Best Day Ever: Graham Cole of White Bird
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Graham Cole, executive director of White Bird, loves downtown Portland. He holds Barney, the White Bird mascot. Photo: Courtesy of Jingzi Zhao
When a contemporary dance group as good as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater comes to Portland, you know the promoter is probably White Bird.
Graham Cole, White Bird's new executive director, shared what would make his best day ever in downtown Portland.
☕ His office is just off Pioneer Courthouse Square, so Cole stops at Korean-influenced Less and More Coffee, in a former TriMet stop, for the ube latte or the hot chocolate.
- "It is rich, but not super thick," he tells Axios.
👟 Morning activity: When he's not wrangling dancers, he's running. During the pandemic, Cole discovered the running track at Duniway Park.
- "The gyms were all closed, so running sprints and doing calisthenics on the soccer green kept me sane."
- Now he bikes and swims, but still hits the track, and does deep lunges, "almost the splits."
- "It keeps you strong and flexible and your hips open."
🥗 Lunch: Mother's Bistro: "My grandmother made some classic Jewish meals, and Mother's has good matzo ball soup, chopped liver and meatloaf."
For a respite from work, he has a membership to Lan Su Chinese Garden.
- "I go there to clear my head."
🍦 Snack: "My girlfriend Elenaluisa is also a dancer, and we love to get the frozen yogurt at TartBerry before watching a show, and that tides us over. We call it show-yo."
💃 Visiting dancers stay at the Paramount Hotel, which means he'll often meet up at Swine with them, and have a whiskey sour.
- "I have a sour tooth," he says with a laugh.
🐠 Dinner: Southpark Seafood is a splurge if White Bird wants to treat a choreographer to a nice meal.
- "The dining area is gorgeous."
- He gets the clam chowder because he can see the clams and potatoes, "it's not emulsified mush."
🥖 After party: He sends the dancers to Luc Lac Vietnamese Kitchen after a show as he says it's one of the few places open after 11pm.
- "It's pretty affordable, I have the banh mi, either nem nuong (sausage) or shrimp."
What's next: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be at the Keller Auditorium March 12 and 13.
