This year’s installation of Wild Dancing West opens with Burque native Meshi Chavez’ We Two Boys at VSA North Fourth Art Center (4904 Fourth Street NW). Shows run tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and are part of VSA’s three-week extravaganza highlighting the work of Southwestern dancers and choreographers. Click the above link to read about Chavez and the fest’s other offerings.
vsa north fourth art center
Stephen Miller
Performance Preview
Desert Dancing
VSA’s regional series returns with Whitman, war and psychology
Meshi Chavez moved to Portland, Ore., at the age of 18. Sixteen years later, he’s returning with We Two Boys to Wild Dancing West, VSA North Fourth Art Center’s contemporary dance festival. Now in its seventh year, Wild Dancing West is “the sibling of Global DanceFest,” says Kearny, referring to VSA’s international spectacle that began in 2001. After celebrating dance from around the world, creators decided “it was important to also focus on contemporary dance happening in our region,” she says.
V.21 No.20 | 5/17/2012
Alibi Picks
Destiny Deconstructed
You've heard a similar premise before: A futuristic company implants its employees with a device that lulls them into naive contentedness. The Big Brother machine is running smooth, but a kink arises in the form of a young hero who yearns for a more human reality (insert Hunger Games, Artificial Intelligence, Matrix reference). Now set that same scenario to a balls-out rock concert. F8 is the first original musical written and performed by Blackout Theatre. Lending to the score and show is a collection of local rockers, including Red Light Cameras, whose singer Amanda Machon takes on the lead role. The two-week run opens tonight at VSA North Fourth Art Center (4904 Fourth Street NW), and it may just help wean you off your Katniss Everdeen obsession.
V.21 No.10 | 3/8/2012
Photo by Antoine Tempé
Arts
Show and a dinner
Global DanceFest is celbrating its 12th and final year, and opens with Je danse et je vous en donne à bouffer (I dance and I give you to eat) from Tunisia’s Radhouane El Meddeb. The piece plays tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m. at VSA North Fourth Art Center (4904 Fourth Street NW). During his performance, El Meddeb while cook couscous which he will serve to the audience following the production.
Photo by Ian Douglas
Performance Preview
Choreography and Couscous
Global DanceFest’s sensory smorgasbord
Global DanceFest’s final incarnation brings acts from Tunisia, Paris and NYC.
V.20 No.49 | 12/8/2011
Photo by Aaron Giombolini
Theater
A Christmas Carol at VSA North Fourth Art Center
Blackout Theatre’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic pits a group of strangers in a St. Louis train station, waiting to be whisked away for the holidays. Delays ensue, and the motley group turns a bad situation into theatrics. Writer Christie Chisholm reviewed it in this week’s arts section. “Blackout’s version is marvelous,” she writes, “whimsical yet dramatic with fine acting, haunting live music and some wonderfully creative puppetry. The kids will love it, but more importantly, you will probably love it, too.” Tonight’s show is at 8 p.m. There are also performances Saturday and Sunday.
