Video Installation Adds Interest to Hillsdale Nightlife
- Hillsdale News
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
[February 9, 2026]
Noticed something new in the evening hours at the corner of Sunset and Capitol Highway? The Portland Ballet has launched a creative new use of their windows to enhance Hillsdale’s art scene.
As a follow-up to the successful Portland Winter Light Festival 2024 installation in Hillsdale, a feature from that earlier event has been reimagined for the front windows of The Portland Ballet.
For the 2024 festival, Hillsdale Food Park owner Richard Stein collaborated with Portland Ballet choreographer and board member Nick Le Jurica and dancer and video artist Skye Richter to create Pressure Buttons, an official festival entry. The four-night happening combined dance film, music, bubbles, lights, live performance, and interactive elements, drawing hundreds of visitors to the Food Park.
That collaboration has continued with the new window installation. Richter, Le Jurica, technical theater artist James Mapes, and Stein worked together to adapt recorded dance imagery for projection from inside the studio onto window screens facing SW Capitol Highway.
For this iteration, Mapes joined the team to support the technical design. The projected images will change periodically, featuring students of the school as well as scenes from the ballet’s twice-yearly public performances. Stein and Le Jurica also envision future content created by new dancers, and possibly by artists working in other media.
“Besides quietly showcasing the wide range of offerings at the school, we hope it adds something beautiful to Hillsdale,” Stein said.
Le Jurica said the installation may help promote The Portland Ballet, but emphasized the artistic motivation behind the project. “More importantly to us, from an artistic standpoint, is that we wanted to be able to showcase real dance art,” he said.
The project was funded by The Portland Ballet, Stein, and Le Jurica, with in-kind contributions from Skye Richter Media and James Mapes, and technical advice from Portland-based company MeyerPro. Stein and Le Jurica both serve on The Portland Ballet’s board.
—Valeurie Friedman
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