For the washer and dryer-less, going to the laundromat can be a chore. With a pocket full of quarters, the hum of laundry machines isn’t anyone’s ideal way to spend their time. However, tonight, at the Emerald Laundromat on East 17th Avenue, a large number of people will show up to enjoy such an atmosphere.@@http://www.heididuckler.org/company/core.html@@
Attendees won’t be going to simply clean their darks and lights. Instead, they’ll be there to watch a dance performance. “Laundromatinee,” is a site-specific dance creation that takes the art of dancing and transfers it to the neighborhood laundromat. The monotonous task of cleaning clothes will be replaced by an energetic performance. Standing atop washing machines, swinging on moving laundry carts and spinning inside dryers are all aspects that choreographer and creator Heidi Duckler uses to show the audience that a laundromat can be an interesting place.@@http://www.dailyemerald.com/2011/05/24/photos-uo-dept-of-dance-performs-laundromatinee/@@
“Each time we perform the work, it is fresh and original,” Duckler said. “We rehearse in the laundromat while customers do their wash since one of our goals is to connect community business owners with the arts and also because we are inspired by real life.”
The decision to use a laundromat stems from the observation that Duckler made about their slow decline. Embedded in American culture, the laundromat has stood both as a place for people to do their laundry, but also as a common area where a neighborhood community interacts. With the rise of personal washers and dryers, the decline of the laundromat occurred. Duckler saw these performances as a way of getting people back to the laundromat, while restoring these community-based interactions.
“She brings somebody into the deeper experience of being in the laundromat and looking at aspects of the laundromat you may have not noticed if you were just walking in and doing you laundry,” said Shanda Domango, program coordinator for Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre.@@http://www.heididuckler.org/contact/index.html@@
Duckler, who graduated from the University’s Department of Dance in 1976 and was raised in Portland, runs the Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre out of Los Angeles. She has devoted her career to redefining the relationship between dancer and audience by choreographing dances in obscure environments.
“All of her work is site-specific,” Domango said. “We’ve done pieces in city halls, museums and police stations.  It’s about redefining that relationship and reconnecting the audience with spaces they may come into contact with on a daily basis.”
Following this philosophy, Duckler has choreographed 60 performances around the world, including pieces in Russia, Hong Kong and New York City. Each performance is used as a way to push boundaries and challenge both the audience and environment.
Another aspect of tonight’s “Laundromatinee,” one that challenges the group, is that Duckler has taught her performance to a set of fresh dancers. In partnership with the Department of Dance at the University, Duckler has taught her performance to a select number of dance students.
“The students we are working with from the department have been so wonderful, creative, brave and mature,” Duckler said. “It can be hard on a body to work among the washers and dryers in a laundromat, and they have the bruises, or ‘war wounds’
as we call them, that naturally occur during the rehearsal process.”
The introduction of dancers into a new environment is something that the Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre can relate to, as the organization is in the process of opening the Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre Northwest. The new company will work as a hub to help raise art awareness and raise a new generation of dancers in the region.
“The project we’re working on is cultivating it to be what it is in Los Angeles, but in Oregon,” Domango said. “It’s the same artistic vision, just two different organizations.”
With the move, Duckler’s unique choreography will surely start to show up more both in Eugene and Portland where the company will be based. Grocery stores, libraries and other community places may also see the revitalization of Duckler’s performances. For now, it’s a laundromat on the west side of campus that will make the out-of-the-ordinary transition from normal to art.