Kazüm

In the early 1900’s a throwback pirate by the name or “Razor” was terrorizing the lower islands in the Pacific Ocean.  The companies most affected by Razor hired an army of mercenaries  and  bounty hunters to track him down.  Cornering Razor in a cantina in northeastern Brazil, the army unleashed into a fray of gunfire, martial arts and explosions. Razor defeated the gang but suffered a huge head injury and fled into the jungle.  He quickly collapsed, but was taken in by Hindu pilgrims and taken to their ashram.  Razor suffered from amnesia and could remember nothing about his previous life.  The Brazilian-yogi-pilgrims called him “Pintado”-the portuguese word for painted-because of his comical pirate tattoos.  They taught him Yoga and the Brazilian art of Capoeira.  The Brazilian cultural art combines elements of dance, acrobatics, music with high kicks and trips. Pintado learned peace through Yoga and cultivated a love of art and performance through Capoeira. 

Then, 30 years ago, Razor/Pintado’s past came back to haunt him.  The descendants of the first Army of mercenaries returned to Brazil to seek revenge on the man who had defeated their predecessors. The Ashram was destroyed and Pintado was exiled.  He traveled to the states and began working in the circus arts. 

Currently Pintado has taken the American name of James Pintado and is an instructor of Capoeira and Yoga.   He is still searching for clues about his past as a Pirate-Acrobat-Ninja.  He is a contributing member of Kazum, a place where he finds much love and peace with his new family of acrobats.

Ari Rapkin

My main creative movement experiences include gymnastics and Aikido as a child, and latin dance, acrobatics and aerial dance as an adult, with numerous other deviations along the way. I’m especially inspired by collaborative creative movement- moving together with another person or people can have an amazing transformative power to break through barriers of perceived limitations. Gravity, balance, strength and imagination all compliment each other to achieve new shapes and meanings that I didn’t know were possible. I think this collaboration rings true in many ways, socially as well as physically- my main “day job” is in social change organizing at the Community Alliance of Tenants, where in a very different way, I am also awed by the amazing transformative power of a group of people dedicated to collaboration for the purpose of making something beautiful. I also get a kick out of teaching trapeze and acrobatics to children at Do Jump! I deeply appreciate being reminded by the kiddos how to play and have fun.

Jon “Dutch” Paglia is a force to be reckoned with.  Young Dutch was found as a child living off tundra in the frozen wastes of Northern Alaska.  It has been speculated that the child had crossed the small straight from Russia alone.  Later, the infamous street fighter/wrestler Zangeif would claim the boy and begin his training.   Dutch’s early years consisted of American Football, designing mechanical inventions and performing dance and musicals in a traveling Russian Gypsy Caravan.  Young Dutch had a penchant for pranks, feats of strength and balancing on his mechanical contraptions.

It is a mystery how Dutch arrived in Portland, but his first encounter with Kazum was love at first sight.  He had established himself as a member of the “art-bike” community Zooboombers and had found his mechanical affinity and other attributes complimentary to the group.  His raw physical strength, his sense of technique and theatrics quickly found a new home with Kazum. 

Miranda May

As a kid many of my friendships revolved around putting on shows for one another. Dance shows, tumbling shows, whatever; I was a ham. My parents say I was deeply concerned if someone wasn’t interested in making up a routine with me. Mum and Dad tried to expand my interests by signing me up for basketball but I just ended up dancing around the court during games. I had a somewhat delusional confidence in my some of my abilities and assumed I was headed straight for the Olympics for gymnastics. I had to give up some of that childlike grandiosity as I got older but I’ve never lost the insight that I’m happiest when I’m moving my body. As a cheerleader in high school I loved the opportunity of combining dance and gymnastics and the necessity for team work that was required for stunting. Even after practicing for hours every day, my partner stunter and I would walk around town and bust out into stunts just to make people smile. Since graduating high school I’ve dreamed about starting a stunting group aimed at performing outside of the cheer circuit. Each time I’d begin however, I’d realize how much hard work and dedication it takes to put together a group such as Kazüm. I’m thrilled to have happened upon and to now be working with such a firmly established and consistently talented group.

Miranda joined Kazüm in November of 2008.