UNCSA Winter Dance, Poet Tony Abbott, Blind Idol, and Behind the Scenes with Dale Pollock

UNCSA's Winter Dance

This year's UNC School of the Arts Winter Dance commemorates the past while celebrating the new with legendary choreographers Sir Frederick Ashton and Merce Cunningham, and two world premieres: Trish Casey's Looking Back, and Metallurgy by Dean of Dance Susan Jaffe. Susan is joined by former Merce Cunningham Dance Company dancers Meg Harper, and Andrea Weber. Together they bring decades of experience to bear in setting the legendary choreographer's riveting Sounddance on the young and gifted UNCSA dance students.

In addition to a discussion of Winter Dance, today's show features two dancers' remembrances of Merce Cunningham. Meg Harper joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company not long after his groundbreaking choreography titled “Walk Around” in 1968. She recalls working with Merce for the first time and watching him put the piece together. And Andrea Weber joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 2004 and performed roles in dozens of Cunningham's works. She was there for the company's farewell tour in December of 2011. Merce Cunningham passed away in 2009.

Winter Dance 2015 will feature Merce Cunningham's amazing Sounddance, Sir Frederick Ashton's challenging Birthday Offering and two world premieres: Trish Casey's Looking Back, and Susan Jaffe's Metallurgy with original music by Bruno Louchuoarn.  The performances continue through March 1^st with evening shows at 7:30 and a Sunday matinee at 2 in the Stevens Center in downtown Winston-Salem. 

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Tony Abbott

"Poetry as Prayer, Prayer as Poetry: The Struggle for Faith in the Poems of John Donne and Gerard Manley Hopkins". That's the title of a fascinating new lecture series that'll be given next month by award-winning author/poet Anthony Abbott at Centenary United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem.  

In addition to being one of today's leading writers, Tony Abbott holds the distinction of being Professor Emeritus of English at Davidson College. He's an incredible lecturer and educator who's enjoyed a 50 year relationship with the college, and he's picked two of the greatest lyric religious poets in the history of English literature for his series. Over four Tuesdays in March, Tony will explore the extraordinary lives of these two poet priests, Hopkins and Donne and look at how each used poetry to express their deep spiritual needs to God. 

Both men were profoundly religious and although they lived centuries apart, their stories parallel each other. In 1844 Hopkins started out as an Anglican (the official faith of England) and fell in love with Catholicism while at Oxford before making the conversion. In so doing he was stripped of his rank at school, and abandoned by his own family. As a Jesuit in training, swearing himself to absolute celibacy, Hopkins also gave up writing poems for several years, but eventually the power of poetry came out in a beautiful collection of sonnets. Sadly for Hopkins, a true Englishman, and lover of the great outdoors, after graduating he was shipped off to the big, smoggy city of Dublin just as Ireland began fighting for its independence from England.  Hopkins felt like a man without a country, and out came what are known today as “The Terrible Sonnets”, wrestling with God to give him the grace to live his wretched life. Tony will share from this collection.

John Donne lived from 1572-1631, and grew up as a Roman Catholic. The ambitious poet eventually made the upwardly mobile decision (in terms of English Society at that time) to switch to Anglicanism. He went on to become the best preacher in England, but in his prior life he was a 16^th century bad boy, writing love poems and living in fear that he would one day wind up in Hell. Later, his powerful collection of poems known as the “The Holy Sonnets” became Donne's prayer to God's forgiveness—his Get Out of Hell Free card if you will—and these poems will be the primary focus of part one of Tony's lectures at Centenary: Poetry as Prayer, Prayer as Poetry.

Award-winning poet and novelist Anthony S. Abbott is the author of five books of poetry, including the Pulitzer nominated The Girl in the Yellow Raincoat.

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Blind Idol

North Carolina's best singers who also happen to be legally blind are participating in the first-ever Blind Idol singing competition this weekend. The competition began in the fall with audio submissions that led to the selection of 20 semi-finalists who auditioned on Dec. 6 at the Shirley Recital Hall at Salem College.  We sample from one of those performances in today's show.

The event is organized by Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind.  The judges selected five finalists to perform in the finale competition, and it'll be held on Saturday, Feb. 28^th at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem.  Each contestant will be accompanied by a live band and perform one piece as a group and two individual pieces with the winner receiving a Grand Prize package valued at $3,000. There'll be a $1,000 cash award, recording time in a professional studio, professional headshot and wardrobe gift card.

Chris Flynt is the Director of IFB's A Brighter Path community outreach programs. He's joined by Program Associate and Blind Idol co-organizer Anastasia Powell.

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Dale Pollock

It's time to get a little dark, and maybe, just maybe a little hopeful at least with film producer, writer and UNC School of the Arts professor Dale Pollock. He takes us Behind the Scenes and light years into the future. You can check out Dale's "Movie a Day Blog" here.