Preview: Northwest New Works promises theater, bodies in motion and mixed media

Theater and music — and dance, dance, dance!

This year's Northwest New Works Festival at On the Boards focuses on the body in motion, while offering some lively mixing of media.

Returning NW New Works veterans include Amy O'Neal (with her new project, AmyO/tinyrage), Danny Herter & the Invasive Species, Mark Haim (of "Goldberg Variations" fame) and Corrie Befort (of Salt Horse).

Among the newcomers are the Mint Collective ("musical-visual performance" by Kelli Frances Corrado, Joseph Gray and Ivory Smith) and Laara Garcia/Pseudopod Interactive (serving up an "ultra-collaborative, multimedia, live-action video game").

Jody Kuehner and Ricki Mason deliver a new episode in their Sonny-and-Cher parody, "The Cherdonna and Lou Show." Paul Budraitis and Mike Pham offer one-man shows, with Budraitis focusing on the "elasticity of trust" while Pham takes a look at "death, duality, and dissociative disorders."

Burlesque artiste Lily Verlaine will draw on her "academic background in feminist theory" (who knew?). Charles Smith lampoons the "American Maverick" rhetoric that's permeated our politics lately.

On the dance front, O'Neal trades in her recent video interests for "other ways to create a visual world" in a work that references boxing, dance contests and mud wrestling. Haim investigates "subtle and gradual changes" in a dance that involves walking, coffee cups, country music and disrobing.

Looking more outward, Herter incorporates mountain-climbing and alpine-tundra vistas in "couloir (trek)," while Josephine's Echopraxia addresses "national economic collapse, war, personal struggles and a brush with death" (dancer Marissa Rae Niederhauser joins forces with Murder City Devils vocalist Spencer Moody on this one).

The Satori Group takes a manga-comic approach to "a young girl's sexual awakening" in "The Making of a Monster." Portland-based Erin Leddy, of Hand2Mouth, goes solo to create a work based on the life of her grandmother.

Lingo follows up its multipart extravaganza, "A Glimmer of Hope or Skin or Light," with a duet featuring Alia Swersky and Lingo artistic director KT Niehoff. The Offshore Project takes its cue from Edward Gorey's "The Doubtful Guest" in "The Buffoon," while Befort goes for something more abstract in "Cut Chalk," described as "a work of visual and sonic polyrhythm."

Some items on the agenda are stand-alone pieces. Others are excerpts from works in progress. Surprises and misfires alike remind us of the wealth of risk-taking talents we have in our midst.

If you want to get a handle on the Seattle experimental arts scene, Northwest New Works Festival is a great way to start.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com