Week 7 at Jacob’s Pillow:
Complexions Contemporary Ballet
Decidedly Jazz Danceworks
Wednesday, Aug. 9 – Sunday, Aug. 13
The diverse and inclusive New York-based Complexions Contemporary Ballet reinvents ballet with a mix of methods, styles, and cultures. The program includes works set to music by Bach, Beethoven, and Vivaldi as well as a one-act tribute to David Bowie.
Decidedly Jazz Danceworks is a 38-year-old jazz company from Calgary, Canada, dedicated to the rich traditions and boundless future of jazz dance.
The Fawns
Florence Civic Center, 90 Park St
Thursday, Aug. 10 at 6:30 p.m.
Just about every town in western Mass. has an outdoor summer series, and I’m running out of time to cover them all! The Florence Civic Center’s Thursday series is a gem and they have a food truck every week. This week you can hear Northampton-based indie-rock band The Fawns.
Just Another Day
Great Barrington Public Theater
Bard College at Simon’s Rock
Thursday, Aug. 10 – Sunday, Aug. 13
In a heart-stirring new drama written by actor Dan Lauria, an aging comedy writer and poet meet daily on a bench to find out how, why and whether they were ever actually married, and if so, what magic held them together besides a mutual love of old movies. It’s a joyous, powerful love story about the lasting gifts of comedy and laughter, even at the end of the world, starring Dan Lauria and Jodi Long.
Barrington Stage Company
Third Annual Celebration of Black Voices
Tartell Family Outdoor Stage, Pittsfield
Thursday, Aug. 10 – Sunday, Aug. 13
Head to Pittsfield for a celebration of local Black artists, featuring a kickoff concert with Brownskin Band, an adult talent show, a poetry slam, a community gospel concert and a host of other events. The Sunday evening finale, Black Voices Matter, is a celebratory community performance piece devised with local Black community members using the performing arts as a tool to share their joy, fears, triumphs, and what it means to be African American in the Berkshires.
Barbie Day
Springfield Museums
Friday, Aug. 11 from 10 a.m.– 5 p.m.
This popular special exhibit features a Barbie box and pink car, perfect for posing and snapping pictures. Kids can customize their own stylish shades for sunny summer days, make a friendship bracelet, color, cut and build a Barbie Dreamhouse, and more. I’m going to the movie this week!
Disq + Graham Hunt
The Drake, Amherst
Friday, Aug. 11 at 7 p.m.
With their debut album “Collector,” the Wisconsin-bred alternative rock outfit Disq seemed to have everything required to take the world by storm. One catch: the release date was March 6, 2020. Now, with the release of their second album, “Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet,” they’ve pushed the sound and dynamic of the band in exciting and unexpected new directions.
Shakey Graves and Lucius
The Pines Theater at Look Park, Northampton
Friday, Aug. 11 at 7 p.m.
Shakey Graves is an Americana musician from Austin, Texas. His music combines blues, folk, country, and rock and roll. Every Lucius song begins with what Holly Laessig calls “coffee talks,” in which she and Jess Wolfe share what’s on their minds. Onstage, they’re two identically dressed and coiffed halves of the same whole, the mirror image of each other at the microphone.
EarthKry
Hawks and Reed, Greenfield
Friday, Aug. 11 at 8 p.m.
EarthKry was born and nurtured within the halls of the Edna Manley College of The Visual & Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, where four budding musicians hoped to hone their skills. Drawing inspiration from Bob Marley and The Wailers, The Beatles, John Holt, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller, Black Uhuru and Steel Pulse, the group soon cemented a fresh but universal sound.
5th Annual Art of Brewing Festival
Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge
Saturday, Aug. 12 from 1 – 4 p.m.
A favorite event at the Norman Rockwell Museum returns with regional craft brews, haute food truck cuisine, and creative illustration art that brings beer cans and bottles, and other brewed product packaging to life. In addition to tasting and comparing many craft brews, distillers, coffee brewers, you can discover delicious food products that are made through fermentation.
Stomping Grounds Community Dance Performance
Northampton Center for the Arts
Saturday, Aug. 12 at 4 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 13 at 1 p.m.
The Northampton Center for the Arts presents a community dance performance featuring all new choreography by Lisa Leizman, Kelly Silliman, Michelle Marroquin, Alexis Major Jameson, and Jayme Winell. Performed by a multigenerational group of professional dancers and advanced adult dance students, this event marks the third year of community-created summer dance performances at the center.
Spirit Doll: A Personal Expression Workshop with Belinda Lyons Zucker
Salmon Falls Gallery, Shelburne Falls
Sunday, Aug. 13 from 2 – 4 p.m.
At the end of this hands-on workshop, you will be taking home your own completed spirit doll. Belinda will bring doll bodies for you to embellish with beads, embroidery, words, and fabric, along with the tools you will need to complete the project. You can bring small things like a single favorite earring you lost the mate to, a bead you love, a pin that belonged to a loved one or a small piece of fabric that you’d like incorporate into your spirit doll.
Old Deerfield Sunday Afternoon Concert Series: Liana Paniyeva
Memorial Hall, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association
Sunday, Aug. 13 at 3 p.m.
Liana Paniyeva is a Ukrainian pianist who has performed at international festivals in Norway, Hungary, and Syria, and played in the concert halls of Scotland, South Africa, and in America — the photo above was taken at Carnegie Hall. She won the American Protégé International Competition of Romantic Music; was the recipient of the Grand Prize at the Metropolitan International Piano Competition; and is the winner of the AFAF Golden Era of Romantic Music International Competition.
Pioneer Valley Symphony Summer Sing:
Fauré Requiem
Most Holy Redeemer Parish Hall, Hadley
Sunday, Aug. 13 at 4 p.m.
The PVS' Summer Sings are open, community events that welcome choral enthusiasts and instrumentalists from around the region in an informal and musically rewarding experience. Singers of all experience levels are welcome. You do not have to have performed the work before, but you will probably get the most out of the experience if you either enjoy sight reading or are familiar with it.
Concerts at 7: The Neave Trio
Plainfield Congregational Church
Monday, August 14 at 7 p.m.
Concerts at 7 is a lovely classical chamber music series that presents performances on Mondays through the month of August — at 7! This Monday, The Neave Trio will perform Brahms’s piano trio no. 1, op. 8; Ravel’s piano trio in A minor, op. 67; and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor‘s Five Negro Melodies for Piano Trio. Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio has performed at venues like Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the 92nd Street Y.
SCDT Young Artist Film-making Workshop
Bombyx, Florence
Mondays -Wednesdays, Aug. 14–16 and 21–23
If you know of a young person who’d enjoy a late-summer workshop, the School for Contemporary Dance & Thought is presenting a six-day summer program for young artists (12-18) to learn about filmmaking and narrative storytelling while working together to make their own collaborative video short. Students will learn about craft and artistic expression in screenwriting, cinematography, and video editing.