Amateur Dance Troupe Named After Dead Cats

Hard-hitting news update:

Bricker is part of an amateur dance troupe called the Boris and Natasha dancers, performing in Cabaret Boris & Natasha at Performance Works NW this Friday and Saturday night. Boris and Natasha were the names of choreographer Linda Austin’s now dead cats. Boris was a girl, Natasha a boy, and they were 17 when they eventually bit the dust last year. The troupe also includes four other prominent local luminaries:

This is what I get for bugging David Bragdon for another exclusive, following the tour of the fen.

“You will get to witness our creative process first-hand,” he wrote, in an email earlier this week encouraging me to come to the rehearsal. “While the critics from the Oregonian, Willamette Week, Variety, People, Us, American Dance Quarterly, etc. will be able to come Friday and judge whether or not we have our moves down, you will be able to write insightfully about where our moves came from.”

It’s all very serious. None of the group has had any formal dance training—I, unfortunately, have had plenty, which is why I had to turn down Austin’s offer to be part of the troupe next year—but at last night’s rehearsal, they all seemed to be doing a reasonably good job of remembering their moves. Austin has assembled six other acts to perform in the show, including a performance piece about sex addiction, some accordionist dancers, and a “fuzzy feline dance troupe” called Cattitude. I’d have posted this on Cat Friday but apparently we’re not calling it Cat Friday any more. Plus, Austin says the $10-$15 tickets are nearly sold out, so I guess it’s Cat Thursday.