Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts summer series features New England premieres in dance, theater
New England premieres by Gallim Dance, Marc Bamuthi Joseph;
free noontime talks by Stephen Bennett, Anne Cubberly, Marcela Oteíza, Souleymane Badolo;
free July 2 concertby Hartford Steel Symphony moved indoors to Memorial Chapel.
Middletown, Conn.—Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts summer series includes New England premieres by Gallim Dance (July 11 & 12) and Marc Bamuthi Joseph (July 18); a free performance by the Hartford Steel Symphony (July 2); and free noontime talks by Stephen Bennett (July 2), Anne Cubberly (July 9), Marcela Oteíza (July 16), and Souleymane Badolo (July 23). Please see full event listings below.
Tickets for Gallim Dance and Marc Bamuthi Joseph are available online at http://www.wesleyan.edu/boxoffice. Tickets are also available Monday through Friday from Noon to 4pm by phone at (860) 685-3355, or in person at the Wesleyan University Box Office, located in the Usdan University Center, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown. Tickets may also be purchased at each event beginning one hour prior to the performance, subject to availability. The Center for the Arts accepts cash, checks written to “Wesleyan University,” and all major credit cards. Groups of ten or more may receive a discount on tickets–please call (860) 685-3355 for details. No refunds, cancellations, or exchanges.
All programs, artists and dates are subject to change. All Center for the Arts facilities are air-conditioned. "Summer at the Center for the Arts" is co-sponsored by the Capital Regional Education Council's Center for Creative Youth. Artist residencies are made possible with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts, and Wesleyan University's Institute for Curatorial Practice in Performance. Additional support provided by the Connecticut Higher Order Thinking Schools Program at the Green Street Arts Center.
Summer at the Center for the Arts (July 2-23, 2013)
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 12:10pm
Stephen Bennett: Harp Guitar
Crowell Concert Hall, 50 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown
FREE!
A native of Oregon, teacher, composer, and performer Stephen Bennett is a master of the harp guitar, a 12-stringed instrument with an extended sound chamber and 6 sub-bass strings. Based in Milford, he has released 25 albums and is the founder of the Harp Guitar Gathering, an annual event that brings together players, luthiers, scholars and fans for performances and workshops in Connecticut since 2003.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 at 7pm
Hartford Steel Symphony
Memorial Chapel, 221 High Street, Middletown
FREE!
Dance to the island rhythms of the Hartford Steel Symphony! Founded in 1989, this premier Connecticut steel pan group performs calypso, reggae, pop, classical, and jazz tunes under the musical direction of Kelvin Griffith and Curtis Greenidge, and has shared the stage with artists such as the great panist Len "Boogsie" Sharpe of Trinidad.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 at 12:10pm
Anne Cubberly: "How I Became the Puppet Lady"
CFA Hall, 287 Washington Terrace, Middletown
FREE!
Visual artist Anne Cubberly's work includes kinetic sculpture, installations, and performance. She was the first Artist in Residence at The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford and her work has been exhibited at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum, and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, among other locations. Ms. Cubberly also teaches group performance, mask-making, giant puppet-making, sculptural papier-mache, and sculpture from recycled materials.
Thursday, July 11 & Friday, July 12, 2013 at 8pm
Gallim Dance
CFA Theater, 271 Washington Terrace, Middletown
$25 general public; $20 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff; $10 students
"Sexy, reckless and edgy as hell, this performance [is as] exciting as high art can get."
—Nashville Scene
Andrea Miller, Artistic Director of Gallim Dance, took the Center for the Arts by storm when her company performed at DanceMasters Weekend in 2011. Hailed for their quick wit, technical virtuosity, and visceral movement style, Ms. Miller's works embody fearless physicality. Ms. Miller was the 2011 recipient of Wesleyan's Mariam McGlone Emerging Choreographer Award. At Wesleyan, Gallim Dance will perform the New England premiere of "Mama Call" (2011), and "Pupil Suite" (2010), which had been postponed from their original engagement in February 2013.
"Mama Call" has its roots in Andrea Miller's Sephardic-American heritage. The work explores ideas of displacement and alienation as it affected Spanish Jews during the centuries surrounding the Inquisition. Ms. Miller adapts the Sephardic story into a contemporary and more universal tale of border-crossing. "Mama Call" investigates the idea of how those who have been displaced rescue the idea of "home."
"Pupil Suite" is an exhilarating selection of wildly quirky excerpts from Ms. Miller's crowd-pleasing work "I Can See Myself in Your Pupil." Performed to the contagious music of Israeli band Balkan Beat Box, the dance is a joyous romp that plays with the madness of imagination and the ecstasy of movement.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 12:10pm
A Talk by Marcela Oteíza
CFA Hall, 287 Washington Terrace, Middletown
FREE!
Wesleyan University Assistant Professor of Theater and Resident Scenic Designer Marcela Oteíza is an interdisciplinary artist working in the performing and visual arts. She specializes in collaborative and non-text-based work, and has been extensively involved in numerous projects in the United States and abroad. She is currently working on a video-documentary about street performances that occur during the Santiago a Mil Festival "City as Site."
Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 8pm
Marc Bamuthi Joseph's "Word Becomes Flesh"
CFA Theater, 271 Washington Terrace, Middletown
$19 general public; $17 senior citizens, Wesleyan faculty/staff; $10 students
"Enjoyed Marc Bamuthi Joseph very much. He engaged the audience, all of us, regardless of age. His enthusiasm was contagious and the depth of his performance was amazing. He is truly a talented artist."
—Comment from the Center for the Arts blog from patrons who attended the 2011 "Summer at the CFA" solo performance by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
One of the brightest lights in hip hop theater, Marc Bamuthi Joseph first performed "Word Becomes Flesh" as a solo work in 2003. The play documents letters from a young single father to his unborn son using spoken word, dance, and live music. "Word Becomes Flesh" returns to the stage, re-invented in this New England premiere for an ensemble cast of six emerging poet-performers, who fuse deep honesty, tender stories, playful wit, purposeful rage, and raw physicality to examine the legacy of patriarchy and male privilege, the continuum between fathers and sons, and the relationships between women and men.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013 at 12:10pm
Souleymane Badolo: "WATIDSOWBO--Come Dance With The World"
Crowell Concert Hall, 50 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown
FREE!
Born in Burkina Faso, choreographer and performer Souleymane Badolo's heritage is a driving force in his work. He founded his own company, Kongo Ba Teria, in 1993. Since moving to New York in 2009, in addition to his own work, he has performed work created for him by Reggie Wilson, and was featured in the New England premiere of Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Nora Chipaumire's "visible" at Wesleyan in October 2012. Mr. Solo teaches contemporary dance at Bennington College while pursuing a graduate degree in Dance and Performance. At Wesleyan, he will demonstrate and discuss his creative process.