Ballet, music, improv, video to fill Little Rock arts festival

Barron Ryan performs Wednesday at the Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock’s River Market as part of the Acansa Arts Festival kickoff.
Barron Ryan performs Wednesday at the Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock’s River Market as part of the Acansa Arts Festival kickoff.

Dance, music, theater (including improvisation and one-man) and the fine arts, plus some piggyback events connected to the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High, make up this year's Acansa Arts Festival, Wednesday-Sept. 24 at venues on both sides of the Arkansas River.

The official festival kickoff takes place 6-9 p.m. Wednesday at the Cox Creative Center, 120 River Market Ave., Little Rock, with Fayetteville folk musicians Still on the Hill performing and artist Craig Thomas creating sidewalk art in the alley. Admission to that portion of the evening is free. Afterward, jazz pianist Barron Ryan performs at 8 p.m. in the next-door Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave. Tickets are $10 and $20.

You won't necessarily be able to attend every festival event, since some of them take place in different venues at the same time. However, among the festival high-spots (except as noted, tickets: $35, $15 students and military):

• Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a 15-member dance company founded by Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson, formerly with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performs at 8 p.m. Saturday, University Theater, Center for the Performing Arts, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock, with a post-show "talkback." The company will also put on two master classes on Friday for high school students and Saturday for college students.

• Los Angeles-based Impro Theatre, which puts on improvisational versions of full-length plays (the company includes North Little Rock native Brian Michael Jones), will offer Shakespeare UnScripted at 8 p.m. Thursday and The Twilight Zone UnScripted on Friday at Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock.

Not About Heroes by Stephen MacDonald, a play involving two English poets who meet at a military hospital during World War I and what happened to them afterward, 7 p.m. Thursday-Friday, Arkansas Repertory Theatre's Black Box at the Annex, 518 Main St., Little Rock.

• New Orleans' Dirty Dozen Brass Band performs jazz that embraces bebop, funk and R&B, 8 p.m. Friday, Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, 201 E. Broadway, North Little Rock. Tickets: $25, $15 students and military.

In conjunction with the Central High anniversary (admission is free):

• Chris Parker's original jazz composition No Tears premieres at 6 p.m. Saturday on the Magnolia/Mobil Service Station outdoor stage, 2120 W. Daisy Gatson Bates Drive, Little Rock, opposite Central High.

• At 6 p.m. Sept. 24, a program titled "Civil Twilight: Reflections on Fear, Courage and Resilience," in the Central High School Commemorative Garden, Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive and South Park Street, Little Rock, will feature the debut of "Imagine If Buildings Could Talk," a 9-minute, 3-D mapped video projection by Scott Meador, with an original jazz score by Blake Tyson, that will screen every 15 minutes throughout the evening; a performance by the Core Performance Company dance troupe; poetry readings by Central High students; and an address by historian Henry Louis Gates.

A complete schedule and ticket information are available at the website, acansaartsfestival.org.

Style on 09/17/2017

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