'Illum' — World Premiere | push/FOLD Dance Company

• Samuel Hobbs, composer & artistic director

push/FOLD brings the energy this winter with an intrepid showcase of original work, including the highly anticipated world premiere of Illum!

Celebrated for their powerful, athletic style that reveals relatable, abstract storylines, push/FOLD creates dance "filled with vulnerability and humanity… full of nuances and beauty." (Oregon ArtsWatch) The shining star of this program is an ethereal and moody piece that explores themes of home, acceptance, and belonging through high-impact and sweeping movement, floorwork, and dynamic partnering. Also on the program is Wolf, a mesmerizing duet set to heartfelt vocals expressing a loneliness and perseverance that evolves into tranquility and empowerment. Rounding all this out is the comedic noir, Dark Wings, an ode to jazz that tells the story of an isolated creature that transcends its life, guided and carried away by three friendly spirits.

This is a rare opportunity to take in the breadth and depth and push/FOLD's impressive and moving work! February 24 & 25 at 7:30pm; February 26 at 4pm at the Patricia Reser Center for the Arts in Beaverton.

Show-Length: ~95 minutes with intermission

Artist talks and Q&A follow each performance.

In-Person & Live-streamed tickets available.

Virtual access through July 5.

About push/FOLD

push/FOLD is the vision of multidisciplinary artist and composer-choreographer Samuel Hobbs, founded in 2016 as a performance-focused arts organization. Immersive moodscapes, abstract storytelling, and athletic dance performance set to original sound, set, and lighting design are the hallmarks of push/FOLD's body of work. The backbone of push/FOLD's athletic style is Samuel's Visceral Movement Theory™ (VMT) technique which fuses elements of athletics and dance with training in visceral biomechanics and Osteopathic therapy. VMT reframes the expression of athlete and dancer biomechanics based on current movement research, resulting in increased career longevity and power and efficiency in movement.

As a community-oriented organization with the mission of developing community power through arts and movement education, support, and advocacy, push/FOLD's programs include masterclasses, workshops, presentations, student programming, dance-for-film, virtual and evening-length dance productions, artist-talks, and the Union PDX - Festival of Contemporary Dance, established in 2019. push/FOLD performs through regional festivals and self-produced performances; setting work on various professional artists and companies, including Portland's Polaris Dance Theatre (2019), and Oregon Ballet Theatre's main company (2023) and OBT2 (2020-21). In 2021 push/FOLD made our international debut at the renowned Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver, BC and at the FIDCDMX festival in Mexico City, Mexico.

push/FOLD is a 501c3 tax-exempt non-profit arts organization based in Portland, Oregon.

About Samuel Hobbs, composer & artistic director

Samuel Hobbs is a mixed-Latinx, multidisciplinary artist in Dance, Art, Film, and Music and is the Artistic Director for the Portland-based dance company push/FOLD and the Union PDX – Festival of Contemporary Dance. Known for their unique athletic style, abstract storytelling, and evocative sound scores, Samuel began composing music and choreographing professionally in 2014, creating twelve significant works, self-producing four evening-length productions, and co-producing four others in that time. Samuel teaches masterclasses and workshops nationally and internationally at universities, dance companies, and schools, setting work on various Portland artists and companies, notably Polaris Dance Theatre and Oregon Ballet Theatre. 2021 marked Samuel's international debut for choreography at the Dancing on the Edge Festival in Vancouver, BC, and the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Mexico City, Mexico.

Samuel has performed nationally and internationally Street, West African, Ballet, Non-traditional Partnering, and Contemporary Dance since 2005, teaching nationally and internationally dance and partnering since 2008. Samuel’s performance career includes performances at two World Expositions, leading roles in Classical Ballet productions, and performances with Lauren Edson, Éowyn Barrett, Rainbow Dance Theatre, Minh Tran & Co., and BodyVox. Before dance, Samuel was a university track athlete studying Math and Computer Science at the University of Oregon. After experiencing contemporary dance in 2004, Samuel switched majors to The Arts, studying Music, Illustration, Sculpture, and Dance; graduating from Western Oregon University in 2007.

After a series of career-threatening injuries between 2008 and 2010, Samuel created the Visceral Movement Theory™ (VMT) technique that fuses their background in athletics and dance, incorporating their Osteopathic training in visceral biomechanics. After restoring their body, Samuel returned to professional dance in 2012. To center Dance, Art, and movement education around concepts of Strength, Power, and Identity, Samuel founded push/FOLD in 2016. Career longevity and the healthy expression of Power in movement are fundamental to Samuel’s educational focus, Art, and movement technique—Visceral Movement Theory. VMT is the movement-partnering language of push/FOLD.

Outside of dance, Samuel works with the public as a Manual Therapist in their private practice Movement Bodywork®, and mentors emerging choreographers in production and artistic development.