 | Elaborate face painting is one activity that is popular with both children and adults during the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Kromatik, a group of face-painting artists, will bring color to the faces of festival guests this year. |
If variety is the spice of life, then New Haven's International Festival of Arts & Ideas is a veritable spice rack.
The annual event, now in its 12th year, includes innovative dance, theatrical and music productions by both acclaimed international and renowned local performers; talks and debates on challenges facing both the world and the region; and a wide variety of family-friendly and community events.
Yale is a major sponsor of the festival, which this year will be held June 9-23. Many of the events take place in campus venues, and University students and scholars are among the featured performers and speakers.
Revolution -- both on stage and in human thought -- is a major theme of this year's celebration, says Mary Lou Aleskie, executive director of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Noting that the adage "the only constant in life is change" dates back to ancient Greece, she says, "It's hard to imagine a time in human history when it rang more loudly than it does today. ...
"This year, the festival has gathered artists and thinkers actively revolutionizing their art form and, in turn, the world around them," she adds. "While acknowledging a rate of change that can approach the overwhelming, even chaotic, they are at once affirming artistic traditions and, with wonder and a strong sense of play, charting new, even astonishing, courses into the new century."
Many of these offerings are open to the public free of charge. Information on the many programs taking place during the 15-day festival can be found online at www.artidea.org and in the calendar section of this newspaper. The following are some highlights:
As part of its commitment to expand its offering of dance, the festival is bringing to New Haven companies from around the world -- including Haiti, Italy, India, West Africa, Brazil and more -- for performances that range in style from the Romantic era of French classical ballet to the contemporary dance aesthetic of the Russian provinces.
For the first time, the festival will present a full-length classical ballet: the U.S. debut tour of "Giselle," performed by the State Ballet of Georgia and starring Nina Ananiashvili, a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Ballet and a star of the American Ballet Theater (June 15 and 16).
This classic work is complemented by the Martha Graham Dance Company performing the world premiere of "Ardent Song (Redux)," a historical recreation of one of Graham's "lost works" (June 21); the U.S. premiere tour of Olga Pona's Chelyabinsk Theater of Contemporary Dance, which references both Russia's folk traditions and its most experimental dance techniques (June 20-22); the "tap revolutionary" Tamango in a percussion-driven dancefest inspired by the rhythms of the city street (June 16); and "Dance Salon," an original festival production featuring solos and small-scale works performed by local choreographers and guest artists in a cabaret setting.
Some of the festival's theatrical offerings this year blend genres on the stage. Others, like the Headlong Dance Theater's "CELL," don't even require a stage. Presented in association with the World Performance Project at Yale, "CELL" is performed by appointment only for one person at a time; each ticket-buyer will be guided via cellphone through a 50-minute walk that brings together dance, theater and everyday life (June 12-17 and 19-23).
Also featured this year is the U.S. premiere tour of "Aurélia's Oratorio," a solo circus-dance-theater performance that is inspired by the traditions of French nouveau cirque (June 13-16).
The SITI Company's "Radio Macbeth" brings to life the radio days of the 1940s. In this production, making its East Coast premiere at the festival, a group of radio actors who have assembled to record Shakespeare's "Macbeth" are hounded by the ghosts of 400 years of previous productions (June 20-23).
"Meter Theater," a troupe that parks its vehicle on the street and performs only for the amount of time purchased on the parking meter, will also perform throughout the festival.
Musically, this summer's festival offers a smorgasbord of styles. The Courtyard Concert series, held at the Yale Law School, takes listeners around the world in three nights with performances by Mexican-American Lila Downs (June 12); the genre-busting six-man band Les Yeux Noirs in a performance that is part klezmer, part gypsy music (June 13); and Haitian-American Daniel Bernard Roumain -- aka DBR -- performing with The Mission, his multi-ethnic ensemble (June 15).
Opera on the Green has been a longstanding festival tradition. This year's production, Jacques Offenbach's comic "Orpheus in the Underworld," will be performed by Yale Opera singers and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra (June 14).
Other music events include -- but are not limited to -- four-time Grammy nominee Angelique Kidjo, who blends jazz and West African techniques (June 10); and jazz pianist Jason Moran performing with The Bandwagon, the family-friendly Dan Zanes and Friends, and Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey (all on June 17).
The Festival of Arts & Ideas is paying homage to iconoclastic architect Louis Kahn (1901-1974) by bringing his floating concert hall, the Point Counterpoint II, to New Haven (June 19-23).
When it arrives, the 195-foot oceangoing work of art will become the third Kahn-designed work in New Haven; the other two are the newly reopened Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, which are co-sponsoring this tribute to the architect.
The visit of the Point Counterpoint II will serve as the catalyst for a variety of programming that includes concerts by the 45-piece American Wind Symphony Orchestra, daily tours of the boat, children's concerts, lectures on Kahn's art, walking tours of the buildings he designed and screenings of the Oscar-nominated documentary "My Architect," directed by Kahn's son Nathaniel, who will speak about the making of the film (June 23).
A highlight of the opening weekend celebration will be the East Coast premiere of "The Movie Music of Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard" on the New Haven Green (June 9). With large-screen projections of Lee's films as a backdrop, Blanchard -- along with his quintet and accompanied by Orchestra New England -- will perform the scores of such films as "Mo' Better Blues," "Inside Man" and "When the Levees Broke," a documentary Lee describes as a requiem for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The famed director will narrate the evening and introduce the soloists: newcomer Raoul Midon; Grammy and Tony Award-winning jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater; and Grammy-nominated jazz singer Kurt Elling.
A new addition to this year's festival is The Big Read -- part of a national initiative created by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest that encourages literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book.
"To Kill A Mockingbird," Harper Lee's parable of the awakening to social justice, was selected as New Haven's book and has been the focus of many events in the city since April. The program will culminate with the "Big Read on the Green" (June 9 and 10). The event will feature outsized book club-like discussions, "Mockingbird"-related monologues, readings by African-American poets and a chance to learn a line singing call-and-response form still performed by some descendants of African slaves.
The event will also include a keynote address by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins and talks by memoirists, including Yale authors Sarah Suleri Goodyear ("Meatless Days"), Elizabeth Alexander ("Antebellum Dream Book," "The Venus Hottentot") and Tinling Choong ("Firewife").
"The Path to Clarity" is the theme of the "Ideas" portion of this year's festival, which will gather scholars, citizens and political leaders to present interactive discussions on a variety of topics.
A number of these discussions will include experts from Yale, among them: "The Death Penalty and International Standards of Justice" with Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh (June 10), "Russia on the World Stage" with Jonathan Brent of the Yale University Press (June 12), "Environmental Politics and the State of Our Oceans and Waterways" with Professor Michael Donoghue, director of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History (June 13), "The Risks of 'Risk Shift' to the American Middle Class" with Professor Jacob Hacker (June 15), "Louis Kahn: An Architectural Legacy in New Haven" with Carter Wiseman, a lecturer at the Yale School of Architecture (June 16) and "Artistic Connections in the African Diaspora" with Professors Jonathan Holloway and Robert Harms (June 22).
Yale faculty members will also lead some of the post-performance discussions in the "Artists in Conversation" series. These will feature Emily Coates of the World Performance Project at Yale and circus-dance-theater performer Aurélia Thierrée (June 13), Jonathan Holloway of the African American Studies Program and jazz composer-pianist Jason Moran (June 17) and Joseph Roach of the Theater Studies Program and the "Radio Macbeth" SITI Company (June 20).
Other festival highlights will include a site-specific installation by Matej Vogrincic, featuring Erector Set-like constructs in the old Farmington Canal; Kromatik, a group that brings face-painting to a whole new level; and an "Explorations" program that includes walking and bicycle tours of the Elm City and its environs, canoe and kayak adventures on the Quinnipiac River, and restaurant tours of popular dining spots around New Haven.
In addition, almost every day there will be performances by local musical, dance and drumming groups at noon and 5:30 p.m. on the Elm Street Stage and at 1:15 p.m. on the Family Stage on the New Haven Green. Amateur and professional members of Connecticut's creative community will also come together for "Village of Villages," a cross between an arts bazaar and speaker's corner, on the New Haven Green (June 16 and 17).
Tickets for all events with admission prices can be purchased in person at the Shubert Theater box office, 247 College St.; by phone at (203) 562-5666 or 888-736-2663; or online at www.artidea.org.
Arts & Ideas New Haven, which organizes the annual festival, receives support from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Yale University. The International Festival of Arts & Ideas is part of the Greater New Haven Arts Stabilization Project, a joint venture of the Greater New Haven philanthropic community.
T H I S
Festival highlights 'revolutionary'
artists and thinkers
Shall we dance?
On stage and off
Musical mélange
Tribute to an architect
"The Movie Music of Spike Lee and Terrence Blanchard" is one of the highlights of the opening weekend. Lee (pictured) will narrate the June 9 event, during which his movies will be a backdrop to music by Blanchard and his quintet.
Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard
The Big Read
Ideas aplenty
More, more, more
To order tickets
W E E K ' SS T O R I E S
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ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
R. Lawrence Moss is appointed to Pritzker Chair
John A. Persing named to Polayes Professorship
Robert T. Schultz is new Harris Associate Professor
University names its first director of sustainable transportation systems
Graduate School students applaud faculty mentors
Eight faculty members elected to the AAAS
Three Yale scholars are new members of the APS
Peter Reinhardt named director of Yale's Office of Environmental ...
Kim Bottomly named president of Wellesley College
First-Year Building Program's 40th anniversary
Festival highlights 'revolutionary' artists and thinkers
Peabody Museum exhibit to showcase award-winning wildlife photography
Study finds dynamin 1 gene is critical for sophisticated brain function
Researchers examine why children (and some adults) are resistant ...
Three student scientists win Goldwater Scholarships
Archer named one of Glamour's 'Top 10 College Women'
Council of Masters presents awards to 10 juniors for their contributions
Ten Yale-China Teaching Fellows to begin appointments this summer
Top judges reach 'verdict' in law students' moot court trial
Dr. Lockwood's latest honors include 'Pulitzer Prize of the business press'
Campus Notes
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