Houston Lifestyles and Homes Magazine Oct 2009: Performing Arts - Virsky Ukrainian, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony

Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company

Society For The Performing Arts, Oct. 2

For more than 70 years, the Ukraine’s professional dance company has won the hearts of audiences around the world with its passionate performances exhibiting the romance and exquisite charm of Ukrainian folk dancing. The color, beauty and folk tradition of the Ukraine are trademarks of this 85-member ensemble that celebrates the spirit of a culture through dance. By combining brilliant ballet techniques with traditional Ukrainian folk dance, founder Pavlo Virsky created a company that gained worldwide acclaim for its technically superb and innovative choreography. Now under the direction of Artistic Director Myroslav Vantukh, this dance troupe has charmed audiences all over the world with its diverse programs that embrace the charm and tradition of Ukrainian folk dance.

For more information, go to spahouston.org.

without boundaries

Houston Ballet, Through Oct. 4

Houston Ballet presents Without Boundaries, the company’s fall mixed repertory program featuring three works that easily traverse the boundary between classical ballet and modern dance.

The program features pieces by three of the most acclaimed dance makers working in the world today: Twyla Tharp ’s breathtaking tour-de-force, In The Upper Room, Jiří Kylián’s mesmerizing and multi-layered study in motion and minimalism, Falling Angels, and the world premiere of Stanton Welch’s Elements, set to the music of Paul Hindemith. Houston Ballet will give six performances of Without Boundaries at Wortham Theater Center. To puchase tickets, call 713-227-2787 or go to

www.houstonballet.org.

No Zoning: Artists
Engage Houston

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Through Oct. 4

No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston is the first museum exhibition to consider the current and past efforts of regional artists working in the urban environment.

The exhibition features works by approximately 18 individuals and collaborative teams. No Zoning includes examples and documentation of important city interventions and visionary structures from the 1980s to the present, and incorporates a combination performance, lecture and video screening space that presents special programs during the museum ’s extended Thursday evening hours. In addition, a series of special artistic programs and educational tours are located throughout the city. For more information, go to www.camh.org.

a little day music series

Da Camera Of Houston, Oct. 7, Nov. 4, Dec. 2

Da Camera of Houston’s long-standing A Little Day Music series of free lunchtime concerts returns to the Grand Foyer of the Wortham Theater Center on Oct. 7 at noon. The popular series of chamber music and jazz concerts is especially attractive to downtown workers.

A Little Day Music is presented on the first Wednesday of every month and continues in November with the Da Camera Young Artists and in December with a holiday jazz program by the Sam Dinkins III Quartet.

Concertgoers are encouraged to enjoy their lunch while listening to the music. For more information, call 713-524-5050 or go to www.dacamera.com.

Joaquín Torres-García: Paintings in Houston Collections

Museum Of Fine Arts Houston, Through Nov. 29

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston will showcase a selection of key paintings by Joaqu ín Torres-García through Nov. 29. He is one of the most influential Latin American artists and theorists of the first half of the 20th century.

Joaquín Torres-García: Paintings in Houston Collections features a dozen paintings all culled from major Houston collections. The exhibition complements Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood, an exhibition of more than 80 wooden constructions. These two exhibitions will be the first to present Torres-Garc ía’s work in the United States in over 40 years.

For more information, call 713-639-7300 or go to www.mfah.org.

Joaquín Torres-García: Constructing Abstraction with Wood

The Menil Collection, Through Jan. 3, 2010

The Joaquin Torres-Garcia: Constructing Abstraction With Wood exhibition will center chiefly on works from the 1920s to the 1940s, spanning the time when Torres-Garc ía lived in Spain, New York, Italy and France, developing toys and the vocabulary for his wood constructions,
to his eventual settlement in Uruguay
as the founder of a Constructivist art movement.

These sculptural works will be accompanied by a selection of Torres-García’s oil paintings and drawings, which demonstrate the connections between his experiments in two- and three-dimensional forms.

Celebrated for his work as a modernist painter, teacher and author, Torres-García is also known for breaking new ground in the realm of wooden constructions or “maderas.” Beginning in the late 1920s in Paris, Torres-García adapted the language of Neo-Plasticism from his colleagues Mondrian and Van Doesburg into a new three-dimensional concept for grids and planes made of wood. These maderas informed his simultaneous experiments in children ’s toys, which he promoted and sold as educational tools for young minds.

For more information, go to www.menil.org or call 713-525-9400.

Meet me in st. louis

Theatre Under the Stars, Through Oct. 11

Meet Me in St. Louis makes its TUTS debut as a lavish stage musical. Gorgeous turn-of-last-century costumes, a wonderful score and the warm humor of nostalgic romance combine in a brand-new show with old-fashioned appeal for all ages. With a real moving trolley to make Esther ’s heartstrings go “zing zing zing!” and a Victorian home setting that even Martha Stewart would endorse, Meet Me in St. Louis is a wonderful classic from the golden age of musical comedy. It’s a cavalcade of family fun.

For more information, go to www.tuts.com or call 713-558-TUTS.

American string quartet with Menachem Pressler

Houston Friends of Music, Oct. 13

One of the world’s finest quartets, the American String Quartet, celebrated its 33rd anniversary last year. In over three decades of touring, the American String Quartet has performed in all 50 states and virtually every important concert hall throughout the world.

Internationally active as soloist and chamber musician, Menachem Pressler was a founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio. He established himself among the world ’s most distinguished and honored musicians, with a career that spans over five decades. American String Quartet will perform in Stude Concert Hall.

For more information, go to www.HoustonFriendsofMusic.org or call 713-348-5400.

Ballet Etóile

Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Oct. 15 - 17

Like many companies around the world, Dominic Walsh Dance Theater will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes this season with special performances on Oct. 15-17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts.

This era has always fascinated choreographer and artistic director Dominic Walsh because of the vision of a total work of art, one in which dance, music, dramaturgy and decor combine to be greater than the sum of its parts.

To celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Ballet Russes and honor the great Diaghilev, Walsh will offer his 21st century take on classics from the era —The Firebird, The Afternoon of a Faun and The Dying Swan along with a revival of his breathtaking Le Spectre de la Rose.

For more information, go to www.dwdt.org.

Mary Poppins

Broadway Across America, Oct. 22 - Nov. 8

The world’s most famous nanny will arrive at the Hobby Center on Oct. 22. Combining the best of the original stories by P. L. Travers and the beloved Walt Disney film, the Tony Award-winning Mary Poppins is everything anyone would hope for in a Broadway musical—and more. Produced by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, the show includes such wonderful songs as Chim Chim Cher-ee, A Spoonful of Sugar, Let’s Go Fly a Kite and, of course, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The NY Daily News hails Mary Poppins as “a roof-raising, toe-tapping, high-flying extravaganza!” For more information, go to www.broadwayacrossamerica.com.

Josephine Meckseper

Blaffer Gallery, Through Nov. 14

Josephine Meckseper’s work engages leftist theories and politics in a consumerist reality. Specifically, she examines the semantics of media propaganda as well as capitalist sales and advertising strategies. The exhibition at Blaffer Gallery, curated by Cynthia Woods Mitchell Curatorial Fellow Rachel Hooper, will contain Meckseper ’s documentary photographs of anti-war protests; her signature mannequin and product display installations; two videos, 0% Down (2008) and Mall of America (2009); and a new installation created on site—a replication of the stage sets used during U.S. presidential television debates.

For more information, go to www.blaffergallery.org or call 713-743-2255.

The Moon: “Houston, Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle Has Landed”

Museum Fine Arts Houston, Through Jan. 10

The Museum Fine Arts Houston celebrates the 40th anniversary of the landing on the moon with The Moon: “Houston, Tranquility Base Here. The Eagle Has Landed.” The exhibition pays tribute to the achievements of the Apollo space missions.

This exhibition provides an overview of 500 years of fascination with the ever-changing phases, yet ever-constant image of the moon. Approximately 130 works of art will be on view and will feature some of the most groundbreaking treatises on the moon as well as 17th-century telescopes and other early scientific instruments, moon globes and maps. For more information, go to www.mfah.org.