White Bird's 2023/24 Season Brochure

Cover images, clockwise from upper left: Black Grace, photo by Toaki Okano; Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater, photo by Paul Kolnik; Camille A. Brown & Dancers, photo by Christopher Duggan; Sydney Dance Company, photo by Pedro Greig

SEASON 26 OF WHITE BIRD

Our 26th season is a year full of opportunity - chances to connect and honor, to introduce and reintroduce. With international artists returning, the recent opening of our new Box Office and Boutique at 900 SW Fifth, and so much new work, we have a lot to celebrate and even more to share.

Our season and White Bird Dance Series opens with the return of Pilobolus, a perennial audience favorite celebrating 50 years of inventive and daring dance. This evening will also honor the leadership of Paul King & Walter Jaffe, Co-Founders of White Bird, as we look forward to the next 25 years. The Dance Series continues with Camille A. Brown & Dancers in ink, a rousing dance performed alongside a live band, with elements of swing, jazz, gogo, hip hop and blues.

In this season’s Uncaged Series, we are proud to present entertaining works created by three innovative women, each with a unique style. Ephrat Asherie Dance blends street and club dance styles effortlessly in ODEON Abby Z and the New Utility’s Radioactive Practice pushes the limits of human endurance in thrilling and unexpected ways. And LED’s Lauren Edson creates a dramatic, surprising world in her newest work, KidLightning

In our third annual WE ARE ONE Festival, we welcome a pair of companies who draw their inspiration from diverse, cross-continental dance lineages. Black Grace, among the top dance companies in New Zealand, returns to White Bird with the signature fusion of traditional Samoan movement and contemporary dance molded by its Founding Artistic Director, Neil Ieremia. Music From The Sole, led jointly by choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and composer Gregory Richardson, exemplifies the depth of Black dance and music in IDidn’tCometoStay, a joyful work at the intersection of tap, Afro-Brazilian dance and live music.

We celebrate the return of Alvin Ailey® American Dance Theater, a powerhouse of modern and contemporary dance beloved by audiences around the world. And, finally, we’ll close our season and White Bird Dance Series with Sydney Dance Company, whose impressive dancers shine in the company’s ferociously physical and striking new work, ab[intra]

Welcome to our 2023-24 season. We’re glad you’re here!

White Bird greatly appreciates the generous support of the following foundations & government arts agencies:

The Regional Arts & Culture Council, including support from the City of Portland, Multnomah County and the Arts Education & Access Fund.

RONNI LACROUTE

Graham Cole, Executive Director

Graham with Barney, the White Bird

Photo by Jingzi Zhao

“Exquisitetechnique, superhumanstrength, innovativechoreography.”

- MassLive

DANCE SERIES/ WE ARE ONE FESTIVAL

Photo by: Grant Halverson

PILOBOLUS

Artistic Directors, Renée Jaworski & Matt Kent

Celebrating more than 50 years, Pilobolus is a rebellious dance company that has tested the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and power of interconnected bodies. One of White Bird’s, and the world’s, most in-demand dance companies, Pilobolus returns with their glorious dancer-athletes, performing a new program overflowing with wit, sensuality, and spectacular physical acumen. pilobolus. org

WEDNESDAY | 7:30PM

OCTOBER 4, 2023

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Sponsored by: Ken & Ann Edwards

WHITE BIRD DANCE SERIES

Please join us before the performance for a fundraiser in celebration of White Bird Co-Founders Walter Jaffe & Paul King, as well as the next 25 years of White Bird.

Hosted by Poison Waters and Dale Johannes.

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 5:00pm - 7:00pm Fields Sunken Ballroom, Portland Art Museum

Space is limited - for more information and to RSVP, visit whitebird.org/donate

“Incrediblespeedand stamina…exhilarating.”

- The New York Times

“IseeBlackpeopleassuperheroes becausewekeeprising.”

- Camille A. Brown

Photo by: Christopher Duggan

Photo by: Toaki Okano

Artistic Director, Camille A. Brown

ink

Camille A. Brown is the recipient of numerous awards and the first Black artist to direct a mainstage production at the Metropolitan Opera. After presenting Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012) and BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (2016), White Bird is proud to bring Camille A. Brown’s ink, the third part of Brown’s Trilogy on race, culture and identity, which celebrates the rituals, gestural vocabulary and traditions that remain ingrained within the lineage of the African diaspora. In ink, her gifted company of 8 dancers and 4 musicians create a thrilling energy, examining Black life that is often appropriated, rewritten, or silenced. camilleabrown.org

3 SHOWS, THU-SAT | 7:30PM

OCTOBER 12-14, 2023

Newmark Theatre

Sponsored by: Darci & Charlie Swindells

WHITE BIRD DANCE SERIES

CAMILLE A. BROWN & DANCERS BLACK GRACE

Last seen with White Bird in 2013, Black Grace is a powerful ensemble, comprised of some of New Zealand’s finest dancers, which fills the stage with great physicality and emotion. Neil Ieremia’s choreography fuses contemporary dance with traditional Samoan movement that is eloquent, spiritual, athletic, and lyrical. This unique company, which embraces the diversity of New Zealand’s multi-cultural population, has received critical and audience acclaim from around the world. blackgrace.co.nz

WEDNESDAY | 7:30PM

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

FOR ALL AGES

AUSTRALIA

“Impressiveathleticism andenergy…hastobe seen to be believed.”

- Sydney Morning Herald

“A marvelous feast of rhythm, both visual and aural.”

- DanceTabs

Photo by: Pedro Greig

Photo by: Titus Ogilvie Laing

MUSIC FROM THE SOLE

Artistic Directors, Leonardo Sandoval & Gregory Richardson

I

Didn’t Come to Stay

Making their West Coast debut, Music From The Sole is a tap and live music company that celebrates tap’s Afro-diasporic roots, especially its connections to Afro-Brazilian dance and music. Receiving great acclaim for their appearances at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and Tap in Rio, this brilliant company will perform their newest work, I Didn’t Come to Stay, commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim (NYC), that embraces a unique combination of tap, percussive dance, house, and Brazilian street dance.

musicfromthesole.com

4 SHOWS, THU-SAT | 7:30PM

PLUS 2PM SATURDAY MATINEE

FEBRUARY 29-MARCH 2, 2024

Newmark Theatre

SYDNEY DANCE COMPANY

Artistic Director, Rafael Bonachela ab [intra]

Sydney Dance Company is Australia’s leading contemporary dance company. Led by Spanish-born choreographer Rafael Bonachela, the Company has cemented its reputation as a creative powerhouse, performing new work by Bonachela and other major choreographers. One of Bonachela’s most acclaimed full-length works, ab [intra], meaning ‘from within’ in Latin, is a dazzling exploration of our primal instincts, our impulses and our visceral responses.

SydneyDanceCompanyisbasedonGadigalland. Wepayourrespecttotheirelderspast andpresentandextendthatrespecttoallFirstNationsPeoplesofthelandsandwaters wherewetourandperform.

WEDNESDAY | 7:30PM

APRIL 10, 2024

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Sponsored by:

WHITE BIRD DANCE SERIES

FOR ALL AGES

UNCAGED SERIES

“Asherie and her companyareasight anywheretheyperform.”

- The Boston Globe

Photo by: Matthew Murphy

EPHRAT ASHERIE DANCE

Artistic Director, Ephrat Asherie

ODEON

Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie is a New York City based b-girl, dancer, and choreographer who received the prestigious Bessie Award in 2016 for Innovative Achievement in Dance. She and her company make their Pacific Northwest debut with their acclaimed work ODEON, created by Ephrat in collaboration with her brother Ehud Asherie, the musical director. ODEON is set to the music of famed Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth and features an exhilarating mash up of street and club dances, including breaking, hip hop, house, and vogue. Ephrat Asherie’s remarkable choreographic voice is not to be missed.

ephratasheriedance.com

4 SHOWS, THU-SAT | 7:30 PM PLUS 2PM SATURDAY MATINEE

NOVEMBER 2-4, 2023

Lincoln Hall, Portland State University

Sponsored by: Nancy & George Thorn

RONNI LACROUTE PRESENTS

-

FOR ALL AGES

“Virtuosiceyecandythat invites the audience into another world.”

- Dance Magazine

“Full commitment and full presence—atfullthrottle…”

Indy Week

IDAHO

Photo by: Maria Baranova

Photo by: Otto Kittsinger

ABBY Z AND THE NEW UTILITY

Artistic Director, Abby Zbikowski

Radioactive Practice

Choreographer Abby Zbikowski puts physicality at the heart of larger philosophical questions about the meaning and function of dance across cultures. Her new group work Radioactive Practice, performed on stage in the round, draws on a wide range of movement traditions, including street dance, contemporary African forms, and martial arts, to shatter assumptions of established dance forms and generate a penetrating vision of what it means to be alive today. abbyznewutility.org

3 SHOWS, THU-SAT | 7:30PM

NOVEMBER 16-18, 2023

Lincoln Hall, Portland State University

Sponsored by: Walter Jaffe & Paul King

LED

Artistic Director, Lauren Edson

Kid Lightning

Lauren Edson, recipient of the 2019 Washington Award for Excellence in Choreography, founded LED in 2015 with her husband Andrew Stensaas to create projects—whether dance, film or music—that throb with imagination and intense physicality. In collaboration with their team of dancers, musicians, designers, and technicians, they have created Kid Lightning, a wild journey into a 1970’s stylized world of game show competition. Each individual contestant pushes their limits to claim fame, only to discover it was more than they bargained for. ledboise.com

4 SHOWS, THU-SAT | 7:30PM PLUS 2PM SATURDAY MATINEE

JANUARY 25-27, 2024

Lincoln Hall, Portland State University

Sponsored by: Technology and Society, Inc.

SPECIAL EVENT

“Profound and uplifting… triumphant.”

- The Guardian (UK)

Constance Stamatiou, Yannick Lebrun, and James Gilmer.

Photo by: Dario Calmese

FOR ALL AGES

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Artistic Director, Robert Battle

There is no dance company in the world that has the same impact and enormous following as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. This will be the Company’s sixth appearance with White Bird, and each time our audience has exulted over the riveting performances by extraordinary dancers performing work by Alvin Ailey and the world’s most esteemed choreographers. As in past years, each of our two programs will be different but will culminate with Ailey’s masterpiece Revelations, which brings audiences around the world to their feet.

alvinailey.org

2 SHOWS, TUES & WED | 7:30PM

MARCH 12 & 13, 2024

Keller Auditorium

WHITE BIRD LOVES OUR COMMUNITY

White Bird strongly believes that community involvement is as vital as the dance performances we put on Portland’s stages. We work with local artists, companies, and community partners to create experiences that are meaningful and affordable for all.

“We want students to be able to see themselves reflected in theirteachers,leaders, dancersonstage,andreallyseewhatispossible.Notonlydidtheyseethisincredible companyperform,buttheygottomeetthem,askthemquestionsandengageinaway thatIknowtheywillkeepintheirmemoriesfortherestoftheirlives.”

- Monica Parra, Director of Education and Community Engagement at Steps for Youth

“WefeelincrediblythankfultoWhiteBirdforcoordinatingandco-hostingthis workshopforover30attendeesfromthePortlanddancecommunity...Wehopeto collaboratewithWhiteBirdinthefuturetoeducateandexposeourcommunitytothe wonderfulguestartiststheybringtoPortlandfromallovertheglobe.”

- Charlene Hannibal, Founder and Director of The School at Open Space

NEST (No Empty Seats Today)

Created in 2002, NEST is an equity initiative, wherein White Bird partners with many non-profit health and human service organizations in Portland. Through generous sponsorships by The Standard and Starseed Foundation, NEST annually provides the clients of our partner organizations with over 500 tickets in prime seats in the form of subscriptions and unused tickets donated by White Bird ticket buyers.

White Bird thanks all of our Community Partners

Masterclass by Micaela Taylor with adult Open Space students, January 2023

Dallas Black Dance Theatre Q&A with Steps for Youth students, October 2022

JOIN THE FLOCK SUPPORT EXCELLENCE

IN DANCE

HELP US CONTINUE TO BRING THE WORLD’S BEST DANCE TO PORTLAND - PLEASE DONATE AND JOIN OUR FLOCK!

Did you know that ticket sales cover less than 40% of White Bird’s total budget? We rely on support from individuals, as well as local businesses and foundations, to continue our extensive and longstanding dance programming, community outreach, and equity initiatives. Although we continue to contend with rising production costs and decreasing public support for the arts, we are optimistic about what we can achieve with your help.

Together, we can make dance engaging, equitable, and accessible for everyone.

YOUR GIFT, OUR ACTION

Your donation enables us to act on our six values, aligned with our Equity Commitment, bringing positive change to our local community as well as the greater dance world:

Excellence in Performance

We compensate highly skilled dance artists and crew fairly for their hard work.

Accessibility and Inclusiveness

We provide thousands of low-cost and no-cost tickets annually to Portlanders in need.

Generosity of Spirit

We go above and beyond to ensure both audiences and visiting artists have the best possible experience.

IT’S EASY TO DONATE

Diversity in Movement

We present the dance you know and love, plus the dance you don’t know you love...yet.

Dedication to Community

We arrange local community engagement opportunities for each and every artist we bring to Portland.

Fiscal Responsibility

With good governance and your support, White Bird continues to operate sustainably.

• Include a gift with your subscription renewal

• Give online, anytime, at whitebird.org

• Call us at 503-245-1600

All gifts, including in-kind gifts, are welcome and tax-deductible. You may also designate your gift to be used for a special purpose, including:

White Bird’s new Sustainability and Creative Fund

Help ensure White Bird’s Future. A portion will underwrite the commissioning of new work, with the majority of your gift supporting our future programming and operations.

Show Sponsorship

Enjoy great benefits including tickets, name/logo on our marketing materials, and more.

NEST (No Empty Seats Today)

Sponsor a NEST subscription, or donate your unused subscription tickets for redistribution to our NEST partners.

And More!

Visit whitebird.org/donate for more information, or contact Executive Director Graham Cole at graham@whitebird.org

WHY SUBSCRIBE?

BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE – Subscribers get the best available seats, available well in advance of the public on-sale dates

GREAT SAVINGS – Save 20% or more when you subscribe compared to the general sale ticket price

FREE & EASY EXCHANGES – Simple replacement of lost tickets

PRE-SALE ON SINGLE TICKETS – Purchase additional tickets directly through White Bird before shows go on sale to the public

ADVANCE ORDERING PRIVILEGES – Special pricing and advance priority seating to White Bird’s Special Event

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

EASY WAYS TO SUBSCRIBE

ONLINE – whitebird.org/subscribe

MAIL – Contact christopher@whitebird.org if you would like a paper renewal/ subscription form. Paper forms should be mailed to White Bird, P.O. Box 99, Portland, OR 97207-0099

SORRY, WE DO NOT TAKE ORDERS OVER THE PHONE.

VERY IMPORTANT

• Wheelchair-accessible seating available. Please contact christopher@whitebird.org if you have any questions.

• Dates, artists and programs are subject to change.

• COVID-19: please visit whitebird.org/covid-19 to keep up-to-date on White Bird’s COVID-19 Policy.

ORDER PROCESSING – WHAT TO EXPECT

• You will receive an email confirmation of your order showing your seats and payment.

• If you selected Subscription Mailing, your tickets will be mailed approximately 3 weeks before the first performance.

• Subscription orders are non-refundable.

SINGLE TICKETS ON-SALE

Single tickets will be available for public sale on Friday, August 18 for all White Bird shows.

QUESTIONS? – Contact Christopher Carvalho at 503-245-1600 x201 or christopher@whitebird.org

SUBSCRIPTION PRICING & VENUE MAPS

WHITE BIRD DANCE SERIES / WE ARE ONE FESTIVAL 5 show series | Newmark Theatre & Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Dress Circle: SOLD OUT

Price Level 1: $290

Price Level 2: $240

KELLER AUDITORIUM

Price Level 3: $200

Price Level 4: $130

LINCOLN HALL PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

ALVIN AILEY

AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

2 performances | Keller Auditorium

Dress Circle: $122

Price Level 1: $103

Price Level 2: $78

Price Level 3: $49

Price Level 4: $37

WHITE BIRD UNCAGED 3 show series | PSU’s Lincoln Hall

Price Level 1: $120

Price Level 2: $90

ARLENE SCHNITZE R CONCERT HAL L