Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival presents Miami City Ballet
BECKET— The tenth and final week of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival 2022 welcomes Miami City Ballet to the Ted Shawn Theatre from August 24-28. These performances will see the theater’s new orchestra pit used for the first time. Week 10 of the Festival will also feature several one-night-only performances on the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage, including Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective, Boston Dance Theater, Kayla Hamilton, and Yin Yue Dance Company (YYDC).
Miami City Ballet has a diverse roster of 52 dancers and a repertoire of more than 130 works. As one of the most renowned ballet companies in the country, Miami City Ballet performs for nearly 125,000 patrons annually during its South Florida home season in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and tours to major cities domestically and internationally.
Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez leads the company. Lopez was recently awarded the prestigious Dance Magazine Award in 2018 and was named one of “The Most Influential People in Dance Today.”
Praised by The New York Times as “an exceptional troupe,” the Miami City Ballet celebrates the 10th anniversary of Lourdes Lopez as Artistic Director, and is known for nurturing new choreographic voices, creating innovative collaborations, and opening new avenues of inclusivity within classical ballet.
The program will feature Martha Graham’s Diversion of Angels, the world premiere of Margarita Armas’ Geta, George Balanchine’s Serenade, and Jerome Robbins’ Antique Epigraphs; the latter two works will be seen for the first time at the Pillow, both accompanied by a live orchestra.
Tickets for Miami City Ballet start at $65. For more information about the festival, visit https://www.jacobspillow.org/festival/.
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Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Grow Show
STOCKBRIDGE— Celebrating a 52-year tradition of growing and showing, Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Grow Show will be held August 20-21.
Floral designers and backyard gardeners are the celebrities at the Grow Show, where beautiful floral arrangements and the peak summer harvest are spotlighted. This upbeat, judged event features five design and nearly 80 horticulture classes on display in the Exhibition Hall.
Anyone is welcome to enter; whether you bring a single bloom or enter every category, there is no charge to participate in the Grow Show! Gardeners of all ages and experience levels are welcome to enter.
The Grow Show is free with Garden admission. On Saturday, August 20, hours are 1-5 p.m. Sunday hours are 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Saturday will also include an Ikebana demonstration from 1:15-2:30 p.m. in the Center House. Ikebana is a floral arrangement style with origins in Japan. The demonstration will be led by Kaye Vosburgh, who holds the highest rank in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. Vosburgh will also hold a book-signing.
Saturday will be capped off with a special floral arrangement “Challenge Class” at 3 p.m., featuring State Representative William “Smitty” Pignatelli, of Lenox; Tom Romero of Lenox, who retired from Berkshire Medical Center as senior vice president; Matt Tannenbaum, the owner of The Bookstore and Get Lit Wine Bar in Lenox; Chris Ferrero, a gardening speaker, writer and consultant from Stockbridge; Chis Masiero, owner of Guido’s; and Linda O’Connell, of Stockbridge, an avid gardener and a Trustee of Berkshire Botanical Garden.
For more information about the Grow Show, and to enter the contest, visit https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/grow-show-4
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Clark Art Institute presents concert by Stephane Wrembel
WILLIAMSTOWN— On Wednesday, August 24 at 6 p.m., the Clark Art Institute presents a concert by jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel. Wrembel and his band mix nonchalance with joyful virtuosity, carrying on the genre-breaking traditions of jazz guitar. This free outdoor concert takes place near the Clark’s Reflecting Pool.
Wrembel grew up in Fontainebleau, France, where he learned his craft among Romani communities at campsites in the French countryside. He took inspiration from fellow Frenchman and celebrated guitarist Jean “Django” Reinhardt. Reinhardt, a Romani guitar master, is known for inventing a distinctive style of guitar-playing after his left hand was severely burned in a fire. Although Wrembel is recognized for his stylization and interpretation of Reinhardt’s music, he has created a sound uniquely his own, mixing jazz, blues, classical, swing, flamenco, and rock.
Since 2003, he has produced the Django-a-Gogo Festival, bringing together musicians from all over the world to celebrate Romany-inspired jazz guitar. Wrembel performs around the world, and has played at major concert venues including Carnegie Hall and the Caramoor Jazz Festival. Wrembel has released sixteen albums under his name and the nom de plume, The Django Experiment, with the most recent installment in the series being The Django Experiment VI. His latest project, featuring musicians from New Orleans, will debut in 2023.
The concert is free and no registration is required. Bring a picnic and your own seating. For more information, visit clarkart.edu/events.
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Hancock Shaker Village announces publication of Lapsed Quaker Ware
HANCOCK— Artist James Turrell and potter Nicholas Mosse will celebrate the launch of their book James Turrell & Nicholas Mosse: Lapsed Quaker Ware with a signing at Hancock Shaker Village on Saturday August 20, from 3-5 p.m. The event will include brief remarks by James Turrell and Nicholas Mosse at 3:30 p.m. and old time mountain music provided by the Cherrywood Trio from 4-5 p.m.
Lapsed Quaker Ware reflects on a ceramic series made in collaboration by the two artists, known by the same name. The black basalt-ware ceramics were created in collaboration, and the collection absorbs light as opposed to refracting it. Pitch black and unyieldingly dark, Lapsed Quaker Ware exerts a visual gravitational pull, drawing in the viewer with a visceral sense of the sublime.
The pottery was inspired by the 18th century black basalt work of English potter Josiah Wedgwood, who made a very decorative black basalt ware for the general English market, but also created a simpler design for the American Quaker market.
Self-proclaimed lapsed Quakers, Turrell and Mosse decided to revive the tradition by producing a series of their own black basalt, created entirely by hand, one piece at a time.
James Turrell’s work has been exhibited in preeminent art institutions around the world, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. One of Ireland’s most beloved potters, Nicholas Mosse established Nicholas Mosse Pottery in 1976 after training in England and Japan. All of the pottery undergoes a 20-step handmade process in the style of Irish spongeware, the traditional pottery of Ireland used in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Books will be available for sale in Shaker Mercantile upon arrival for the book signing. Entry into the book signing does not include full admission to the Village. Masks are required.
Lapsed Quaker Ware is on exhibit at Hancock Shaker Village and MASS MoCA through October 31, 2022.
For more information on the event, visit the Hancock Shaker Village website.
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Opening at Avalanche Art Space
GREAT BARRINGTON— Avalanche Art Space presents an installation by Gabrielle Victoria Meyerowitz.
“[UN]TOUCHABLE BANQUET” is a combination of multiple interactive installations using revived old-new works, poems in various mediums/formats, sound & video, and objects. At first, all seems untouchable – yet is felt sensually. Yet guests may find themselves arriving at satisfaction – or a feeling of fullness – upon completion of the feast.
Gabrielle Victoria Meyerowitz works are interactive, site-specific, multidisciplinary, and often contain writing and sound as a direct response to the particularities of physical space. She seeks the “articulation of the universality and connectivity that stirs inside cracks of common places…” She studied at Lecoq in Paris, and in New York at the Pratt Institute and Art Students League.
The installation will open on Friday, August 19 from 5-9 p.m. The exhibition will run through September 13. Avalanche Art Space is located at 252 Main Street and Elm (side space) and is open Monday – Friday 3 – 6 p.m. and Saturday 1 – 7 p.m. Garden Tours are available by appointment.
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The Jewish World of Elvis Presley book talk
GREAT BARRINGTON— Dr. Roselle Kline Chartock will be speaking about her book The Jewish World of Elvis Presley at The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, MA on Sunday, August 21, at 3 p.m. This event is free and open to all with limited seats available.
Roselle Kline Chartock is a Professor Emerita of Education and a full-time artist and writer, having previously taught on all levels for forty-five years. Her earlier work includes four books and several scholarly articles on topics related to education, American history and Jewish history, among them an anthology on the Nazi Holocaust. She has integrated history and biography in telling the story of Elvis’ Jewish World.
“While there are already dozens of books about this legendary musician, I saw an opportunity to break new ground when I discovered Presley’s Jewish connections… And while there are — among these many books and articles about Elvis — several that make brief references to Jews and the possibility of Elvis having a Jewish ancestor, this volume is the first to bring together in one place the many pieces of Elvis’ Jewish world as well as new information about that world.”
Reserve seats for the event at: https://theguthriecenter.simpletix.com. Masking is highly recommended for indoor performance/event spaces as per the CDC’s guidance.
