Summer in Portland is the season of the festival: beer festivals, food festivals, music you totally listened to before it was cool festivals… and then there’s something a little different. It’s called Galaxy Dance Festival. It’s free to the public and runs August 3-5 in the open air of Director Park, just off the Red and Blue MAX lines.
Robert Guitron, artistic director of Polaris Dance Theatre, began the festival eight years ago with the goal of showcasing the wide variety of dance that happens here. “There’s a lot of dance in Portland… but it’s like Portland doesn’t really know how much dance there is, even dancers,” he says.
While big companies get plenty of exposure, there are many contemporary and cultural performance groups that go unnoticed. Guitron decided these groups needed more opportunities to share their work with the community, so he created one, rolling out a dance floor and inviting the city not only to watch all of this dance—but to join in. Galaxy also gives a voice to emerging choreographers and showcasing dance that might otherwise fly under the radar.