Get in shape while learning to move as if you’ve got undies full of earthworms. Yup, it’s salsa time again on the Vineyard.
The basic beginner course is on Tuesdays at the high school for the month of Oct. from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Learn basic steps and timing for salsa, merengue and Latin partner dancing.
At an annual Native American speaker series held at Tufts University last winter, Aquinnah Cultural Center program director Linda Coombs saw a performance by a women’s musical group that simply blew her away. Of course, she wasn’t yet the program director at the time, but when she took on the role in May of this year, she knew she wanted the group, Ulali, to be part of the cultural center’s summer season schedule.
Music lovers bound for the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society’s annual Thanksgiving concert this Saturday had best leave room for dessert. The evening will offer a wide-ranging menu of melodies — some light, some rich — all intended to linger sweetly on the palate.
Guest baritone Thomas Jones presents the first plate — the swaggering Toreador Song from the second act of Georges Bizet’s Carmen.
There’s a mixed plate of altruism and entertainment up for grabs at Nectar’s this weekend, and Islanders are invited unofficially to say goodbye to summer with a preview of things to come for the Edgartown nightclub.
When she takes the stage at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown Friday night to tango with the pros, Esther Caroline Deming will do so with only a couple of hours of preparation. She’s an avid ballroom dancer and belongs to the Martha’s Vineyard Ballroom Dancers. But the tango is not a typical part of her repertoire. Instead, Ms. Deming will get a crash course from a group of classic Argentinian tango dancers when they arrive on Island at 5 p.m. Friday evening. The performance starts at 8.
The second annual Martha’s Vineyard Songwriters Festival last weekend combined pop and country BMI hit-makers in exclusive live music lineups and intimate settings, adopting the overwhelmingly successful approach of the perennially popular Key West Songwriters Festival. The event is designed to introduce top BMI pop and country songwriters not only to a wider audience, but to one another as well. While attendees soaked up performances from the composers behind the hits, the performers took advantage of the retreat-like setting and established new creative partnerships.
It’s not the Estuaries Project, but a project based on the estuary; the first annual collaborative arts retreat working under the title of the Great Pond Project. Unlike the long-awaited scientific research, Vineyarders will quickly see the results of this arts retreat on Edgartown Great Pond: on Friday, August 27, at 3 p.m. is a performing arts open house presented by the contributing artists.
The open house will be held at the home of Patrick Gage, 69 Kanomika Road (off of Meeting House Way) in Edgartown.
This is the season for holiday favorites spilling forth from the radio. Jose Feliciano, Bing and Bowie, those Jingle wooofing dogs. We smile for a bit, but then it fades. How could it not? We’ve heard it all before. There is nothing new the Boss can tell us about Santa coming to town.
Perhaps then it is time to seek out the new and different this year. Some feast for the ears and by extension the soul. But where to turn?
The Old Whaling Church this weekend, that’s where.
On a Tuesday afternoon, voice trills bounced around the grounds at the Yard off Middle Road in Chilmark. Some performers relaxed their diaphragms, lying on yoga mats on the floor of the barn studio. No dancers in tights or leotards ran in and out of the theatre on this day; opera singers have taken over the Yard for the next two weeks for the annual Yard Arts Opera performance.
The second annual Martha’s Vineyard Songwriters Festival will be held on Sept. 24 and 25. Staged at the Mansion House in Vineyard Haven and Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs, the festival will combine pop and country musicians in exclusive live music lineups and intimate settings.
Advance tickets for each show are $25; admission for both nights of performances is also available in advance for $40. To purchase tickets, visit ticketsMV.com.
