Past
“Pensotti has a fine facility with irony, with the fine balance between comedy and tragedy.” —British Theatre Guide
Learn more“In the beginning, Georg said, let there be no light. And there was dark. Silky, womb-like India-ink blackness. No emergency lighting in theaters, nada, nothing. And it was good. Mind-blowingly good.” —Los Angeles Times
Learn moreAnd lose the name of action balances neuroscience, improvisation, and paranormal investigations to explore the ghostlike traces that dance leaves on the mind and body.
Learn morePICA’s new Field Guide program will take off during TBA, offering up new avenues for you to explore, experience, and discuss concepts and forms in contemporary dance. Join guest Field Guide faculty Zoe Scofield (TBA alum and choreographer/dancer of zoe |juniper) for a casual, guided workshop and conversation about Laura Arrington & Jesse Hewit's ADULT.
Learn moreIn ADULT, grown-up friends Laura Arrington and Jesse Hewit exorcise and exhaust their collective fantasies about death and dying.
Learn moreThe Blow returns to TBA in its new collaborative incarnation between founder Khaela Maricich and conceptual/installation artist Melissa Dyne.
Learn moreThrough the lens of Harlem ball and postmodern dance, New York choreographer Trajal Harrell performs a study of Antigone from Sophocles’ tragedy.
Learn moreThree Trick Pony is an intimate face-off between performer Linda Austin and a sculptural installation by David Eckard.
Learn moreInternational kamikaze cabaret sensation Meow Meow returns to Portland to take the symphony by storm!
Learn morePICA’s new Field Guide program will take off during TBA, offering up new avenues for you to explore, experience, and discuss concepts and forms in contemporary dance. Join guest Field Guide faculty FRONT (a local dance newspaper published by Robert Tyree, Danielle Ross, Tahni Holt, and Noelle Stiles) for a casual, guided workshop and conversation about Trajal Harrell's Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure)/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Judson Church (M2M).
Learn moreThis is how we disappear examines the complexity, frailty, and weight of human relationships in contrast with the fluid simplicity of the passage of time. Two performers embody Suniti Dernovsek’s unique movement vocabulary and are captured in their actions by custom electronics, driving a real-time response in sound and video.
Learn moreWhat would have happened if one of the early postmodern choreographers from Judson Church had gone uptown to perform in the ball scene in Harlem? In M2M, three dancers collide the formalism and minimalism of postmodernism with the flamboyance and performativity of voguing.
Learn more“To say that this contemporary dance piece is memorable is an understatement: You can’t forget watching two naked men manipulate each other’s penises in a game of one-upmanship.” —The Globe and Mail
Learn more“...it shakes you to the core [...] Recommended for all generations – those of us who lived through those years, those who saw our children in peril, and those who are only now realizing that history is more than learning dates, parrot style.” —La Segunda
Learn morePICA's seventh annual convergence of contemporary performance, dance, music, new media and visual arts projects in Portland, Oregon, USA.
Learn moreIn this special matinee performance of Niicugni, artist Harrell Fletcher will intermittently “press pause” on performer Emily Johnson, adding his thoughts and questions about the artist and her work into the staged show.
Learn moreIn the Yup’ik language, “niicugni” is a directive to pay attention, to listen. Emily Johnson’s performance quietly compels such attentiveness through its layering of multiple dances, live music, and stories, housed within a light and sound installation of handmade, functional fish-skin lanterns.
Learn moreAn interdisciplinary weekend of art, performance, and conversations, investigating the complexity of constructing and communicating culture in contemporary art
Learn moreLegendary musician and artist Laurie Anderson performs the third and final of her groundbreaking solo story works
Learn moreSound artist Akio Suzuki, experimental poet Gozo Yoshimasu, and improvisatory guitarist/turntablist Otomo Yoshihide present a range of performances that cross between literature, sound art, music, and improvisation.
Learn moreOver thirty local musicians, composers, and sound artists have mapped out their favorite sonic spaces in Portland, creating an "audio tour" of the most interesting naturally occurring acoustic landscapes, concluding in a one-day live concert.
Learn moreThree vignettes track the absurd and mundane stories of a group of office employees in this stylized performance derived from everyday gestures.
Learn moreRecreating the iconic 60s films of Andy Warhol, live actors cross in and out of the film and audience.
Learn moreLinyekula bears witness through his dance to decades of war, terror, and fear, while also subverting the dominant image of contemporary Congo with one of resourcefulness and hope.
Learn more