} Press

This project is incredibly important and valuable, and Portland should be proud that it is happening here.
- Donald McKayle, dance legend, NWPDP Guest Artist

This project is vital and should serve as a role model.
- John Alleyne, Artistic Director of Ballet British Columbia, NWPDP Guest Artist

NWPDP is a great opportunity to see and work with developing dancers. It's the rare opportunity to see potential company members in a working environment. I'm able to get know them as people and artists and evaluate their work in a much more meaningful way as opposed to the superficial view I would receive in an hour and a half audition.
- Paul Vasterling, Artistic Director of Nashville Ballet, NWPDP Guest Artist

NWPDP's emphasis on creativity and spirited invention provides an invaluable contribution to the dance world - identifying the next generation of dancers and choreographers.
- Septime Webre, Artistic Director of Washington Ballet, NWPDP Guest Artist

Now in its second year, the Northwest Professional Dance Project, the brainchild of Portland choreographers Sarah Slipper and Steve Gonzales, is more than a technical training ground for these elite, pre-professional dancers. It's also a springboard to careers, a chance to be mentored in a spectrum of styles and aesthetics and a taste of what being in a professional company is all about. Expect the unexpected, says lauded New York choreographer Thaddeus Davis moments before exhorting his classically trained dancers to feel the push, the weight and meat of their backs and necks: "Do extreme...it has to have the effort. It has to be for real." Gioconda Barbuto, putting the finishing touches on a neoclassical dance that alternates between sass and an extreme, insectlike articulation of joints, concurs. "It's very free. This project has allowed me to explore, and that's very exciting. And it gives me the chance to take the time, to give something to the dancers. That's important." In another studio, Ronen Koresh is putting 13 dancers through the paces of his highly-stylized twist on the tango, playing with laxity and tension in a dance he calls very sarcastic ballroom. "It's only the second season, and the level of professionalism is amazing," Koresh says. "The dancers are phenomenal, but it's not just the art itself. Everything in this project is at such a high level. The creative part, I can set a piece I've done before, or I can play with new stuff. I can tackle the dancers' ability. Each choreographer has their own language. One of the reasons I came here is because of the roster of names involved. I feel privileged to do this."
- The Oregonian (Arts and Entertainment, 2005)

For the second year, the Northwest Professional Dance Project brings together the wisdom of experience and the exuberance of youth. Not only does the project give dancers the chance to study under choreographers from a range of backgrounds, but it also provides an important opportunity for making connections. It's a dream arrangement for the choreographers, too. They have access to a talented pool of dancers who are willing to try anything. And since the project places no expectations on the choreographers, they have the freedom to be truly creative. Between a slew of gifted choreographers, vibrant organizations and receptive audiences, Portland is becoming known across the nation as a dance community. So it seems fitting that the Rose City is home to what (Sarah) Slipper calls a "unique, extraordinary project."
- Just Out (2005)

The happy result is threefold: choreographers get to try out new material, many of the dancers get professional contracts, and Portland gets to see the culmination of their efforts in the final public show.
- Portland Monthly (2005)

When 24 young professional dancers from across the United States take the stage Friday night in the only public performance of the new Northwest Professional Dance Project, they'll be performing work created by such top-line choreographers as Donald Byrd, Alonzo King and Moses Pendleton. Performance, says Sarah Slipper, isn't the real story at the three-week dance project. It's about learning and making the vital connections that are the lifeblood of the dancing life. Slipper and Steve Gonzales are co-directors of the dance project, an ambitious undertaking that Slipper hopes will grow to rival such prestigious festivals as Jacob's Pillow and the American Dance Festival. The response from dancers was overwhelming. "What I didn't expect was that we had principal dancers and soloists from major ballet companies requesting auditions, because of the choreographers we were bringing in," Slipper says. "But our initial priority was the age limit. It's an age where they are fully ready to risk. They'll land on their head if you ask them to. They've started getting technique, they're starting to get mature, but they have no fear. And what extraordinary performances you can get!" An audition last week for the project's debut performance took on the dizzying velocity of a speed-dating marathon. Blasting through choreography they'd been taught just moments before, the dancers sliced through a succession of four distinctly different movement styles: Mary Oslund's clean diagonals and gravity-weighted steps; Shawn Hounsell's extreme spinal twists and swift recoils; Robertson's flick-knife feet and martial arts lunges; Gerard Theoret's bodily earthquakes and full-throated shouts. "The choreographers are raving," Slipper said after the last of the casting picks had been made. "The directors get to see someone move, and that's the best way to audition dancers. I want the showing to be a platform for a choreographer who would like to do a completed piece, or just to show the audience, 'Look at this extraordinary dancer move in my work.' I really don't know what to expect." Then again, she adds, "We've already had three contracts offered in the first week."
- The Oregonian (Arts and Entertainment, 2004)

Organized by Sarah Slipper, the Project serves to help younger dancers (ages 16-25) in transition between student and professional careers. The first of a continuing summer workshop, the Project drew local, national and international choreographers and dancers. The success of the Project is measured less by this final performance and more by the fact that several of the dancers have been offered company positions based on their work during this project.
- Willamette Week (Pick, 2004)