Arts

A new Nutcracker

The Eugene, Ore., Ballet Company's version of "Nutcracker," up for six performances in Anchorage starting Friday, has some unexpected twists.

ART BEAT

Record-setting applause (sort of) at recital

Submitted for the consideration of the folks at Guinness -- the book, not the beer: The Alaska audience on hand for pianist Natsuki Fukasawa's recital at the UAA Fine Arts Building Recital Hall on Nov. 13 surely set some kind of record for the shortest burst of applause ever.

Blog: Art Snob

REVIEW

Cello adds panache to folk group; harmonies are missed

Crooked Still brings a distinct sound to traditional string band folk music by limiting the use of guitar and by avoiding vocal harmonies -- but mainly by putting a cello into the mix and spotlighting it.

Blog: Art Snob

Before fame came

I grew up in the suburbs on the north side of Detroit. It was a big city even in the 1950s. The night sky was obscured by streetlights and buildings, so I grew up very unaware of nature, the moon, and of the life cycles of plants and animals.

ART BEAT

Director wigs out when actress falls ill

"Almost, Alaska," a romantic comedy, flirted with tragedy early this month. Just before the play, now running at Cyrano's, was to begin, one of the actresses came down with H1N1 flu -- and there was no understudy.

Blog: Art Snob

REVIEW

Wacky opera 'Audition' spotlights local voices

Evidence of Anchorage Opera's efforts to get more local singers on stage can be seen in the current production of "Sister Angelica" with an all-Alaskan cast and Tuesday evening's "Dark Night" presentation of Martin Kalmanoff's "The Audition."

REVIEW

Momentum Dance Collective puts on an intriguing show

Exploration is the name of the game for contemporary dance companies like Momentum Dance Collective. Choreographers and performers launch themselves into little-charted territory to see what they can discover and use in crafting a dance.

Film studio will pay for faking Alaska news stories

Universal Pictures has agreed to pay $20,000 to the Alaska Press Club to settle complaints about fake news archives used to promote the movie "The Fourth Kind."

Filmmaker seeks Inuit actors

The producers of a full-length movie version of Alaska director Andrew Maclean's award-winning film "On the Ice" ("Sikumi") will hold a final round of auditions in Anchorage.

Final Auditions for Barrow film Wednesday

The producers of a full-length movie version of Alaska director Andrew Maclean's award-winning film "On the Ice" ("Sikumi") will hold a final round of auditions in Anchorage.

Alaska showcase in NYC seeks funding

State legislators are considering spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in public money to support an arts and cultural center in New York City that its founder describes as an embassy devoted to increasing awareness of Alaska.

Web site: Alaska House New York

REVIEW

Mimes upstage music in operas

The most entertaining moment in Anchorage Opera's double-bill of "Sister Angelica" and "I Pagliacci" comes right at the opening of the latter and doesn't involve singing. Jane Park Drebert does a cartwheel on the edge of the stage and, with comic intent, flubs it, falling on her patoot.

Blog: Art Snob

Alaskan returns from New York to direct opera double-header

The director of Anchorage Opera's twin bill of "I Pagliacci" and "Sister Angelica" is also the director of a hit musical that's been filling houses in New York for the past two years. When's the last time that kind of heavy-hitter did a show in this town?

Comic lights brighten Dark Nights

A baritone who yearns to be a soprano. A wannabe prima donna who can't get past being a mere drama queen. A riding crop-snapping dominatrix who claims to have discovered Richard Strauss's setting of "I Love Little Pussy."

ART BEAT

Jazz giants stand up for bullied kids

Concerts for good causes are not news, but the upcoming jazz program headlined by Jeff Golub and Rick Braun caught our attention for several reasons.

Blog: Art Snob

REVIEW

Choreography pushes boundaries in UAA dance show

Two complex and contrasting pieces bookend the showcase of new work presented by the University of Alaska Anchorage Dance Ensemble this month.

Award-winning poet Kane will read from work today

Back from picking up a $50,000 Whiting Writers' Award and launching her first book at an event in New York, poet Joan Kane will read from her work starting at 5:30 p.m. today at the Alaska Native Arts Foundation gallery.

Inupiaq poet wins prestigious national writing award

Fairbanks woman competes on 'Survivor Philippines'

Amanda Coolley spent a good part of her summer on an island in the South Pacific, but it was no vacation for the 25-year-old Fairbanksan.

Video: Shorts from "Survivor Philippines"

SIOUX SHOWCASE

Top Plains Indian dancers 'Come to the Center'

In an ironic bi-lingual pun, the title of the evening-length performance that the Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre will present in Anchorage is the same as the instructions for what you need to do in order to see the show.

ART BEAT

Michelangelo drawings on display in Seattle

While in Washington state on family business last week, I swung into the Seattle Art Museum to see something exceedingly rare: real drawings by Michelangelo.

Two Freds, one show

Blog: Art Snob

Two Freds, one show

Closer to home, at the "Virtual Subsistence" show at MTS Gallery, I did a double-take on finding the name of Fred Anderson on two very different displays.