From now through January 17, share your thoughts about the spring events at the Center for the Arts in one (or both!) of the following ways:
1) Like us on Facebook and write something about our spring events on our Wall.
2) Follow us on Twitter and compose a tweet about our spring events (be sure to mention @WesCFA).
Everyone who writes about our spring events on Facebook or Twitter will be entered to win some excellent prizes, including the following:
At a time when so many of us are turning to YouTube to see performances by our favorite artists, we can lose sight of what it’s like to experience live performance. This fall, the Center for the Arts offers you a wide range of performances and exhibitions that will connect you with some of the brightest minds in contemporary art-making, transport you to foreign lands, and inspire you to think about the world in new ways—and the performers will never be more than 69 feet away!
We recognize that it has become increasingly difficult to classify a work as strictly music, dance, theater, visual art, or film as more artists are blurring the boundaries among disciplines. So we have merged our visiting artist performances into a single Performing Arts Series. We hope this will lead you to cross the boundaries of your own comfort zone and discover new artists and art forms.
Highlights of the fall season include the American premiere of the ground-breaking Italian movement theater collective Dewey Dell and the return of Philadelphia’s Rennie Harris Puremovement, that has been a trailblazer in taking hip hop forms from the street to the concert stage for nearly twenty years. We’ll also host two New England premieres: the astoundingly brilliant throat-singers and musicians from Inner Mongolia, AnDa Union and, continuing our collaboration with the College of the Environment, we’ll welcome Water is Rising, a breathtaking performance by a group of 35 dancers and musicians from the Pacific Island atolls, the first islands predicted to be submerged due to climate change. In November, the Music Department and CFA join forces to celebrate Alvin Lucier, internationally renowned composer who has just retired after serving on our faculty for four decades. Alvin Lucier: A Celebration features a major symposium, concert series, film screenings and an exhibition curated by Andrea Miller-Keller.
With performances and exhibitions by visiting artists, students and faculty, there is an extraordinary amount of good work to see at Wesleyan this fall, with 60% offered free to the public or at ticket prices that make us one of the most affordable venues in the state. Tickets are on sale now online. Starting at 10am on Tuesday, August 16, you can call or visit the Wesleyan University Box Office at 860-685-3355 to receive a 10% discount on your purchase of four or more Performing Arts Series events (and if you buy six or more “Performing Arts Series” events, you’ll save 15%!) Starting August 16, you will also be able to buy subscription packages for both the 35th annual Navaratri Festival (a 15% savings) as well as the Alvin Lucier Celebration (a 25% savings!)
Please join us. We appreciate that you believe, as we do, in the power of the arts to add meaning to our lives and to remind us of the capacity of the human spirit. Thanks for making Wesleyan’s CFA your center for the arts.
This Saturday, we welcome three exceptional dance companies to the Center for the Arts Theater. For those who have been coming to the Breaking Ground Dance Series, you’ll remember that in 2004, we commissioned Ronald K. Brown/Evidence’s Come Ye, set to and inspired by the music of Nina Simone. In 2007, we presented the world premiere of One Shot, an evening-length work inspired by photographs of Pittsburgh native Charles “Teenie” Harris. He was known as “One Shot” because whenever he was given a photo assignment, it only took him one shot to get “the” picture. This Saturday, Brown returns to teach a master class in the afternoon and that evening, his company will perform excerpts of One Shot, as well as Ife/My Heart. Ife/My Heart was created in 2005 for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and draws on themes of faith and inspiration.
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
The Suzanne Farrell Ballet will follow, presenting a program of duets choreographed by George Balanchine. The Suzanne Farrell Ballet has been the Kennedy Center‘s own ballet company, housed in Washington, D.C. since 2001. The company exists to realize the vision of Artistic Director Suzanne Farrell, with over 30 ballets by George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Maurice Béjart in its repertoire.
Gallim Dance
Finally, the Center for the Arts is delighted to be awarding the Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award to Andrea Miller, artistic director of Gallim Dance. Wesleyan has a long history with Miller: when Andrea was a student at Juilliard (and home for the weekend in Branford where her mother lives), she took classes at DanceMasters. Little did we know then that she would grow up to be an acclaimed choreographer! After Andrea graduated from Juilliard, she went to Israel to dance with Ohad Naharin’s Ensemble Batsheva, and a few years later returned to New York to develop her choreographic work and to found Gallim. In just four years, the company has distinguished itself for its innovation and virtuosity. On Saturday, the company will present excerpts from I Can See Myself In Your Pupil, the work they presented to rave reviews this past June at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.
Please join us to celebrate the breadth and wonder of dance at the twelfth annual DanceMasters Weekend!
DanceMasters Showcase Performance
Saturday, March 5, 8pm
CFA Theater Tickets: $25 general public; $19 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff, non-Wesleyan students; $8 Wesleyan students
