principal dancer with
the Jeffrey Ballet before that—Canfield needed some time to regroup
before moving on to the next stage of his career.
He had spent a month in Maui a few years earlier, to celebrate his
40th birthday. Every year thereafter he made brief visits to the island,
which he describes as a “magical” place.
So Canfield decided to live there for a year so he could be
anonymous and do some soul-searching. Upon returning to
Portland, he enrolled in massage therapy school at East West
College of Healing Arts and spent the next year and a half study
ing. Tixlay, he is a licensed massage therapist with his own practice.
Canfield didn’t step entirely out of the dance world to focus on
massage therapy. He traveled around the country on dance business,
mostly consulting and teaching.
5*
In 2006, he was invited to participate in the Portland-based
Northwest Professional Dance Project by the program’s artistic direc
tor, Sarah Slipper. NWPDP is headed by Slipper and Steve Gonzales,
artistic director of the Jefferson Dancers. The 4-year-old program con
nects young professional and preprofessional dancers with leading
dance makers from around the world. For three weeks, the students
take classes and workshops and learn original choreography created
for them by the guest artists.
Slipper and Canfield were acquainted from their OBT days. In
fact, it was Canfield who hired Slipper to be OBT’s ballet mistress in
1997 and who commissioned her to make dances for the company. So
when Slipper invited Canfield to work with NWPDP as a guest artist,
it was a bit of a switch.
“Now she’s not sleeping at night, and 1 am,” quips Canfield, refer
ring to the tremendous amount of time and energy that goes into
running a dance organization.
Canfield accepted Slipper’s invitation. Last year, he taught class
for NWPDP students and created a trio called “BAM,” which the
young dancers performed as part of the end-of-session public per
formance called Showing by Dance Makers. In an Oregonian review,
Bob Hicks described the work as “vintage Canfield” and called him
“a dance maker to reckon with."
Originally, Canfield got involved with NWPDP because he
believes the project is fulfilling a vital role in the dance world. Because
Lead.
Inspire.
many companies today perform mostly from a repertoire of
proven works, young dancers might not have the opportu
nity to work on a new piece with a choreographer.
Both as a dancer himself and as a longtime artistic
director, Canfield believes rhe collaboration between
choreographer and dancer is “the ultimate experience” for
a dancer. And it is that experience that NWPDP offers its
students.
This year, another crop of NWPDP students will have
the chance to work with Canfield, who is creating an orig
inal dance for them to perform at Showing by Dance
Makers.
When Just Out spoke with him, it was too early in the
creative process for the choreographer to say much about
the piece. It didn’t have a name yet, and the dancers had
not been selected. However, Canfield did promise that the
dance will exhibit characteristics of his signature style,
such as sensuality or an exploration of relationships.
Those two stylistic characteristics certainly apply to
“Broken Sparrow,” a new dance that Canfield choreo
graphed for NWPDP’s latest endeavor: Innovative Visions,
a one-time public performance by a company made up of
nine dancers who previously attended NWPDP. Five
dancers from the company, four men and one woman,
performed “Broken Sparrow” on July 14 at Newmark
Theatre.
Amanda Phillips-Bosshart convincingly portrayed
a plaintive soul who searches for companionship but
doesn’t know where to find it. She pushes one dancer’s face
away from her and is embraced by another for a moment
before she sinks to the fl<x>r. She builds a deeper, tender
connection during a duet with Brittain Jarrett Jackson but
is separated from him in the end.
James Canfield (inset) promises his new original dance will exhibit
The dancers were accompanied by live music from characteristics of his sensual signature style.
local artist Adam Hurst, who played haunting cello and
guitar solos from a dimly lit, raised platform near the back of the
share any details at this time. He is, however, perfectly willing to
stage.
share the fact that he enjoys his current role as a roving guest artist:
Some choreographers create the bones of the dance first and
“You get to go in, inspire dancers, and make new work. That was
always my first love.’ ' ©
choose the music later. In contrast, Canfield collaborated with Hurst,
whose music he first heard at Last Thursday in the Alberta Arts
District, for nearly a year before making “Broken Sparrow.”
The Ninthwest Professional Dance Project's SHOWING BY D ance
Although Innovative Visions was a one-night-only affair, Canfield
M akers will include James Canfield's latest, as-yet-untitled wink, along
says “Broken Sparrow" is now part of the NWPDP repertoire, so it
with dances by five other choreographers, 8 p.m. Aug. 10 and 11 at
may be performed again in the future.
Pintland State University’s Lincoln Hall, 1620 S.W. Park Ave. Tickets
In addition to NWPDP, Canfield has an upcomtng choreographic are $22-$25 from www.nwpdp.com.
gig at a biennial event called Emergence. The project, a collaboration
between the Nashville Ballet and Vanderbilt University’s Blair School
R ebecca R again recently returned from the American Dance
of Music, will bring choreographers and composers together to create
Festival, where she was a fellow with the National Endowment for the
new work this fall.
Arts Journalism Institute for Dance Criticism. Contact her via
www. rebeccaragain. com.
Canfield has other irons in the fire as well, although he can’t
Contribute.
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