The Riverside Dance Festival got underway Monday when the Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company rolled in over the weekend from Kansas City, Mo. They are here to teach some 30 pre-professional dance students over this week and next. The festival culminates in two public performances next weekend that mark the opening of the season for Ballet Vero Beach.
For the first time in the festival’s five-year history, adult master classes are being offered this Friday and next at both the intermediate and advanced levels. The classes will teach portions of dances in the company repertoire, and adults will dance alongside the summer intensive students. The cost is $50 for both classes; $30 for one class.
The company is in its 25th year; its founders Leni Wylliams and Mary Pat Henry are regarded as pioneers in the Kansas City arts scene. Henry, a South Carolina native, was dancing in New York when she met Leni Wylliams, an Emmy Award-winning choreographer from Colorado. Together they formed the company with the idea of building a modern dance repertory from 20 top American choreographers.
Tragedy struck five years later, when Wylliams was murdered in his apartment. Henry managed to continue on and the company today still performs Wylliams’ choreography.
Performances are Friday and Saturday, Aug. 5-6, at 8 p.m. at Riverside Theatre.
If you’re up for a mid-distance road trip, consider Delray Beach, where great restaurants abound and a relatively new music venue called Arts Garage is making waves. Friday night, New Orleans jazz fusion saxophonist Khris Royal brings his band Dark Matter to the space. Royal has played since the age of 4 and attended New Orleans School of the Arts and Berklee College of Music in Boston.
If you’re a fan of Abby Owens, profiled this week in these pages, and a monthly regular at Kilted Mermaid, then you’re probably already a fan of Chris Stapleton (Abby is, for sure; she says Chris just sent her a song to record). Stapleton, who until recently was better known for his song-writing than as a performer, is playing at Perfect Vodka Amphitheater in West Palm next Saturday, Aug. 6, along with Hank Williams Jr.
Stapleton was just added to the roster of performers for Charlie Daniels’ 80th birthday Volunteer Jam. After performing in November’s CMT awards, he won two Grammys, performed at Bonnaroo and sold almost a million and a half copies of his debut album, “Traveller.”
The first phase of a $12 million renovation and expansion plan for the glorious Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales is wrapping up this summer, with the final touches going in on a 2.7-acre Children’s Garden and classroom complex that officially opens Sept. 10. This is the largest expansion in the history of the park, created 87 years ago by Dutch-born publisher Edward Bok; he hired Frederick Law Olmstead Jr. to design its gardens. Along with rehabbing its signature carillon tower, it is adding four new gardens, including an area to be called the Wild Garden in the less manicured part of the park.
There is also a spectacular, 2,400-square-foot outdoor kitchen that opened in April, including a wood-fired brick oven, multiple high-end appliances and grills, and an adjacent edible garden. The kitchen will be used for cooking demonstrations and various special events.
If you want to visit while the crowds are still lean, Aug. 13 would be a good day to go late in the afternoon. That way you can see the garden, then have dinner in the café and stay to see the Rowdy Roosters, a Dixieland band founded by trumpeter Mark Green back in 1990. Green is on the board of directors of the Fort Pierce Jazz and Blues Society and frequently performs at Sunrise Theatre’s black box space. The menu at the café that night reflects the music: chicken and waffles, or fried green tomatoes over black-eyed peas and rice.
Be sure to buy your tickets now, though – the summer concert series usually sells out.
By the way, Bok Tower topped the list of the travel site TripsToDiscover.com’s 10 most beautiful gardens in Florida. But at No. 7 was our very own McKee Botanical Garden, right up there with Vizcaya and Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami, the Morikami in Delray and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.
Sunday there’s an all-day celebration of the music of Jerry Garcia at the garden-like Guanabanas bar and restaurant in Jupiter. It’s an open-air spot on the Jupiter River with Tiki huts under the banyan trees, decent island-themed food and typically good music. The valet parking is well-organized and makes for easy access. It’s at 960 N. A1A and I suggest setting your GPS or you can easily get turned around.
