(Members of the Birmingham Royal Ballet are among the all-star cast of dancers)
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Spring Dance Gala
Virginia Arts Festival
April 9-10
Chrysler Hall
Since its inception, Virginia Arts Festival has worked to bring exciting performances from the world’s most renowned ballet and modern dance companies—companies that dance lovers would ordinarily have to travel to New York or beyond to see. Now, in celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Festival will stage a reunion of some of the greatest companies presented over the years. Featured will be dancers from American Ballet Theatre, hailed the world around for its “virtuosic dancing” (The New York Times); Britain’s Birmingham Royal Ballet, a “regal company with heart and dazzle” (The Guardian, London); Mark Morris Dance Group, renowned for “30 years of marvelously eclectic creativity” (The New York Times); Britain’s brilliant Richard Alston Dance Company, which celebrated its own 20th anniversary in 2015; Tokyo Ballet, renowned for its peerless dancers and dazzling star turns; and the pride of Virginia, the Richmond Ballet, beloved for its “daring and dash, strength and theatricality” (Richmond Times-Dispatch). Making this evening even more spectacular, the dancers will perform to live music played by the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. So rarely are dance spectacles like this one presented, even in the dance capitals of the world.
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The Flying Dutchman
April 8-12
Harrison Opera House
Seafaring stories of sailors and his own disastrous sea journey inspired Wagner to compose his masterful opera The Flying Dutchman in a very dramatic style. The irrevocable, redemptive power of love – set to a mesmerizing score – uses the supernatural and haunting, rocky coast of Norway to set the stage for a an epic, spellbinding voyage.
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East Coast She Crab Soup Challenge
Saturday, April 9
24th Street @ Oceanfront
Enjoy the famous soup from competing restaurants that include Circa 1918, Freemason Abbey, Tubby’s Tavern, Lynnhaven Fish House, Roger Brown’s, Mahi-Mah’s, Longboard’s and others.
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Virginia Arts Festival Street Party
Friday, April 8
5 PM
MacArthur Center Green, Monticello ave. (Free)
The 20th anniversary gets its official start with a fun street party featuring the R&B-pop vibes of The Fuzz Band.
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American Impressionism: The Lure of the Artists’ Colony
Through April 26
Hermitage Museum & Gardens
This collection of lyrical landscapes, ranging from snow-covered hills to sun-filled harbors and seascapes, penetrating portraits, and remarkable still life paintings documents an important moment in the history of American art. American Impressionism includes 56 total works, including oil paintings and works on paper dating from the golden age of American Impressionism, the 1880s through the 1940s. A wide range of approaches to impressionism in the earliest twentieth century, including an abiding interest in capturing the effects of light and atmosphere in loosely brushed compositions, is explored.
