Critical Engagement Series with Grace Eucker & Charles Roy
Saturday, March 9th, 7:30 pm
Tickets at the door: By donation (suggested $5-20)
We are thrilled to invite you to the next installation of the Critical Engagement Series at FLOCK! Our Critical Engagement series brings together choreographers & audiences to engage with the mystery and perceived illegibility of dance while witnessing the unique practices of individual choreographers. On Saturday, March 9th at 7:30 PM, Grace Eucker and Charles Roy will each present a work in progress. Following the showings, they will spend time conversing with each other and the audience. Drinks and snacks will be provided! Grace Eucker, time and trust, spring 2024 works in progress
Grace Eucker
Grace will be sharing a medley of new choreography in progress with an intimate audience, both about and as a way of re-entering the dance and performance space again, after many recent years of losing access to the ability of dance.
Grace Eucker is an artist and farmer who discovered their love for dance as a child. They were raised within the Portland public schools dance community and continued on in New York. Grace would like to give their deepest thanks to all of their dance elders and mentors, teachers, collaborators, community and chosen family for their continual support and inspiration. Contemporary dance, West African, hip hop, tap, house and the art of vogue are some of Grace's favorite styles to dance today. They are grateful to be a student of so many different and distinct dance lineages, and apprenticing to these legacies is one of the greatest gifts in their life. Sharing their own movement and point of view in performance and improvisation as a disabled person has been a life changing source of perpetual growth, challenges, and healing for them. They feel so fortunate to be a link in the continuum of dance and to have found an uplifting community of artists to grow with. Grace still regularly trains and takes classes in Portland, and hopes to return to holding their own open class again in 2024.
Charles Roy
To me, dance is sacred. So naturally the work I will be sharing tonight is very intimate. You will see a series of solos in collaboration with a series of powerful conversations: what Oprah Winfrey calls, “Super Soul Conversations”. The themes explored in the work include: vibration, intuition, ego, ambivalence, and forgiveness. This work, although beautiful, is not meant to be valued for its beauty. Dance is so far greater than that. The messages and themes however, and engaging with them on a community level has been a long time dream of mine. The Q&A following the performance is equally valuable to the dancing showcased. I want us to listen and possibly even start to understand how these ideas live and breathe within our community. Come ready to share your personal experiences, or maybe simply come to be present with the work. But ultimately, come as yourself.
After studying dance and natural science at Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, Charles spent over a decade refining his work as a teacher, choreographer, and all-around entertainer in both the commercial dance and concert dance industries. These days Charles teaches workshops of his own design that tailor to advancing overall wellness and deepening our connection to community. Collaborating with others is where he finds his greater purpose.