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White Bird Dance’s 2025–26 season announcement dropped this week, and it’s looking like more matinees, an emphasis on community engagement, and a return to Keller Auditorium after a yearlong absence from that venue. Season tickets are also now on sale.
“We’re really taking into consideration what our patrons want and listening to their feedback,” says Deanna Reeves, White Bird’s spokeswoman. White Bird is the sole dance-only presenter on the West Coast.
That means that three shows in the company’s 28th season lineup will offer matinee performances, which young families and seniors had both requested. The three shows that offer matinees will be Complexions contemporary ballet, Gibney Company, and Versa-Style street dance company (see full season announcement below).
Next, White Bird will host community engagement programming with each traveling dance company when it comes to present in Portland, whether that’s a workshop or a pre- or post-show conversation. The company has been ramping up these offerings in the current season too, and it has proved meaningful both for patrons and the dance companies to feel more immersed in the Portland dance community while they’re in town.
“That was a really simple and fun way to connect people to the work and the artists and meet them in person,” Reeves says. “We’ll have a lot more of that this season.”
Next season will wrap up with Ballets Jazz Montréal’s Dance Me—Music by Leonard Cohen, an approachable production with splashy costumes and lighting that will grace the Keller Auditorium stage. Ballets Jazz Montreal was a big hit the last time it performed in Portland, back in 2010. The last time White Bird booked the Keller was for the prestigious Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in March 2024.
For those who can’t wait to get their contemporary professional dance on until the fall, White Bird has one last performance for its current season. There are still tickets available for the mixed repertoire of Brazil’s Grupo Corpo at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, April 30.
White Bird Dance 2025–26 Season
COMPLEXIONS CONTEMPORARY BALLET | New York City | Oct. 2-4, 2025. “A crowd-pleasing mixed repertoire program featuring Dwight Rhoden’s For Crying Out Loud, a new work set to U2 songs.”
LIMÓN DANCE COMPANY | New York City| Oct. 22, 2025. “José Limón’s masterwork A Choreographic Offering, alongside modern works.”
LALI AYGUADÉ COMPANY | Barcelona, Spain | Nov. 13–15, 2025. “Award-winning duet making their White Bird debut.”
COMPAGNIE HERVÉ KOUBI | Calais, France | Jan. 21, 2026. “Gravity-defying athleticism meets spiritual uplift.”
URBAN BUSH WOMEN | Brooklyn, N.Y. | Feb. 5–7, 2026. “Founded to amplify the unheard stories of Black women.”
GIBNEY COMPANY | New York City | Feb. 26–28, 2026. “Connecting the superhuman physicality of contemporary dance to human-centered storytelling.”
VERSA-STYLE STREET DANCE COMPANY | Los Angeles | March 19–21, 2026. “Vibrant homage to West Coast Hip Hop and street-dance styles that originated in the L.A. area.” Co-production with the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts.
DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM | New York City | April 29, 2026. “Classical dance with elegance, heart, and history.”
BALLETS JAZZ MONTRÉAL | Montreal | May 20, 2026. “Dance Me – Music by Leonard Cohen, an evening-length tribute to the legendary artist’s life and music.”
