Andrea Parson delights in connections.

The Portland-based professional dancer is bringing a one-woman show to address grief. It will be performed at the Ten Fifteen Theater in Astoria May 2 and 3.

Parson’s show is titled, “You Can’t Be Serious.” It was inspired by the loss of her younger sister to breast cancer in 2020. 

The performance is described by promoters as “a dance between down and up, between the weight of tears and the levity of laughter, each movement of this story collides into the next in a captivating collage of grief that brings death fully to life.”

The title has a double meaning: Parson’s reaction to the shock of her sister’s diagnosis and a belief in giving “permission to play.” 

“I started turning to comedy,” she recalled, describing the development of the work. “There seemed like nothing to laugh about.”  

Parson said her biggest reward is audience response. “It seems to be so ‘heart opening,’” she said. “I love it when people have said after seeing my show that they went off and told their sister or sibling that they loved them.”

‘Strange’

Parson grew up in Hillsboro and earned a degree at Loyola Marymount University while also studying with the Joffrey Ballet and San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. She performed with the Northwest Dance Project in Portland for 11 years, touring internationally in roles including Hedda Gabler and Carmen.

Covid shut down the art world in early 2020, exactly when her sister, Christina, was diagnosed; she died that August, aged 31. 

“It was a strange time,” Parson recalled. “I wasn’t working, so we were able to be together. It was a traumatic time, and when she died writing was my way to grieve, to try to make meaning.”

In 2021, she was accepted into a residency program with a Portland based nonprofit, From the Ground UP, which specializes in helping women create “risky new art.” She collaborated with the group’s artistic director, Katherine Murphy Lewis, who lost her father to cancer in 2022.

The dance performance made its debut in 2023 and has been seen in Portland, Ashland, Los Angeles and New York City. Person said she is delighted to bring it to Astoria. “I have been wanting to present it in smaller communities.” 

Talk back

The two performances begin at 7:30 p.m., followed by audience talk-back sessions.

“This public discussion will open up dialogue around grief, bring this too often private and lonely experience into the community space and explore how art engagement and creation may be a place to explore and more deeply understand the losses in our life that have such a deep impact,” said Danyelle Tinker, executive artistic director at the theater.

 

“You Can’t Be Serious”

Dance performance by Andrea Parson, with From the Ground UP

Ten Fifteen Theater, 1015 Commercial St., Astoria

7:30 p.m. May 2 and 3

Tickets $25, online at www.thetenfifteentheater.com

An audience discussion will follow each performance.