A Tale of Two Sisters

Local videographer Susan Hess Logeais met Uriah Boyd and Kiera Brinkley when the sisters were dancing a duet at Jefferson High School ("Dynamic Duet", WW, April 16, 2014, previewed the show). The instant you see Brinkley dance—she's a quadruple amputee who doesn't use prosthetics—it's enthralling. So it's no surprise Logeais spent the next year and a half profiling the teens for a documentary premiering at the Hollywood Theatre this Thursday.

But Soar is no exploitative biopic. Logeais' dance background is obvious in her footage of rehearsals, where the camera swirls by dancers, capturing every angle to make you feel like you're there.

The heaviest-hitting scenes happen offstage, though, in intimate interviews Logeais did with each sister. Boyd admits she felt smothered growing up in Brinkley's shadow. Brinkley tells embarrassing stories about wearing condoms on her stubs in medical assisting classes. And we get a voyeuristic look at the private North Portland family who resists discussing the pneumococcal sepsis that afflicted Brinkley as a toddler, how Boyd detached herself from the family and moved out, or even the proud moment when the sisters performed at the Newmark.

The family will watch the film together for the first time Thursday. "I'm a little nervous," says Boyd, who now works as a nanny and dances at Rejoice: Diaspora Dance Theater. "We haven't talked about it, but it felt like a weight was lifted when I finally opened up. Watching the film was an out-of-body experience."

Brinkley doesn't want the film to be about her. "It's not my story, featuring Uriah. It's both of ours," she says. "I dance onstage, but I don't like that much attention, and the film exposes a lot."

Clips of the sisters somersaulting simultaneously are spliced with footage of Boyd working as a construction worker and Brinkley practicing injections. There are baby photos, scenes of Boyd and her boyfriend washing dishes and jaw-dropping dances in which Brinkley handstands on her amputated arms.

"For the people who have no idea who I am," says Brinkley, who now performs with Polaris Dance Theater, "this is one hell of an introduction."

see it: Soar screens at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., on Thursday, Oct. 22. 7:30 pm. $10.

Willamette Week