The Jefferson Dancers are a company of dancers who attend Jefferson High School Middle College for Advanced Studies in Portland, Oregon. Here, the school's most advanced dance students take pre-professional dance training, and attend daily 90-minute technique classes followed by three hours of rehearsal.
The company was founded by Mary Vinton Folberg in the early 1980s. Folberg served as artistic director of the dance company from its founding until the mid-1990s. In 1992, Folberg went on sabbatical, during which Julane Stites served as artistic director of the company. That year, the company was the subject of the 30-minute Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) program titled A Musical Encounter: The Dance Program. Stites left the program for the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton in 1999. [1]
In 1995, Folberg left the dance department of Jefferson High School to found The Northwest Academy, an alternative arts high school in Portland. Program alumni and MOMIX dancer Steve Gonzales has served as artistic director since 1999. [1] [2] [3]
The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) is a contemporary performance and visual arts organization in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. PICA was founded in 1995 by Kristy Edmunds. Since 2003, it has presented the annual Time-Based Art Festival (TBA) every September in Portland, featuring contemporary and experimental visual art, dance, theatre, film/video, music, and educational and public programs from local, national, and international artists. As of November 2017, it is led by Executive Director Victoria Frey and Artistic Directors Roya Amirsoleymani, Erin Boberg Doughton, and Kristan Kennedy.
Willamette Week (WW) is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture.
The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. It has an enrollment of about 500 students. The college merged with Willamette University in 2021.
Jefferson High School is a public high school in Portland, Oregon, United States.
Mary Vinton Folberg is the former Head of School at Northwest Academy, a former teacher, and former dancer. She was Miss Oregon in 1958. She founded the dance program at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon, which has become internationally recognized within the dance community. The performing leg of the Jefferson High School dance department is The Jefferson Dancers, which performs locally, nationally, and occasionally even internationally. The Portland, Oregon, newsweekly Willamette Week has referred to The Jefferson Dancers as "Portland's best dance company". Mary also has two twin daughters, Lisa and Rachel Folberg. After leaving Jefferson High School in 1995, Folberg founded The Northwest Academy, which is an independent, college-preparatory, middle- and high-school program in downtown Portland with a unique academic and arts partnership. She was born in 1940, and holds degrees in literature and dance and taught in California and Oregon public schools. Fohlberg is the 2013 recipient of Portland Monthly magazine's Light A Fire Award for Lifetime Achievement. She also is the recipient of a 1981 Kennedy Center Award for Excellence in Arts Education and the Metropolitan Arts Commission Award in 1982, 1988, and 1989.
Oregon Ballet Theatre (OBT) is a ballet company in Portland, Oregon, United States. The company performs an annual five-program season at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts and conducts regional and national tours. It was featured in the October/November 2007 issue of Pointe magazine, with principal dancer Kathi Martuza on the cover.
Northwest Academy is an independent, arts-focused middle and high school in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The school is accredited by the Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS). Teachers include former college instructors and professional artists, directors, dancers, musicians, and writers. Students are grouped by proficiency rather than age and advance based on demonstrating what they have learned.
Ballet Fantastique is an Emmy®-nominated American ballet theater company based in Eugene, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Ballet Fantastique creates and performs all-original dance theater repertoire and immersive audience experiences. Ballet Fantastique became a resident company at Eugene's Hult Center for the Performing Arts in 2014 and tours across the US and internationally.
Margaret Louise Carter is an American politician who was a Democratic member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly from 1985 to 1999 and 2001 to 2009 and was the first black woman elected to the state's legislature. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives until 1999, and then in the Oregon State Senate from 2001 to 2009. She served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Vice Chair for Ways and Means, and as a member of both the Health and Human Services and Oregon State Hospital Patient Care committees. She announced her resignation from the Senate effective August 31, 2009, and took a post as Deputy Director for Human Services Programs at the Oregon Department of Human Services. In 2015, she was reportedly considering a return to the senate.
Portland Center Stage at The Armory is a theater company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Theater productions are presented at The Armory in Portland's Pearl District. Portland Center Stage at The Armory was founded in 1988 as the northern sibling of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. It became an independent theater in 1993 and in 1994 Elizabeth Huddle became producing artistic director. Chris Coleman took over in 2000 as the company's fourth artistic director. In 2018, Marissa Wolf was named the fifth artistic director and Cynthia Fuhrman named Managing Director.
Jefferson Smith is an American former radio personality and politician who served in the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 47 in east Portland, from 2009 to 2012. He was one of two candidates for Mayor of Portland in 2012 to advance beyond the primary election, but lost to Charlie Hales in the November general election. He also founded Bus Project.
Chamber Music Northwest (CMNW) is an American non-profit organization in Portland, Oregon, dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. In addition to its annual Summer Festival, the organization also presents individual chamber music concerts throughout the year, as well as educational and community engagement programs.
Elizabeth Woody is an American Navajo/Warm Springs/Wasco/Yakama artist, author, and educator. In March 2016, she was the first Native American to be named poet laureate of Oregon by Governor Kate Brown.
John R. "Jack" Faust is a retired Portland, Oregon, attorney, television personality and political activist.
The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC) is a resource center based in Portland, Oregon that provides access to tools for the creation of books, prints, posters, zines, and comics. The studios include a computer lab and general workspace, screen printing, letterpress printing, risograph printing, and a zine library. The center was founded in 1998 by Chloe Eudaly, owner of Reading Frenzy and Show & Tell Press, and Rebecca Gilbert, worker-owner at Stumptown Printers.
Arlene Schnitzer was an American arts patron and philanthropist. She was the founder and director of the Fountain Gallery, established in Portland to showcase artists in the Pacific Northwest. She is the namesake of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, a performing arts center in Portland, Oregon.
Imago Theatre is a theatre company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Co-Artistic Directors, Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad, began collaborating in 1979 and founded Imago Theatre in 1982.
Justin Hocking is an American essayist and writer of memoir, literary nonfiction, and short stories.
No Vacancy Lounge (NVL) was a short-lived nightclub in Portland, Oregon's Old Town Chinatown neighborhood, in the United States. "No Vacancy" began in 2014 as a party hosted at various local venues. NVL opened in a former McCormick & Schmick's restaurant December 2017, following an approximately $1 million renovation. The venue was named Willamette Week's 2018 Bar of the Year. The club hosted a variety of acts and events but was most known for electronic dance music (EDM). Conflict between NVL, a neighboring tenant, and the property manager began almost immediately. In February 2019, the bar closed as the result of the dispute and financial difficulties; some scheduled events were moved to other venues.
Jessica Wallenfels is an American actress, choreographer, movement and theatre director, and graphic designer, notable for her early cult roles in Twin Peaks and the movie Dogfight, along with her later work as a choreographer, director, and stage actress.