Footwork and legwork: Joral Schmalle, acting artistic director of the Oakland Ballet, doesn't believe in waiting to see who turns up to attend classical dance performances. He goes out and get his audiences, starting from a very young age.
"If children aren't aware of what ballet is," he says, "when they're 18, it's going to be a lot harder to encourage them to come." Make no mistake, however: He doesn't force kids to do anything. "Expose them to it," and to modern and tap and gymnastics and band and art and sports, "and then let them choose," he says.
Toward that end, Oakland Ballet — which, of course, is performing Saturday, Jan. 15, at the Reichhold Center — has a First Steps program where members of the company go into the schools and demonstrate different dance styles, making comparisons to the physical demands of sports. School groups are welcome to come to the company studio and watch demonstrations from current productions. There are children's matinees of most programs, including three of "The Nutcracker" at Christmastime each year.
Dancers and choreographers conduct youth development programs in underserved areas, too. "It's phenomenal how much talent there is that is tapped," says Schmalle, who started dance lessons at the age of 8 and joined the Oakland company 17 years ago at 14. "Of course, 90 percent of them enjoy what we do, say ‘thanks' and move on to something else. But then there are the other 10 percent. . ."
Schmalle spends a fair amount of time talking with others in the performing arts — the directors of other dance groups, the East Bay Symphony, theater companies. He has just been invited to serve on an advisory committee to Oakland's mayor, who happens to be Jerry Brown and happens to be interested in setting up a public performing arts magnet school.
"We haven't had the connection to some of the dance schools in the area," Schmalle says. "One of the things I'm committed to is trying to get some sort of junior company, and to work ourselves back into the school areas." He also wants to establish an apprenticeship program. "It's hard to transfer from being an advanced dance student to being a professional performing artist," he notes. "Suddenly, you're spending an hour and a half practicing alone and then six hours of learning, rehearsing and performing for somebody else."
Does this sound like a dance company with unlimted resources as well as unlimited horizons? Guess again. It's got the same kind of economic crunches as any other not-for-profit arts organization. But that doesn't stop the dance. "A couple of years ago, money looked really scarce," Schmalle says. "The dancers basically volunteered their time and we pulled it all together." He adds, "We really do well with the meager resources that we have."
On that spirited note, Scene will be off to see the dancers dance.
Showtime is 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $35 in the covered section. Take your binoculars and an umbrella and head for the heights for a mere $5. Seating in between is $18. Call the box office at 693-1559 for credit card purchases and more information.
America's King This weekend's "Cinema Sunday" film at the Reichhold Center is a biographical documentary presented in observance of Monday's local and federal holiday commemorating the birth of our nation's foremost civil rights leader of the 20th Century. "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — a Historical Perspective" is the title. Admission to the Sunday movies is usually $5, but for this showing it will be $2. Can't rent a current video for that. The film begins at 7:30 p.m. Gates open half an hour before, with open seating. Popcorn, candy and soft drinks are sold on the premises.
P.S. — Last Sunday's Cinema offering, "Run Lola Run" crashed early on, and patrons had to leave with only their money back in compensation. One couple we know stopped at a video store on the way home, and came out with — guess what? Scene phoned around and found only that Blockbuster has it — checked out, of course. To see the flick with the flame-haired chick pounding the pavement, add your name to the list.
See more than the sea: Thursday night will bring to the skies over St. Thomas and St. John not only the first full moon, but also the first total lunar eclipse of the new millennium (assuming that's how you're counting). And Coral World is inviting folks to make a night of it, looking up, down and all around at a party expected to go until at least 2 a.m.
Featured attractions will be Kary "Starman" Williams and his powerful but portable telescope. He'll be set up on the deck of the underwater observatory tower, offering views of the full moon with Jupiter and Saturn as extra added attractions until 11:46 p.m. From then on, he'll concentrate on the eclipse — "which will start around 10 p.m.," he says, "but the totality phase, when you can see all the colors, is from 12:05 until 1:23 a.m."
While there won't be access to the marine park's indoor nocturnal attractions, there will be music for dancing by two bands — Dominica's hot Souskous Fire and St. Thomas' own ever-popular Starlites — and a cash bar and food service.
If you miss this first total lunar eclipse of the year/decade/century/millennium/whatever, it's not exactly the end of the world. But, Williams notes, "the next one won't come until May 16, 2003." Admission is $15 per person. To learn more, call 775-1555.
All this jazz, and more: It turns out that with regard to the jazz concert Monday night at the St. John School of the Arts, pianist Garry Dial is just the half of it. Initial reports were that Dial's would be a solo act. Not so. He'll be joined by guitarist/vocalist Terre Roche.
The two New Yorkers have been collaborating on assorted musical projects for the last four years, including him playing in her band (Terre and Her Moodswings) and them recording the national anthems of various countries.
Dial, a pianist, composer, producer and teacher, spent a decade in the '70s and '80s playing with the Red Rodney-Ira Sullivan Quintet. In 1989, he collaborated with James Morrison and artist Ken Done in producing "Post Cards From Down Under,"a pictorial and musical portrayal of Australian locales. Duke Ellington's sister Ruth asked him to record her brother's entire catalog of music for the family's personal library. Without such archiving, many of the works would have been lost, as they were unperformed and unrecorded, Dial's biographical information states.
Roche and her sister Maggie had a successful 1975 vocal album, "Seductive Reasoning," and sang backup for Paul Simon's second solo LP, "There Goes Rhymin' Simon." In 1979, they and third sister Suzzy signed with Warner Bros. Records and released the "The Roches," which was named best album of the year by The New York Times.
The concert, which starts at 8 p.m. and takes place in the school building, is being offered as a make-up for the Junior Mance Trio, which couldn't make it in November due to Hurricane Lenny. Admission will be free to anyone holding tickets for that concert, as well as to season subscribers. For all others, tickets are $25. To reserve seats, call 779-4322 or 776-6777.
Music and mirth: Rhythm 'n' blues artist Chante Moore will appear in concert on Friday, Jan. 21, at Palms Court Harbourview Hotel. A couple of laugh leaders from Def Comedy Jam will be the opening act.
Moore's current CD is her third Silas/MCA release, "This Moment in Time," which follows "Precious" and "A Love Supreme." She co-wrote nine of the 11 songs on the new album and says she feels "the title is indicative of how I feel; s
eizing that moment and knowing that all I can do is my best." The songs are about "love, affection and commitment to the man in her life," publicity materials state.
A San Francisco native and daughter of a minister, Moore had three hits from "Precious" – – "Love's Taken Over, "It's Alright" and her classic duet with Keith Washington, "Candelight and You" — which was also the title of her one-hour BET special. The "Love Supreme" release featured the Deniece Williams/Lionel Richie combo "Free/Sail On," "This Time" and "Old School Lovin'."
Among her producers for "This Moment inTime" were Grammy winners Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Of working with them, she says, "They're really great at not putting their sound on someone as much as combining with the artist. They give each artist their own unique sound."
Moore says she thinks it's her destiny to be successful — "whatever level that is, is fine," she says, "but don't let it not happen because we're not all working hard."
The program, a Westline Productions presentation, is to start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance, $35 at the door; they're being sold at the hotel, both Modern Music shops, Champs, 3G's Jewelry Repair and Winston's Barber Shop. To learn more, call 513-5051.
The colors of water: Water is colorless until you mix it with pigment, and then it takes on all the hues of the rainbow and the imagination. An artist's options of what to do next are all but endless. Sandy K. Meyer, an award-winning Nebraska painter who vacations on Water Island with her family each winter, has been departing the territory with photographs for a number of years and returning with the images re-collected as watercolor paintings.
Meyer appears to have no recurring themes or evident stylistic mannerisms. Her paintings are representational and run the gamut of subject matter — floras, faunas, scenic vistas, people studies, iguana studies, fish and sea shell studies, whatever. In her current show at the Tillett Gallery, several pieces stand out not for their subject matter so much as for their intensity of color — sometimes of the painting and sometimes of the matte, which feeds on and into the rich tonality in the picture.
This writer's favorites are her portrait of old-time blues baritone saxophone player Willie Henderson, who performed at Tillett Gardens a year ago as a member of the Paul Oscher Band, and a close-up "still life" of some red and green palm tree seed pods and the purple tip of a banana stalk. The latter is double matted in a brilliant deep blue with a red liner. The Henderson portrait has neutral matting and strong use of negative space, but the man just about breathes in his dressy dark jacket, and it takes very little imagination to hear the music emanating from his gleaming golden sax.
Meyer does her own framing and matting at home, a step toward keeping her prices affordable. The originals on exhibit range from $35 (for small seashells) to $325. The show will hang at the into mid-February.
Kid stuff: Ten teenage students of the School of Visual Arts and Careers will unveil their recent works Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Fort Christian Museum. It may seem like only yesterday that the young people's end-of-school-year exhiibition opened last August, but that could be due to the fact that many of the works in that show remained hanging in the "temporary gallery space" (two former jail cells) at the fort until they were taken down to make way for this new display.
Sure to be among the most eye-catching elements of the upcoming show are the bigger- than-life acrylic paintings of everyday objects such as paper clips, a wire whisk, a hibiscus blossom, a carton of french fries and even, with paws for reflection, a calico cat. The theme of the exhibition, according to instructor Edie Paljavcsik Johnson, is Grafica Gigantica. Some of the works are veritable mini-billboards, four and five feet in height or width.
Many of the works will be available for purchase — and likely to be affordably priced, unless the kids really don't want to part with them. And you never know; the artists could someday be famous, and their "early works" worth big bucks.
The afternoon will open with a brief annual meeting of the not-for-profit school's membership. After that, the artwork will be open to viewing, with live music and refreshments added for good measure. Admission's free and the public is invited. (If you can't make the opening, stop by to see the show later. It will hang into mid-February. Gallery hours are the same as those of the fort — 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays except holidays.) To learn more, see the separate story under Showcase in St. Thomas Source.
The last pictures show: Pastel artist Bill Gutzwiller is hosting his 10th and final studio/gallery open house on St. Thomas Sunday afternoon, Jan. 16, from 1 to 4 p.m. He and his wife have been wintering in the islands for years but will be taking up full-time residence on the mainland shortly. The public is invited to drop in and view the exhibition, at 28 Tara Way in the Cowpet Bay East condominium complex between the Elysian and Ritz-Carlton hotels. For more information, see the separate Showcase story in St. Thomas Source.
Arty facts: Susan Edwards will be teaching a series of Sunday morning watercolor classes at her North Star Village home starting this weekend. Open to all skill levels including beginners, the classes will meet weekly from 9 a.m. to noon. The fee is $20 per class, excluding materials. A primary focus of the sessions, which will span a yet-to-be-determined number of weeks, will be "personal expression" through the medium, Edwards says. To learn more, call her at 774-0105 outside of working hours.
Know thy poet: There's nothing like the author's signature to enhance the emotional (and sometimes, eventually, the economic) value of a book, whether you add it to your own collection or give it as a gift. If poetry is a topic of interest, you might want to stop by Dockside Bookshop on Saturday between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to have Habib Tiwoni sign a copy of either of his most recent publications for you.
Tiwoni, a St. Thomas resident who has also lived in New York, has had four books of poetry published. He'll be signing copies of his most recent, "Islands of My Mind," and one earlier volume, "Wet Poems and Dry Dreams," at the bookstore in the Havensight Mall.
Joyful noise in the making: Individual and group gospel and praise musicians are joining together Saturday night, Jan. 15, for a concert at Palms Court Harbourview Hotel presented by St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. The lineup includes the church's own Golden Miracles Caribbean Gospel Choir along with Shekima Jones-Smith, The Spenceretts, The Wounded Soldier, King Obstinate, Mighty Short Shirt, G. Michael Lake, Howard Jones and JoJo Saunders & Friends.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, and they're available in advance at St. Andrew's Church, Celebrate & Party In Class, The Education Station, Family Health Center, MIC Christian Bookstore, and the Nisky and Vitraco Bible Book & Gift Shops on St. Thomas; and at Spencer's Jeep Rental and St. John's Pharmacy on St. John.
Tote that tune: If you're terrified of singing alone in public but can carry a pretty good tune in a choir, the Caribbean Chorale is looking for you. Ability to sight read is an advantage but not a requirement if you have other means of memorizing music. The chorale, under the direction of Lois Hassel-Habteyes, is starting spring rehearsals on Tuesday, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in the Charlotte Amalie High School music suite. "We are recruiting basses and tenors," a release states, but then what choral group isn't? Anyhow, it adds, "all voices are welcome."To be seen by the herd: Scene & Herd, published each Friday in the Source, previews arts and entertainment events open to the public on St. Thomas and St. John. To have material considered for inclusion, submit it in written form by Wednesday of the week preceding desired publication date by faxing to 776-4812 or e-mailing to jetsinger@viaccess.net. Or leave a telephone message at 776-4812 for a call-back.
