Subscription packages for Great Performances at Vanderbilt have been extended to Sept. 21 and are on sale at Sarratt Student Center and the Great Performances website.
Vanderbilt students and staff receive discounted rates with deep subscription savings.
Call (615) 322-4230 for renewals and subscriptions and (615) 322-2471 for season details.
Flamenco star José Porcel opens series Sept. 22
Great Performances at Vanderbilt launches its 37th season for 2011-12 with its most international season to date in a nine-event lineup including Spain’s flamenco superstar José Porcel, jazz pianist Alfredo Rodriguez and The Acting Company, which endures as the major touring classical theater company in the United States.
The season includes a U.S. tour premiere by Taiwanese dance troupe Cloud Gate 2 and the 22-member dance and drumming ensemble Spirit of Uganda, whose performers ages 8-18 are East Africa’s stewards from the professional training program, Empower African Children, representing 2.4 million orphans.
Other performances include Gallim Dance Company, influenced by Israel’s Batsheva contemporary dance troupe, and the world music ensemble, Red Baraat, the top pick from New York city’s globalFEST 2011 and founder of the genre dhol’n’brass marrying Indian Bhangra funk with New Orleans brass.
There will also be a smaller politically inspired theatre series, On the SIDE. Two performances include radical performance artist José Torres Tama, who probes the U.S. immigration issue in a Sci-fi Latino Noir Solo and the New Zealand base Indian Ink Theatre Company in a comedy of timeless truths, Guru of Chai.
The complete list of 2011-12 Great Performances:
Compañia Flamenco José Porcel
Gypsy Fire
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 22
Langford Auditorium
Spain’s flamenco superstar and former dancer with the National Ballet of Spain brings his celebrated troupe of dancers, singers, and musicians to showcase the art of flamenco.
On the Side series
José Torres Tama Performance Art
Aliens, Immigrants, & Other Evildoers – adult language
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5
Student Life Center
Not for the faint of heart, the series launches with the radical Latino performance artist and writer who lives by his doctrine – make art that matters.
Alfredo Rodriguez (Daniel Azoulay) Alfredo Rodriguez with Trio
8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14
Langford Auditorium
Schooled in the rigorous classical conservatories of Havana, this riveting pianist is informed by Bach and Stravinsky as much as his compatriot Chucho Valdés.
Gallim Dance
7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28
Langford Auditorium
A New York dance company that exists at the edge of their physical limits.
Indian Ink Theatre Co.
Guru of Chai
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2
Student Life Center
An intimate company from New Zealand that creates remarkable theatre that reminds us of simple truths.
Cloud Gate 2 – U.S. Tour Premiere
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 4
Langford Auditorium
The United States tour premieres Taiwan’s pillar dance legacy in Nashville, which started with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre.
Spirit of Uganda
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25
Langford Auditorium
Standing drums, choreography, layered rhythms, and call-and-response vocals, the performers ages 8–18, share East Africa’s homeland and are ambassadors for 2.4 million orphans.
The Acting Company
Julius Caesar
Rob Melrose, artistic director
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 29
Langford Auditorium
The struggle for power. The clash of arms. This classic story of pride and envy, arrogance and honor, opportunity and tragic errors is some of the finest rhetoric and verse in the Shakespearean canon.
Red Baraat
8 p.m. Friday, April 13
Student Life Center
The rapidly ascending Bhangra Funk band aka Dhol ‘n’ Brass brings their nine piece explosive group to Nashville including dhol, drum-set, percussion, sousaphone, and horns.
Contact: Bridgette Kohnhorst, (615) 322-2471