May 29, 2022 - RISK / REWARD

Noelle Simone (Portland, OR): Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown: Mental Health Memoirs of the Black Woman
Contemporary Jazz/Modern/Hip Hop

Photo of Noelle Simone
Photo by curvygrl@mac.com

Noelle Simone’s dance suite examines the mind of a black woman suffering from anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD and finding a home within herself. Even if it hurts you, young girl, you will find peace.

PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS

This one-woman dance project is dedicated to exploring the mental health and history of Black women and to uncovering the support we need to flourish and thrive.

BIO
Noelle Simone has been performing for over sixteen years. She has received all her dance training at the Joel Hall Dancers & Center, Northside Dance Theatre, and Gus Giordano Jazz Dance School. She has worked with multiple dance companies and youth dance companies throughout the Chicago land area, and loves teaching. She has performed with Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul, and has started a promising career in theatre, after receiving her .B.FA. in Theatre arts with a concentration in Theatre Management and a Minor in Educational studies from the Theatre School at Depaul University. Noelle has worked with Victory Gardens, Sideshow Theatre and Actor Gymnasium Youth Circus, Choreographing various Theatre and dance performances. She was nominated by Broadway World for best non Equity Choreography in 2017 for The Little Princess with Windy City Music Theatre. With only two bag and the love of her life, she has moved to the Pacific NW, and has gone on to chorographer her one woman show with Echo Theatre. Heavy id the Head that Wears the Crown: Mental Health Memoirs of the Black Woman was debuted on Jan 31st 2020 to a sold our audience.

CREDITS

Choreographer/Curator: Noelle Simone
Dancers: Noelle Simone, Mucyo, Jen McCabe
Music: Jhene Aiko, Billie Holiday, Tea Marr
Spoken Word: Nigel Birch, Jessica Morrison
Lights: Lara
Movement Assistant: Isaiah
Cultural Advisors: BeeBee Sanchez, Aaron

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Roman Norfleet & Be Present Art Group (Portland, OR): Death’s Door NOW!
Musical Performance

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Through musical improvisation, Roman Norfleet creates space for reflection, healing, seeking and mystery.

PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS

Death’s Door NOW! is a musical performance piece exploring the concept of death and what comes after it. The compositions, visuals and wearable art of this piece express not only my personal journey, but what I’ve learned from others’ processes when it comes to dealing with and understanding death.

BIO
Roman Norfleet is a musical/visual artist originally hailing from Joliet, Illinois and has been surrounded by and involved in music and arts since a child. Over the last 12 years Roman has lived in Los Angeles, California and the DMV area expanding his art form and exploring different territories of music. Roman has released 2 devotional, mantra based projects and an instrumental (or beat tape) project. Now living in Portland, Oregon, Norfleet seeks to continue that artistic, expressive expansion by incorporating visual and performance art into his musical compositions to manifest creative spaces lead by the idea of “being present”.

CREDITS

Roman Norfleet: Performer, Musician
Brown Calvin: Musician
Jacque Hammond: Musician

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Jenny May Peterson (Seattle, WA): ANVIL
Dance

Photo of Hendri Walujo and Jenny May Peterson

It feels impossible to completely prepare for global climate disaster or war, but in a ridiculous way – entirely possible to train your body to deftly avoid falling construction scaffolding.

PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS

ANVIL is a dance ritual sourced from internet workout fads, Hollywood death scenes, and trendy self-soothing techniques. Together, we do our due diligence to avoid sudden accidental death and prepare for personal disaster.

BIOS
Jenny May Peterson is a former competitive gymnast, licensed massage therapist, amateur furniture maker, and visual and dance artist who has called Seattle home for 13 years. Her multidisciplinary background has given her many tools with which to create compelling visual language while also trying to be an aware and conscientious citizen of the world. Jenny has worked with many local Seattle artists including the Pat Graney Company since 2008. She has a small massage practice and an undying love of plants.

Hendri Walujo enjoys performing and creating experiences for the audience using his movement-based and improvisational skills. He strives for variety and versatility in life as in performance, and values close collaboration and independent expression. His performances oscillate between the elaborate and the intimate, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

CREDITS

Performers: Jenny May Peterson (she/thy) and Jendri Walujo (he/him)

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VISIT HENDRI WALUJO’S WEBSITE

VIEW A SAMPLE OF JENNY’S PREVIOUS PROJECT, UMBIBLICAL

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Kate Duffly & Peter Ksander (Portland, OR): Apoptosis
Performance

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PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS

Taking inspiration from the stories of lost cosmonauts and the idea of the body as spaceship, the performance explores the act of sending messages into the void, listening for echoes, embracing cosmic loneliness, and finding beauty in the unknown.

BIOS

Kate Duffly is a scholar-director and community-based theatre artist with a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is Associate Professor of Theatre at Reed College in Portland, OR and is currently working on an edited collection that examines a broad array of performance practices rooted in community and explicitly engaged in negotiating difference and disruption. She is an artist who has worked with a range of community-based theater organizations, from Cornerstone Theater in Los Angeles to Theatre Diaspora and Red Door in Portland, as well as the puppet companies Wise Fool and Lunatique Fantastique in San Francisco, and Bread and Puppet of Glover, VT.

Peter Ksander is a scenographer and media artist who’s stage design work has been presented both nationally and internationally. In 2006 he joined the curatorial board of the Ontological-Hysteric Incubator. In 2008 he won an Obie award for the scenic design of Untitled Mars (this title may change), and In 2014 he won a Bessie award for the visual design of This Was the End. Recent Portland credits include set designs for Beckett Women, Sweat, Arlington a love story, John, Our Ruined House, Teenage Dick, and Uncle Vanya. He holds a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, is an Associate Professor at Reed College and is an associate company member with the Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble.

CREDITS

Created by Kate Duffly and Peter Ksander

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Wade Madsen & Nancy Cranbourne (Seattle, WA): This Is It or Mandy Wakes Up
Movement Theatre

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Performers Wade Madsen and Nancy Cranbourne have created a heady, dark comedy animated by subtle physical antics, quirky language and a mysterious third character.

PERFORMANCE SYNOPSIS

“This is It” is an original creation of Wade Madsen inspired by Wade’s long Performing relationship with partner Nancy Cranbourne, his love of absurdist theater, philosophical meanderings, foreign films and the continuing questions about life, death and the power of art: What is life? Is it performance? Are we all on stage? We follow these two, and realize that maybe ‘Bebe’ has more to do with the inner workings of ‘Mandy’s’, ego or her higher self. They communicate, but only ‘Mandy’ can understand ‘Bebe’ toward her own understanding of a universal human truth.

BIO
Wade Madsen, a professor of Dance at Cornish college of the Arts, toured with Tandy Beal, Bill Evans and Dayna Hanson. Madsen has created over 180 works and has premiered many of them for the Cornish dance company since joining the faculty in 1984. For the fall of 2018 Madsen presented in the newly created Solo festival at On the Boards. Madsen has had various commissions throughout the United States and into Mexico. He has received various grants and fellowships from the NEA, Artist trust, 4 Culture, Seattle arts commission, and Bosak Heilbron.

Nancy Cranbourne is the Owner/Director of One Big Yes Productions, based in Boulder, Colorado. OBY has produced many large scale dance & theater productions over the past 25 years. She is a master teacher in contemporary jazz dance, and specializes in lovingly deepening the development of dancers over forty. Nancy has served on the dance faculties of the University of Washington, Cornish College of the Arts, the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and the National Theater Conservatory @the Denver Center for the Arts. Nancy is also an award winning playwright and actress, receiving honors from the Denver Drama Critics Circle, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and Westword Magazine.

CREDITS

Performers
Wade Madsen: Bebe
Nancy Cranbourne: Mandy
Eric Pitsenbarger: stage hand

Written and Directed by Wade Madsen

CHECK OUT A PREVIEW OF THIS IS IT

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Artist Profile: Noelle Simone

Artist Profile: Roman Norfleet

Artist Profile: Jenny May Peterson

Artist Profile: Kate Duffly & Peter Ksander

Artist Profile: Wade Madsen & Nancy Cranbourne