EMBODIMEN T
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P HOTO BY A NDRE W W EEK S P HOTOGR A P H Y
SPIN
WHO’S WHO AND WHAT’S
WHAT IN DANCE THIS MONTH
BY RACHAEL CARNES
Props to the city of Eugene for heeding the call for
innovative, accessible dance programming in our com-
munity.
This summer has featured a variety of emerging and
established dance groups from in and out of our local
region. And what’s more — performances and work-
shops are free. This month is no exception, with a visit
from the Bay Area’s Embodiment Project.
“Embodiment Project is a street dance theater com-
pany whose mission is to challenge systemic inequity
by exploring themes of trauma, healing, womanist his-
tories, race, and gender role dissolution,” says Nicole
Klaymoon, the group’s founder and artistic director,
who — along with her dancers as collaborators — will
offer two learning opportunities for our community.
Catch Dance as a Call to Action at noon Aug. 17 at
the Downtown Eugene Public Library, 100 W. 10th
Avenue, and The Embodiment Project: They Didn’t
Know We Were Seeds at 5:30 pm Aug. 17 in the Hult
Center Plaza.
The Embodiment Project hovers at the intersection
of art and activism. “Art functions to remind us of our
humanness,” Klaymoon says.
And dance, the rawest of the art forms — the most
visceral and embodied — can be a particularly effec-
tive modality for expression or even protest.
“Movement by its nature is healing. And all behavior
[movement] is based in memory and experience, so
movement will report the truth,” Klaymoon says. “As
dancers, we voice the hidden narratives of our bodies.
Dance expresses what has been archived, what has
been repressed.”
Klaymoon says her objective as a dance maker is to
become conscious of what story is being told through
dance — and why.
“Embodiment Project Workshop participants can
expect to be moved — and [to] think critically,”
Klaymoon says. “By exploring memory through writing
and dance, they will connect with themselves on a
deeper level.”
The free evening performance will similarly move
audiences through a compelling combination of “high-
energy street dance, live song, choreo-poetry, and the-
ater,” Klaymoon says.
• • •
Also on the docket this month are free performanc-
es by the Portland-based Son de Cuba at 5:30 pm Aug.
3 in the Hult Center Plaza, featuring salsa, merengue
and Latin jazz. And don’t miss local favorites The
Middle Eastern Dance Guild of Eugene performing to
live music at 6 pm Aug. 4 in the Downtown Eugene
Public Library.
#Instaballet’s gala performance benefiting
Bridgeway House features some of the group’s favorite
audience-created ballet repertoire and new work by
guest artists at 6 pm Aug. 12 at Oregon Contemporary
Theatre.
Salseros Dance Company — beloved in the schools
and the community — offers beginner salsa classes at
9 pm Fridays in August, with music and dancing start-
ing at 10 pm, in the Vet’s Club, 1626 Willamette Street.
In grant funding news, the West African Cultural
Arts Institute, was recently awarded Lane Arts
Council’s Community Arts Grant in support of a father/
son performance with Alseny and Papa Yansane.
• • •
And after serving thousands over the past 15 years,
the independent nonprofit Sparkplug Dance — found-
ed by the author — has decided to dissolve its 501(c)
(3) corporation, giving the remainder of its cash
reserves, $2,500, to local nonprofit Parenting Now.
It’s been an honor to provide access to inclusive
dance in the local community and across the state.
Thank you!
Got a scoop on the local dance scene? Email Rachael Carnes at eugeneweeklydance@gmail.com
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A ugust 3, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com