More cool shows on tap for weekend
The show Bronx Gothic kicked off the Time-Based Art Festival (TBA 15) with a bang.
The sheer force of the story/dance, performed and written by Okwui Okpokwasili, was a reminder that Portland can host new and meaningful work.
Audience members filed in to sit on risers on two sides of a white cube. Already in the far corner, facing away, Okpokwasili jerked and jittered. She was drenched in sweat by the time she turned to the perfectly well-behaved crowd. She read from a series of yellow and white notes, ostensibly written by two 11-year-old girls in a classroom in the Bronx in the 1980s.
Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam and Princes Little Red Corvette were references that relieved some of the tension with laughter, but it only grew as the story evolved. Of the two girl characters, ones words were spoken in a squeaky register. She seemed to be based on the author, with her wide nostrils and physical vulnerability. The other character was harder, gruffer and sexually knowing, lambasting her friend in long screeds delivered with open mic venom.
Okpokwasilis sheen of sweat dried off then returned when she writhed on the floor in what looked like a half-epileptic fit, half-break dance. Her bones banged on the floor. The story had a predictable spine: the less well-behaved girl had a bad stepfather who would send her to the bodega for packs of Newports.
But Okpokwasilis delivery, like her dancing, was gripping, even startling. She filled the little room with her presence, and left the audience strained and then relieved, walking out to a standing ovation.
TBA wraps up on Sunday, Sept. 20 (info: pica.org). Here are some shows to catch:
Philippe Quesne returns with the "La Mélancolie des Dragons." Filled with wit and hints of magical realism, "La Mélancolie" is set amid a snowy landscape of classic rock and medieval recorders where a band of metalheads is on a quest to build an amusement park devoted to hard rock. The details: 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept 17, Portland State University, Lincoln Performance Hall, 1825 S.W. Broadway.
French-Tunisian choreographer Radhouane El Meddeb harkens back to the glory age of Arab cinema in this bittersweet dance work performed by four men. "Au Temps" is a volcanic dance on the precipice of chaos to come. The details: 6:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 18, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, Winningstad Theater, 1111 S.W. Broadway.
"Pictures of the Moon with Teeth" is a group show of visual art curated by long-time visual artist and PICA curator Kristan Kennedy. The details: noon-6:30 p.m. viewings, through Sept. 20, and through Oct. 11 at different times, 2500 Sandy, 2500 N.E. Sandy Blvd.