Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and Performance Works NorthWest pair dancers and musicians in livestream event “Dyad: Dance & Music Duos.”

(PORTLAND, OR)—Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s (PJCE) PJCE Online livestream series continues in April with “Dyad: Dance and Music Improvisations,” curated in partnership with Performance Works NorthWest, with additional support from Creative Music Guild. Dancer Crystal Jiko Sasaki and musician Darian Anthony Patrick; and dancer Marissa Rae Niederhauser and musician Andrew Jones will each perform an improvisational, collaboratively-developed duo, focused on the interaction between two artists in the moment.

Online event information:

Saturday, April 24th, 2021, 7:00 pm PDT.
Information, registration and the online event at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/dyad
Tickets: Sliding Scale $0 to 25, (Suggested: $10 General Admission, $5 for those 65 or older and 35 or younger, free for PJCE Sustainers.)

The curating organizations have set the basic parameters—the space, the length of time, the pairings of individual performers—and left everything else up to the artists. We’re excited by the possibility of being surprised, soothed, or challenged by these artists, and to hear them respond to questions from the audience.

The online event will consist of the premiere of a 30-minute pre-recorded video with video by Seth Nehil and audio by PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick. 

PJCE Executive Director Douglas Detrick and PWNW Artistic & Executive Director Linda Austin will moderate a Q&A with the artists joining remotely to answer questions from the audience and offer their reflections on this music and their lives as artists in this moment.

About the Artists

Crystal Jiko Sasaki is a dance artist invested in the magic of play, the process of healing, and access to the arts. They know their body in motion as a healing medicine, an emotional exploration, a pathway to embodiment and spiritual connection, & a joyfully fascinating way of inter-relating. They practice performance for the potency of the moment, and as a magic space of imagination, reflection, vulnerability and collaboration. They strive to uplift affordability and space to be as you are, in the arts and wellness.

Darian Anthony Patrick is a multi-instrumentalist based in Portland. Focusing on percussion, with training in classical and jazz vocal performance as well as electric and bass guitar, Darian performs a broad range of musical styles with specialization in African diasporic traditions, including Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian styles. He has studied percussion in Portland with masters Israel Annoh (Ebo Taylor, E.T. Mensah, Obo Addy, Ghana Broadcasting Orchestra) and Caton Lyles (Obo Addy, Nu Shooz, Janice Scroggins, Mel Brown). Darian performs regularly throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Marissa Rae Niederhauser makes body based art in dance, film, performance art, photography, noise and installation. Her work, while always rooted in dance, often incorporates sound experiments, lofi technology stage elements and punk rock/performance art sensibilities. With special interest in self-invented rituals, folk magic, percussive sounds and the psychological and neurological systems’ influence on the performing body, her work expresses an underlining sexuality that is not necessarily titillating or easily appropriated. While only rarely overtly political, her work is always created through the lens of feminist analysis and tends towards a quality of atmospheric change, as if she brings a storm with her. Her live work has appeared on stages and in basements in Berlin, Melbourne, NYC, Seattle, Portland, Tacoma, Olympia and Utah. She is an award winning filmmaker with international screenings. She has a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts. She is a current Alembic resident artist at Performance Works Northwest here in Portland: Please stay tuned for the culminating residency performance 7/23 and 24 2021

Andrew Jones is an improviser, composer, and bassist in Portland. Since arriving in 2009, he’s been involved with the music community in a myriad of contexts: contributing compositions to jazz releases on the PJCE label, performing with rock, hip hop and folk groups and working with countless singer-songwriters. He’s also formed a long association with Portland’s experimental music community and Creative Music Guild, making multiple appearances at the Improvisation Summit of Portland and TBA performing with visiting musicians, collaborating with local dancers, accompanying theatre and presenting his own music. His main creative vehicle, The Crenshaw, is based on Andrew’s poetry, which he sets to electronic music. Those beat-pieces are then recreated with his warped synth samples, upright bass and a collaborator on drum set framing Jones’ voice. In 2019 he finished a fourteen-month international touring stint with acclaimed Los Angeles songwriter/composer Julia Holter. During the pandemic, Jones has turned to more session and audio production work; writing arrangements, contributing bass tracks, and mixing various new releases. In 2021, he plans to record The Crenshaw’s second full length album. 

Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create original jazz music that engages and supports our community’s diverse artists, cultures, and place. In operation since 2008, PJCE is the only organization dedicated to commissioning and performing original music by Portland musicians, building a broad audience through unique, collaborative, and community-oriented programming that builds bridges between communities in this vibrant city. http://pjce.org.

Performance Works NorthWest || Linda Austin Dance engages artists and audiences of the Pacific Northwest in the process of experimentation, creation and dialogue around the presentation of contemporary performance. As an artist-focused incubator for new time-based work, we nurture local artistry while linking Portland audiences and artists regional, national and international artists whose work challenges and inspires. https://pwnw-pdx.org/