From scenic and scintillating piano recitals to a bevy of dance and theater world premieres, there is a lot to see and hear this weekend in the Bay Area. Here is a partial rundown.
Piano recitals bloom at Golden Gate Park
The annual Flower Piano event is a unique, innovative attraction melding the beauty of nature and joy of music at the Golden Gate Park’s Botanical Garden, and it’s back this weekend.
The is the seventh iteration of the event, which debuted in 2015.
Visitors are invited to explore the Garden as they seek out the 12 pianos spread out across the 55-acre global living plant collections. At each of the pianos, there will be scheduled performers representing a wide range of genres, ages, and cultures. There will be performances aimed at children (10 a.m. Friday) as well as players touching on everything from avant-garde, Latin jazz, classical, pop, soul and more.
“Flower Piano is located at that magical intersection of music and nature,” says Dean Mermell, co-founder, with Mauro ffortissimo, of event partner Sunset Piano. “It’s a uniquely safe outdoor space where we can be our best as humans, enjoying the Bay Area’s finest musicians in the city’s most beautiful setting.”
Details: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 16-20; San Francisco Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; free with park admission; www.sfbg.org/flowerpiano.
— Brittany Delay, Staff
Fresh start for AXIS
The fall arts season has a way of making everything feel new again, especially when so many performance companies have spent the past couple of years dealing with the disruption of the pandemic. AXIS Dance Company, the world renowned Berkeley-based troupe of disabled and non-disabled dancers, is practically bursting with newness this weekend. The troupe on Friday kicks off its first season under new artistic director Nadia Adame with a program featuring — you guessed it — all new works.
There are, in fact, three world premieres dance fans can look forward to in the program, appropriately titled “Adelante” (Spanish for “go forward”), all of which celebrate the strength and resilience of the human spirit. Kicking off the recital will be Adame’s own new work, “Breathe Again.” The work, as the company describes it, “explores the most suffocating parts of our collective and individual journeys,” but builds not to despair but to an examination of the ways we move on from our setbacks. Also on the program is the joyful “Tread,” by choreographer and producer Ben Levine, which makes use of children’s wheeled toys to “level the playing field between disabled and non-disabled dancers.” And Spanish dancer/choreographer Asun Noales offers an as-yet untitled dance/theater work that revels in the joys and pleasures of personal relationships.
Details: 8 p.m. Sept. 16-18; ODC Theatre, San Francisco; proof of vaccination is required and masks must be worn in the theater; $25-$55 axisdance.org.
— Bay Area News Foundation
Classical picks: Elfman and Burton; Chanticleer
Here are two concerts classical music fans should know about.
Elfman goes to the Symphony: Film music has always been welcome on classical concerts, and this weekend brings a special program featuring one of the movies’ top composers.
“Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” includes the collaboration of works from the celebrated composer, also known as the frontman for the band Oingo Boingo, and his filmmaker pal. The concert features Symphony San Jose and the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, conducted by John Mauceri, playing music from “Batman,” “Beetlejuice,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and other favorite films, with visuals on the big screen including sketches, drawings, and storyboards.
Details: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 16; Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University; $55-$199.50; live.stanford.edu.
Chanticleer — singing through the ages: One of the noteworthy things about Chanticleer is the way the award-winning 12-man chorus can sing just about anything, from early music by Josquin des Prez to contemporary works by Tania León, all with equal precision and fervor. The group launches its fall season this week with “Labyrinths,” featuring those composers and others; the calendar includes performances in Berkeley, Santa Clara, and San Francisco.
Details: Tuesday through Sept. 24; $21-$63; www.chanticleer.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Smuin’s long-awaited Cuban collab
If you think you have been eager to see dance and other performing arts return to the stages, just imagine how Celia Fushille feels. It was 10 years ago that the Smuin Contemporary Ballet artistic director was on a trip to Havana when she was introduced to the prowess of Cuban choreographer Osnel Delgado, whose emotional works capture the passion and many styles of his country’s dance scene. She was intent on bringing his work to San Francisco and that was finally set to happen in 2020, when COVID shutdowns scuttled the long-awaited collaboration between the acclaimed choreographer and Fushille’s company. Flash forward two years and Delgado’s “The Turntable” is finally set to get its world premiere as part of Smuin’s fall program, “Dance Series 1,” which opens Sept. 16 in Mountain View.
“Turntable” reflects on Cuba’s brilliant arts and dance landscape as well as the challenges of creating and performing in a country stifled by economic hardships and government interference. Also on the program are revivals of two Smuin favorites, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa poignant and bittersweet reflection on love, “Requiem for a Rose,” set to Schubert’s string adagio from the Quintet in C; and Rex Wheeler’s lively “Take Five,” set to music by jazz legend and Concord native Dave Brubeck.
Details: Performances are Sept. 16-18 at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, Sept. 23-Oct. 2 at Cowell Theatre in San Francisco, and Oct. 7-8 at Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek; check the venues’ websites to see what health and safety guidelines are in effect; $25-$99; www.smuinballet.org.
— Bay Area News Foundation
The Kerr & King show
Many folks watching the Warriors dominate the Lakers in an away game might think they’re seeing basketball, but in the mind of Alonzo King they’re actually witnessing a grand dance performance.
“The traveling along the court, the intelligence of making intuitive decisions in the last minute, the coordinated teamwork, and those beautiful aerials when people slam into the hoop and you see them defy gravity? I think most people marvel at that and not realize this is movement in space and it’s beautiful to see,” says the founder and artistic director of Alonzo King LINES Ballet in San Francisco.
King will expand on the parallels between basketball and ballet in a unique conversation this weekend with Steve Kerr, head coach of the Warriors.
Could Steph Curry go en pointe, given his troublesome ankles? What arabesque is so flagrant it would get Draymond Green ejected?
OK, the discussion topics probably won’t be so cliched, but it’s guaranteed to be a fun night with two of the leading figures in their fields talking shop. Plus, there will be a short dance piece and a chance for VIP ticket-holders to meet King and Kerr afterward.
Details: 7 p.m. Sept. 16; SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium, 201 Franklin St., San Francisco; tickets start at $50; sfjazz.org.
— John Metcalfe, staff
A ‘ripple’ stirs at Berkeley Rep: Playwright Christina Anderson received a Tony nomination for co-writing the book on the racially themed musical “Paradise Square,” which premiered at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2019. But when the show was playing here, her name was not attached to the project yet. She came on later as “Paradise Square,” which centered on the Irish and African American communities in lower Manhattan in 1863, just before the Civil War draft riots erupted, was trying to make a successful run on Broadway.
But plagued by two COVID shutdowns, labor problems and disappointing box office returns, “Paradise Square” never took off, despite the wealth of talented names that had been attached to it, from playwrights Marcus Gardley and Craig Lucas to composer Jason Howland to choreographer Bill T. Jones. It closed in July.
Now Berkeley Rep is premiering a racially themed play that is by Christina Anderson and her alone. The drama centers on a woman who grew up in Kansas City and whose parents led a successful fight to force public pools to accept Blacks. But after becoming estranged from her parents and their civil rights battle, she is forced to come to terms with her roots and her legacy. “The ripple, the wave that carried me home,” commissioned by Berkeley Rep and developed by its Ground Floor program, opens Sept. 14 at the company’s Peet’s Theatre.
Details: Through Oct. 16; $24-$100; roof of vaccination is required and masks must be worn in the theater; www.berkeleyrep.org.
— Bay Area News Foundation