Ten Tiny MLC Dances: Sneak Previews

Francesca Tricamo-Palmer, one of MLC's juniors, is creating a documentary about Ten Tiny MLC Dances as her contribution to the fundraiser. Here are a few sneak peeks:

Murals: Masked Harlequin

This mural lives in the high school hallway, at the base of the stairs that lead up from the back parking lot entrance. It surrounds the staff pictures that are mounted on the wall there.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The author of the New York Times Bestselling The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, is an MLC alumna. The high school went to Jefferson HS to hear her speak in 2011.

We asked her, along with questions pertaining to her book, about what MLC had been like when she attended. She told a story about setting up an independent business study, which involved taking a road trip through California and selling handmade beaded jewelry.

She also remembered Lewis, the high school math teacher who has been a part of MLC since 1972 - that's right, that's 40 years of teaching at MLC. That's commitment.

Ten Tiny MLC Dances

The MLC high school is putting on its very own performance of Ten Tiny Dances as a fundraiser. All 144 high school students will be involved in some way, whether they dance, choreograph, sell tickets, or something in between. Students and professional choreographers from the MLC community are working together to create pieces that are each five to eight minutes long.

The performance will be Wednesday, April 4th at the McMenamins Kennedy School (5736 NE 33rd Ave) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or on Tuesdays and Thursdays at MLC (2033 NW Glisan St) for $20 each; in-house sales include twenty front row tickets at $40 each. Proceeds go to the MLC high school field trip fund and to the MLC PTSA. There are only 150 seats available, so act quickly!

Mike Barber, Ten Tiny Dances Producer

Mike Barber is MLC's high school Educational Resource Center teacher, and an extraordinary person. He has taught for thirty-three years, has recently completed a graduate degree in counseling psychology, and is a choreographer and dancer. He also produces a performance series called Ten Tiny Dances.

Ten Tiny Dances challenges its artists to be creative by confining them to a four-foot-by-four-foot stage. Each performance is composed of ten dances. TTD has been performed in a variety of venues since 2002, including PICA's TBA Festival (the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's annual Time-Based Art Festival). What began as an experiment has grown to be an extremely popular performance series. OPB's Oregon Art Beat produced an episode in 2011 highlighting the creation of a tiny dance for PICA's TBA Festival (watch below).

As always, MLC's staff are exceptional.

La Fille Mal Gardée

Today, the high school traveled to the Newmark Theater to see one of our seniors, Violet Lane-Ruckman (pictured left), perform the lead role in the ballet La Fille Mal Gardée (The Poorly Guarded Girl). Two other MLC students were also performing. Afterward, our lovely high school teachers Steve and Chris danced around in the street, pretending to be ballerinas. Their impromptu performance drew laughter and applause from watching students (and random passersby).

Steve!

Chris!