Best Bets February 2008

Joyful Voices

Bright, smiling, happy faces making beautiful music. You wouldn’t necessarily expect that of children from impoverished nations.

Since 1984, the African Children’s Choir and its parent organization, Music for Life, has aided the survival and education of Africa’s abandoned children. Each child in the choir, ages seven to eleven, has lost one or both parents to poverty or disease. A new choir is selected each year, and the children from the previous year return to their homelands to attend school.

Performing last year on shows such as American Idol and Ellen brought recognition to this group, which helps with its fundraising efforts.

"What's important now is what the organization is doing in Africa," says Julia Barnett-Tracy, international choir operations director. "It's not just a choir program. It's a relief and development program." February 6, McGlohon Theatre

Russian Invasion

Mikhail Baryshnikov learned ballet at the world-famous Vaganova School in Russia before coming to the U.S. Now touring the Southeast, the members of Russia’s famed Hermitage Theater Corps de Ballet, who all trained at Vaganova, will stop in Charlotte. The performance will showcase some of the top dancers in the world in an assemblage of famous pieces. The show includes two numbers from Swan Lake (pictured, left), scenes from Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quixote, Corsair, and the concert item The Dying Swan, created for Anna Pavlova by Mikhail Fokin at the direction of Sergei Diaghilev in 1903. February 18, Ovens Auditorium

Dreaming in Color

Central Piedmont Community College Theatre has presented Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat twice before. But this will be the first performance in Halton Theatre. While the songs and details are still the same, producer Tom Hollis says to expect a much “grander production.” The props will be bigger, the scenery more elaborate, and the costumes more vivid. Ron Chisholm will direct and choreograph the production, and Stuart Williams will star as everyone’s favorite son, Joseph (pictured, above, from a previous show). See listing on page 46 for more details. February 15-24, Halton Theatre, CPCC Main Campus

Still Clownin’

Everyone loves a good circus, and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey presents its “Bellobration” show, featuring the hijinks of Bello, the wayward clown. The circus features all the usual suspects you’ve grown to know and love like Siberian tigers, a dancing elephant, acrobats, and, of course, clowns. The ringmaster for this event is semilocal University of South Carolina grad Ty McFarlan.  January 30-February 3, Charlotte Bobcats Arena