ABOUT ROBIN LANE & DO JUMP
DOJUMP has created breath-taking physical theater since 1977, delighting audiences of all ages from Broadway,
NYC to Kodiak, Alaska. Artistic Director Robin Lane’s ground-breaking style combines humor, dance,
theater, circus skills, illusion, visual arts, narrative, and live original music designed to
transport and transform.
HISTORY
In 1977 Robin Lane founded DO JUMP. The company is an ensemble of actors, dancers, acrobats, aerialist, circus performers, musicians, composers, and designers, many of whom have worked together for decades. Lane has developed countless theatrical performances and civic & private one of a kind events. She also has pioneered a physical theater curriculum and School in Portland Oregon. Each creative project takes a fresh approach and works from the inside out to create moving and honest experiences.
Lane has created and produced 19 evening length performances, many of which have toured through out North America, including extended runs at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, the Ordway in Minneapolis, and The New Victory in NYC.
The company has produced countless large-scale spectacles for events including; the the Nike World Masters Games, the opening of the Portland Hilton Towers, Portland Center Stage’s fifteen anniversary ,the opening of Pacific Northwest College of Art, ArtQuake, The City of Portland, the opening of Portland Light Rail, Portland Oregon Visitors Association, the twenty fifth Anniversary of the Museum of Arts and Crafts, the ten year anniversary of Bridgeport Ale, the grand opening of the new Portland Children’s Museum, South Carolina’s Artisphere, and Toronto’s Winterfest.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have a problem with reality.
Something I have been reflecting on a lot is why and how art happens. I think Art is one of the most absolutely necessary and completely impossible things to do. I have always been plagued with complex visions that won’t leave me alone until I let them out. Literally hundreds of brilliant people have added their visions and talents to my own to help me do this. The big problem with visions is, that in your imagination anything is possible, and in the world we are confined by time space ability and money, not to mention gravity and other issues. SO everything you get to make has to be a bit of a compromise. I have noticed that it is in the translation of impossible visions into (only slightly less impossible to create) reality, where magic happens. It is because of reality, that ingenuity, generosity, community and surprises occur.
It is the process of making art, as much as the art itself which enlivens our communities. And it is important to support this process, so that we can share the otherwise indescribable landscapes of our inner selves with each other. Everyone has these landscapes. Artists speak languages that allow all of us to experiences our common humanity together. I love this world, even in its current state of disrepair. Sometimes the quality of light makes me remember, when I forget this. I can’t always be awake before dawn, but art can take my breath away anytime. Art allows us to remember what we love, as well as feel our anguish about what we don’t’, and everything between (which definitely includes laughter).
The arts have a big job to do in our world. We have to be very creative in this dance between reality and our commitment to travel and report back from the world of the imagination, the possible, and the heart.
