ATLANTA SHOWGUIDE SPOTLIGHTS

Atlanta Dance Theatre’s Aladdin Spring 2020: March 20-22

From a Far East market to a royal castle, leap aboard the magic carpet to experience the adventure as Atlanta Dance Theatre presents the mystical tale of Aladdin, choreographed by Kassandra Taylor Newberry.

Atlanta Dance Theatre, photo by Abbey Warner, Boas and Bowties Fundraiser performance

In his search for riches and a beautiful princess, Aladdin discovers a magical lamp and a Genie who grants wishes. But, what will it take to spoil the plans of the evil sorceress and win the heart of Jasmine?

This ballet is filled with colorful characters, exploits and romance. Your entire family will delight in the dazzling costumes, amazing dance talent and enchanting performance.

Tickets: www.SpringBalletConcert.com

Alliance Theatre Summer Camps are On Sale Now!

For more than 40 years, the Alliance Theatre has proudly offered drama camps to the Atlanta community, providing opportunities for children and teens to expand their creativity and collaboration skills through the process of making theater. Having grown the program to satellite locations, there are more opportunities for students to get involved in locations like First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, the Galloway School, the Lovett School, Mount Paran Christian School, Alpharetta Arts Center, Grove Park, and Oglethorpe University. Through creative writing, improv, and performing, the Alliance offers a unique opportunity for students to fully participate in the joy of creating theater. Please consider spending a portion of your summer with the Alliance. Classes range from 1-2 weeks, and run May through August. www.alliancetheatre.org/dramacamp

Arís presents “Fighting Words” by Canadian Playwright Sunil Kuruvilla.

In 1980, Welsh boxer Johnny Owen traveled from the small Welsh mining town of Merthyr Tydfil to Los Angeles to challenge Lupe Pintor for the world bantamweight title, a fight which ultimately ended in tragedy. One hundred men from the town accompanied Owen to watch the fight at ringside. “Fighting Words” is the story of three women who stayed behind with their hopes, fears and circumscribed lives.

New York’s TheatreMania calls it “a tough-minded, compassionate play”.

At 7 Stages Theatre Back Stage, April 10- 26, tickets at www.aristheatre.org.

Styx will rock the stage at Ameris Bank

Come Sail Away with Styx and the Atlanta Symphony Styx will rock the stage at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre alongside the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on April 19 as part of the ASO’s 75th Anniversary Season-long celebration. The six men comprising Styx have committed to rocking the Paradise together with audiences far and wide by entering their second decade of averaging over 100 shows a year. Styx draws from over four decades of barn burning chart hits, joyous singalongs, and hard-driving deep cuts. Like a symphony that builds to a satisfying crescendo, a Styx set covers a wide range of stylistic cornerstones. Be sure to catch Styx alongside the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra this April in Alpharetta. For tickets and more information, visit www.aso.org.

Try a Drop-in Adult Dance Class at Atlanta Ballet

The Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education offers a variety of drop-in classes for adults (ages 18 and up) at its three studio locations: West Midtown, Buckhead, and VirginiaHighland. There’s no contract so you can take a class when it fits your schedule. There are classes for everyone — from the person trying ballet Roswell Dance Theatre, for the first time to experienced dancers! Classes include ballet,modern, hip-hop, and jazz. When your resolve to keep your New Year’s resolutions starts to wane, dance is a great way to kick-start your fitness routine and discover new interests.www.centre.atlantaballet.com/adult-classes

Atlanta Ballet, Fuki Takahashi & Dlyan Clinard in Catch, photo by Kim Kenney 2019

Atlanta Master Chorale Presents Two Spring Concerts

March 6 & 7: A big part of what makes us human is our ability to form such questions as Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? In music, we find reflections of our hopes and dreams, of love and loss. Join AMC as we ponder questions and conundrums large and small. May 1 & 2: This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Beethoven. In celebration, AMC will present Beethoven’s masterpiece choral work — Missa Solemnis. An orchestra and guest soloists will join to present this distinguished composition. Advance tickets are now available; $30/$45 - adults, $25/$40 — senior/groups/Emory staff and $10/$15 — students. www.atlantamasterchorale.org.

Ballethnic Dance Company Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Join Ballethnic Dance Company as we celebrate the 30th Anniversary of artistic enrichment and dance excellence. For 30 years, we have ignited our audiences with amazing stories that reflect a diverse community. Ballethnic’s signature Ballet The Leopard Tale returns March 19 - 22 at Porter Sanford III Performing Arts Center for the Arts. Known as the “Magic Tale “audiences experience graceful ballet technique and energetic African dance intermingled in this exciting tale of survival in the African jungle. The Leopard Tale’s lively African drumming and original music, composed by L. Gerard Reid, underscore thedance diversity and artistic range of Ballethnic Dance Company. The ballet, choreographed by Waverly T. Lucas II, Ballethnic Dance Company’sco-founder, continues to be a popular family classic.www.ballethnic.org

Ballethnic Dance Company

Alabama Shakespeare Festival Celebrates Shakespeare

Alabama Shakespeare Festival takes audiences on a historical journey through the South this March with plays running concurrently on the Festival and Octagon Stages. Ruby: The Story of Ruby Bridges uses songs reminiscent of the 1960s to explore a little girl’s unbeatable courage to integrate a New Orleans school. Alabama Story recounts the true fight between a librarian in Montgomery, Alabama and a segregationist senator determined to ban a children’s book.

Later this spring, ASF celebrates Shakespeare with spellbinding performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the enchanting Shakespeare Garden. Sean Graney’s creative adaptation of Shakespeare’s farcical The Comedy of Errors takes the Festival Stage with six actors masterfully portraying 20 characters. Spring wraps up in the Octagon with Lauren Gunderson’s captivating I and You, which depicts an unlikely friendship as an ode to youth, life, and love. To purchase tickets, visit www.ASF.net.

Oglethorpe’s World Class Conant Performing Arts Center

Visit Oglethorpe’s small, historic campus for theatre, concerts, and visual arts on a different scale. Oglethorpe’s intimate 550-seat Conant Performing Arts Center is home to productions by the university’s acclaimed music and theatre programs, as well as student-led theatre and improv shows, and guest lecturers and local artist exhibitions. Top Atlanta arts organizations also grace our stages throughout the year, including Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Capitol City Opera, Atlanta Concert Opera, and Atlanta Harp Sound Ensemble. A teaching museum with a growing permanent collection, the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art hosts world-class exhibitions, lectures, and concerts. More information at www.oglethorpe.edu/arts.

MANIFOLDS — Core Dance

The word “manifold” can mean “a whole that unites or consists of many,” “a pipe fitting with several outlets for connecting with other pipes,” or in mathematics, “a continuous geometrical structure having finite dimension.” Taking on a new meaning, Rose Shields, in collaboration with Core Dance Artists and visual artist, Julia Hill has created MANIFOLDS, a new piece which seeks to explore themes of reality and how it can change. By distorting reality, this piece sparks the desire to be inquisitive. It reminds us to be ever-curious and unflinching in the pursuit of knowledge for things old and new. MANIFOLDS is about the many that make up a whole; the dimensions we inhabit and the points of view that make us individuals. For more info, visit www.coredance.org.

Core Dance

DanceMax Dancewear

DanceMax Dancewear is the preferred dance retailer in the South. We are the one stop dance shop for dance and performance needs! Customers travel from near and far for our vast inventory. They also come to experience our customer service provided by our knowledgeable and welltrained staff.

DanceMax Dancewear Studio Beginners

DanceMax was opened in 2011 by Lorna Handy who had 30 years’ experience in dance retail. Her goal was to truly cater to customers’ needs by having inventory necessary for customers, and then to be an industry leader by having the newest trends in dancewear as well as the everyday classics. www.dancemaxdancewear.com IG: @dancemaxdancewear

Move to the Decatur Beat!

Get in the Decatur groove with performances by Core Dance in their Sycamore Street studio. Be thrilled by evening demonstrations on the square by Decatur’s own Capoeira Maculele. Heat it up with Salsa on the Square in July — a joyous, dance party forall. Can’t salsa? Friendly experts will show you how! The Decatur Craft Beer Festival (October) and the Decatur Wine Festival (November) are famous for spontaneous dance parties. Buskers set toes to tapping on ourdowntown streets with tunes from a variety of genres. It’s all just minutes away via MARTA. Visitors Center: 113 Clairemont Ave., Decatur 30030. www.visitdecaturga.com

Emory — Honors in Dance: Intelligent Design

Maria McNiece’s honors thesis is a modern dance piece inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. This interdisciplinary research project is rooted in dance, English, and theater scholarship. Through an extensive exploration of Beckett’s absurdist play, McNiece investigates the themes of existentialism and religious allegory to create a work that embodies questions regarding human agency. McNiece is inspired by how choreographers integrate text into their movement generation exercises and applies similar approaches to her own physical research. In collaboration with her dancers, McNiece strives to uphold Waiting for Godot‘s timeless themes, while also allowing them to develop in new ways. www.arts.emory.edu

Emory University Dance

Georgia Ballet Presents Coppelia

In celebration of their 60th anniversary season — The Georgia Ballet isproud to present Coppelia — taking place Thursday, March 19 – Sunday, March 22 at the Jennie T. Anderson Theater (548 South Marietta Pkwy SE, Marietta, GA 30060). Opening Night, Thursday, March 19 — is the Sensory Friendly Performance, tailored to children and adults with visual andauditory sensitivities. You do not want to miss this romantic comedy of foolish fantasies and mistaken identities featuring two villagers, Frantz and Swanilda, alongside the curious workings of their eccentric neighbor Dr. Coppelius, a madinventor who has taken to creating life-like automatons. Tickets are on sale now at www.georgiaballet.org/season. Group discounts are also available. For additional information, please call 770.528.0881. The Georgia Ballet was founded in 1960 with a mission to inspire the public and students through professional ballet performance, unparalleled dance training, and meaningful community outreach.

Georgia Ballet's Coppélia

Georgia Tech Arts from MOMIX to Scrap Arts Music

Georgia Tech Arts connects audiences with engaging works by artists from across the globe who are incorporating innovative technologies into their creative explorations. Fill your dance card with us this spring! Get transported from the everyday by MOMIX’s magical imagery and stunning physicality (March 1); wonder at the blend of dance and computer animation by Japanese dance ensemble enra (March 27); be moved by the action-choreography of Scrap Arts Music (April 17). Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center for the Arts, 349 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA 30332. Tickets online at www.tickets.arts.gatech. edu, over the phone at 404.894.9600, and in person at the venue.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre Finishes its 27th Season

Georgia Ensemble Theatre will finish its 27th season with the Broadway musical, Bright Star, by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Directed by Justin Anderson with musical direction by Chris Damiano, Bright Star tells the tale of a newspaper editor in 1940s North Carolina who sets out to find the true story of her difficult past. A beautiful, homey musical that moves back and forth in time, don’t miss this heartwarming Appalachian story built around a gorgeous bluegrass score from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. This professional production runs only three weeks, April 2-19 at GET’s home at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. Visit www.get.org for tickets and details.

Kennesaw State University Dance Theater

KSU welcomes Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre and neo-classical ballet inspired by the legends of Greek mythology. An Atlanta premiere, Under the Olive Tree first premiered with New Orleans Ballet Theater in 2016; Tara Lee’s fluid choreography captures the personalities and stories of the Greek gods and goddesses. Horizons by Heath Gill premiered at Terminus’ outdoor performance home, Serenbe, and will be uniquely adapted for a traditional indoor theater. Inspired by the tale of Icarus, the dramatic lighting complements Gill’s storytelling and athletic movement style.

Modern Myths: Fri, Mar 6, 8:00 PM and Sat, Mar 7 8:00 PM www.arts.kennesaw.edu/dance/ performances.php

KSU Student Dance Concert - Taylor Wheatley & Hoke Payne

Michael O’Neal Singers Artistic Excellence in Chorus

The Michael O’Neal Singers (MOS) organization has established itself as one of the premier community choruses in the Southeastern United States and is now celebrating its 31st concert season. Composed of a symphonic chorus of over 140 auditioned voices and the Kaleidoscope vocal ensemble of 40, MOSprovides a unique opportunity to the north metropolitan Atlantacommunity to experience choral presentations of artistic excellence andprogrammatic variety. Our 2019-2020 season continues with a diverse and humorous performance entitled A Musical Smorgasbord: Songs of Food andDrink in late February, and Lord Nelson Mass, J.F. Haydn’s amazingmasterwork, in March. Visit www.mosingers.com for more information about The Michael O’Neal Singers.

Gwinnett Ballet Theatre, Pas De Quatre, Photo by Richard Calmes

The Rialto Center for the Arts at Georgia State University

The Rialto Center, Where Atlanta Meets the World, continues its 2020 Rialto Series season with international performances and jazz greats! February features Joe Gransden and Tierney Sutton with the GSU Jazz Band performing a tribute to legendary songwriter Johnny Mercer, GRAMMY-winning composer/trumpeter Terence Blanchard, and Argentinian dance troupe Ché Malambo with their fiery footwork, drumming and whirling of boleadoras. March brings NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater and the musical satire of the Capitol Steps. The season wraps up in April with GRAMMY-winning saxophonist Tom Scott and the “Queen of Afro-Peruvian Soul”, Eva Ayllón. For details and tickets visit www.rialto.gsu.edu.

UGA Presents REPERTORY 2020 Visionary Momentum

REPERTORY 2020 Visionary Momentum, the 2020 Spring Dance Concert, will be presented by the University of Georgia Department of Dance on April 2-4 at 8 p.m. and April 4 at 2 p.m. in the New Dance Theatre, located in the Dance Building between Soule and Green Streets (off Sanford Drive). The performance features original works created by dance faculty and guest artists for UGA dance students. For tickets, call the UGA Performing Arts Center box office at 706-542-4400, online at www.pac.uga.edu, or purchase at the Tate Student Center. Tickets will be available at the door one hour before each performance.

UGA Dance CORE

Roswell Dance Theatre Presents Cinderella

What really happens to the pumpkin? Does the clock strike 12 as expected? It’s a perfect fit for all ages as the cast of professionals and aspiring young artists express the well-known elements of Cinderella’s transformation. Presented at the Byers Theatre, there is a castle, a fairy godmother, a carriage, a fabulous ball, an important clock and thelegendary magical slipper. On the way to her future, Cinderella workshard, faces obstacles, and experiences magical moments, all told throughthe beauty of both classical and contemporary ballet. March 20-22,Byers Theatre in Sandy Springs, All Ages – Tickets:www.SpringBalletConcert.com.

Roswell Dance Theatre, Mary Poppins, 2018, photo by Richard Calmes Photography