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b'During a rehearsal in Northwest Dance Project\\u2019s light-filled Portland studio for a new adaptation of \\u201cCarmen,\\u201d set in part in \\u201850\\u2019s-era beauty salons, the company is trying to observe one of childhood\\u2019s cardinal rules: never run with scissors.

\\u201cThat\\u2019s a good point: Where are they going to be when you\\u2019re running?\\u201d resident choreographer Ihsan Rustem says when dancer Kody Jauron asks how to incorporate a menacing pair of shears that are over a foot long into the choreography.

\\u201cI\\u2019m wearing a lot of black,\\u201d says Jauron about his costume, joking that it would likely hide any accidental blood stains.

It\\u2019s one of several problems Rustem is wrestling with as they near the show\\u2019s world premiere March 16\\u201318 at the Newmark Theatre. There\\u2019s also how to deal with Jauron\\u2019s whiplash during the preceding scene in which the male dancers, acting as a gaggle of barbers, twist his head every which way, and several points of nigh-impossible movement.

If Northwest Dance Project has built its identity around commissioning world premieres from budding international choreographers, they\\u2019ve found a true creative love affair in Rustem. The company\\u2019s first commission from the then little-known British-born dance maker in 2010, \\u201cState of Matter,\\u201d went on to win leading global dance competitions in England and Germany. Five works later, \\u201cCarmen\\u201d will be the company\\u2019s first story ballet and by far Rustem\\u2019s most ambitious piece yet, with \\u201cHarper\\u2019s Bazaar\\u201d\\u2013inspired glamor and costumes by \\u201cProject Runway\\u201d winner Michelle Lezniak.

\\u201cGoing to the theater is an experience, so you want to come out having gone on a journey,\\u201d he says. \\u201cAnd that\\u2019s my greatest challenge.\\u201d

Read the full story: http://www.opb.org/radio/article/nw-dance-projects-carmen-ihsan-rustem'