TBA

Briana Cerezo As I approach the appointed meeting place, it’s easy to see where NIC Kay’s PUSHIT! is set to depart. Dozens of onlookers gather around a single figure, clad in a space-print bodysuit, contorted into a pose indicating a heavy burden and internal struggle. From a tightly braided set of ribbons around their neck, […]

Santi Elijah Holley It wouldn’t be TBA without late-night dance parties. After spending hours taking in such tragicomic shows as Kaneza Schaal’s JACK &, or the hyper-intimate modern dance performance of Milka Djordjevich’s ANTHEM, it can be restorative to step out onto the dance floor and shake off any built-up tension, pressed against other sweaty […]

Photo by Chris Freeman, Courtesy of Portland Institute for Contemporary Art Dance is having a high art moment right now. From Beyoncé channeling Pearl Primus and Loie Fuller in The Carters’ “APES**T” music video to the complexity of Sherrie Silver’s masterful choreography for “This is America, to Pose‘s groundbreaking visual storytelling bringing underground ballroom culture […]

Courtesy of Milka Djordjevich / TBA Choreographers often strain to de-emphasize the erotic nature of young bodies in motion, or the childlike glee of gamboling around without restriction. Those elements are crucial to the creation of modern movement arts, but get tamped down—as if any prurient interests or laughter would remove the work from the […]

Photo by Theo Cote, Courtesy of PICA Experimental theater is a high risk, high reward activity. Sometimes TBA means sitting through three hours of trust fund kids farting in cottage cheese to limited effect. But sometimes a spoken word performance— delivered with muffled pathos through a gilded diving helmet—brings you to tears because those specific, […]

JACK & TJ Acena JACK & is a fitting show to start TBA. Kaneza Schaal mixes theater, stand-up, dance, projections, music, and ritual, encompassing the full spectrum of acts you might see at the festival. In the performance, Jack (Cornell Alston) is an ex-con working at an industrial bakery who one night decides to bake […]

There’s so much to do this weekend, you guys. Anthem, Courtesy of PICA It’s that time again. Time to receive PICA’s perfectly designed TBA programs like one might accept a holy object. Time to crease the corners with interest and jam your fingers onto your phone, trying to figure out who half these artists are. […]