Mike Barber: Now
Type
Performance
Dates
Feb 20-21, 2026 at 8:00pm
Feb 22, 2026 at 2:00pm
Location
New Expressive Works
810 SE Belmont St.
Portland, Oregon
Artists
Gregg Bielemeier
Randee Pauve
Cydney Wilkes
Performed by
Mike Barber
Mike Barber happily presents Now, an evening of three new solo dances, performed by Mike and choreographed by three massively talented artists, Gregg Bielemeier, Randee Paufve, and Cydney Wilkes.
Each of these choreographers has known Mike for three decades. At this point in their lives, the four, all over 60, ask: “What’s it like to create/dance now?” You’ll find their answers surprising, delightful, challenging, and full of appreciation for the present moment.
Gregg Bielemeier — And Then This Happened
Mike was an original member of the Gregg Dance Project from 1994–2005. Here, he and Gregg reunite for And Then This Happened. In Gregg's signature witty and highly physical style, the piece follows an abstract character who takes the audience here and there, surprising and delighting along the way. (There will be costume change, there will be a pink river floaty, and there will be a ukulele).
Randee Paufve — Mike & Marie
Mike and Randee both performed in Gregg’s unforgettable Odd Duck Lake back in 2005. Since then, Randee has participated in Mike's Ten Tiny Dances, and Mike has performed in Randee's powerful trio, Misgivings. Here, the two reunite for Mike & Marie—an homage to Marie Antoinette contextualizing her as an extravagant, transgressive young queen. Danced by Mike, a 68-year-old gay man performing in drag, the piece offers a more expansive and compassionate response to Antoinette and her place, and the place of many such women, in history.
Cydney Wilkes — Trusty Everything
Friends and dance collaborators for over 25 years, Cydney and Mike have shared many artistic adventures, including multiple tiny dances, a duet commissioned from the legendary Deborah Hay, and Cydney’s extraordinary five-season-long site-specific work Penta. Trust Everything builds on the signature whimsy and deep conviction that many of their previous pieces have incorporated, and is abstracted from what Cyd knows of Mike and his everyday life.
Photos by Julie Keefe.
About the artists
Mike Barber
Mike Barber has performed and created work in theater and dance in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Truth or Consequences NM, and Portland over the past four decades. An original member of the Gregg Bielemeier dance project, in Portland, Mike also performed with Mary Oslund, Randee Paufve, and Minh Tran. He performed on Broadway in Bill Irwin’s Largely New York, and was part of Found Music, a duet commissioned from Deborah Hay and performed with Cydney Wilkes. Mike founded and has produced and appeared in many iterations of the performance series Ten Tiny Dances since 2002. www.tentinydances.org
Cydney Wilkes
In the ‘80s and’90s, Cydney Wilkes was a creative member of the experimental Downtown Dance scene in New York City, receiving two New York Dance and Performance Awards for her choreography. After relocating to Portland, her dance work evolved toward site-informed environments, including Ten Tiny Dances and the outdoor, five segments of Penta. In 2018, she and Mike Barber presented Motel Dances in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, where she now resides with her wife. Cydney has practiced as a craniosacral therapist for over 20 years and currently manages Rocket Inn, a vintage motel.
Randee Paufve
Randee Paufve, Artistic Director of Paufve Dance, is a dancer, choreographer, and educator committed to rigorous choreographic craft and community programming. Named one of SF Magazine’s “100 Artists Putting the East Bay On The Map” (2017), Randee has received an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Outstanding Individual Performance, the inaugural Della Davidson Prize for Innovations in Dance-Theater, and two Edward E. Ford Foundation grants for dance research in Europe. She is a 2019 Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar grantee, and her work has been supported by residencies at Ucross Foundation, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Intersection for the Arts, and Polo Cultural Gaivotas in Lisbon, Portugal.
Gregg Bielemeier
Gregg Bielemeier is an Oregon born dance artist who started his career with the Portland Dance Theater in 1970. As a freelance artist he has worked on the West Coast and Europe as a featured choreographer, performer and teacher for over 43 years. He is a frequent improvisor/collaborator with musicians, actors and visual artists, creating suave, witty dance works that have been described as “wonderfully inventive,” by the Los Angeles Times, and as “marvelously goofy,” by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Along with numerous national and international commissions, Gregg’s choreography has been presented in Portland by PSU’s Contemporary Dance Season, Portland Art Museum, and for White Bird’s inaugural and 11th contemporary dance performance series.
Support this project
Awards
Regional Arts and Culture Council
2025 Project Grant Recipient
Press/Media
For media inquiries and more information, please contact Mike Barber at mjbarber@gmail.com