In the program notes for Deborah Hay’s  “Mountain, ” the choreographer is quoted as saying,  “It is easy to imagine a mountain teeming with life. How is it that we look for shape in the dancing body and forget to imagine it is teeming with life? ” I read this just before the lights went down and took it as a directive: look for signs of teeming life.

I was excited to sit in the second row, close to the action. I wanted to feel myself "in" it. The curtain opens really, REALLY slowly. I slowly enter the space opening to me. More and more space/ less and less chatter. I'm there. I really am. Or I thought I was there.... I'm watching these three women move. Articulately, thoughtfully, rhythmically, unpredictably. I pull away. I start wondering about things. I feel my brain working hard. Too hard. I struggle to find my way in again. It's as if the curtain has shut again between me and the stage dancers. I feel myself separat

Hey Sean Ryan (OtB Regional Programs Coordinator) here! I very excited that the Seattle Poetry Festival invited OtB to create a sampler of some artists that have performed in 12 Minutes Max. I have asked a few amazing performers to share some of their compelling work. Performing this weekend on Sunday, April 22nd from 4:15-5pm at the Richard Hugo House are (pictured in order) Charles Leggett, Josh Reisberg (Tacoma, WA), Cristina Orbé, Tom Blood (Portland, OR), and SoulChilde BlueSun.

I loved this show. In a geniunely touched to the spirit kind of way. As a choreographer and dancer watching this show, I was really pressed to think about contemporary dance performance and what it means to "choreograph", "design movement," "perform." These are all concepts that can be adopted superficially onto the body and by the artist and/or they are concepts that can be generated from the core in a raw, honest, simple way. This is what I saw in the performance last night.