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
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appeared, the Liberty audience
stood in sustained applause.
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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-
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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
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ducation is the pivot point
of the arts. If the next gen-
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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
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addressed big time last week, as
a bevy of school children were
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one of the nation’s premier dance
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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-
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truly represents Democrats in Northwest Or-
egon.
DON ANDERSON
Astoria
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