White Bird Dance Awards / by Chris Maynard

Portland Oregon is the western US center for dance performance because of the efforts of two men. Paul King and Walter Jaffe created White Bird Dance to promote dance including importing world class dance companies to Portland.

White Bird Dance company asks me yearly to create four carved feather pieces in frames to present to people who are influential in bringing the art of dance into the world.

I was impressed this year at the fall fundraising event when Mikhail Baryshnikov spoke, appreciating the efforts of Paul and Walter. The awards have gone to dance choreographers like Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. This year one of the awards went to Virginia Johnson who just retired as the artistic director of the Dance Theater of Harlem.