Risk/Reward: Tracy Broyles

Sometimes in a festival one very excellent promo photo turns one artist into the face of the fest. This year's group of pictures were so good that we've been using them all, but Tracy Broyles' arms-to-the-sky shot really brings it home for me. It feels like possibility and calling and a big "yes!" to the universe. 

I first saw Tracy's work at the old old Disjecta (Russell St) in 2004. The piece, ...He Was Costuming Angles, was one of my early forays into Portland's contemporary dance scene, and today I can still feel the sharp intake of breath and quick pace of the red-dress wearing dancer. A glance at the program told me that this dress wearer was not Tracy, but she wore her choreography well.

Portland dance artists have a history of presenting works choreographed by famed artist Deborah Hay, but it's been many many years (2006!) since Portland audiences were graced with the lovely results of Hay's Solo Performance Commissioning Project dances (Tahni Holt and Linda Austin with Room at TBA) and a many years (2008!) since we saw the results of Hay's work with Mike Barber and Cydney Wilkes (Found Music).

So now, eight years on and having seen Tracy's work in who knows how many other venues (including the now current Disjecta), I am so excited to see her Deborah Hay SPCP piece Art & Life. Built from a 2010 trip to Findhorn, Scotland to learn / make the piece and the contractual year of daily work following, this solo dance will take audiences outside the theatre, perhaps into that elusive place where Art and Life become indistinguishable, each one living the other. I hope to see you there too.