Dancing Poetry

Presenting poetry and dance as a unified art form

Redwood Empire Chinese Association opened our 2007 Dancing Poetry Festival with lively lions dancing to cymbals, gongs and drums to chase away evil spirits so only good will remain. They must have been successful, because this was a wonderful poetry-dance event Skydivers, by Susan Coons of Coos Bay, Oregon, was danced by Tamara Grose Dance Theater Company of Santa Rosa, CA. They gave a spectacular performance using veils held aloft backstage as their contrails. Susan won a 2nd prize in the contest, but entered her poem and chosen dancers as a featured dance troupe. Their performance was stupendous! Skydivers began with dancers on rolling platforms, performing aerial maneuvers on the floor of the stage Poet Susan Coons of Coos Bay, Oregon proudly read her poem for the performance. All winning poets are invited to read their poem at the podium during the Festival Loyawanner Haddadou wields her dagger in this pirate performance of Dancers of the Pharaohs Dancers of the Pharaohs caper to a high kicking Irish Fling as one of their segments Daphne by William Wordsworth is danced by Maru Matthaei and William Witter to the music of The Russian Fugitive, part III. Masks are from Bali and had crafted by I.B. Oka with Maru Matthaei Catfish Friends by Richard Brautigan was danced by Freefall Danceworks, read by David Nasatir with music by Deep Forest, Choreographed by Toni Silver with dancers Toni Silver and Robin Nasatir