Watch the National Summit on Arts Journalism from Arts America

This Friday - October 2 from Noon to 4:00 EDT (9AM-1PM PDT) - is the first ever National Summit on Arts Journalism at USC Annenberg in Los Angeles. We're taking part in the presentation of ten projects in arts journalism from around America, and each we think has something to say about the future of how we cover the arts. It will be in the auditorium of the journalism school in front of an audience of 200, but it's primarily conceived of as a virtual online event. Arts America is a participating blog.

Here is a live link that will enable you to watch it live on Friday, October 2 beginning at noon EDT.

Video chat rooms at Ustream

Columbus Day Weekend

A "Trock" Dancer Prepares

It was both whacky and wonderful in the Berkshires over the Columbus Day Weekend. My friends from Boston could not get a room nearby, so they did not get to enjoy the Trockaderos de Monte Carlo who played the Hunter Center at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA. It was a great show, and you can read my review here:

Larry Murray's Berkshire Fine Arts Review

Since I wrote it, several people have asked me about some of the more unusual dance phrases I employed in the critique.

So here are a couple of images to illustrate what a ponche and a "fish" dive are.

The ballerina is doing a "ponche" with one leg en pointe and the other pointing at midnight, a feat which i have never seen a male dancer able to perform.

And this is the gorgeous "Fish" Dive, which is as complicated as a it is beautiful and only lasts a second or two.

Another wonderful review of this performance was published by the very astute Gail Burns which you can find here:

Gail Sez Review

While North Adams is in no danger of becoming another Provincetown, it surely was nice to see a little diversity in the artistic offerings. And the sold out houses for the "Trocks" indicates that there is a market here for both more dance, and more camp.

Kooza from Cirque du Soleil - The Best Road Show Yet

The acrobats (below) reach new heights (above) using stilts
The opening act of Kooza is spectacularly choreographed.

Kooza is worth a trip, and the expense for good seats. It is the ultimate spectacle, with both roll-in-the-aisles-laughter from the clowns, and heart-stopping, breath-taking acrobatic acts. Cirque du Soleil is often imitated, but all those second rate companies simply pale in comparison to the real thing, as this traveling edition of Kooza now playing in Boston proves. That includes the the horrible arena shows that Cirque inexplicably sends around the country with Clear Channel Entertainment. If you like beer signs and scoreboards to clutter up your view of the stage, and have very good eyesight, I suppose these horrid arena productions are ok, but my advice is to avoid them like the plague. Most seats are too far away from the stage to see much, and if I wanted to watch them perform on a flat two-dimensional screen, I would rent the DVD.
David Shiner wrote and directed Kooza

Kooza was written and directed by the immensely talented David Shiner, and he has done a magnificent job. You can read my full review at Berkshire Fine Arts, the online magazine

"Cirque du Soleil delivers an unforgettable evening of outrageous clowning, astounding acrobats and colorful spectacle that is best described as "Theatrobatics!" Best of all, Kooza is the newest and funniest of their touring shows and even given the pricey tickets, worth every penny."

Kooza is Clowns, Acrobats and Spectacle

Kooza's run in Boston has just been extended until October 12, and I would not be surprised if there was one more week's extension, since they do not have to be in D.C. until late in the month. Here is the schedule:


Boston, MA
Sept. 5 to Oct. 12

Washington, DC
Oct. 30 to Nov. 30

Atlanta, GA
Jan. 2 to Jan. 25 2009

Baltimore, MD
Spring 2009

New York, NY
Spring 2009

Tickets and information: The Cirque du Soleil Kooza site