Arts Fuse critics select the best in music, film, theater, visual arts, author readings, and dance that’s coming up in the next week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Dance

The Legacy of Joe Gifford
May 25
Coolidge Corner Theatre
Brookline, MA

He danced with Doris Humphrey and Mary Anthony, counted Julianne Moore among his acting students, and encourages orchestra conductors to use their bodies gracefully and expressively. A private screening of Jill Uchiyama’s film portrait of the remarkably vital 94 year-old Joe Gifford is free, but reservations are required by emailing the director at jilluchiyama@gmail.com.

Peter DiMuro & Sydney Skybetter Dance Chat
May 28
At Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts
Boston, MA

Dance Complex executive director Peter DiMuro and New York dance maker Sydney Skybetter, whose work will be presented at the BCA next month, exchange thoughts about the state of the field, the responsibility of artists, and the role of arts in building and sustaining community. Add your voice to the conversation. Free, with cash bar.

and further afield…

May 28-30
Le Sacre du Printemps by Thierry Thieu Niang
May 28
Serkin Center, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
May 30
The Hub at Gateway City Arts
Holyoke, MA

French choreographer and opera director Thierry Thieû Niang has assembled a volunteer company of 25 dancers ranging in age from 60-100. They’ve engaged in special workshops sponsored by Vermont Performance Lab and the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts to explore the history and significance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The results of those explorations will be presented in performances in both Marlboro, Vermont and Holyoke, MA.

— Debra Cash

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Visual Arts

Turner and the Sea, at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, May 31 to September 1.

The much-celebrated British painter J. M. W. Turner began and ended his career with the sea. Turner first exhibited oil painting was a seascape, “Fisherman at Sea,” and during the last months of his life he was working on the story of Aeneas, legendary ancestor of the kings of Britain, who fled burning Troy to wander the Mediterranean. Turner collected boat models and was a amateur sailor.

The sea embraced all the joys of Turner’s art: myth, drama, light, atmosphere, clouds, mist, turbulence, sun, space, color. More than a third of his surviving oils are sea pieces. One scholar puts it, “as the sea flowed around Turner’s nation, so too did it flow around him.”

The exhibition bills itself as the “first full-scale examination of Joseph Mallord Turner’s lifelong preoccupation with the sea.” (The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown hosted a show of Turner’s late seascapes in 2003). It was “produced” by the National Maritime Museum, part of the Royal Museums, Greenwich, London. With all the wonderful Turners in the U.K. to choose from, this show promises to be the visual delight of the summer.

— Peter Walsh

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Jazz

Kris Adams
May 28, 9 p.m.
Ryles Jazz Club, Cambridge, MA.

For her new CD Longing (JazzBird Records), singer Kris Adams contracted her Berklee College colleague, the esteemed trumpeter and arranger Greg Hopkins. The result is a mix of musically varied large and small-group jazz that distinguishes itself from the typical vocal “standards” album. Their show at Ryles will be a rare — maybe only — chance to hear Adams and this music with the bigger group: Hopkins, guitarist Steve Kirby (subbing for the album’s Eric Hofbauer), pianist Tim Ray, reed players Rick DiMuzio, Shannon LeClaire, and Ben Whiting, flutists Bob Patton and Fernando Brandão, bassist Paul Del Nero, percussionist Bertram Lehman, and drummer Mark Walker.

New Black Eagle Jazz Band
May 30, 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

The New Black Eagle Jazz Band has been digging into the vaults for loving revivals of Jelly Roll Morton, Joe Oliver, Louis Armstrong, early Duke, and their cohort since way before your daddy ever heard of Ken Burns’ Jazz — 1971, to be exact. Cornettist Tony Pringle leads the bands, which these days includes reedman Billy Novick, trombonist Stan Vincent, pianist Bob Pilsbury, bassist Jesse Williams, banjo player Peter Bullis, and drummer Bill Reynolds.

Burlington Discover Jazz Festival
May 30-June 8
Burlington, VT.

If you feel like heading north this week, the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival celebrates its 30 anniversary at various locations around town with nightly ticketed events, free concerts, and workshops. This year’s headliners include Tony Bennett, Regina Carter, Grégoire Maret, the Ron Carter Trio, the Benny Golson Quartet, Linda Oh, Julian Lage, Geoffrey Keezer, Warren Wolf, Maceo Parker, Donald Harrison, Valerie June, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jerry Bergonzi, and Eddie Palmieri. See the Arts Fuse round-up for information about this and other summertime jazz festivals in the New England region.

The Makanda Project with Oliver Lake
May 30, 7 p.m.— 9:30 p.m.
Dudley Branch Library, Boston, MA.

The Makanda Project — dedicated to the music of the late Boston musician Makanda Ken McIntyre (1931-2001) — continues its concert series with a free performance at the Dudley Branch Library with a very special guest: the great Oliver Lake (of the World Saxophone Quartet, among many other enterprises).

Sean Noonan
May 31, 7-10 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

Drummer Sean Noon rides the axis of experimental punk rock and jazz with guitarist Aram Bajakian, keyboardist Alex Marcelo, and vocalist Malcolm Mooney of Can. You can get a taste on the new Pavees Dance: There’s Always the Night.

Jeff Ballard Trio
June 4, 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston

Drummer Ballard (Brad Mehldau Trio, Fly) alto saxophonist Miguel Zénon and guitar wizard Lionel Loueke come to Scullers in support of their exciting Time’s Tales.

— Jon Garelick

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Film

Boston Area Film Schedules – What is playing today, Where and When

5th Annual Ciclismo Classico Bike Travel Film Festival
Wednesday, May 28th at 6 p.m.
Regent Theater, Arlington, MA

In celebration of Bike Month (and to benefit MASS BIKE), the festival presents 10 short films featuring two-wheeled travel from around the globe. This is the only film festival in the USA to focus specifically on bicycle travel. There are a number of family friendly films and a Grand Prize winner called The Road From Karakol: In the summer of 2011, alpinist Kyle Dempster set out across Kyrgyzstan on his bike: he peddled over old Soviet roads and climbed as many of the region’s impressive peaks as possible. He found an entirely different kind of adventure than he expected. A social hour begins at 6 p.m. – it features a Cookie Showcase, which will be filled with delicious offerings from local bakeries.

Technicolor Musicals
May 18 – June 1
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA

From the ’30’s through the ’50s the Technicolor film process dominated the industry. Consultants advised directors and producers on how to create color schemes that would support the narrative as well enhance dramatic moods and impressions. Cameramen were specially trained. Several masterpieces of color design are featured this month at the MFA. It is worth treating the kids and yourself to unique viewing experiences on a large screen. Check the website for schedule and times.

Films in the series include Meet Me in St. Louis, The Music Man, A Star is Born, West Side Story, An American in Paris, Mary Poppins, The Music Man, The Wizard of Oz, A Star is Born, and Singin’ in the Rain. See Art Fuse review.

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
Thursday, May 29 7 p.m.
West Newton Cinema, Newton, MA

This is a free preview screening with rush tickets starting at 6:15 p.m. Directed by Mike (Wayne’s World) Myers, the film documents the astounding career of Hollywood legend Shep Gordon. We hear from those who know him best, his pals Alice Cooper, Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Anne Murray, Willie Nelson, Emeril Lagasse, and others. The documentary reveals a man who is a hard-driving dealmaker, a rock ‘n’ roll hedonist who also yearns for a family. Against a backdrop of Tinsel Town debauchery, he’s a man on a spiritual quest – he wants everyone to be happy. This was a recent hit at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.

El Topo
Fri & Sat May 30 & 31 at Midnight
Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, MA

The recently screened documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune showed that the aging director was a man of great conviction and spiritual depth. El Topo was Alejandro Jodorowsky’s first great film (it was one of the original “Midnight Movies” that played at Cambridge’s historic Orson Welles Theater). The director himself stars as El Topo, a figure dressed in black and who carries his nude son (his actual son Brontis) on horseback behind him. The hero uses his supernatural shooting ability to free a town from the rule of a sadistic Colonel. The film was not available to theaters for years. In scene after scene, Jodorowsky fills the screen with extraordinary, surreal, and unforgettable imagery.

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Classical Music

Community Music Center of Boston
Thursday, May 29 at 7 p.m.
34 Warren Avenue, Boston, MA
Free

The evening is entitled “Spectacular Sextets.” The program includes Sextett(2000) for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, and piano by Krzysztof Penderecki and Sextet in C Major, Op. 37 by Ernst von Dohnanyi.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Thursday, May 29 at 8 p.m.
New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

The Celebrity Series of Boston presents the charismatic baritone with Ivar Ilja, piano. The duo will be performing music by Tchaikovsky, Medtner, and Rachmaninoff.

Chorus pro Musica
Saturday, May 31 at 8 p.m.
New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

Jamie Kirsch conducts Bach’s magisterial Mass in B Minor.

Coro Allegro
Sunday, June 1 at 3 p.m.
Church of the Covenant, 67 Newbury St., Boston, MA

The group presents “Baroque Gems,” a program that includes the music of J.S. Bach, Anna Bon, Jan Mismas Zelenka, and two works of “Latin-Baroque fusion.” And there are special guests: members of the internationally acclaimed La Donna Musicale and the Latin-Baroque ensemble RUMBARROCO, both founded and directed by music scholar and viola da gambist Laury Gutiérrez.

Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble
Saturday, May 31 at 8 p.m.
Friends Meeting House, Cambridge, MA
Sunday, June 1 at 8 p.m.
First Parish Church, Concord, MA

The group presents a program entitled “Tracing Vienna’s Lineage” — it includes the music of Haydn, Schubert, and Webern.

— Susan Miron

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Author Events

Joseph Finder
Suspicion
Brookline Booksmith
Tuesday May 27 at 7 p.m.
Free

Bestselling author Joseph Finder comes to Brookline Booksmith to read from his newest novel, a thriller about Danny Goodman, a single dad who takes out an emergency loan from the shady but affluent father of his daughter’s best friend and starts getting contacted by the DEA, setting off a series of chain reactions that give Danny more than he bargained for.

“Is Happiness an Appropriate Goal?”
The Philosophy Cafe Discussion Group
Used Books Department
Harvard Book Store
Tuesday May 27 at 7:30 p.m.
Free

What is the nature of happiness? How do you achieve it? Is it even worthwhile, given how fleeting it is? Harvard Book Store hosts its monthly philosophy discussion group on the question of happiness and discusses its merits and problems. The reading list includes Žižek and Lacan, so if discussing European philosophical issues in the basement of a bookstore doesn’t sound like happiness to you, then maybe you should go to grad school after all.

Daphne Kalotay and Victoria Redel
Sight Reading and Make Me Do Things
Newtonville Books
Thursday May 29 at 7 p.m.
Free

Daphne Kalotay reads from her novel Sight Reading, an involving story about two friends, Hazel and Remy, who meet again after years apart and have a singularly complex set of connections between them. Remy is married to a Scottish composer who used to be the love of Hazel’s life. Her composer husband has spent the last several years laboring on a masterwork he can’t bring himself to complete. Their story spans decades and continents, asking questions about what makes relationships and artistic pursuits work.

Victoria Redel will be reading from her collection of short stories, alternating gracefully between male and female perspectives in stories that tackle marriage, divorce and parenthood. Throughout the volume, Redel analyses the difficulties of characters struggling to come to terms with “the exultations and treasons of one’s own mothy heart.”

Emma Straub
The Vacationers
Harvard Book Store
Monday June 2 at 7 p.m.
Free

Emma Straub’s latest novel features the Posts, a couple vacationing for two weeks in Mallorca with family and friends. The idyllic getaway sounds great – tapas and sunshine aplenty – until old grudges and hidden neurosis come to light, and time’s wounds begin to resurface. Straub’s novel delves into the way we present ourselves and what people try to conceal. Harvard Book Store hosts the event, which may cure your angst-ridden summertime blues.

— Matt Hanson

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Theater

A Lie of the Mind, by Sam Shepard. Directed by Brian Mertes.
May 29 through June 29
Staged by the Trinity Repertory Company at the Dowling Theater, Providence, Rhode Island.

Trinity Rep ends its 50th anniversary season with a staging of a powerhouse 1985 script by Sam Shepard. My impression of earlier productions is that in this play the dramatist tried to cram in too many of his trademark conflicts. Nevertheless, this clash between traumatized families proffers the tumultuous linguistic energy of his best plays. The cast teams new blood with some of the Trinity Rep vets, including Timothy Crowe, Janice Duclos, and Anne Scurria.

Amaluna, directed by Diane Paulus
Staged by Cirque du Soleil
May 29 through July 6
Marine Industrial Park, Boston, MA

Tis the season of The Tempest. Cirque du Soleil gives us an acrobatic/feminist adaptation of Shakespeare’s play: “a queen, Prospera, directs her daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony in a rite that honours femininity, renewal, rebirth and balance which marks the passing of these insights and values from one generation to the next.” The Arts Fuse reviewed the show’s 2012 premiere in Montreal — we will also have a review of this presentation as well.

King Lear, by William Shakespeare. Directed by Sam Mendes.
National Theatre Live presentation
May 29 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theater, Brookline, MA

Simon Russell Beale stars in a production of Shakespeare’s tragedy that has even jaded British critics taking notice. Here’s Michael Billington in The Guardian: “It combines a cosmic scale with an intimate sense of detail and is neither imprisoned by an intellectual concept nor by an actor’s temperament. Instead you feel the director, Sam Mendes, and the Lear, Simon Russell Beale, are working with everyone else to explore every nook and cranny of the play.” Beale was poetically bonkers as the misanthropic monarch in Timon of Athens, so this should be an impressive performance.

— Bill Marx

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Roots and World Music

David Poe
Thursday, May 29
Club Passim
Cambridge, MA

Perhaps more known as an album credit than a performer, Poe has created songs that have been recorded by everyone from T-Bone Burnett to fado singer Ana Moura. He’s celebrating the release of a new album.

Eric Andersen with Joyce Andersen and Steve Addabbo
Friday, May 30 and Saturday, May 31
Club Passim
Cambridge, MA

The prototypical Americana singer-songwriter, Andersen is the author of the oft-recorded “Thirsty Boots.” In the ’90s he was one-third of a criminally underappreciated trio with Jonas Fjeld and the Band’s Rick Danko. Today he’s one of a handful of ’60s folk survivors still making new music. So it’s no surprise that Andersen’s lengthy and storied career is the subject of a forthcoming documentary. (Surely it’ll include footage from below’s 1971 appearance on The Johnny Cash Show.) The doc’s trailer will be screened before each show. Andersen appears with his longtime collaborators — violinist Joyce Andersen and guitarist Steve Addabbo.

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings with James Hunter
Sat. May 31
House of Blues
Boston, MA

No soul revival band has taken the party more places than this irrepressible unit. A cancer scare took frontwoman and former prison guard Jones off the scene for a year before she returned earlier this year with a new album, Give the People What They Want and a tour with UK blue-eyed soul hero James Hunter, who opens with an acoustic set.

Five Blind Boys of Mississippi
June 1, 4 p.m.
Russell Auditorium, 70 Talbot Ave., Dorchester, MA (Info: 617-980-1131)

In recent years, the current incarnation of the Blind Boys of Alabama have become roots music icons thanks to albums featuring their interpretations of “spiritual” pop compositions. Back in the golden era of gospel their rivals, the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, were just as popular on the gospel circuit, with lead singer Archie Brownlee reportedly jumping off balconies despite his visual handicaps. Unlike the Alabama group, which mostly appears at mainstream festivals and performing arts centers, the Mississippi Blind Boys can still be found on the church circuit. While current lead singer Sandy Foster is actually a sighted man from Cleveland, he can outshout just about anyone. They’ll close out a long afternoon of music featuring short sets by nine other quartets, choirs, and soloists. The program celebrates the anniversary of veteran radio host Bishop Harold Branch, whose 6 a.m. Sunday morning program on WRCA (1330) is required listening for local gospel fans.

— Noah Schaffer