A Big Weekend of Theatre and Dance

locust's "crushed" at Velocity Dance Center, part of a huge weekend of performance in Seattle. Photo by Gabriel Bienczycki.

Last week in The Stranger, choreographer KT Niehoff took Brendan Kiley to task for...well...a number of things. I have my own thoughts on the issue overall to share shortly, in a different story, but what I can totally agree with him about is his complaint that, "I don't understand why dance companies don't coordinate their schedules better—for months, next to nothing will happen, then BAM!" As someone who covers a lot of dance, I wouldn't go as far as "next to nothing," but scheduling coverage—particularly of one- or two-week shows—is a constant hassle, and not just with dance. If Brendan thought late April was looking busy, I have no idea what he's going to do this weekend.

First up, it's the closing weekend of the aforementioned Niehoff's company Lingo, whose A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light is finishing an unusually and delightfully long run at ACT Theatre (Thurs-Sat., tickets $18). Again, I'll have more to say about this tomorrow, but the response of audiences has generally been far more passionate than any of the reviews have let on. Not everyone has loved it, I'm sure, but plenty of people have expressed astonishment at the show. The culmination of a three-month, four-part experiment exploring the relationship between dancers and audiences, Glimmer places its audience in a party environment, complete with a live band, to radically shift the perspective on the choreographic exploration of interpersonal relationships explored throughout. That's a bad description, I'm sure, but I haven't seen it (being out-of-state at the moment), and I really regret that. If you're in Seattle, be sure to avoid my fate and buy your tickets now.

Also at ACT are both NCTC's On the Nature of Dust, which opened last week, and opening this week, their own production of Horton Foote's A Trip to Bountiful (tickets $10-$55). An exploration of the power and meaning of home through the story of an aged woman seeking to visit her childhood abode, it features a cast of notable local talent including Chuck Leggett and Paul Morgan Stetler.

But let's get to the short-run stuff. This Friday and Saturday, Velocity Dance Center does another first in their lovely new space by presenting their first major performance: the local stop of the SCUBA National Touring Network for Dance (tickets $15). SCUBA (which, sadly, doesn't yet have its own site) is a marvelous idea cooked up several years ago by various dance centers around the country, who work together to tour artists from their own communities to other cities. Amy O'Neal and Zeke Keeble's company locust is Seattle's contribution this year, and they'll be presenting a shortened version of crushed, which premiered at the Moore last year, on a double-bill with Jacinta Vlach's Liberation Dance Theatre, from San Francisco, presenting Animal Farm.

Marya Sea Kaminski's "Condo Millennium" at NWFF. Photo by Andrew Crooks.

Then, up at the Northwest Film Forum, they're closing their first season of "Live at the Film Forum" (which previously featured Paris Hurley and Amy O'Neal) with a new work from local actor and writer Marya Sea Kaminski, called Condo Millennium (Thurs.-Sat., tickets $12-$15). While I, unfortunately, don't know a whole lot about it, it looks as though Kaminski twisted Anna Deveare Smith-style documentary theatre into a fantastical, multi-media performance piece exploring the changes affecting the Pike-Pine corridor and what that says about the greater region and the people who live in it. Whatever the case, Kaminski is absolutely in a class all by herself—both her plays and her performances have impressed me (and damn near everybody else) in the past.

And finally, there's the Balagan. If there were an award for the fringe theatre of the year, they'd have taken it for their '09-'10 season, which they seem intent on closing out with a bang. Some of their shows have surprised me with how good they were (The Elephant Graveyard), others have mystified but entertained me (Zastrozzi, The Jammer), and finally, with Edmond, they produced as fine a piece of theatre as you can find in Seattle, at any of the houses. Now, with the last show of their season, the company is venturing into new territory with an ensemble generated version of the Oedipus Cycle (tickets $12-$15). It's risky, because when you do this, you lay all your cards on the table. Risks, rewards, risks, rewards...