By Rodger Skidmore
Artistic stories are timeless
Each art form tells its stories in a different manner. In opera, sadly, there is betrayal or love lost, or a lost love betrayed. If someone is painted by Picasso, both eyes may be on the same side of the head, and that is sad even if they aren’t.
Ballet is quite often happy, what with folk dancers jumping around in native costumes. So, in between happy folk dances and sadly lopsided heads there is calm beauty: Les Sylphides. This was written by Michel Fokine and premiered in Paris in Diaghilev’s “Saison Russe” in 1909 with Pavlova and Nijinsky in the lead roles. Fokine referred to his ballet as “the personification of a poetic vision”. In this vision there are 18 sylphides, and a whole lot of Chopin goin’ on, to which they flit about the stage beautifully dressed in white, for five performances, October 24-26, at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts.
For a more colorful experience on the same program, one that mirrors the beauty of Sarasota, nothing can compare to the Changing Light of Will Tuckett’s ballet, inspired by our city’s glorious sunsets. The British Invasion was not just the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, it was also Jeremy Holland-Smith, who composed music to match the shifting colors of Sarasota’s water and sky.
Artificial Intelligence should have a video of this ballet uploaded to cloud storage so it may create a painting incorporating the moving colors of the set, costumes, fabrics, and dancers as they move through its field of vision. Or, better yet, imprint this visual treat into your own individual memory bank by watching it live.
In 1961, the meteorologist Edward Lorenz was conducting weather experiments and, in a computation, he rounded the figure 0.506127 down to 0.506, producing an outcome quite different from the original. He popularized this concept of change in a lecture in 1972 titled “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?” This phenomenon, sensitive dependence of individual elements in a long sequence of events determining an outcome, was one of the forerunners of chaos theory.
Jessica Lang’s ballet, The Lorenz Butterfly, premiered at Jacob’s Pillow this year and completes the Sarasota Ballet’s program: a trio of ballets which explore color–from the pure white of the sylphides, to that of multi-colored sunsets, and to the tornado of colors when they meet chaos theory. More info at sarasotaballet.org.
Not sure where they’re going?
The art of Jorge Blanco: Stillness in Motion or Motion Stilled? There are Blanco’s runners, bicyclists, and swimmers, all going somewhere fast, but where did they come from? Certainly, from deep within the dark Freudian labyrinths of his mind, but what was the intermediate step between creative thought and physical implementation? The drawings!
Michelangelo, Giacometti, and Ziolkowski made drawings of their initial concepts and so did Blanco. As it’s hard to see deep within someone’s brain without looking at an MRI, we’re in luck as his drawings are currently on display in the exhibition Gesture & Geometry: A Visual Dialogue at Andrew Ford Fine Art on Pineapple Avenue. More info at jorgeblancosculpture.com and andrewfordfineartsrq.com.
Who’s got short shorts?
In the 1970s and 80s short shorts were all the rage. The latest pair is available for viewing at the Sarasota Jewish Theatre located at The Crossings at Siesta Key Mall on S. Tamiami Trail, to the left of Connors Steak & Seafood and inside the mall.
This pair of short plays are by Bruce J. Bloom, the first of which is Daniel Ortega and Those Yom Kippur Blues. Arthur, who has lost his faith is, on Yom Kippur, seeking solace in a Latino saloon (where else?). Here, this sinner contemplates his marriage, family, career and religious background. Does one have to be observant to lead a good life? A common question that many ask in today’s world.
The second of this dynamic duo of shorts is The Last Request of Eddie Carmichael/Cohen. Is this a case of dual identity or deathly delusion? Carmichael, on his deathbed, says he’s really Jewish and wishes to marry a sweet Jewish lady from his nursing home. Sister Veronica says he’s off his rocking chair. But is he? Performances are October 10-12.
On the 17th – 19th of the month, a play based on Celeste Raspanti’s I Never Saw a Butterfly and directed by Sharon Ohrenstein, tells a World War II tale of laughter, flowers and butterflies. To fool the Red Cross into believing that Jews were being treated humanely, the Nazis had the children that were interred in the Terezin concentration camp take art classes and play in parks during inspections. After the Red Cross left, most of the children were sent to Auschwitz. The play was based on the of poetry and drawings of the children. Butterflies, which can fly over many obstacles, were a symbol of defiance. More info at sarasotajewishtheatre.com
Jazz Clarinetist Benny Goodman–still going strong
Benny Goodman’s classical training helped him to appreciate the compositions of Béla Bartók and thus to commission him, in 1938, to write a three-movement work.
Contrasts, the gift that keeps on giving as the playing of this piece keeps the memory of Goodman and Bartók going strong, is the title of the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota performance on October 12 at First Presbyterian Church which lets us see/hear the talents of four wonderful musicians.
Violinist Nicholas Eanet, recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, was the concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet. He and pianist Jungeun Kim, director of instrumental accompaniment at Curtis Institute, will be collaborating with Sarasota Orchestra principal cellist Natalie Helm in piano trios by Schubert and Dvořák, and with principal clarinetist Bharat Chandra in Bartók’s Contrasts.
England’s Queen Camilla will not be coming to Sarasota this season, but The Queen’s Six will be in great voice, and will be performing at First Congregational United Church of Christ on October 28.
In England, tradition is quite the thing, so it is natural that this group’s name commemorates the 450th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth I’s accession to the throne, coincidentally the year The Queen’s Six was formed (2008). And to honor her properly, they gotta sing, like, real good. And they do. The repertoire of this a cappella ensemble consists of arrangements from austere early chants, renaissance arrangements, Italian madrigals and traditional English folk pieces. When not in Sarasota, or touring, they sing eight times a week (not Eight Days a Week, as in the Paul McCartney/John Lennon song) in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. More info at artistseriesconcerts.org.
Purely a great show
12 years ago this November, Nate Jacobs’ Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe performed the musical Purlie, co-written by Ossie Davis and based on his play Purlie Victorious. It’s back at the WBTT’s Donelly theatre on N. Orange starting October 8 and running through November 9 and is being directed by Jacobs.
Raleigh Mosely II portrays the preacher Purlie Victorious Judson, who returns to his Georgia roots to help save Big Bethel, his community’s church, and to help the cotton pickers who are oppressed on Cap’n Cotchipee’s plantation. With help from Lutiebelle Jenkins (Jazzmin Carson), he takes on this arduous task. Those two were last seen at The Bay, Sarasota’s new 53-acre park, where they gave a performance titled The Titan & the Muse. That show was later reprised at the Donelly Theatre during the WBTT’s Sizzlin’ Summer Cabaret Series.
The original musical starred Cleavon Little as Purlie and Melba Moore as Lutiebelle, which helped launch her career. Coincidentally, Ms. Moore will be here in Sarasota this month for an intimate event with WBTT. She was last seen here starring as Billie Holiday in the WBTT production of Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. More info at westcoastblacktheatre.org.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby turns 100 this year
It was a good book. Nice. What else turned 100 this year? The Sarasota Art Association, the first arts organization in Sarasota, is now known as Art Center Sarasota, and was founded by Marcia Ashton Rader, then the art supervisor for the Sarasota County Schools.
The current home of ACS, since 1948, is in the style of the Sarasota School of Architecture, and has grown from one gallery to five.
It really is a good thing that art has been taught in Sarasota for over a hundred years because now we get to look at great art by Sarasota residents in museums, galleries, and, hopefully, in our homes. And a great place to see Legacy X Response: SARTQ Responds to a Century of ACS, a contemporary response to the legacy of the Sarasota Art Association, is at the galleries of Art Center Sarasota on N. Tamiami Trail, just north of the Boulevard of the Arts (aptly named).
The collective, SARTQ, is a group of 13 artists residing in Sarasota, that work in ceramics, mixed media, collage, abstract and representational paintings, and augmented reality digital works. Their exhibition will be on display from October 9 – November 15.
Talks by other artists with exhibitions during October will be held on October 17: Njeri Kinuthia on Reconstruction: weaving sewing, mark-making and hand embroidery, creating portraits inspired by bold textiles and stained glass; and on October 23: Juan Alonso-Rodríguez on Earthly Glyphs–fictional, deep microscopic views of the core of the Earth’s strata. The opening reception for all exhibitions is Thursday, October 9, 5-7 pm. More info at artsarasota.org.
Abstract abstractions
Some (many or almost all?) people have a problem deciphering abstract art, in that they don’t know what it means or why it was painted, sculpted, or designed. Imagine the problems if one blindly looks at some abstract art of a totally different culture. And then there would also be the question of whether it was even art to that other culture. If not art, is it a religious symbol or a diagram of how to fix a leaky faucet?
There are multiple cultures and museums around the world containing art with which we’ve had limited experience. Fortunately, the Ringling Museum is now exhibiting Ancestral Edge: Abstraction and Symbolism in the Works of Nine Native Americans through April 12. How far away are these centers of native Americans that contain art derived from the past? The Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum is in Clewiston, Florida and the Rubell Museum is in downtown Miami (just off I-95). Additional art was loaned by the Gochman Family Collection.
Short attention spans being quite the thing these days, rather than zeroing in on the differing details in 100 Views of Le Cervin (a series of abstract prints of Switzerland’s Matterhorn by the artist Sidney Guberman–Atlanta, GA), take a slow walk through the Keith D. Monda gallery and see works in varying media, such as beadwork, collage, clay, photography, weaving, metalwork and printmaking, all rooted in ancestral technologies, in curvilinear designs, mark-making, hard-edged geometres and vivid colors. Travel down to see all the art in these museums or view a distillation at The Ringling through May 31.
Small can be big–such as when someone who did not have a large portfolio of work can also have made their mark as an artist. A young Italian girl (age 10) moves to Paris in 1877, becomes an artist’s model and, enamored with that art form, becomes an artist herself. Did she paint a lot? No. Did she spend 20 years confined in “institutions”? Yes. But, more importantly, did she receive critical praise for her deftly painted, richly colorful depictions of strong, sensual women adorned in lavish textiles (of which The Ringling has some)? Yes.
More info about both exhibitions at ringling.org.
And speaking of Les Sylphides
That other ballet about sylphides, La Sylphide, is also being performed in Sarasota this month. Or excerpts of it anyway. Why not the entire ballet? Because The Gulfcoast Studio Company of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet is presenting Classical+Contemporary at the Sarasota Cuban Ballet Auditorium on Cattlemen Road on October 3-5, and La Sylphide is just part of the program. In addition, there will be an excerpt from The Awakening of Flora and a special performance (with live music) of The Swan.
And, in keeping with the season, they will be presenting, for a trio of days (October 31 – November 2), DRACULA, an original ballet created by faculty of the Sarasota Cuban Ballet School. And just an FYI: Luis Molina of the SCB placed 1st in both the Senior Competitive Classical and Senior Competitive Contemporary categories in the Universal Ballet Competition in Jacksonville and also in the UBC Grand Prix Finals in Orlando. Being 1st in everything is really kinda good. Really. More Info at srqcubanballet.org
