Performing Arts

 This long weekend, Friday – Monday, February 4 – February 7, 6 p.m.,Telluride's Sheridan Arts Foundation's Young People's Theater company presents an encore performance of the 1930s period masterpiece, "Anything Goes."

With this her latest production of the Cole Porter hit, director Jen Julia is clearly playing a game of "Can You Top (Hat) This?"

Back in 2002, Jen's original adaptation of the Broadway musical hit was, well, "a Picasso painting, a Bendel's bonnet, a Shakespeare sonnet, Mickey Mouse." The best. It too featured an abundantly talented group of 30 local teens, 9th – 12th graders, singing, dancing and jiving. And yet, of the 2011 incarnation of "Anything Goes," Jen exclaims:

 Telluride's Palm Theatre venue for Ailey II, Thursday, February 3

“The entire company looks terrific. Clearly, the future is theirs.” The New York Times

In Telluride, if I say "Revelation," you say, "Bowl." It's all about high-alpine powder surrounded by 13,000-foot+ peaks. Mostly right – just not this time. This time "Revelations" refers to a peak dance experience, a jubilant, soul-stirring suite that is easily one of the most uplifting ballets in the modern dance repertoire.

"Revelations" is a tribute to the cultural heritage of African Americans and to the genius of a man named Alvin Ailey, Jr. (1931 – 1989). Ailey, an African American modern dancer, teacher and choreographer, founded the world-famous Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, one of our country's boldest and most exciting troupes.

Announcing:  2011 Winter Puppet Program for San Miguel County Elementary Schools:

Puppets_paleontologist 
Paddy the Paleontologist with his library

The Watershed Education Program Puppet Theater of the Telluride Institute is entering its 4th season with exciting new additions to its repertoire. We have been rehearsing, working on our stage, and making some new puppets such as "Paddy the Paleontologist" who tells the story of the dinosaur bones recently discovered on Norwood Hill. The puppeteers include Ashley Boling, Sally Davis, Jeb Berrier, Laurie Lundquist, and Colin Sullivan. Buff Hooper has been working behind the scenes with Sally and Laurie on props and puppets. We will be performing up and down the watershed in various schools and libraries with the goal of educating and entertaining. It will be lots of fun!

The basic concepts of watershed awareness are introduced in simple ways that form a foundation for childrens’ later participation in our Watershed Education Program (WEP). The real stars of these shows are the animals and insects of the watershed. When you come to a show you are likely to meet a bear, a coyote, a beaver, a cricket, an eagle, and even a mosquito! All of these wild creatures have a point of view; we can learn a lot by listening to them interact. The dynamics of our watershed are rich and complex. It is good to hear about this place from the horse's mouth… and the dog's bark and the cricket's chirp…!

Our fun filled puppet shows for the 2011 season include :

kicker: Mountainfilm in Telluride opens the week with Monday screenings

Gallery4_sm Mountainfilm in Telluride is sometimes in Telluride and only sometimes in May. Mountainfilm on Tour conducts programs around the country throughout the year. There were recent Mountainfilm special events in Aspen and at New York's Lincoln Center. This week, it's Mountainfilm in Telluride at the five-star Wilkinson Public Library. The FREE program is scheduled for Monday, January 24. Doors at 5 :30 p.m. and films at 6 p.m.

The program for Mountainfilm in Telluride at the Wilkinson Public LIbrary is as follows:

[click "Play", Todd Altschuler talks about Telluride Jazz Celebration events]


kicker: Streaming Toubab Krewe 1/25

Tk2 Jazz is a uniquely American musical idiom that has no reason – or season. To prove the point, the Telluride Jazz Celebration plans to celebrate year 'round, not just over one memorable August weekend.

Starting on Tuesday, January 25, 10 p.m., the Telluride Jazz Celebration presents Live from the Llama webcasts, concerts designed to give music lovers around the globe a chance to enjoy sounds emanating from our box canyon. The first featured group is Toubab Krewe.

[click "Play", Susan speaks with Randy Cordero]

 

 

Surreal Neil Promotional Photo 2010 "Super Diamond, a Neil Diamond tribute band that tours nationally, have become enormously successful and have achieved pseudo-stardom in their own right," David Bernstein, New York Times

We're not talking De Beers. We're talking da beers, which will be flowing Friday night, January 14, when Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House welcomes the band "Super Diamond: The Alternative Neil Diamond Experience" to town for an evening of glittering sequins, platform shoes, and bell-bottoms. In other words, a generation-spanning, uptempo walk down memory lane.

Doors and cash bar open at 8:30 p.m. Show time is 9 p.m.

[click "Play", Todd Altshuler talks about Telluride Jazz and "Icons Among Us"]

Iconsamongus Telluride Inside... and Out has talked about the many and different ways the town's five-star Wilkinson Public Library is definitely not your mother's library. Conventional descriptors like "staid" and "quiet" just don't apply. Dedicated programs for small people and teens are wide-ranging and robust. And on the theory the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, program coordinator Scott Doser is constantly forging alliances with other non-profits to fill the Program Room.

One shining example of a successful joint venture is the Telluride Film Festival's ongoing Cinematheque series at the Library, which launched for the winter season on Monday, January 3, with "Films of the Great Depression." (Stay tuned for ongoing coverage.)

Coming soon to your local Library is yet another film series, this one orchestrated by Telluride Jazz Celebration's new marketing director, Todd Altschuler. The initiative kicks off Thursday, January 6, 6 p.m., with "Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense."

Telluride is the beneficiary of a full program of holiday concerts sponsored by The Sheridan Arts Foundation. The Sheridan Opera House will be the venue to hear Citizen Cope on December 30, 2010, 8:00-10:00 p.m.  Citizen Cope last performed in Telluride during the 2009...

 kicker: Great Room alive once again with the sound of music. Palmyra deck too.

For years, The Peaks was a showcase for Telluride, even regional talent, its Great Room a great place to listen to great music and socialize with friends. Then for awhile the music stopped. And the crowds that gathered in support and appreciation stopped coming. But they are returning now in droves to a vastly new and improved Peaks, with a management team eager to support the cultural life in Telluride and Mountain Village.

Case in point: Monday, December 20, the Telluride Choral Society performed a program of traditional carols and holiday songs for the family. The Choral Society was followed by Richard Tavener's Lodges Lane Live doing smooth jazz and Mike Pale on acoustic guitar playing popular favorites. New Year's Eve day, DJ Ryan spins on The Palmyra Deck, 2:30 – 6 p.m., where he has been appeared on and off in late December. New Year's Eve the Jeff Solon Trio entertains.