NW Dance Project’s biggest and most successful (sold-out Newmark Theatre) production, Carmen, is back…and it’s a killer!

Moving opera's most beloved tale to the dance stage and shifting the setting from the cigar factory to a barber shop vs. beauty salon with fantastical retro costumes from Portland design star and Project Runway winner Michelle Lesniak and ingenious sets from Spanish designer Luis Crespo, NW Dance Project’s original and reimagined (with a twist) Carmen thrilled audiences and was named “Coolest Collaboration” by Dance Magazine in 2017.

Carmen was created by NW Dance Project’s award-winning (former) Resident Choreographer, Ihsan Rustem in 2017, who will be remounting the work for the current company.

Carmen is set to Bizet’s “Carmen Suite” without vocals and runs 40 minutes.

Original cast members Andrea Parson and Franco Nieto are returning to reprise their standout roles for these special performances.

“a sly satiric thrust, and the piece moves with satisfying swiftness toward its goth-Guignol conclusion.”

Also on the program is the latest creation and world premiere from acclaimed returning British choreographer Caroline Finn.

"A wildly physical work for the full company, "Don’t Forget to Panic!" (working title) is a darkly humorous exploration of how a shared anxiety can be a way of connecting to others. In times where we can feel helpless, hapless, and completely untethered, the inevitable reflex of panicking can perhaps allow for a momentary, collective release of tension. Instead of demanding a calm that nobody feels, why not recognize our lack of control, embrace it with a touch of irony and see how it might, actually, be the only logical reaction.

"This too shall pass. It might pass like a kidney stone, but it will pass.” Caroline Finn

Watch the trailer for Caroline Finn’s debut work for NW Dance Project in 2023, The Commodities, HERE

Dancers info HERE

Choreographer info HERE