Martha Graham News

Celebrity Series of Boston will present the Maria Schneider Orchestra tonight, April 26, 2014 at 8pm at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. Sponsored by Donna and Mike Egan.

In celebration of a major gift to its collection of more than 100 portraits created by master photographer Yousuf Karsh (1908–2002), the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is installing a special exhibition on the first floor of the museum, “Yousuf Karsh: American Portraits.” This is the second of two installations and will run from May 2 through Nov. 2. A press preview for this installation will be held May 1 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Estrellita Karsh, Karsh's wife, will be in attendance.

Howard County Arts Council (HCAC) has announced that applications for the FY2015 Mark Ryder Original Choreography Grant Program are now available. This program was established at the bequest of Mark Ryder's family, in honor of his life's work, to recognize individual creative expression, and to provide financial assistance to choreographers to create new original work. A fund has been established at the Columbia Foundation to enable monies to be awarded for this purpose in perpetuity. The grant award recipients will be announced at HCAC's Annual Meeting and Grant Awards Ceremony in September 2014. The minimum grant amount will be $500.

RIOULT Dance NY, a leading American modern dance company with a classic sensibility, has been searching for a long-term home in an effort to better serve the community, grow their patronage and set up a companion school for the company. Recently, Hope Greenfield, chairwoman of Rioult's Board of Directors donated $500,000 through her family foundation, the Gordon and Harriet Greenfield Foundation, to support the company's search.

Eight remarkable artists and philanthropists will be hooded and handed their degrees in person when The Juilliard School confers honorary doctorates during its 109th Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 23, 2014 at 11 AM in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center (Broadway at 65th Street, NYC).

Older & Reckless, MOonhORsE Dance Theatre's celebrated series curated by Artistic Director Claudia Moore, presents OLD & YOUNG AND RECKLESS TOGETHER featuring nine dance artists in four intergenerational works.David Earle, Troy Emery Twigg, Carol Anderson and Paul-Andre Fortier present their work from May 15-17 in Edition #32 ofOlder and Reckless.

The Chicago Dancing Festival (CDF), co-produced by renowned choreographer and Chicago native Lar Lubovitch and highly esteemed Chicago dancer Jay Franke, returns for its 8th season of free dance performances and events, August 20 - 23, 2014, featuring top ballet, modern and hip-hop dancers from Chicago and across the country.

Texas Performing Arts continues to present world-class performances to the University of Texas at Austin and Central Texas audiences with the unveiling of the 2014-2015 season. This season highlights talent from around the world in a diverse mix of music, theatre, dance, and conversation.

A French accent will resonate through La MaMa Moves! this spring when four Gallic dance troupes, along with 11 other experimentalists from around the world, commandeer all three theaters at La MaMa for three and a half dance-packed weeks, May 2-25.

Young Soon Kim and WHITE WAVE DANCE present the World Premiere of Eternal NOW. An ambitious collaboration reuniting Young Soon Kim's fluid and intertwining dramatic movement with longtime collaborator composer Marco Cappelli, who will perform an original score live, as dancers interact with scenes of lusciously composed images and edited footage by video artist, Kate Freer, playing on widescreen monitors.

A cast of six will lead the reading of Wendy Beckett's Off-Broadway - bound production of ALL MOD CONS. This new play, directed by Evan Bergman is the fifth in a series of Ms. Beckett's plays that will be brought across the pacific from Australia by Pascal Productions. The reading takes place on Monday, April 21, at 4PM at Primary Stages Studios (307 West 38 Street, Suite 1510) and is open to the public by reservation only. For tickets, please contact adamgm@kefproductions.com. Additional casting is soon to be announced.

GREENWAY ARTS ALLIANCE, Artistic Directors, Whitney Weston and Pierson Blaetz present, as part of Greenway's Workshop Series, a Workshop Production of CARDBOARD CAPITAL, written by Gabriel Rivas Gomez, directed by Madeleine Dahm and produced by Ty Donaldson. CARDBOARD CAPITAL will open on Thursday, May 1 at 8pm for ten performances only through Sunday, May 18 at the Greenway Court Theatre, 544 North Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood.

The Celebrity Series of Boston announced its 2014-2015 season today, marking 76 years of bringing the world's greatest performing artists to Boston. The season opens on Sunday, October 5, 2014 with Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini in recital. In total, the 2014-2015 season will include 46 music, dance and entertainment engagements. The 2014-15 season is sponsored by Amy and Joshua Boger.

On Monday, June 2 at 7:30pm at NYU's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, the 32nd Annual Fred & Adele Astaire Awards will honor 5-time Tony Award nominee and 2-time Emmy Award-winning veteran choreographer Pat Birch with its Douglas Watt Lifetime Achievement Award and legendary dancer and dance instructor Luigi with the Outstanding Achievement in the Preservation of Musical Theatre Award. The Astaire Awards is the only awards show to honor excellence in dance and choreography on Broadway and in film and were first started in 1982 by the late Fred Astaire and the late Douglas Watt (a critic and writer for the NY Daily News and The New Yorker, his 100th birthday would be this year).

Vision, Faith, & Desire III: Dancemakers Inspired by Martha Graham will be presented by Winifred Haun & Dancers in collaboration with Oak Park's Historic Pleasant Home this weekend, April 12 & 13. The program will feature work by: Randy Duncan, Winifred Haun, RE/Dance, Deborah Goodman, Yuriko and a film by Alex Springer and Xan Burley. The program will also include the premiere of a new 'Lamentation Variation,' choreographed by Winifred Haun, using the creative structure provided by The Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance.

RIOULT Dance NY, a leading American modern dance company with a classic sensibility, will present two unique programs during the June 17-22, 2014 New York Season at The Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), NYC. The schedule runs:Tuesday at 7:30pm; Wednesday at 7pm; Thursday and Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday at 2pm & 7:30pm. Tickets start at $10 and are available at JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800, in person at The Joyce Theater Box Office, or online at joyce.org.

Rosie's Theater Kids (RTKids) will present 'Passing It On: An Evening of Mentorship' to benefit Rosie's Theater Kids at the Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater on Monday April 28, 2014 at 7pm. This year's event will honor legendary director and choreographer and RTKids mentor, Pat Birch.

New dances by Robert La Fosse and Andrea Miller, plus Twyla Tharp's 'Treefrog in Stonehenge'-- each created with the fresh vibrancy of youth in mind -- will be showcased during Barnard/Columbia Dances at Miller 2014, April 25 and 26. The short, but packed season also features 'Lamentation Variations,' a series of new interpretations of Martha Graham's 1930 iconic solo.

Celebrity Series of Boston will present jazz pianist Jason Moran in Fats Waller Dance Party today, April 4, 2014 at 8:00pm at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. Tickets start at $44, and are available online at www.celebrityseries.org, by calling CelebrityCharge at (617) 482-6661 Monday-Today 10:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., or at the Berklee Performance Center Box Office, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA. Sponsored by Donna and Mike Egan.