INCLUDES DANCE VIDEOS | Discover how a small Portland dance festival grew into a global platform for contemporary artists at the Foster Theater …
Inside the Foster Theater, Union PDX:26 draws dancers and audiences from far beyond Portland.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
What began as a modest experiment in 2019 has grown into a far-reaching platform for contemporary dance – one that now calls the newly-opened Foster Theater in Southeast Portland its home.
Union PDX – Festival of Contemporary Dance, branded this year as “Festival:26,” took over the new Foster Theater at 5444 S. E. Foster Road in the Creston-Kenilworth neighborhood May 28–31 of this year. [CLICK HERE to see our article about the Foster Theater’s grand opening.]
Moments before the doors open at the Foster Theater, Samuel Hobbs and Holly Shaw await guests to enter the lobby.
Over four days, the festival packed the theater with daytime, afternoon, and evening programs. It offered mainstage performances, a student preview, free masterclasses, professional development workshops, and a closing-night festival soirée.
All mainstage shows were also livestreamed to audiences worldwide.
See excerpts of push/FOLD’s “Festival:26″, in HD:
The festival is produced by push/FOLD, a Portland-based dance company led by Artistic Director, composer-choreographer Samuel Hobbs and Managing Director Holly Shaw.
In the theater’s Café Balcony, guests pick up refreshments before the final performance.
Filling a gap for Northwest dance
Hobbs traced the festival’s roots to the launch of push/FOLD in 2018. As an emerging choreographer, he recognized how few opportunities exist for contemporary dance artists in this region compared with the East Coast.
He recalled that local artists have often “exported” themselves for training, commissions, and performance slots. Union PDX, he explained, grew from a desire to create opportunity here at home, and to “boost up and support” other choreographers who did not have steady access to dancers or resources. With a $5,000 grant in 2019, push/FOLD launched the first Union PDX festival with just three participating artists.
The audience begins to fill the Foster Theater, awaiting Union PDX – Festival of Contemporary Dance.
Pandemic pivot becomes a permanent feature
The 2020 shutdown forced the festival online, reshaping its reach. With grant support, organizers invested in livestream gear and built a hybrid model that continued after in-person shows resumed in 2021.
Hobbs recalled audiences grateful for a virtual option, especially those with health or mobility issues. By 2021–22, livestreams reached viewers in 42 countries, while still serving rural and housebound Oregonians. About 30 percent of featured artists later secured larger grants or commissions, often crediting this festival as a catalyst.
In the balcony, a video technician operates the live-streaming equipment as the show begins.
‘One-stop shop’ for artists and audiences
Asked to sum up the festival’s purpose, Hobbs described Union PDX as a “one-stop shop” for both performers and the public.
He characterized it as a place where artists find performances, education, and ‘the next steps’ for their careers, while audiences can engage directly with regional, national, and international choreographers in one setting.
On stage, Quetzalcóatl ipan Mictlan is brought to life by Woodburn’s Ritual Azteca Huitzilopochtli.
This year’s Union PDX:26 lineup reflected that mix, with artists representing multiple traditions and geographies:
Ritual Azteca Huitzilopochtli (Salem, OR)
Rosanna Tavarez (Los Angeles, CA)
Tarika Dance Company (Houston, TX)
VOLTA (Los Angeles, CA)
push/FOLD (Portland, OR)
This year’s Festival:26 lineup showcased two world premieres and three Portland premieres across Contemporary, Kathak, Danza Azteca, and Countertechnique.
Dancers perform the premiere of The Kid by Los Angeles–based VOLTA Collective during the closing show.
A hometown return to Foster Road
The move to the new Foster Theater gave this year’s festival a distinctly East Portland flavor, and Hobbs’ connection to the neighborhood runs deeper than he expected.
He learned only recently that he was born two blocks from the theater. Bringing Union PDX into the Foster Theater, while returning to the stage after a year off to become a parent, felt like a homecoming.
In this performance of Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts features Jen Hong, left in green, shifting through the shadow roles of sisters, aunts, daughters, and granddaughters, while Los Angeles choreographer Rosanna Tavarez, right in red, portrays her grandmother.
Praising a community-focused theater
Hobbs reserved some of his highest praise for the Foster Theater team and its partners. He pointed to Paul LeFeber, Sarah Rigles, Classical Ballet Academy, and the Foster Theater as “incredible help”, calling them “the most giving people”.
He emphasized that they built the space as a community resource as much as a performance venue. Bringing Union PDX into that setting, he suggested, aligned the festival with a neighborhood vision of an East Portland theater built for community.
As Union PDX:26 wrapped its run – onstage, in studios, and on screens around the globe – the hybrid, neighborhood-rooted model that grew from an experiment now looks firmly established as a fixture on Portland’s contemporary dance calendar.
© 2026 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
