New Times picks the best arts and culture events in metro Phoenix from February 29 to March 4. The Danserye Leap Day suggests leaping about the dance floor. But it’s Monday, and you’re wiped. The next best thing is listening to dance music — beats from assorted cultures and historical…
Water, art, and light. That’s the typical triad for the annual Canal Convergence, presented by Scottsdale Public Art along the Scottsdale Waterfront. This year’s ran from Thursday to Sunday, February 25 to 28. Light figured prominently in most of our favorites this time around, including floating sculptures made with fishing…
Michael 23 has been doing some serious math. Recently, the artist and business owner (who uses the last name 23 because he’s fascinated by the number) learned that the building where he’s spent 15 years operating The Firehouse art space with his wife Joanna Lee is up for sale. So…
Everybody needs a good art binge now and then, and it’s about time to rev up for the next one. It’s Canal Convergence 2016, taking place Thursday, February 25, to Sunday, February 28, in downtown Scottsdale. During 29 hours over the course of four days, Scottsdale Public Art will transform…
Decisions, decisions. “Should we lop off their heads or leave their heads on?” So went the discussions as Michelle Dock, gallery coordinator for The Gallery at Tempe Center for the Arts, prepared to open “Merely Players,” an exhibition featuring costumes, design sketches, and a costume shop replica. “It’s been a…
Some time ago, I adopted a rule about not reviewing theater students while they’re learning their craft. But last fall, I bumped into actor/director Pamela Fields, who told me about the upcoming production of Lasso of Truth she was directing at ASU. Fields made it sound so interesting, I resolved…
This summer will mark three years since George Zimmerman’s trial ended in acquittal. After a jury found Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, three women launched a movement via social media using three simple words and a hashtag: #blacklivesmatter. Today, the national Black Lives Matter organization works to affirm…
“The Sleeping Beauty truly is the best ballet,” Ib Andersen writes in the program notes for Ballet Arizona’s production of the classic ballet, which runs through Sunday, February 14, at Phoenix Symphony Hall. “The Nutcracker is good, Swan Lake is good, but The Sleeping Beauty is the ultimate classical ballet…
By the end of 2017, Mesa will be home to about 50 new units of artist live/work space, created through a partnership with Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that specializes in art-friendly residential developments. The City of Mesa invited Artspace to explore creating an artist live/work space development in Mesa during…
If you’re looking to laugh sometime in the next few months, we’ve got good news for you. There’s a ridiculous amount of comedy coming through the Valley in the next few months. Which is why we created a list of the 20 best for you (in chronological order). Cotter &…
New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from February 1 to February 4. It’s Not for Everyone Though this show is called “It’s Not For Everyone,” there’s a good chance it’ll be a laugh riot for you. Comedians Erick Biez and Angela Merkin Haines host a new…
Phoenix sound artist Tony Obr sat behind a table topped by a silver Apple laptop computer Friday night, amplifying the sounds created as visual artist Heather Couch pounded a large clump of clay on the stage at Tempe Center for the Arts. Fumihiro Kikuchi, the choreographer and dancer whose Amalgamations opened…
Last month, I met an actress who told me I’d once compared her performance in a play to “a dank flatulence.” I don’t remember this, but it sounds like something I might have written, so I believed her. She may be relieved to know I found her neither humid nor…
Gracie Whyte and Laura Berg have a thing for dancing in unexpected places. The women behind the Los Angeles-based dance duo known collectively as WHYTEBERG have performed to Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life” in the left turn lane of a street in Echo Park, and to the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me…
Break out your best happy dance. Choreographer, performer, writer, and educator Liz Lerman recently joined the faculty for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU. As Institute Professor, she’ll lead programs and courses that span disciplines within and beyond the Herberger Institute. Lerman founded the Liz Lerman…
Next month, Scottsdale will have a new space for getting its laugh on. Stand Up Scottsdale closed on January 3 and will be moving from its current Old Town Scottsdale location back to a brand new version of its spot, set to open on February 4. “We actually started the…
Doug Stanhope stands atop a tiny stage the size of a wooden coffin, ready to unleash his vitriolic humor upon an audience whose members have come like willing lambs to slaughter. He’s a misfit, a carnival barker dressed in a pea-green thrift-store sports coat and sickish-yellow shirt, topped off by…
Hey, the 1990s called. And actually, they are mad stoked about your nostalgia for them. Not only are all your favorite shows from the era — Full House, Twin Peaks, The X-Files — getting the reboot treatment, but ’90s Saturday Night Live heavyweights are banding together and stepping into the spotlight, too. Case…
New Times picks the best events and things to do in metro Phoenix from January 4 to January 10. “Ecosystem” Are you one of those people who sees bubble wrap and can’t keep your hands off its plastic pearls? That overwhelming desire to pop those little pods is something you must…
Masses of nude bodies photographed floating in the Dead Sea, fine art paintings by graffiti artist El Mac, and plays performed on Valley Metro Light Rail trains — they’ll all be part of the 2016 arts and culture scene here in metro Phoenix, where works of visual and performance art…
For 32, dancer and instructor Liliana Gomez has a lot under her belt. She’s family- and community-oriented, patient, informed, and incredibly sweet. Gomez’s dance classes are bright and positive, billed as Contemporary Modern with Liliana Gomez on Monday nights at Metropolitan Arts Institute. She claps, she snaps, she laughs. She…
As the year winds down, I find myself wanting a lot—especially from the local creatives, and their audiences, in our fair city. A higher level of sophistication about the local arts scene Pretty much everyone who lives in Arizona knows that the Cardinals are not a baseball team, so why…
