The Joffrey Ballet Fleck, Hussain, Meyer
Spamalot Andes Manta Pinnacle Award Summer Movies Andrew Jenks
Places April-May 2011
A preview of Performing Arts at Johnson County Community College www.jccc.edu/TheSeries
The Joffrey Ballet
Joffrey Ballet is America’s ‘first’
The Joffrey Ballet
The Joffrey Ballet has been hailed as “America’s Ballet Company of Firsts.” The Joffrey Ballet’s list of “firsts” includes first dance company to perform at the White House at Jacqueline Kennedy’s invitation, first to appear on television, first American company to visit Russia, first classical dance company to go multimedia, first to commission a rock ‘n‘roll ballet and first and only dance company to appear on the cover of Time magazine. And a first for Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College — The Joffrey Ballet will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 2, in Yardley Hall, Carlsen Center. The one-and-a-half hour program will feature Reflections, choreography by Gerald Arpino, music by Tchaikovsky; … smile with my heart, choreography, Lar Lubovitch, music, Richard Rodgers; Sea Shadow, choreography, Arpino, music, Ravel; and Age of Innocence, choreography, Edwaard Liang, music, Philip Glass and Thomas Newman. … smile will be accompanied by live solo piano. Ashley Wheater will give a pre-concert lecture at 7 p.m. The company was founded in 1956 by visionary teacher Robert Joffrey who discovered and introduced innumerable modern dance choreographers to ballet audiences. He invited great living ballet choreographers to revive some of their “lost” masterworks and, in the process, assembled one of the most diverse repertoires in the world. His own ballets indicate his varied interests, from the classical Pas Des Déesses to the multimedia Astarte (seen on the cover of Time magazine in 1968), the romantic Remembrances to the evocative Postcards (the last piece Joffrey made for the company). After Joffrey died in 1988, Gerald Arpino, company co-founder, assumed the role of artistic director while continuing his title of resident choreographer.
Arpino produced America’s first full-evening rock ballet, Billboards, set to the music of Prince. The Joffrey Ballet continues under internationally renowned Ashley C. Wheater, named as artistic director in 2007, an appointment approved by Arpino before his death. Wheater, who was born in Scotland and raised in England, had a long and successful career as a principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, Joffrey Ballet and San Francisco Ballet. Wheater’s dancing career ended after he suffered a major neck injury. As the new artistic director of the 40-member Joffrey Ballet, Wheater is dedicated to the values of Joffrey and Arpino, reviving iconic classics as well as staging premieres. Today, the Joffrey, which has been hugely successful in its former residencies in New York and Los Angeles, lives permanently in a new facility, Joffrey Tower in Chicago’s theater district. The company’s commitment to accessibility is met through the most extensive touring schedule of any dance company in history, an innovative and highly effective education program and collaborations with a myriad of other visual and performing arts organizations. Classically trained to the highest standards, the Joffrey Ballet expresses a unique, inclusive perspective on dance, proudly reflecting the diversity of America with its company, audiences and repertoire that includes major story ballets, reconstructions of masterpieces and contemporary works. The Joffrey was the first U.S. ballet company to do away with ranks, instead listing dancers in alphabetical order on programs. Joffrey Ballet has become one of the world’s most revered and recognizable arts organizations in America and one of the top ballet companies in the world. Tickets $55, $65
Three masterful genre benders, genre blenders
Fleck, Hussain and Meyer
It’s a small world after all – especially in the world of music. On tour with their newest CD, Melody of Rhythm — Triple Concerto and Music for Trio, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer combine Indian classical rhythms, bluegrass and Western orchestral style to create sounds of global harmony. Grammy award-winning banjoist Fleck; the greatest-living tabla player Hussain; and classical/jazz double-bass virtuoso Meyer, will perform in trio and stunning solos at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 16, in Yardley Hall.
music world at large as an international phenomenon. A classical tabla (Sanskrit for “drum”) virtuoso of the highest order, Hussain’s consistently brilliant performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his own country, India, but earned him worldwide fame. Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, Hussain’s contribution has been unique, with much historic collaboration. Hussain appeared with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, santoor, in Yardley Hall in March 2009.
Three of the most prolific creators and composers in the history of music, Fleck, Hussain and Meyer share an unprecedented array of projects and pairings. Together they touch every geographical and stylistic corner of the musical world. The trio released Melody of Rhythm, featuring The Melody of Rhythm Concerto commissioned for the opening of Nashville Symphony’s Schermerhorn Concert Hall in 2009, alongside their previous innovative CD — Triple Concerto for Banjo, Tabla and Double Bass.
Edgar Meyer is prominently established as a unique and masterful instrumentalist and has an active career as both a performer and a composer. As a solo classical bassist, he has performed on CD with prestigious chamber orchestras and artists such as Yo-Yo Ma. He won a Grammy for the album Appalachian Journey, recorded with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O’Connor. As a composer, he premiered a triple concerto for double bass, banjo and tabla for the opening of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, as well as a piece for double bass and piano that he performed with Emanuel Ax. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Award in 2002.
Béla Fleck has been called the premier banjo player in the world and has virtually reinvented the image and the sound of the banjo to combine classical, bluegrass and jazz music. Equally at home in the great classical halls and concert arenas of the world, Fleck has won 11 Grammy awards and has been nominated in more categories than anyone in Grammy history. Zakir Hussain is today appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the
Each a master of his own instrument and music genre, their collaboration moves music to an unexpected place, with predicted greatness. Tickets $35, $45 and $80 (orchestra pit)
Knighted and tighted, ‘Spamalot’ plays at JCCC
Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Tony Award-winning Monty Python’s Spamalot brings knights in tights to the local stage for one night only at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 1, in Yardley Hall. Telling the legendary tale of King Arthur, his knights of the Round Table and their quest for the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Spamalot features a chorus line of dancing divas and knights, flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and one legless knight.
Spamalot is not exactly like the film. For example it doesn’t come in a metal canister, but it does feature many of the same characters and the same sense of Python humor. Songs include Find Your Grail, He Is Not Dead Yet, The Song That Goes Like This, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and You Won’t Succeed on Broadway. Monty Python’s Spamalot “raises silliness to an art form” (The Sunday Times) and has been hailed as “a no-holds-barred smash hit.” (The New Yorker) Monty Python's Spamalot was the winner of three 2005 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Director, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for Best Musical. The original cast recording of Monty Python’s Spamalot won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. Based on the Tony Award-winning direction of Mike Nichols and the riotous choreography of Casey Nicholaw, Monty Python’s Spamalot features a book by Eric Idle, based on the screenplay of Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Monty Python creators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, with music and lyrics by the Grammy Award-winning team of Idle and John Du Prez. The fictitious Monty Python, first created in 1969 for their British comedy television show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, has grown to have a life of his own becoming the impresario who fronts films like The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, And Now for Something Completely Different and books including The Big Red Book and The Papperbok. This is his first Broadway show.
Spamalot’s medieval merry-making is best suited for those over the age of 12. Tickets $50, $60
Mountains breathe music into Andes Manta Andes Manta invites audiences to take a musical journey to the Andean mountains of South America as they perform vibrant music on more than 35 traditional instruments at 9:45 a.m. Friday, April 8, in Yardley Hall in a community and school show sponsored by the Performing Arts Series arts education program. From the lyrical sounds of the quena, or Andean flute, to the haunting tone of the 6-foot panpipe, Andean music is one of few authentic prehistoric culture forms to survive the 500 years of European occupation of South America. Many indigenous South Americans believe that it is the music that preserves the heart and soul of the ancient ones. Andes Manta performs time-honored music rooted in the cultural heritage of the Incas and their ancestors. The dynamic and mystical songs that they play are filled with the exquisite sounds of an ancient, yet still vital civilization. This music continues to be widely performed in the modern Andean nations of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Argentina. The four musicians who comprise Andes Manta today are brothers from Quito, Ecuador: Fernando Lopez, Luis Lopez, Bolivar Lopez and Jorge Lopez. Andes Manta has emerged as a musical force under the direction of founders Fernando (Wilson) Lopez and Luis Lopez. The members of this Andes Manta
group began playing at an early age using their distinct musical form to express the richness of their culture and traditions. They have performed at Carnegie Hall, Smithsonian Institution, Metropolitan Museum of the Art, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Yale University, Vassar College and hundreds of other schools and universities. Andes Manta has written and performed part of the score for the Discovery Channel special, Rediscovering America, as well as performing Latin American music for the World of Music series by Silver Burdett-Ginn. Andes Manta has recorded with Koch International, Narada Records and Living Music. The Lopez brothers as a group had no formal education in learning to play the instruments they themselves make by hand. Much of their music recreates the vitality of nature, the sound of wind, rain and birds. “Our music is the music of the people,” says Wilson Lopez. “With it we celebrate harvest, carnival, solstice, village life and religion.” “Our parents took us to village festivals, carnivals and ceremonial gatherings,” he explains. “We listened and observed the musicians and singers. This is the way children in our country learn to play melodies and fashion musical instruments.” Tickets $5
Mercier receives Pinnacle Award Story by Melodee Blobaum Q: Why is arts education important? A: I don’t know another area of study that can teach creativity as well as the arts. It’s that inherent freedom in the arts for discovery and expression. If you take away arts, you take away creativity. The arts allow you to escape to a part of your mind that you don’t go to every day, bringing new perspective.
Angel Mercier
Angel Mercier, program director for PAS arts education, was one of four people to receive a 2010 Pinnacle Award from the Johnson County Library Foundation in fall 2010. The honorees were selected because they demonstrate excellence in their professional fields or philanthropic pursuits. Mercier was honored for excellence in the arts. She’s been the director of JCCC’s Performing Arts Education program since 2000, serving as a liaison between JCCC and professional artists and teachers, developing teacher workshops that tie the arts to the core curricula and state academic standards in both Kansas and Missouri. We caught up with Mercier to ask her three questions.
Arts are also a great way to communicate diversity and new ideas. I look forward to working with artists from all over the world and artists who bring all ages and different kinds of people together. Quixotic Fusion (a group that performed at JCCC in October), for example, presented workshops in various software applications, lighting, 3-D animation, architectural mapping, fashion ... That’s what it’s all about, opening minds, a variety of learning environments … . Q: What are the biggest challenges to teaching arts in schools? A: The delivery system for the arts. It’s the amount of time that’s available in the classrooms. And for teachers, it’s the training needed to integrate arts into other classroom subjects. We provide teachers with arts integration training, while aligning with state standards. These are tools that give children a chance to learn differently … You can have a huge impact in an hour, and give students a vehicle to express themselves. I think good teaching provides
subject information and then gives the students permission to explore concepts, abstract ideas and different outcomes. Another challenge is public understanding of the essential life skills the arts teach: problem-solving, listening, analyzing, evaluating, discipline, all of which provide support systems for learning and critical thinking. Q: How can arts keep a high profile in a time of such economic uncertainty, when budget cutters are looking for places to trim costs? A: We have to have a collective voice in the community of what we want for our children. We need to work together, step up and stop marginalizing the value of the arts. Every position you lose in the arts takes years to get back, and the only way to stay above water is to work in collaboration. We can’t work separately for the arts any more. The Kansas Alliance for Arts Education is one unified response for Kansas educators and artists. We need to create an awareness of the 21st-century skills global movement to prepare students for our complex world by incorporating the four C’s (critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity and innovation) with the 3 R’s. Every child deserves an education that develops imagination and builds 21st-century skills, and the arts provide the tools to accomplish that goal.
Summer movie fun The Performing Arts Series will once again offer four free vintage movie musicals at 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 8-29, in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center. No tickets or reservations are required. • June 8 — Kiss Me Kate (Turner/MGM, 1953) • June 15 — Gigi (Turner/MGM, 1958) • June 22 — Bye Bye Birdie (Columbia Pictures, 1963) • June 29 — West Side Story (United Artists, 1961) “This is a good time for people from the community to come and visit the performing arts spaces,” said Emily Behrmann, general manager, Performing Arts Series. “The movies offer entertainment and a cool place to be on a hot summer day.” Patrons are encouraged to come early for parking since classes are in session. Pastry and coffee will be available for purchase before the films begin. Also, Café Tempo in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art is open for lunch, creating a fun movie-and-lunch outing.
Performing Arts Events J o h n s o n
C o u n t y
C o m m u n i t y
C o l l e g e
April 2011 Tuesday
For best seats, order early. Call 913-469-4445 or buy tickets online www.jccc.edu/TheSeries for tickets and information. Service fee applicable. 3
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
5 *Kimberly Krutz, bassoon
The Joffrey Ballet Purchase live online
6
7
8
9:45 a.m. Yardley Hall $5
Andrew Jenks, filmmaker,
12
Campus Activites Board 7 p.m. Polsky Theatre ($5 JCCC students) $15
16
15
*Mirage Quartet Ruel Joyce Recital Series
▲
noon Recital Hall
18 *Lisa Bergman, horn
17
14
13
Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer
8 p.m. Yardley Hall $35, $45, $80 orchestra pit
Mirage Quartet
19
Andrew Jenks
▲
11
9
Andes Manta
Jazz Series noon Recital Hall
Andes Manta
2 p.m. Yardley Hall $12 -$38
8 p.m. Yardley Hall $55, $65
community/school show
*Rob Whitsitt Quartet
Ruel Joyce Recital Series noon Recital Hall
Kansas City Symphony Family Series The Composer Is Dead
2
1
The Joffrey Ballet
4
10
Saturday
▲
Monday
▲
Sunday
20
21
23
22
Ruel Joyce Recital Series
noon Recital Hall
24
25
Fleck, Hussain, Meyer
28
27
26
29
JCCC music and theatre department 7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre
May 2011 Monday 2
1
Tuesday 3
Wednesday
Thursday 5
4
▲ *JCCC Concert Band 7:30 p.m. Yardley Hall
*JCCC Jazz Night 7:30 p.m. Yardley Hall
Friday
▲
Sunday
Spamalot 7 p.m. Yardley Hall $50, $60
30
*Richard III
Saturday 7
6 *Cowboy Indian Bear Light Up the Lawn Concert 8 p.m. Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art lawn
*Richard III JCCC music and theatre department 7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre
*Richard III JCCC music and theatre department 2 p.m. Polsky Theatre
9
15 *Johnson County Chorus Concert 3 p.m. Yardley Hall
16
22
23
Kansas City Symphony Sunday Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev 2 p.m. Yardley Hall $18-$58
29
11
12
13
14
17
18
19
20
21
24
25
26
27
10 *JCCC Choir Concert 7:30 p.m. Polsky Theatre
▲
8
*Moonlight Serenade Orchestra reception 6:30 p.m. lobby 7:30 p.m. Yardley Hall
28
Box Office: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Call 913-469-4445 • Tickets are required for most events in Polsky Theatre and Yardley Hall. Programs, dates and times are subject to change. Discounts are available for music, theater and dance students.
PAS Administrative Office: Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday • Call 913-469-4450 •A
30
*free-admission event
31
request for interpretative services must be made 72 hours before a performance. Call the box office at 913-469-4445 or TDD/TTY 913-469-4485. Persons with disabilities who desire additional support services may contact services for patrons with disabilities, 913-469-8500, ext. 3521, or TDD/TTY 913-469-3885.
JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE 12345 COLLEGE BLVD OVERLAND PARK KS 66210-1299
NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID Johnson County Community College
www.jccc.edu/TheSeries
Andrew Jenks stops at JCCC during campus tour In the hit MTV documentary, World of Jenks, award-winning documentary filmmaker Andrew Jenks takes viewers on unforgettable journeys as he captures on film a wide range of voices and personal stories. Jenks will appear in person sharing highlights of those stories in An Evening with Andrew Jenks at 7 p.m. Friday, April 8, in Polsky Theatre. In each episode of his MTV series, Jenks, 24, focuses his lens and creates a bond with his subject to tell the story of one person’s life, bringing viewers closer to understanding someone else’s reality — everyone from a platinum-selling recording artist to a young homeless woman, from a pro-cheerleader to a young adult with autism. Jenks dives into disparate lives and, in the process, pioneers a new style of storytelling for a new generation. On April 8, Jenks will talk about his film experiences and challenges students “to make a difference and leave their own unique stamp on society.” There will be a meet-and-greet in the lobby afterwards. In conjunction with Jenks’ college tour circuit is his World of Jenks on Campus Bone Marrow Drive. Jenks has teamed up with DKMS Americas, the largest bone marrow center in the world, to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors for leukemia patients. Volunteers, trained by DKMS staff, will use two cheek swabs for testing potential donors. Andrew Jenks
An Evening with Andrew Jenks is co-sponsored by JCCC’s Campus Activities Board and the Performing Arts Series. Students will be helping with the bone marrow drive. Tickets can be purchased from the PAS box office, 913-469-4445, and the Student Activities and Information Desk, first floor Student Center. For more information, contact JCCC Student Activities at 913-469-3807. Tickets: $5 (for JCCC students), $15