Month: October 2010

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Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

The Lar Lubovitch company will perform a memorable program of new and retrospective work that underscores Lubovitch’s passionate musicality and deep humanity. Imbued with poetic and musical eloquence, this program features his masterpiece North Star, set to the mesmerizing music of Philip Glass.

“Some dance troupes are dance-theater ensembles. Others are just dance dance dance. Lar Lubovitch Dance Company falls forthrightly in the latter category. It offers no stories, no plots. Instead, it’s light and limber, with its focus entirely on how music and movement can interpenetrate to produce pure footloose delight” (Seattle Times). More information

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Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

The true story of mountaineer Greg Mortenson’s inspired mission and struggle to build schools for young girls in Pakistan.

From the first heart-stopping opening moments stranded on a mountaintop, this accomplished actor brings audiences through the very intimate journey of one man’s fight against all odds to make a difference in the world. The story feels simultaneously personal and of epic consequence. Alternating between scenes in the U.S. and Pakistan, students become aware of the lessons that can be learned from a culture that is seemingly so different from their own; consequently they come to understand the need to share in the responsibility of educating children everywhere. Surrounded by a pre and post show interactive discussion the audience will explore themes including social action, intercultural understanding and perseverance.This story launched the “Pennies for Peace” project across America, an elementary to high school program, that collects pennies to help build schools for Dr. Greg’s Central Asia Institute. Recommended for Grades 7-12. Run Time: 60 minutes with 30 miniutes of pre and post show Question & Answer.

Curriculum connections: Cultural diversity, Language and Literature, Theater, Geography, History.

More information

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Three Cups of Tea

Based on the best selling book by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Redin

Produced by The American Place Theater Literature to Life series

Three Cups of Tea is a gripping theater piece beautifully constructed word to word from the book of the same name by the world renowned mountain climber Greg Mortenson and literary journalist David Oliver Relin.
From the first heart-stopping opening moments stranded on a mountaintop, this actor brings us through the very intimate journey of one man’s fight against all odds to make a difference in the world. The journalistic style of the book is woven into a narrative that feels simultaneously personal and of epic consequence. Alternating between scenes in the U.S. and Pakistan we become aware of the lessons that can be learned from a culture that is seemingly so different from our own. This story has touched the hearts of students across America and the “Pennies for Peace” project got students from elementary to high school learning the roots of community activism by collecting pennies to help build schools for Dr. Greg’s Central Asia Institute.

Surrounded by a pre and post show interactive discussion the audience will explore themes including social action, intercultural understanding and perseverance. More information

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Holly Lynton: Selected Work

Holly Lynton is interested in photographing people who work with animals on small scale, sustainable, local, organic farms and in the wild to expose the spiritual conviction they have for this way of life, and as a gesture to her commitment and belief in their importance.

Holly Lynton is a photographer who received her BA from Yale University in 1994, and an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College in 2000. More information

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Cedar Lake pre-talk

Benoit-Swan Pouffer, the Artistic Director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet gives a talk to a few patrons before the evening’s performance on October 2nd.
*Photo credit: Kat Fry

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Exploring Buddhism: 2010 Wisdom Teachings

Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lobzang Tsetan Abbot, Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, Bylakuppe, Mysore Dist, South India Founder and Director, Siddhartha School, Leh, Ladakh, India with Professor David L. Gardiner, Chair, Dept. of Religion, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO; Co-founder, BodhiMind Center, Colorado Springs.

All sessions will begin and end with traditional Buddhist prayers led by Khen Rinpoche, following which Rinpoche will introduce and develop the topic for each session in dialogue with David Gardiner, who will provide perspectives from his scholarship and practice and further elucidate the session’s theme. Question and answer time will be part of each session. More information

Session 1
Friday, October 22 from 6:30PM to 9PM: Wisdom through the Buddhist Mahayana Path

Session 2
Saturday, October 23 from 3PM to 5PM : The Practice of Wisdom

Session 3
Saturday, October 23 from 7:00 to 9:00PM : Wisdom & Ethics

Session 4

Sunday, October 24 from 1: 30 to 4PM: Wisdom Deity Blessing by Khen Rinpoche

For more information call 413-577-2486 or email

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Women Without Shadows

Women Without Shadows (Haifaa al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia, 2005, 44 minutes, in Arabic with English subtitles) This documentary by Saudi Arabia’s first female filmmaker addresses important issues faced by women in Saudi society and beyond. Screening will be followed by a panel discussion. More Information

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What did you think of the Cedar Lake Ballet?

If any of you readers out there had the chance to see the dancers of Cedar Lake perform this past Saturday in the FAC’s Concert Hall, let us know what you thought of the performance. Was it the music that wowed you the most? Did you like the style of choreography? What didn’t you like? Would you ever want to see it again?

Feedback is a main way of gauging the success of our events so all of your comments are greatly appreciated.

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Chucho Valdés

Chucho Valdés and the Afro-Cuban Messengers performed at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on Tuesday, October 19th.

Hailed as “one of the world’s greatest virtuosic pianists” by The New York Times, perennial Grammy Award winner Chucho Valdés has recorded over eighty CDs and performed with countless jazz masters. In his first US tour in eight years, he appeared at the FAC with the fabled Afro-Cuban Messengers.

Chucho’s music is deeply influenced by the African spritual rites that thrive to this day in Cuba. Chucho is himself a devotee of the Santeria pantheon: Chango, Babalu-Aye, and others. Many—if not most—of the vocals you’ll hear during a Chucho performance are in the Congolese Lucumí language, straight from Dahomey, Côte d’Ivoire, and elsewhere in west Africa. And in the midsts of these paens to African Orisha spirits you’re likely to hear snatches of Brahms and other classical composers. Chucho represents the main streams of influence in Cuban music: the African and the European, and his be-bop background is well attested in recordings with Dizzy Gillespie and others. He’s truly an eclectic musical treasure.

If you attended the show and want to hear more of Chucho’s fire-eating, classically-tinged technique, check out this amazing video. (Buried in this incandescently played Cuban son [a rural song form] is C.P.E. Bach’s Solfeggietto!) And this video of Chucho’s duet with his father Bebo playing a traditional Carnival tune titled “La Comparsa” is priceless.

Says All About Jazz, “he can [play] with the soft grace of Bill Evans and dazzle with the thunderous dexterity of Art Tatum.”