EW’S GUIDE TO THE OREGON BACH FESTIVAL 2009
SAVION GLOVER DANCES INTO THE HULT
D
id you grow up with Savion, the
young dancer of Sesame Street
who brought the surrounding
Muppets a degree of embodied fun no
furry marionette could ever experience?
Maybe you missed him there, but you
saw 1989’s Tap, a thinly plotted piece that
gave Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr. and
Savion Glover himself a chance to show off
their moves. And it’s just possible that you
avoided Savionmania until 2006’s Happy
Feet, for which he was both choreographer
and dance model for the penguin Mumble.
But your time for avoidance is over.
The 2009 Oregon Bach Festival is fi lled
with surprises and tasty treats, mixing
contemporary music with music from the
time of Shakespeare, art and music, ballet
and theater, drumming and dancing —
and Savion Glover performing “Classical
Savion” might just be one of the tastiest.
Certainly it’s a show that should attract
families, as it was meant to do. “Each year,”
says OBF Executive Director John Evans,
“I want to have a good, strong family
concert.” With Glover’s fl ying feet and
beautifully limber lines, with his intelligent
choreography (which has won him Tonys
for various Broadway shows) and his
ability to make the kind of noises most kids
fi nd tremendously appealing, he’s got the
chance to inject the kind of kinetic energy
by Suzi Steffen
the Bach Festival rarely gets to see.
One of the festival’s themes this year is
“the spirit of the dance,” and Evans notes
that the schedule gives all kind of space
for various genres. There’s the Eugene
Ballet Company’s collaboration with the
OBF and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
in a narrated, fully staged version of
Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream
(another kid favorite, though perhaps
less kid-friendly than Glover’s routine).
Metropolitan Opera diva Frederica von
Stade and the OBF orchestra cover some
dance material in von Stade’s solo concert,
and see our piece on the World Harmony
Project (p. 2) for more dance-related OBF
moments.
But Glover has everything going for him
in terms of audience appeal. “The music
is performed by live musicians,” Evans
said, which makes the dance performance
more immediate and lively than those set
to recorded, tinny music. But Glover has
several routines, and the fact that this
one’s called “Classical Savion” was the bit
that sealed the deal for Evans. “This is a
really good introduction to core classical
music,” Evans says. The program includes
pieces by Vivaldi, Mozart, Shostakovich,
Mendelssohn and, of course, Bach. Well-
known classical pieces like Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons transform under the heels, and
THE KIVA
GROCERS,
WINE
MERCHANTS
& BOOKSELLERS
toes, of Glover. Evans wants
the audience to have a chance
to “discover classical music
through a different art form,”
he says, and through
different senses.
“There’s a lot this
year that’s visually
capivating about the
Festival,” Evans says,
and he believe Glover
is a key part of that
PHOTO BY LEN IRISH
Tap Into Classical Spirit
visual attraction as the dancer jumps,
spins and generally hoofs it across the
stage at the Hult Center. “It helps
develop audiences of all ages,”
Evans says, “if you can entice
the senses.”
Tickets for the July 10
Glover concert start at
$15 and go up to $58,
but there’s also the
youth-oriented July 9
Savion on Tap for $5
and the free Tap Jam at
noon on July 9 in The
Studio on the lowest
fl oor of the Hult
Center. Participants
are encouraged to
bring tap shoes to
the jam, where they
can pretend to be
penguins — or simply
let loose the spirit of their
own creativity.
◆
Shop Local.
Dine Local.
• Specialty, Gourmet
& Organic Foods
• Fresh Organic Produce
• Bulk Foods, Herbs,
Spices, Coffees & Teas
• Over 200 cheeses
& deli meats
• Wine, champagne
& beer
• Vitamins, homeopathic
remedies & natural body
care products
• Sandwiches
made to order
11am - 5pm weekdays
MON-SAT 9-8 • SUN 10-6
w w w . 5 s t m a r k e t . c o m
5 4 1 . 4 8 4 . 0 3 8 3
125 W. 11th Ave. DOWNTOWN EUGENE • 342-8666
www.eugeneweekly.com
OBF’09 | 5