If the Weekend 2 showcases of NW New Works this year were any indication of Weekend 1, I'm sorry to have been out of town at that time. Way to shake off the shackles of geographic anaemia, northwesterners! What a captivating display of creative vitality. Sunday night on the mainstage: The evening begins with It's Just a Dance by the response. I would say that it's much more than just a dance, it's a successful lobby installation. Seeing a good pre-show lobby installation is like spotting a pegasus perched on top of a tree outside your window.

The NWNW mainstage showcase on June 14 was an exciting evening of dance that raised many questions for me as a viewer. The show made me wonder about the relationship between kinesthetic and aesthetic choices, about abstracting the body, about virtuosity and how it can be both invigorating and isolating. I feel that great art should provide more questions than answers so as to inspire inquiry into art and life.

Recently Brendan Kiley wrote another piece in The Stranger lamenting how Seattle doesn’t have a festival like Portland’s TBA or Austin’s Fusebox. I love TBA, but let’s be fair. TBA tries to do in two weeks what On The Boards does over an entire season. It’s impressive that last year TBA had Jerome Bel and Tim Etchells (two of my favrav artist/thinkers), but this year OtB had Jan Faber, Marie Chouinard and Tanja Liedtke doing full-scale productions—one of my favorite OtB seasons to date.

Often when I see a dance concert, there is one dance company presenting, and I can fully grapple with and give value to questions that arise, resonations, and beauty recognized. New ideas are introduced, but always within the same framework (save the rare deus ex machina.) For the NWNW Festival Mainstage, four artists are given a limited amount of time to present. Many choose to excerpt or cram much larger works into a spurt of 20 minutes, and the result can sometimes be fully loaded, but usually very chewy.

Welcome to our review blog for Sister Taking Nap.Read our patron reviews, press reviews, and click on the Comments button to read the comments of others. Take a moment post your own thoughts!

What follows is an early-morning conversation between Yoko Ott and Scott Lawrimore after a late-night outing to see Sister Taking Nap.   It was the opening night of Wynne Greenwood’s newest performance...

Yoko Ott: After pouring my first cup of coffee this morning, I was compelled to go to the refrigerator, open it, and look for jam.   I found two jars, Pele’s Poha Berry Jam and some peach preserves.   I haven’t used either in eight months.   Both were gifts.

I am NOT sure I'd recommend it to any friends that I can think of , but I was really into it. I've been thinking a lot lately about how to engage in the present moment   and this piece was nothing if not an exercise in the present moment. The CARE that Wynne and Gina take to craft these moments is what I think is so interesting. Not really the moments as they play out into a story - or the way they look on stage - and CERTAINLY not anything about what they mean... Part of what I find refreshing about the piece is that the Meaning felt irrelevant.

I went to see Wynne Greenwood's piece, Sister Taking Nap, at On the Boards tonight. I don't know too much about her work other than the fact that I should know more. I saw video of her performance work (which is kind of fitting) as Tracy + the Plastics but that's the extent of it. The set is minimal. Imagination: abundant. Humor is drawn from repetition and keen timing. In this piece she works with Gina Young, of TEAM GINA, who's arms are used by Wynne as both telephone and refrigerator door water dispenser. It's about change.