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Madison Ballet turns in pleasing Nutcracker
on 12/21/09 at 10:01 am | Madison Ballet's Nutcracker faced big obstacles this year. Still, despite setbacks, the company turned in a solid holiday performance. |
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Solid performances in Dance Wisconsin's Nutcracker Fantasy
on 12/14/09 at 11:53 am | Despite the threat of freezing rain, Dance Wisconsin's performance of Nutcracker Fantasy last Saturday at Wisconsin Union Theater was very well attended. This version of Nut, an annual production, was reassembled from the original by Dance Wisconsin artistic director JoJean Retrum. |
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Step Afrika! explores a percussive movement tradition
on 12/04/09 at 9:00 am | Although Overture Center does its best to play safe, every now and then the performance palace's programmers go out on a limb and bring in an edgy, must-see show. Step Afrika! is one of those. Steeped in African American history, mashed up with South African roots and slicked with contemporary production values, this rhythm company serves up a supersize shot of soul. |
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Handful of standout pieces in Kanopy Dance Company's fall concert Autumn Heart
on 11/16/09 at 10:47 am | Autumn Heart, the late fall concert by Kanopy Dance Company at Overture's Promenade Hall last weekend, was predictably inconsistent. Three standouts rescued the eight-piece program from the dustbin of unmemorable Madison dance performances. |
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Carlota Santana brings flamenco to the concert stage
on 11/06/09 at 9:00 am | Flamenco's a cultural expression born of poverty, sex and violence in the medieval merchant ports of southern Spain. Culturally it's Spanish, Jewish, Moorish, Romani. As an art form it has churned for centuries on the rocks of politics and fashion. Flamenco's run the gamut of venues from street corners to taverns and proscenium arch theaters. |
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A visit by Cuban painter Orestes Larios Zaaka and sculptor Gregorio Perez Escobar
on 10/30/09 at 9:00 am | Finally, here's some change we can believe in. The U.S. blockade on Cuba is alive and well, but Obama's given us wiggle room. For the first time since the start of W's second term, Cuban artists can get visas to visit the States. Thanks to impressive efforts by the Madison-Camagüey Sister City Association, with support from Edgewood College, the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, and the Overture and Pleasant T. Rowland Foundations, painter Orestes Larios Zaak and sculptor Gregorio Pérez Escobar will be our guests. It's part of the Madison-Camagüey association's 15th anniversary celebration. |
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Two premieres in Li Chiao Ping's eastern-themed Pagoda
on 10/26/09 at 10:55 am | I saw Li Chiao Ping's Pagoda, a repertory evening with two premieres, at the Wisconsin Union Theater Saturday night. Li conceived the program as a structure to house eight of her eastern-themed works -- six repertory repeats and two premieres. |
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Jane Monheit's songbook spans decades
on 10/23/09 at 9:00 am | At the dawn of the new century, ex-Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins called Big Apple songstress Jane Monheit, then making her debut, a wannabe. Monheit's come a long way. Her last two CDs, Surrender (2007) and The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me (this year), both on Concord, put her in the big leagues. Monheit appears Oct. 23 at the Wisconsin Union Theater with her regular band of hubby Rick Montalbano on drums, Michael Kanan on keys and Neal Miner on bass. |
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Jungle Jack Hanna advocates for wildlife
on 10/16/09 at 9:00 am | When I was a kid in Chicago the whole family used to gather around the black-and-white Motorola for Marlin Perkins' Sunday afternoon Zoo Parade, broadcast live from Lincoln Park. Today my sibling the PETA activist and I disagree vehemently on the nature of zoos. To him they're prisons; to me they look like endangered species' best refuge. |
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Ricardo Gonzalez reopens his beloved Cardinal Bar
on 10/09/09 at 9:00 am | This weekend the Cardinal Bar, with Ricardo Gonzalez back at the helm, is reborn. Ochun, orisha of love, rejoices, dancing voluptuously. You can, too. The Cardinal's gala opening lasts all weekend long. Let me fill you in. |
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Tracy Nelson and Ben Sidran join for a cause
on 10/09/09 at 9:00 am | Hard-core Madison boomers like me will be thrilled to hear that two of the most famous musicians to come out of this town -- Tracy Nelson and Ben Sidran -- reunite Oct. 9 at the Barrymore Theatre. It's the quintessential Mad City event -- a benefit for a great cause, the Hackett Hemwall Foundation, which takes medical care to our sisters and brothers in the Third World. |
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UW professors begin dance season with challenging works
on 10/02/09 at 9:00 am | If the dance-tainment that prevails this season seems too safe, take a ride on the edgy side with "Causeway," the first concert in the UW Dance Program's fall lineup. The show unveils two new Madison-based professional companies, both directed by UW dance profs hired last year -- Chris Walker and Kate Corby. |
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Top picks for the Overture and Wisconsin Union Theater seasons
on 09/18/09 at 9:00 am | It's September already -- time for my annual opinionated guide to the 2009-2010 performing arts schedules at the city's downtown culture palaces. So here's opinion number one. Overture Center is playing it safe, since a handful of edgier shows in the Capitol Theater last year took financial hits. The Wisconsin Union Theater's still taking risks, but the season's a pared-down version of its former self. |
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Madison World Music Festival 2009 hosts global village of acts
on 09/11/09 at 9:00 am | The Great Recession can't stop the sixth annual Madison World Music Festival. It's the city's splashiest single-payer party, provided free for all by the Wisconsin Union Theater with a little help from friends and funders. |
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The Marquette Waterfront Festival has boomed over 20 years
on 06/12/09 at 9:00 am | The 20th Marquette Waterfront Festival brings a sizzling lineup of local acts and emerging world music stars to Yahara Place Park on Saturday and Sunday, June 13 and 14. My, how this festival's grown |
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Isthmus Jazz Fest headliner David Sánchez keeps the form vital
on 06/05/09 at 9:00 am | The Isthmus Jazz Festival peaks on Saturday, June 6, at the Wisconsin Union Theater with David Sánchez and his post-bop quartet. Sánchez is the top tenor saxman in a new-century florescence of Latin-tinged Big Apple jazz led by players with superlative chops -- conservatory-trained expats from across the Caribbean and the continent who bring their own heritages to the table. |
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Li Chiao-Ping delivers seven stunning solos in 'Women Dancing'
on 05/11/09 at 1:30 pm | Li Chiao-Ping's "Women Dancing," at the Wisconsin Union Theater last Saturday night, consisted of seven solos made for the Madison-based artist by a who's who of postmodern choreographers. These are edgy works and Li's dancing looks peak. |
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Dobet Gnahore stays true to her roots
on 05/01/09 at 9:00 am | Rising Afropop star Dobet Gnahore made her Madison debut on Putumayo's Acoustic Africa tour in the fall of 2006. She's been back twice in quick succession, performing in the 2007 Madison World Music Festival at Willy Street Fair, and again last summer at the Fête de Marquette. Gnahore makes her fourth stop in town when she takes the Wisconsin Union Theater World Stage May 1. |
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Mariza sings Portugal's roots music
on 04/03/09 at 9:00 am | Fadista diva Mariza brings her mesmerizing voice and enormous Euro-chic charisma back to the Wisconsin Union Theater on April 8, nearly five years after her Madison debut. |
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Kanopy Dance of Madison and WADOMA's uneven collaboration
on 03/23/09 at 12:00 pm | Dance Here, Dance Now, the annual fusion show by Kanopy Dance Company, took on West African themes with local drum and dance company WADOMA last weekend at Overture's Promenade Hall. On the bill were two Kanopy-style modern works, a pair of WADOMA's pieces and two synthetic compositions. Dance Here, Dance Now, like many of Kanopy's efforts, was uneven in both dance quality and choreographic content. |
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Afro-Cuban All Stars hit Madison after years of delay
on 03/13/09 at 9:00 am | The Afro-Cuban All Stars are back! The show I've been waiting for since 2002 brings aché to Overture Hall Friday night. The buzz on the street? The All Stars are on fire. The crowd that packed UC-Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall last week was dancing on top of the seats. |
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Multiple perspectives in a little off kilter by Li Chiao-Ping Dance
on 03/09/09 at 12:00 pm | The production a little off kilter, presented by Li Chiao-Ping Dance in Overture's Promenade Hall last weekend, was aimed, according to Li's program notes, at the mind-head-body mystery in all its "infuriatingly and wonderfully so nutty" glory. |
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A reduced Hubbard Street company performs at Overture
on 02/26/09 at 9:00 am | Hubbard Street Dance makes its annual Overture Hall appearance on Feb. 28. Chicago's best-known company has major mainstream appeal. I've seen people near tears at a sellout. Despite the downturn, Hubbard Street's loyal local fans will probably fill the theater. |
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Andy Bey keeps jazz vital
on 02/13/09 at 9:00 am | Andy Bey -- vocalist, pianist, composer -- is the most important obscure jazz artist you need to hear these days. Even if you're a die-hard jazz fan, chances are you've never heard Bey play live -- I haven't. But my old friend Bobby Baker, who played alto sax with Madison's '60s jazz fusion band Sebastian Moon and whose knowledge of the music is encyclopedic, is ahead of the pack. Bey's a genius, Baker says. "He pulls no punches with his art. His delivery's unique. He has a message to get out, a story to tell." |
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Kanopy Dance Company packs new punch with Dark Nights
on 02/09/09 at 3:00 pm | The Kanopy Dance Company program Dark Nights: Miserere, For the Refugees of the World, which I saw Friday night in Overture's Promenade Hall, was a solid arrangement of revamped repertory works by the company's co-artistic directors, Lisa Thurrell and Robert Cleary. |
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Dr. John and the Nevilles get Mardi Gras started in Madison
on 02/06/09 at 9:00 am | Mad City's Mardi Gras kicks off with a big-time Big Easy double whammy when Dr. John and the Neville Brothers put voodoo on you at Overture Hall Wednesday night. Are you ready? |
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Passion for movement
on 01/30/09 at 9:00 am | Chris Walker dances with the orishas in the university's hallowed Lathrop Hall. The UW Dance Program assistant prof is a long way from his native Jamaica, but the walls of his cozy fourth-floor office sport big pictures of Ochun, Oyá, Obatalá, Changó and Yemayá. Even in the dead of winter the Afro-Caribbean saints seem content in their new surroundings. |
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East Village Opera Company funks up the classics
on 01/23/09 at 9:00 am | Roll over, Beethoven! The East Village Opera Company brings operatic arias that rock with rhythm and blues to Overture's Capitol Theater next Thursday, Jan. 29. Don't expect Tommy or Rennie Harris' hip hopera Rome and Jewels, and don't think kitsch. The EVOC deconstructs arias from the 18th and 19th centuries with a brainy palette of pop dance beats, and the results are seriously sophisticated. |
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Madison's Imitations were the sound of '60s radicalism
on 01/16/09 at 9:00 am | Last summer, on the Union Terrace, Big Apple sax player Michael Moss dropped a CD in my lap. Moss is married to modern dancer Judith Moss, who teaches a popular summer class through UW Continuing Studies. All three of us were undergrads here in the '60s. "This'll take you back," Moss said, eyeing the disc. The hand-done letters sprawled across the Memorex said "Fabulous Imitations, Great Hall '65." |
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Bobby McFerrin and the simplest form of expression
on 01/16/09 at 9:00 am | Bobby McFerrin is happy about Obama, but don't expect him to sing his famous "Don't Worry, Be Happy" when he unleashes those rangy pipes at Overture Hall next Thursday night. |
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