Ballet Vero Beach opens its third season Sunday as presenters of another ambitious young company making its first-ever tour. Chicago Repertory Ballet, a contemporary dance company founded in 2011 by Wade Schaaf, drew an enthusiastic review from the Chicago Tribune’s dance critic in its debut performance and won more praise for its spring concert.
In Vero, Schaaf performs his 30-minute “Four Seasons” to a modern arrangement of Vivaldi’s famous work. The 2012 version “recomposed” by Max Richter, includes looping and remixes in some sections; others leaving Vivaldi’s music virtually untouched; still others with what Richter called “a homeopathic dose of Vivaldi in this completely new music.”
Also on the program is the third solo in a series Schaaf calls “Dancer, Net,” inspired by Monet’s haystack paintings, and choreographed in 2010 for Chicago’s Thodos Ballet.
“Still Life” by Tenley Dorrill was the winner of a choreographic competition staged by Chicago Rep. The septet is set on three couples and a single female dancer, and includes one section danced to the dialogue in the French film, “Amour.”
And Jacqueline Stewart’s 2010 “It’s Not Enough To Close Your Eyes” places two dancers on stage with a single Fresnel lantern. The duet takes place in and around the fixture’s light.
Schaaf and his dancers arrived in Vero late last month after performing in south Miami. They have been teaching at the two-week Riverside Dance Festival and those dancers, too, will have their moment in the stage lights. They will perform along with faculty on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. on the Riverside Children’s Theatre stage.
The next day, Sunday, Chicago Repertory Ballet performs on Riverside Theatre’s main stage at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. with an optional summer Sunday supper in between to meet the company members. Tickets are $10 to $50, with the supper $35 and $15.
Meanwhile, at St. Edward’s School all weekend, another talented corps will take to the stage – and above it – in the 41st annual Aerial Antics circus. Dozens of gymnasts and aerial acrobats perform every August after training all summer at a Leisure Square gym built just for them. Ranging in age from elementary school to college and beyond, the performers all have Cirque du Soleil in their sights, especially those who work on “silks,” the colorful swaths of super-strength fabric rigged from the ceiling and dropping to the floor. This year, the stunts are set to ‘80s music.
The shows are at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The Brevard-based Space Coast Orchestra’s jazz band has squeezed in another summer Sunday afternoon concert in Vero, this time featuring Big Band music. The group is directed by Patrick Hennessey, who directs the jazz ensemble at Stetson University. Music will include classics of the bands of Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton and Count Basie. The concert starts at 3 p.m. at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center.
Next Thursday at Melbourne’s King Center, British ‘80s pop star Howard Jones performs in the smaller Studio space. Famous for his early use of synthesizer in dance music, Jones scored hits with “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Like to Know You Well,” and “No One Is To Blame,” which reached No. 1 on the pop charts in the U.S. Jones’ 30-year career has run concurrently with his practice of Buddhism.
And then there’s Weird Al Yankovic. Appearing at the King Center next Friday in what he has dubbed the Mandatory Tour, Yankovic is promoting his new comedy album, Mandatory Fun, which became even more fun when it won him his fourth Grammy in February, beating out Louis C.K., Jim Gaffigan and Sara Silverman.
(On receipt of his gilded gramophone – nearly three months after the awards ceremony – he made a spoof “unboxing” video, tactfully suggesting others avoid the delay by getting their Grammys through Amazon.)
Yankovic’s latest album includes parodies of “Happy,” “Get Lucky” and “Blurred Lines.” Easy targets, all.
Fans of Taj Majal get lucky the following week when the roots legend performs as a trio at King Center Aug. 19.
With his Caribbean, African and South Pacific-tinged sound, Majal has become a true original in the blues and folk music scene. Last year, when he received a lifetime achievement award from the Americana Music Association, he performed on dobro the title cut from his debut 1968 album, “Statesboro Blues.”
That wasn’t all he scheduled for himself – at 72. He performed at a Bonnaroo Superjam with Derek Trucks and Chaka Khan; played on every cut of the Blind Boys of Alabama Christmas album; and performed at the Gregg Allman Tribute Concert in Atlanta.
The man born Henry Fredericks is the son of a jazz pianist and a gospel singer in Springfield, MA, who throughout his childhood in the 1950s played host to a steady stream of musicians from the Caribbean and Africa. At 16, Henry got a job on a dairy farm and went on to study veterinary sciences and agronomy at UMass-Amherst. Instead of pursuing farming, though, he moved to L.A. and formed The Rising Sons with Ry Cooder. He took the name Taj Mahal after reading about Ghandi.
Opening for Taj is the great John Hiatt whose songs like “Have a Little Faith in Me” were covered by just about everyone from Joe Cocker to Bon Jovi to Bob Dylan.
