Center for the Arts

Great Lakes Conference today

UB is hosting a conference on the Great Lakes and corresponding waterways between the US and Canada.  The conference is today at the Center for the Arts.  Check out the UB Law news blog for more details on the conference.

Arts in Healthcare Launch a Wonderful Celebration

Center for the Arts held a celebration to launch the new Arts in Healthcare Initiative hosted by UB President John B. Simpson, Center for the Arts Executive Director Thomas Burrows, Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo President Cheryl Klass, and Roswell Park Cancer Institute Medical Director Judy Smith. The event was sponsored by Bank of America.

Local musician and Buffalo school teacher Noa Bursie provided live entertainment during the cocktail hour.

 

The program's resident artists performed and involved guests in creative activities.  Artists utilize these flowing scarves in the waiting rooms at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and engage patients and their families while they wait.

For more information on the Arts in Healthcare Initiative, please click here.

Visit with Cirque du Soleil's Artistic Director and Asst. Production Director

Cirque du Soleil’s Artistic Director Adam Miller and Alain Gauthier of the Production Direction team will be conducting a seminar and discussion in the Center for the Arts tomorrow (Friday) at 1pm, for students in the Department of Theatre & Dance and anyone who wishes to attend. Both gentlemen are currently traveling with Saltimbanco, which is being performed at HSBC arena this week.

  

This event is open to anyone who would like to join us on the Mainstage Theatre in the Center for the Arts. 

Adam Miller trained on scholarship at the School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theatre School and graduated from the North Carolina School of the Arts. As a child, he had the opportunity to perform with The Bolshoi Ballet, The Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, The Australian Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. Mr. Miller began his professional career at Pennsylvania Ballet, and has been a principal dancer with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hartford Ballet and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. He has danced in the works of over 40 choreographers including Rudi Van Danzig, Lew Christensen, James Kudelka, Michael Smuin, Lucinda Childs, Paul Taylor, Victoria Marks, Choo San Goh, and 20 works by George Balanchine. He has danced major roles in most of the full-length classical ballets, including The Nutcracker, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. 

Mr. Miller has performed as a guest artist in the USA, Asia and South America, including tours with Cynthia Gregory and Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has collaborated on special projects with Pilobolus, National Theatre of the Deaf and Christopher D’Amboise’s Off-Center Ballet. As Director of the Ballet Project, he spent two years at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Mr. Miller has served as Associate Artistic Director for Garden State Ballet and Artistic Director of Ballet South in Savannah, Georgia. In 1999, Adam was appointed ballet master and later associate artistic director of Dance Connecticut where he was responsible for setting repertory and choreographing for the company. 

After founding Adam Miller Dance Project in 2003, Mr. Miller’s work was one of eight chosen for the Connecticut Dance Alliance’s Choreographic Preludes Project and he was a recipient of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts 2003 Artist Fellowship Award. Additional choreographic credits include works created for Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, the Carlisle Project, Montgomery Ballet, Ballet Pensacola, The Garden State Ballet, Cynthia Gregory’s Ballet USA, Boston Dance Company, Vassar Repertory Dance Theater and BalletNY in New York City. 

Mr. Miller was invited to teach and choreograph a new ballet for the Veronezh Ballet while in Russia in 1993 and was an artist-in-residence at Duke University in 1995. He choreographed the full-length ballet, Dracula, for Carolina Ballet Theater, and The Nutcracker for Ballet South in Savannah, Georgia. Teaching credits include guest and resident positions at Boston Ballet, Garden State Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Princeton Ballet, Duke University, Lyon Opera Ballet, Vassar College, Basel Ballet, The North Carolina School of the Arts, school of Dance CT, and the Hartt School of the University of Hartford. Adam is also the artistic director for Eastern Connecticut Ballet in East Lyme, CT. Eastern Connecticut Ballet performs his full-length Nutcracker at the Garde Performing Arts Center in New London, CT, with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra. He serves on the faculty of the Hartt School, is on the board of directors of the Connecticut Dance Alliance and is Artistic Director of the Provincetown Dance Festival. Since July 2008, Adam Miller is the artistic Director on Saltimbanco from Cirque du Soleil

Another great turnout for Center Celebration

Thanks to our sponsors UNO Chicago Grill on Maple Road in Amherst and Cold Stone Creamery with 4 locations in WNY, the Center Celebration proved to be a great picnic again this year.  UNO Chicago Grill provided the majority of the menu, plus cooking up some tasty Sahlen's Hot Dogs. Thanks to everyone to turned out to make this another fun party!

Center Celebration Tomorrow

Stop on out for a free lunch tomorrow, August 20 from 11am - 2pm, courtesy of UNO Chicago Grill and the Center for the Arts.  UNO's staff will be serving up some fresh green salad, Sliders, Veggie Sliders, Sahlens hot dogs, and UNO's specialty pizza.  Snacks, drinks and ice cream treats courtesy of Cold Stone Creamery will also be available. 

Register to win door prizes, and take advantage of our one-day-only discount for the upcoming season.  The first 500 to arrive will receive a re-useable shopping tote with special gifts and promotions from our sponsors: UNO Chicago Grill on Maple Road, Cold Stone Creamery with four locations including one on Maple Road, and Snyder Tours, the series sponsor of the School Time Adventure Series.

Tech Theater program this week

This week the Center offers our annual Technical Theater Program for high school students and older.� The three-day workshop program covers the basics of technical theater lighting, sound and staging, complete with hands-on experience.  The workshops are taught by professional Center for the Arts staff and UB faculty members.  This program is offered every August.

Explore the Arts This Week

The Center's annual summer program for kids entering grades 5-8 is a great time for kids interested in the many aspects of theatrical arts.  Participants learn technical concepts and get practical hands-on experience in lighting, stage design, sound and sound design, costume and textile design as well as performance, improv, and movement. 

Fireworks Schedule

Please bring your family and celebrate Independence Day on the shore of Lake LaSalle. UB is delighted to co-sponsor this annual event with the Town of Amherst. There will be two concerts:

7:00 p.m. - 8:15 p.m. — Billy McEwan Band

8:45 p.m. - 10 p.m. — Erie County Wind Ensemble

10:00 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. — fireworks

The bandshell will be in our bookstore parking lot, and we encourage you to sit on or near the hill overlooking the lake.

In case of poor weather, bring your umbrella, but if the fireworks do get canceled, they will be launched the following day, Saturday July 5th.  The finale of last year's fireworks:

Bodybuilding events now on sale

For the past several years, the Center for the Arts has been the venue of choice for two regional bodybuilding and figure competitions.  The Can/Am Bodybuilding and Figure Championships presented by the National Gym Association draws entrance from all over Canada and the United States on April 5, while the Mr. / Ms. Buffalo Bodybuilding and Figure Championship is a more regional competition on April 13.  Tickets are available for the pre-judging events and the final competitions.

Summer program registration starts today

Registration officially begins today for our two theatrical arts summer programs: Explore the Arts, a program for children entering grades 5-8, and Technical Theater Program, workshops for high school, college students and adults. 

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the start of these two programs.  Explore the Arts aims to develop technical and performance skills in a nurturing and integrated environment.  Middle school aged children have the opportunity to learn about all aspects of theater production in a professional setting, with University professionals. The Center offers full scholarships to the program for promising students identified by local community organization partners.  One third of the participants attend with these scholarships.  Gifts of individual donors, and support of businesses like UNO Chicago Grill's Gift Card Doughraiser program make these scholarships possible.   

The Technical Theater Program is a basic theatrical skills program aimed at older students with interests in the technical aspects of theater production: lighting, sound, and stage effects.  Workshops involve hands-on creativity and the opportunity to learn from University professionals who are involved in stage productions from speeches to live rock concerts to touring Broadway musicals.

Registration forms are available to download at www.ubcfa.org.