Dear Friends:
As the second half of our Centennial Season begins in earnest this weekend with two back-to-back West Coast premieres from the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and a double-bill evening of jazz from Brad Meldau and Bill Frisell, it seemed a good time to bring you up to date on some of the exciting additions and program announcements concerning our 2005/06 schedule that you may have missed during those final busy weeks of the holiday season.
You're invited to the Celebration of the Century!
Four Bay Area premieres from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Everything you've always wanted to know about Cal Performances and more!
And over 40 more events yet to come!
Thank you for being such an important part of this season-long celebration. I look forward to seeing you all often in the coming months!
Sincerely, |
Morris — plus a special participation by San Francisco Symphony's renowned Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas. In addition, the celebration will start early and continue into the night with a pre-performance reception and post-performance dinner designed and produced for Cal Performances by the inimitable Alice Waters and Stanlee Gatti. Tickets are already selling briskly for this once-in-a lifetime grand affair, so be sure to make your plans now to join us! For more information, see our web site.
I know many of you wait to purchase your tickets for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's annual engagement at Cal Performances until we receive actual program information from the company, so be sure to visit our Ailey web page now for a complete listing of the three different programs this year. In addition to such Ailey company classics as Night Creature, The Winter in Lisbon, and of course, Revelations, we'll get a first look at four new pieces in The Ailey repertoire: Ulysses Dove's Urban Folk Dance; Ailey dancers Hope Boykin, Abdur-Rahim Jackson, and Matthew Rushing's Acceptance In Surrender; Ronald K. Brown's Ife/My Heart; and Ailey Artistic Director Judith Jamison's Reminiscin. I am especially excited about these last two pieces because they will feature an exceptional new talent in the already star-filled Ailey corps: Alicia Graf, who according to The New York Times, "is a dynamic young star capable of driving normally sober New York dance critics into paroxysms of delight!"
I'm very pleased and proud to announce that our commemorative book, published in conjunction with our Centennial Season, is now on sale online and through our Ticket Office. This fascinating history of the presentation of the performing arts on the UC Berkeley campus is not only a comprehensive look at our 100-year history, but also a bird's-eye-view of the public's evolving taste in performing arts over the past century. For more information or to purchase your very own copy, see our web site.
