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WWW J U S TO U T COM
. AUGUST 7 2009
DANCE
NWDP Celebrates New
Home with Packed Schedule
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Slightly over a month after Oregon Bal
let Theatre held an emergency fund-raising
performance to keep its doors from closing,
Northwest Dance Project opened the doors
o f its new home to the public.
NWDP, headed by Sarah Slipper and
Scott Lewis, brings young professional danc
ers together with emerging and renowned
choreographers. The result is a slew of new
dances and a strengthened web of profes
sional connections for all involved.
After five years spent shuttling between
different rehearsal and performance spaces,
NW DP leased a studio/performance space in
the Mississippi Ball
room, on North Shaver
Street. The first public
performance there— a
showing of work cre
ated by two choreogra
phers during a six-day
residency—took place
July 18. It was an aus
picious start: the event
sold out and a second
show was added.
Maurice
Causey,
ballet master for Ned-
erlands Dance Theater,
was one of the chore
ographers who created
new work with the residency’s group of nearly
30 dancers. “Collaborating with them was
amazing, from the first day,” says Causey.
Causey was also inspired by N W D P’s
no-holds-barred artistic atmosphere, which
helped him to create 16 minutes of dance in
a fraction of the time typical of such an en
deavor. Causey says, “The ideas never stopped
in my mind. That had a lot to do with the en
vironment. The environment was very open.”
After the residency, NW DP invited Cau
sey to return later this summer, joining three
other choreographers on the Summer Premieres
program, being performed August 14-15.
The dance that Causey, who is gay, is creat
ing for Summer Premieres explores the concept
of predicament— especially gender predica
ments. He’s working with three couples: one
made up of a male and female dancer, one of
two women and another of two men.
At the time of this writing, Causey was
in the midst o f shaping the untitled work,
but he did already know that it wouldn’t be
a pretty dance. “Obviously, predicaments are
difficult situations,” he points out. “The cho
reography is quite emotionally aggressive and
the language is also quite aggressive.”
Causey is impressed with the skill level
o f the dancers in N W D P’s company. He was
hoping to work with dancers who have good
technique, but who aren’t restricted to that.
He got his wish; Causey says that NW D P’s
dancers “can really move, if you understand
what I mean.”
He continues: “They’re familiar with their
ability to move and are hungry enough to use
that, and also to collaborate with me to create
my work. That has attracted me to go further
and deeper into my work at the moment.”
Also making dances for Summer Premieres
are James Canfield, former artistic director
o f Oregon Ballet Theatre and current artis
tic director o f Nevada Ballet Theatre; Lucas
Crandall, associate artistic director o f Hub
bard Street Dance Chicago; and Wen Wei
Wang, artistic director o f Wen Wei Dance.
After these choreographers finish their
work, another four will begin in the NW DP
studio in preparation o f the Fall Premieres
program, October 16-17. One o f these is
DAN FISICO
By REBECCA RAGAIN
Edgar Zendejas, artistic director of a M on
treal-based company called ezdanza.
Zendejas is returning to the program for a
second year. About last year, he says, “I had a
really good experience and enjoyed the piece
and the dancers.” Sharing a program with
other choreographers marks another benefit:
“I always love to see other works, and ways
o f working.”
Also in 2008, Zendejas got to know fel
low Montreal choreographer Mark Godden,
whom he’d never met in person previously. In
addition, Zendejas kept in touch with several
o f the dancers he met.
He is excited to return to Portland, which
he feels is “very open for art.”
Earlier in his career, Zendejas danced
with a company whose director eliminated
pieces with male duets or gay themes when
touring in the U.S. because of worries about
how those elements would be received.
So last year, when Zendejas decided to
have a male duet in his work for NWDP,
called “De Wilde (the Wanted),” he was a
little concerned about others’ reactions. “But
in NWDP, I’m free to express what is part of
me,” says Zendejas, who is gay. “I did the duet
and it turned out very well.”
NW DP’s Summer Premieres program is
8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Aug. 14-15, at Newmark
Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway. Also, mark your
calendar fo r Fall Premieres, Oct. 16-17. Tickets
are 120-140 through www.nwpdp.com.