Arts Fuse critics select the best in music, dance, and film that’s coming up this week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Dance

Shadows Fleeting
October 2-27
The Sanctuary Theatre, Cambridge, MA

As the days grow shorter, Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre opens its 2013-2014 season with a new work by Mateo joining the Halloween-appropriate repertory works Covens and Dark Profiles.

Twist & Shout! An Evening of Dance, Spoken Word and Music
October 4-5
Roxbury Community College Mainstage Theater, Boston, MA

Beloved retired Alvin Ailey principal dancer Renee Robinson and OrigiNation Teacher of the Year Seanice Martin are being honored at performances by the energetic youth dancers of the NIA Dance Troupe, Girlz of Imani, IMANI Jr., and Aleye Boyz Troupe on a program that includes spoken word by Congolese-American poet Omekongo wa Dibinga.

Selmadanse, Joanie Block & Dancers
October 4-5
Green Street Studios, Cambridge, MA

Joanie Block reflects on the history of Jewish women, restorative Sabbath peace, and the legacy of terrifying health scare in an interdisciplinary work that includes a commissioned score by clarinet hero Billy Novick and Willie Sordillo and video art by Lynn Bikofsky.

And further afield…

Guinean Dance & Drum
October 5
The Dance Hall, Kittery, ME

After a day of workshops, Sidiki Sylla and Ismael Bangoura of Jeh Kulu Dance and Drum Theater in Vermont; Mangue Sylla from NYC; and Namory Keita and guests give an evening performance of West African dancing and drumming.

— Debra Cash

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Classical

The Boston Conservatory Chamber Series
October 4, 8 p.m.
The Boston Conservatory, Boston, MA

The Boston Conservatory offers a new performance series featuring chamber music performed by faculty members and renowned guest artists inaugurating the newly-renovated Seully Hall. Works by Wagner, Dutilleux, Britten String Quartet No.2 in C Major, Op. 36, and Verdi String Quartet in e minor. Free.

Cappella Clausura
October 5, 8 p.m.
Christ Church, Cambridge, MA
October 6, 4 p.m.
St. Paul Episcopal Church, Brookline, MA

Cappella Clausura presents Rebecca Clark and her circle, Amelia LeClair, director. The complete a cappella works of Rebecca Clarke and works of Britten, Vaughan Williams and Palestrina

Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston
October 5, 8 p.m.
First Church, Boston, MA
October 6, 4 p.m.
Goethe Institute, Boston, MA

Chameleon Arts Ensemble open their season with “immortal notes, Parisian air,” featuring a program of Chopin’s Sonata in g minor for cello and piano, Op. 65; Copland’s Nocturne for violina and piano; Morton Feldman’s I Met Heine n the Rüe Furstenberg; Richard Rodney Bennett’s Sonata After Syrinx for flute, viola and harp; and Mendelssohn’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in b minor, Op. 3.

First Monday at Jordan Hall
October 7, 8 p.m.
New England Conservatory, Boston, MA

A stellar cast headed by Eliot Fisk playing Britten’s Nocturnal after John Dowland, Op. 70; Verdi’s Quartet in E minor with James Buswell and Gabriela Diaz, violins, Dimitri Murrath, viola, Laurence Lesser, cello; Mozart’s Piano Quintet in G minor, K. 516 with violinists Miriam Fried and Paul Biss, violas from Dmitri Murrath and Mai Motobuchi, and Laurence Lesser on cello. Free.

Radius Ensemble: Evocation
October 5, 8 p.m.
Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA

Works of Nino Rota. The rarely performed Quintet for flute, oboe, viola, cello and harp; Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango for flute and harp; Woolf’s Ten Images for clarinet and cello; and Brahms’ Trio in E-flat for horn, violin and piano, Op. 40.

— Susan Miron

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Shostakovich
Presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra
October 3-5 and 8, 8 p.m. (Friday’s concert is at 1:30 p.m.)
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

There’s little that Yo-Yo Ma can’t do very well: though his appearances at Symphony Hall are by now something of a habit, he’s anything but a commonplace performer. This weekend, he joins the BSO in Shostakovich’s searing Cello Concerto no. 1. Stéphane Denève conducts and also leads music by Prokofiev and Richard Strauss’s bloated, egomaniacal (yet strangely charming) Ein Heldenleben.

Banned in Boston
Presented by Boston Musica Viva
October 5, 8 p.m.
Tsai Performance Center, Boston, MA

For some reason, a fighting spirit seems to be in the air this year, both at NEC (with it’s “Truth to Power” series) and at BMV. Richard Pittman and his new music band begin their 45th season with a program that “celebrates defiance in art forms.” It looks to be a bracing set, regardless, with a world premiere by Martin Brody, music by Gunther Schuller, and Robert Rodriguez’s Tango.

Sibelius, Brahms, and a World Premiere
Presented by the Longwood Symphony Orchestra
October 5, 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

Perhaps the city’s most unique orchestra, the Longwood Symphony opens its 31st season with a concert to benefit one of its 2013-14 community partners, Women of Means. It’s a rich program, featuring violinist Miriam Fried in Brahms’s Violin Concerto, Sibelius’s luminous Seventh Symphony, and a new piece by Boston-based composer Andrew List. Music director Ronald Feldman conducts.

Thomas Adés conducts Ives
Presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra
October 10-12, 8 p.m.
Symphony Hall, Boston, MA

The BSO’s most reliable guest conductor these days returns with the single best program of the orchestra’s current season: two old, familiar faces (Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture and Franck’s D minor Symphony) are paired with a newcomer (Adés’s own Polaris) and a brilliant rarity (Charles Ives’s Orchestral Set no. 2). The Ives, in particular, is a can’t-miss, with a finale that, in six minutes, packs an unforgettable expressive wallop.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

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Rock

X
October 5
House of Blues, Boston, MA

The word “seminal” gets thrown around a lot, but in this case, it’s arguably appropriate: X was, and is, the seminal Los Angeles punk band. They’re in the conversation for seminal LA band period, though that distinction would probably go to the Doors. Even so, that band’s organist, the late Ray Manzarek, actually produced X’s debut (which was coincidentally called Los Angeles), so the distance between the two bands is obviously not great. As is true of just about every punk band ever, X never broke through to the mainstream in a huge way, but their music has endured, regularly finding its way onto “best of” lists by publications from Pitchfork to Rolling Stone. Despite where they’re from, as long as the band members don’t wear any Lakers gear to the House of Blues this week, they should be welcomed by Bostonians with open arms.

Bill Callahan
October 5
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

Some musicians just aren’t as well-known as they should be. Bill Callahan is one of those. His latest release, Dream River, has many a music nerd (not meant as a putdown) buzzing, and for good reason. Of course, if there’s one good thing about deserving musicians not being as well-known as they should be, it’s this: you get to see them in small rooms for not a lot of money! You certainly can’t get that with Foo Fighters.

Upcoming

NIN (10/11/2013, TD Garden); The Meat Puppets (10/13/2013, Brighton Music Hall); Pearl Jam (10/15/2013, DCU Center); Savages (10/15/2013, Paradise Rock Club); Pearl Jam (10/16/2013, DCU Center); Pearl Jam (10/25/2013, XL Center); Justin Townes Earle (10/27/2013, The Sinclair); My Bloody Valentine (11/7/2013, House of Blues); Kanye West (11/17/2013, TD Garden); MGMT (12/5/2013, Orpheum Theatre); Queens of the Stone Age (12/13/2013, Agganis Arena); Jay Z (1/18/2014, TD Garden)

— Adam Ellsworth

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Film

Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey
September 30 – October 6
Public Television including WGBH & WGBX

Independent Lens on public television features some of the best filmmakers and documentaries from around the world. Since many never make it to theaters the series is worth keeping an eye on. This week’s film is a remarkable story that will engage both documentary and music lovers alike. When the superstar band Journey’s original singer left, Filipino singer Arnel Pineda was plucked from a YouTube video to front the group. The film shows him dealing with the pressures of singing and leading the band on their longest world tour in ages. To find the broadcast dates link to the schedule here.

2013 Online New England Film Festival
through October 15

The 5th Annual Online New England Film Festival is a live and free opportunity to see locally produced short work on-line. Gleaned from local film festivals, the films are available through October 15. Watch the trailer for the festival here.

The Act of Killing
October 5, 7 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive Cambridge, MA

If you missed this in the theaters earlier this summer it is worth seeing, but the film is not for the fainted hearted. The film is one of the strangest meditations on the nature of evil and the culpability of violence ever created. Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer profiles two of the leaders of a Sumatran death squad who boast of their crimes and are eager to re-enact them for the camera. This screening will feature the “director’s cut” of The Act of Killing, more than half an hour longer than the version released theatrically, which represents, in Oppenheimer’s words, “the film in its most terrifying, dreamlike, and intimate form.”

Escape from Tomorrow
October 7, 
6 p.m.
Paramount Center 
Bright Family Screening Room, Boston, MA

Bright Lights presents a free screening of Escape from Tomorrow, a 2013 American fantasy-horror film, the debut film of writer-director Randy Moore, about a man having increasingly disturbing experiences and visions during the last day of a family vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort. Moore shot the majority of the film on location at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland without permission from The Walt Disney Company. The cast and crew used guerrilla filmmaking techniques to avoid attracting attention, such as keeping their scripts on their iPhones and shooting on handheld video cameras similar to those used by park visitors. It was called “the ultimate guerrilla film.” The trailer a very disturbing!

BIG MEN
October 10, 7 p.m.
UMass Boston Campus Center Ballroom “C” – 3rd Floor, Boston, MA

Professor and filmmaker Chico Colvard’ s free and informative documentary series has begun. This second film in the series follows a small group of American explorers at Dallas-based oil company Kosmos Energy. Between 2007 and 2011, Big Men’s two-person crew filmed inside the oil company as Kosmos Energy and its partners discovered and developed the first commercial oil field in Ghana’s history. Simultaneously the crew filmed in the swamps of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, following the exploits of a militant gang to reveal another side of the economy of oil: people trying to profit in any way possible, because they’ve given up on waiting for the money to trickle down.

Q&A with award winning filmmaker, Rachel Boynton (Our Brand Is Crisis) follows.

— Tim Jackson