Northwest Dance Project

With a drape of long lichen over her head and the shoulder of a green lace dress, Lithuanian born Vilte Bacinskaite improvised a contemporary ballet along the bank of the Elochoman River on a humid day last week.

Bacinskaite was one of five dancers from Portland-based Northwest Dance Project who traveled to Carole and Dick Lewis’ home on the Elochoman River to shoot sequences that may be used as props in future dance productions.

Crawling across a wall covered with moss and slugs required more theatrics than dancing. I was trying to tap into the crazy animal qualities inside me that rarely come out,” Bacinskaite said, noting she enjoys being in nature.

Scott Lewis, the executive director of Northwest Dance Project, brought Sarah Slipper, the company’s founder and Artistic Director, to his parents’ home the previous weekend. Slipper thought the setting would be perfect for a promotional video and brought the company back, Lewis said.

Slipper founded the company in 2004, after a career that began when she received training at the Royal Ballet School in London, and included being a principal dancer for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

The Northwest Dance Project performs only original material. They have performed on an escalator in a Macy’s department store and in a hospital. Slipper scouted locations along the trip to the Lewis’ home.

This year they were the only American company invited to the Hanover Choreographic Festival and Competition, where they won an award, Lewis said.

Slipper arranged the familiar hanging lichen called old man’s beard over Bacinskaite’s head and the dancer pantomimed climbing the ribboned white stone on the riverbank.

Slipper monitored the video as Ralph Davis filmed, cuing the dancer to “Go wild now.”

Davis said the work “Beats digging ditches in Louisiana.” He filmed and co-produced the Source to Sea: The Columbia River Swim in 2006.

“Anyone have a pocket knife?” he called, as he began to set up, yanking down branches that interfered with the set.

After Bacinskaite’s piece was filmed, Slipper removed the lichen, the dancer removed a green slug that had attached to her hand in one of the movements, and it was Samantha Campbell’s turn.

Campbell, originally from Salt Lake City, Utah picked her away across the slick river rocks to dance in the sunlight. Slipper directed Campbell to beat sticks against the banks and the water “like a crazy woman.”

Campbell adjusted her curly auburn hair and flailed whitewashed sticks that Slipper and Lewis tossed her.

“The red dress looked like flame against the trees above the river bank,” Davis said.

On their trip back to Portland, the dancers stopped at the beach near Stella to film Patrick Kilbane, who had been advised he would be dancing into the Columbia River.

“I saw her looking and pointing at a beach along the river as we drove out. I’m prepared to get in and see what happens,” Kilbane said.

Kilbane walked into the river and danced on the sand, while Campbell walked around in “that gorgeous red dress, waving a branch,” Lewis said.

“I had to turn his shirt pocket inside out before washing to get all the sand out,” Lewis said.

Upcoming events are listed at http://www.nwdanceproject.org.