RSS
vaildance.org
Headline RSS FeedTickets already selling out for Vail International Dance Festival
July 23, 2008 —
The national popularity of ballroom dancing is in the category of national phenomena which leave me briefly agape, then quickly searching for the nearest bandwagon which will have me as an avid rider.
The Vail International Dance Festival's “Ballroom’s Best” performance, slated for Saturday, Aug. 9, 7:30 p.m. at Ford Amphitheater, is the latest evidence of the national dance craze which swept the nation a few years back and which, it seems, is here to stay for quite some time.
Reserved seating for the performance has already sold out, yet general admission tickets still remain for this, the final event of the Vail International Dance Festival. Be prepared to see lithe, strong dancers from among the World Champions in competitive ballroom dancing.
The Festival, which has gained international acclaim as one of the finest dance events in the world (the mere fact that New York City Ballet’s Damian Woetzel is the event’s Artistic Director speaks volumes of its renown), begins on July 27 and carries through the Ballroom Dancing event Aug. 9.
For a complete Vail International Dance Festival calendar of events click here.
For those dance fans looking to catch the ballroom performance, along with other Dance Festival shows, the Performance Plus Pass is probably the way to go. It provides general admission lawn seating, plus a $10 discount on a bottle of wine each evening, for all seven Dance Festival performances at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater.
Priced at $75, the non-transferable Performance Plus Pass also offers holders the possibility of an upgrade to a reserved seat one hour prior to the start of the show.
Performance Plus Passes and general admission lawn seats for “Ballroom’s Best” may be purchased online at www.vaildance.org or by calling either (970) 845-TIXS (8497) or 1-888-920-ARTS (2787). Individual tickets for the 2008 Vail International Dance Festival are currently on sale as well via the same outlets.
Submit a comment on "Tickets already selling out for Vail International Dance Festival"
Photo by Dan Davis trekkerphoto.com
Scientists discover that spacetime looks like ... moguls?
July 22, 2008 —
Buried in one of last winter’s powder days I had a moment atop Prima when I felt like the field of bumps below me was the only thing that mattered in the universe.
I was almost right.
Turns out, bumps may be the way matter distributes itself throughout the universe … or something like that, because a group of scientists have recently discovered that the world around us – spacetime itself – looks a lot like a mogul run.
The most famous physicist of our time – Stephen Hawking – is likely known as well for his debilitating Lou Gehrig’s disease as for marshalling one of the post-Einstein era’s most compelling scientific theories: Euclidean Quantum Gravity.
He also helped prove the existence of Black Holes and then, alternately, that they radiate energy, but in the world of physics he’s primarily known as the poster boy for EQG.
The term Euclidean Quantum Gravity may make you want to nod off, or chug a pitcher of espresso, or click on one of our sponsor’s ads (thought I’d give it a shot) but before your lids slam shut, consider that Birds of Prey, Highline, Prima and Prima Cornice … all this time we’ve been carving something which looks unbelievably, uncannily, like Einstein and Hawking’s spacetime continuum. When time and space come together, they look bumpy – yet patterned, just as a mogul run does.
For all but the greatest skiers, there’s that moment when we look down at the next section of piste we imagine the elusive, invisible line. Irregular but still within a pattern, the bumps we see are the work of hundreds, if not thousands, of skiers before us – none of whom had any predetermined idea of where the bumps should form, nor how.
If the grooming cats fail to show up, what we’re left with is lumps of matter recognizable as mostly the same shape and size, but none which are exactly the same.
Now imagine the proverbial faceplant.
Up close, the snowflakes are each as individual, as unique, as nature allows – perhaps, as some say, each snowflake is unlike any other to ever fall (a non-provable concept, yet appealing in its own right). Take a snowflake under a microscope and you see something that’s not only unique, you also see a “fractal,” meaning it has the same basic pattern repeating itself over and over and over again … or, said otherwise, it looks the same no matter how close you zoom in.
Once we stand up from our faceplant, however, the landscape returns to its bumpy yet recognizable form.
This may not seem like rocket science, and technically it’s not. But it may be the most important step forward science has made recently in harmonizing the two disparate fields of physics: Einstien’s theories of relativity (which apply to the cosmos) and the theories of quantum physics (which apply to the very, very, small world).
More on the work of Jan Ambjorn, Jerzy Jukiewecz, and Renate Loll (visit Loll’s website at www.phys.uu.nl/~loll), can be found in the print edition of the July Scientific American or at www.sciam.com/july08.
Submit a comment on "Scientists discover that spacetime looks like ... moguls?"
Fresh from the Mile High Music Festival, Serena Ryder comes to town tonight
July 21, 2008 —
I once missed front row seats to a Tom Petty show because I was trying to catch the end of a football game, and I’ve never lived it down (which, perhaps, I never should).
Then, this past weekend, I missed the 57-year-old rocker yet again this weekend, along with Dave Matthews (although I saw him front row at the Georgia Theater in 1993 so I don’t feel too bad there), Jon Mayer (who I can’t stand anyway), Michael Franti and Spearhead (possibly the best band on tour right now), the Black Crowes (caught ‘em in Telluride and they were much better than I expected), Flogging Molly (good for drinking Jameson to, among other things), and about 50 other top acts.
Best show of 2008, for me personally, remains Mike Doughty at the Fox in Boulder – or perhaps The Hold Steady in their home turf in Boston. And, although both bands are par excellence, I’m still thinking I can outdo myself.
I’m not saying it’ll happen tonight, but you never know: Serena Ryder, who played the MHMF this past weekend, comes to town tonight for a show at the Vilar Performing Arts Center. The 23-year-old has been given lavish praise by critics for her preternatural maturity and a deep, soothing voice which sounds, if you’ll follow me here, like some kind of hybrid, composite voice built from the historical cannons of country music.
Don’t expect any ultra-twangy, bad-greeting-card Country out of Ryder though. The Juno Award winner (it’s like the Canadian Grammy) has a sound all her own. The show starts at 8, and tickets are $18 and still available at vilarpac.org.
Here’s some vid by way of a preview:
Submit a comment on "Fresh from the Mile High Music Festival, Serena Ryder comes to town tonight"
vilarpac.org
Mamma Mia! Abba tribute band's appearance at Vilar Center is right on time
July 17, 2008 —
Here’s my prediction of the day: the movie Mamma Mia! is going to knock the designer socks off “Sex and the City."
Just to be clear, the closest I got to seeing Sex and the City was a night drinking beer and playing guitar at the Main Street Grill across from the Edwards movie theater. But if I could choose between the après S&C crowd and the après MM crowd, I’d take the Mamma Mia crowd hands down. For that matter, I’d take the Dancing Queen over shoe-shopping, Amanda Seyfried over Sarah Jessica Parker, and the indomitable Meryl Streep over pretty much all comers.
I may also take the Vilar Center next Wednesday over going to the movies – or maybe I’ll do both. The costumes and wigs alone will make it worth a trip to see “The Music of Abba” (featuring the tribute band Arrival), not to mention the dancing, the sinfully irresistible pop tunes, and the freaky physical resemblance Arrival has to some of the original Abba band members.
Mamma Mia! is in theaters July 18. The Arrival show gets under way at 8 p.m. at Beaver Creek’s chic auditorium July 23, and tickets are $58 … visit www.vilarpac.org for information and/or to buy tickets.
Submit a comment on "Mamma Mia! Abba tribute band's appearance at Vilar Center is right on time"
Next
