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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2015)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015 This was a night to remember n the earliest days of the Liberty Theater’s restoration, funders asked: “Who will use it.” Never, in our wildest expecta- tions, did we suggest the Dance Theatre of Harlem would per- form on the L i b e r t y ’s stage. Dance itself did not seem feasi- ble, given the Steve stage’s small Forrester dimensions. Last Saturday night’s concert only shows that if you build it, you don’t know who will come. The Dance Theatre of Harlem’s appearance was the most epic event in the theater’s post-resto- ration history. I ‘This week we made a difference.’ stage lights would cast a danc- er’s shadow on a theater wall. After the dancers had taken WKHLU ¿QDO FXUWDLQ FDOO DQG GLV- appeared, the Liberty audience stood in sustained applause. &RPSDQ\ RI¿FLDOV UDQ WR WKH upstairs dressing rooms to tell the dancers what was going on. They returned to the stage and received the acclaim of a stand- ing ovation. he Dance Theatre’s interest in Astoria showed itself some two years ago. Portland’s White Bird was bringing the ballet troupe to the Rose City and wanted to share the costs with another regional venue. At White Bird’s recommendation, Edward Shoelwer, booking agent at the Dance Theatre called the Liberty. Executive Director Rosemary Baker Monaghan, was in disbe- lief. “I asked him twice, to be sure this was real,” said Monaghan. She explained how small the Liberty’s stage was. “We want to come,” he said. “We’ll work this out.” The Liberty had to raise rough- ly $50,000 to host the troupe for a concert and classes for young dancers. T t was phenomenal that they brought the whole com- pany — 18 dancers, the chore- ographer, ballet master, artistic director and company director,” said Monaghan. “It was a bonus that Virginia Johnson, the artis- tic director, taught the master class. She’s a legend in the ballet world.” Here is another way of un- GHUVWDQGLQJ KRZ VLJQL¿FDQW Astoria’s exposure to the Dance Theatre of Harlem was. This was their performance sched- ule: four shows in New York, two shows in Portland, Astoria’s Liberty Theater, Tel Aviv, Israel, followed by Italy. ‘I JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian Anthony Savoy and Alison Stroming, with the Dance Theatre of Harlem, perform “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux” at the Liberty Theater Saturday. hile I am not a ballet enthusiast, I was blown away by the dancers. Meanwhile there were plenty of balletomanes in the Liberty, which was within 50 of being sold out. Theaters sometimes build au- diences, but they also depend on others to build them. The clas- sical music audience — built by KMUN’s classical program- ming — has been the base of the Astoria Music Festival’s audi- ence. Similarly, the country-west- ern audience is built by radio sta- tions of the Ohana group. On Saturday night I realized that Jeanne Maddox created an audience that is knowledgeable about ballet. Maddox’s 40 years of teaching and mounting annual productions of The Nutcracker has built a large base that will turn out for dance. JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian $WWKHHQGRIWKH¿UVWPRYH- Virginia Johnson, artistic director for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, leads a ballet class in the Paulson ment, the near-capacity audience Pavilion at the Liberty Theater Friday. erupted in a way that I’ve not that Schoelwer said a smaller sions are more apparent to the formance space for singers and heard at other Liberty events. venue is good for the dancers, audience than in a large hall such musicians. Also, apparently o, what did the performers because it challenges them to be as Portland’s Schnitzer. for dancers. We could hear the think? “They were thrilled,” more fully present. That is, their The intimacy of the Liberty squeak of their shoes and even a said Monaghan, who added movements, even facial expres- Theater makes it a special per- dancer’s breathing. Occasionally W S ducation is the pivot point of the arts. If the next gen- HUDWLRQGRHVQRW¿QGLWVZD\LQWR a theater for live performance — of music, theater, dance or opera — those arts will lose their audience. When we scoured for money to restore the Liberty Theater, we listed education as one of RXU ¿YH JRDOV 7KDW JRDO ZDV addressed big time last week, as a bevy of school children were JLYHQD¿UVWFODVVLQWURGXFWLRQWR one of the nation’s premier dance WURXSHV³)RXUWKDQG¿IWKJUDG- ers from Naselle, Seaside and Gearhart rose for a standing ova- tion at the end of the dance num- ber,” said Monaghan. “This week we made a differ- ence,” she added. “This is why we’re here.” Jeanne Maddox Peterson said it was “a glorious experi- ence” for her students to have a class with Virginia Peterson. “The younger kids had no idea who that was, so we looked on the Internet and watched Virginia in her dancing years, doing Giselle.” E — S.A.F. Open forum Help homeless teens he recent tragic death of Jerad Knut- son, aka Ingrid Mayner, brings the hid- den problem of youth homelessness into stark view. We sincerely hope that this is not the case in this tragedy, but the loss of any 19-year-old so far from home reminds many in our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and questioning (LGBTQ) community of the peril of living on the streets. Family rejection drives an epidemic of homelessness for LGBTQ children in this country. Our community lacks open and wel- coming facilities to help young people living homeless, and we are working to establish T needed resources. We send heartfelt condo- lences to the family of this young person. JERALYN O’BRIEN TESSA SCHELLER ALICIA PALMER Lower Columbia Gender Alliance Astoria Sen. Johnson sides with GOP t is time for state Sen. Betsy Johnson to show her true colors. While she has proven to be an effective state senator in many ways, for her to call herself a Democrat is becoming laughable. I Recently Sen. Johnson voted against her party and with the right wing of the Repub- lican Party on two seminal bills. First was the new voter registration bill, that allows a person to become a registered voter just by applying for a license or ID card at the Department of Motor Vehicles. This bill was originally instigated by then Secretary of State Kate Brown, and signed into law by now Gov. Brown. The Democratic Party supports laws that make it easier for persons to legally register to vote. It is hard to un- derstand why Betsy Johnson would side with the Republicans in making it harder to reg- ister to vote. T HE D AILY A STORIAN Founded in 1873 Johnson also just voted against the bill that makes persons selling guns to one an- other go to a licensed dealer and go through a background check. Her support of the gun rights lobby is legendary, and they don’t call her Machine-gun Betsy for nothing. Howev- er, her views on guns are not in keeping with the mainstream of the Democratic Party, and Betsy Johnson should just switch parties. It is time to get rid of this DINO (Dem- RFUDW LQ 1DPH 2QO\ DQG ¿QG VRPHRQH ZKR truly represents Democrats in Northwest Or- egon. DON ANDERSON Astoria STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
