Oakland Ballet’s Luna Mexicana celebrates Dia de los Muertos
Dia de los Muertos celebrations are unfolding across the Bay Area this weekend. For one of the most extravagantly colorful spectacles, head for Oakland’s Paramount Theatre where the Oakland Ballet Company’s vibrant Luna Mexicana takes the stage Friday and Saturday.
The show is a spectacle of dance, music, colorful costumes, flowers and food. The incredibly popular, Frida Kahlo-inspired “Viva la Vida!” created by ballet artistic director Graham Lustig and Martín Romero of Ballet Folklórico México Danza, is on the program. And both those ensembles will be joined by the Nahui Ehekatl & Co. Aztec dance company on stage during the two-hour production.
Make time to visit the ofrendas and the Luna Mexicana boutique in the lobby before the show, and enjoy tamales, pan de muerto and Mexican hot chocolate.
Details: 7:30 p.m. Friday and 4 p.m. Saturday; $24-$59, with discounts for seniors and youths. Ticket packages for Saturday ($100-$200) offer a pre-show dining option at Agave, as well as a postperformance reception. oaklandballet. org/wp/luna-mexicana
Noche Flamenca returns with follow-up to ‘Antigona’
Flamenco fans should make plans to visit San Francisco’s Z Space at least once — maybe even twice — in the next two weeks to catch “Entre Tú y Yo.”
It’s the new theatrical dance program from Noche Flamenca, the acclaimed troupe known for its popular flamenco adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone, “Antigona.”
Featuring a number of Spain’s most acclaimed flamenco artists, “Entre Tú y Yo” uses dance and music to explore both the possibilities and restraints of relationships. The program, which was conceived, choreographed and directed by Noche Flamenca artistic director Martín Santangelo and lead dancer Soledad Barrio, opens Friday and runs through Nov. 16.
Details: Preview 7:30 p.m. today; regular run Friday-Nov. 16at 7:30p.m. TuesdaysSaturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; $25 preview, $30-$70regular performances; zspace.org.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Ben Allison and the Easy Way in Oakland, Half Moon Bay
New York bassist, composer and bandleader Ben Allison has never shied away from conspicuously beautiful melodies. He has launched numerous ensembles over the years, drawing on an overlapping pool of supremely eloquent improvisers, and his latest, the Easy Way, might be his most lithely lyrical yet. Introduced on last year’s “Quiet Revolution” (Sonic Camera Records), the trio focused on the folk-inspired music of reed master Jimmy Giuffre and guitarist Jim Hall’s drummerless trio, which introduced a highly interactive chamber jazz sound in the mid-1950s.
The Easy Way recently released a second album, “Somewhere Else — West Side Story Songs” (Plastic Jazz), but for Saturday’s Piedmont Piano performance and Sunday’s Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society concert, the trio concentrates on the Giuffre/ Hall material. Allison is joined by longtime collaborator Steve Cardenas, an exquisitely calibrated guitarist who has recorded extensively on his own and in partnership with his wife, the wondrous vocalist Kate McGarry. Subbing for the group’s founding saxophonist Ted Nash is inimitable East Bay tenor and soprano saxophonist Mike Zilber, a player often associated with high-energy fusion and muscular post-bop settings. But Zilber has often displayed his balladic sensitivity working with guitarist John Stowell, and he reconnected with Allison several months ago while performing in New York with pianist Michael Wolff. “He’s got a wonderful lyrical quality to his playing and great musicality,” Allison says.
Details: 8 p.m. Saturday; Piedmont Piano, Oakland; $25; www.piedmontpiano. com. 4:30 p.m. Sunday; Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society, Half Moon Bay; $35; www.bachddsoc.org.
— Andrew Gilbert, Correspondent