Festival:
19
Festival:20
Union PDX - Festival of Contemporary Dance
Masterclasses: November 14 & 15
Artist Panel: November 14 @ 5:00pm
push/FOLD presents Union PDX - Festival:20, the second year of push/FOLD's Union PDX - Festival of Contemporary Dance.
Featuring a modified festival program in light of the COVID-19 global health emergency, on November 14 & 15, Union PDX - Festival:20 hosts six in-person masterclasses taught by select Oregon artists and one facilitated artist panel discussion at the spacious Polaris Dance Center in Portland, OR.
Throughout the day on November 14 & 15, advanced to professional level dancers (ages 16 to adult) may enjoy inimate in-person masterclasses from this year’s artists:
Oluyinka Akinjiola (Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater), Conrad "Icon Sleepy Tut" Kaczor, Barbara Lima (ELa FaLa Collective), Andrea Parson, Sweta Ravasinkar, and push/FOLD’s Artistic Director, Samuel Hobbs.
Festival classes represent Afro-Contemporary and Afro-Cuban, Athletic Contemporary, Popping and Tutting, Hip Hop and Krump, Improvisation and Composition, and Bharatanatyam dance styles. Following all CDC-recommended guidelines for the safety and wellbeing of all participants and artists, class sizes are held at an intimate ten student maximum per class, with 8' x 8' personal spaces for movement.
With the vision of connecting audiences to artists, join us Saturday, November 14 @ 5:00pm for our live-streamed facilitated artist-in-person panel discussion. With Mr. Bobby Fouther joining our Festival:20 masterclass instructors for an in-depth conversation about the importance and impact of art during times of adversity, protest, and quarantine, the effects of quarantine on artistic and movement practices, and the resiliency of dance as art presently in Portland. Audiences will engage with the artists from the comfort of their homes with our live-streamed town hall which you can view directly from our festival website: www.unionpdx.org
Festival:20 is sponsored in part by the Oregon Cultural Trust and supported by our partners: Polaris Dance Theater and Steps PDX. A heartfelt "Thank you" to everyone at the Regional Arts & Culture Council who continue to work tirelessly on behalf of the artists of Multnomah County.
Masterclasses
Advanced-Professional Level (Ages 16 to Adult)
November 14 & 15, 2020
Polaris Dance Center
Samuel Hobbs
"Visceral Movement Theory™—Movement & Power"
Athletic Contemporary
November 14 @ 10:30am - 12:00pm
Fusing athletic and dance forms, participants dive into the internal fluid dynamics of the body to exact power in movement through the persistence of momentum and release.
Oluyinka Akinjiola
“Chakras and Orishas”
Afro-Contemporary, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian
November 14 @ 12:30pm - 2:00pm
Participants unearth the relationship of the heart chakra and Ogun, the Yoruba Orisha (Spirit). In true Rejoice Diaspora Dance Theater fashion, we bring these ancient studies into the context of Contemporary Dance.
Barbara Lima
"Hip Hop Contemporary Fusion"
Urban Dances (Hip Hop, Krump) and Contemporary
November 14 @ 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Through foundational Hip Hop and contemporary dance techniques, participants reconnect with movement, breath, body, mobility and functionality in response to gravity, force and motion, myth-to-movement, writing, interpretation, spatial acuity, and musicality.
Andrea Parson
"Contemporary Forms"
Improvisation and Composition
November 15 @ 9:30am - 11:00am
Through guided meditations and movement tasks, participants probe into various energetic qualities and physical image making to deconstruct form and movement.
Conrad "Icon Sleepy Tut" Kaczor
"Tutting in Every Dimension"
Popping, Tutting
November 15 @ 11:30am - 1:00pm
A street dance class within the sub-genre of Popping called “Tutting,” participants integrate Tutting and corporeal storytelling into their personal dance practices, playing with the limitless potential of this geometric form of movement.
Sweta Ravisankar
"The Hidden Rhythms"
Bharatanatyam
November 15 @ 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Adapting rhythm in dance to transform to become peacocks or rain, participants engage in the pure expression-based nuances, compositions, and abstract thoughts of Bharatanataym—the oldest classical dance tradition in India.