‘12 Minutes Max’ shows diverse talents of Bellingham

The “12 Minutes Max” concept was created by Seattle dance company On The Boards in 1979 as an adjudicated, multidisciplinary, performing arts showcase.

Bellingham’s Firehouse Performing Arts Center launched its own version of 12 Minutes Max in 2013.

Every piece must be less than 12 minutes in length. Up for consideration are dance, theater, music, short film, and performance art.

Every showcase is adjudicated by two new prominent artists of the Bellingham community. This year’s adjudicators are guitarist David Feingold and actor and dancer Ian Bivins.

Bivins admits he’s been a fan of “12 Minutes Max’ since it began in Bellingham and, before that, in Seattle.

For the current program, Bivins says he worked with Feingold to present a performance that shows off some of the best that Bellingham has to offer in the performing arts.

“The process is challenging,” he says, “because all of the applicants have faith and ability in their chosen disciplines.”

“We listened to all of the entrants and determined what would best fit a program of roughly an hour’s performance time,” Feingold adds. “We followed some guidelines that had been established, including ‘diversity,’ which broadly translated to ‘variety.’”

One of the pieces to be featured is Harvey Schwartz’s short film “Spark.”

It’s a documentary about the creative spark in a select group of Bellingham residents who range in age from 3 to 70. As he was starting to edit, Schwartz says, he walked up Taylor Avenue from the boardwalk and noticed a line of blue yarn going up the street. On 16th Street, he saw a woman on a bench, knitting.

It was Christen Mattix, and Schwartz asked her if she minded his asking what she was doing.

“She stopped me in my tracks with her friendliness,” he says. “She said, ‘I’m knitting a line of yarn to the water as a poetic metaphor of the creative process. You might think of it as a line of poetic fish going to the ocean.’”

Schwartz spontaneously asked her for an interview and when she agreed, he says his film did a 360.

“There was so much quirk and beauty and Bellingham in this that I decided to make her the centerpiece of my film,” he says. “I had my own archive of film and video of other unique Bellingham events to supplement the footage of Christen.”

When it was time to add music, he emailed musicians Coty Hogue and Korby Lenker, who both have ties to Bellingham, to ask if he could use their music. Both immediately emailed an enthusiastic yes.

To see the final film, search YouTube for “Harvey Schwartz spark.”

Feingold says “12 Minutes Max” is a treat because of the talent and imagination of the artists from the community.

“It’s a great chance to see emerging choreographers, hip short-film makers, and local professional performers stretch their creative muscles,” Bivins says.

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 4:01 PM with the headline "‘12 Minutes Max’ shows diverse talents of Bellingham."