At Open Space, Dance So Close You Can Almost Touch It
Portland dance company Open Space (above) is hosting the LA duo Outrun the Bear for Open Ended, a collaborative run of shows through the weekend.
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Back in 2017, I called Franco Nieto “one of Portland’s most arresting dancers.” Born and raised in Vancouver, Washington, Nieto ditched football for dance at age 16, after seeing Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company perform in Portland. “Do I see myself as a professional football player or dancer?” he asked himself. That pedigree, I’d wager, helped give Nieto a singular blend of athleticism and grace, of explosiveness and restraint. You’re never sure whether he’s about to execute a tackle or a turn. This weekend, he’ll bring those skills to Open Ended (7:30pm Thursday–Sunday; $20–45), a collaboration between Open Space, the company Nieto cofounded in 2020, and LA-based duo Outrun the Bear.
Performed in Open Space’s Kenton studio, which is itself tucked within Oregon Contemporary, Open Ended puts the audience at belly button level with the dancers, their eyes on yours, so close you’ll want to tuck in your feet to stay out of their way. The evening features three parts. One is a duet, Once, & for all, choreographed and performed by Outrun the Bear’s Megan Doheny and Ilya Nikurov, who describe it as a deconstruction of the happily-ever-after fairy tale of love. A video teaser shows sinuous, crisp movement: a sort of unhurried urgency. Also on deck is While We’re Us, a new work created by Doheny and Nikurov for the dancers of Open Space, including Nieto. It’s a premiere, so exactly what appears is TBD, but a peek into rehearsal suggests playful partnering. Rounding out the program is Dust, a nine-minute dance film shot on the Oregon Coast, choreographed by Noelle Kayser and starring Open Space’s Bree Kostelnik and Audrey Wells.
This will be just the second show I’ve seen at Open Space, and, frankly, I’m giddy. August’s Summer Soup left me more energized than anything I saw all last year—the potency of movement, the conviction of expression, the surrender to joy. I’ve been waiting to be in the same room with these dancers ever since. —Rebecca Jacobson
More Things to Do This Week
Music Tim Heidecker
8pm Fri, Jan 24 | Revolution Hall, $39.50–114.50
Tim Heidecker’s music is totally serious. Seriously. Despite Slipping Away being his eighth studio album of folk rock songs, headlines celebrating its release last October worked hard to drive the point home: It’s still not a joke. To be fair, Heidecker made his name with absurdist, surreal humor as half of the duo Tim & Eric, with Eric Wareheim. His band is also called the Very Good Band. And some of his music is kind of funny. Also, former SNL star Kyle Mooney is opening this show. —Matthew Trueherz
Swan II by Jay Heikes from Second Wave at Adams and Ollman.
visual art Jay Heikes
Jan 25–Feb 22 | Adams and Ollman, FREE
With a discordant soundtrack humming in the background, Heikes’s instrument-like sculptures and “functional paintings,” which serve as acoustic panels, conjure an audio-visual chorus of (perhaps unwitting) self-destruction. Second Wave is a speculative show about the ouroboros nature of human progress, how civilization swallows itself—without the hopeful message of rebirth usually implicit in that cycle. —MT
movies Art and Labor by Julio Torres
4 & 7pm Sat & Sun, Jan 25 & 26 | Tomorrow Theater, $15 per film
Julio Torres is beloved for his surreal takes on life and work in America, like the HBO series Los Espookys and Fantasmas, and the movie Problemista. His films twist his experience as a queer immigrant into abstract scenarios that are as easy to grasp as a TikTok. Sui generis, no doubt, but this film series Torres curated for PAM’s Tomorrow Theater provides a window into his inspiration, including Being There (1979), about a man exclusively educated by TV; The Match Factory Girl (1990), a revenge plot about a dismal factory worker; and Sorry to Bother You (2017), Boots Riley’s film about a telemarketer who finds success using “white voice.” Finally, The Forty-Year-Old Version, director Radha Blank’s 2020 autobiographical drama about a playwright who takes up rapping at 40, rounds things out, and will precede a talk from Blank. —MT
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