Choreographer Sandra Burton to discuss a Life in Dance

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Sandra L. Burton
A life in dance, especially African and African Diaspora dance, will be the subject of this spring's second "From Eye to Ear" lecture series sponsored by the Pittsfield Cultural Council and hosted by the Berkshire Museum this Thursday, April 7, at 7:30pm. Sandra Burton, a dancer, choreographer, and professor at Williams College who has lectured widely on African dance styles, jazz tap, and hip hop, will be the featured speaker. Sandra L. Burton is Professor and Coordinator of Dance at Williams College and is Co-Director of the Williams Dance Company and Kusika, a joint project of the Dance and Music Departments at Williams that is dedicated to performing music, dance, and storytelling from Africa and the African Diaspora. Her dance education includes study with Thelma Hill, Daniel Nagrin, Betty Jones, and Martha Wittman (modern dance), Walter Raines and Karel Shook (ballet), Chuck Davis, Italo Zambo, and Obo Addy (African dance). Her choreography has been performed both nationally and internationally, and has been featured in a number of film and theater pieces including Joe Turner Come and Gone, A Song for Mara, Trojan Women, Tales from the Vienna Woods, A Tale of Mystery, and The Bacchae. Her research and travels in dance have taken her to Brazil, Trinidad, Nicaragua, West Africa, and elsewhere. She has served on the Arts Curriculum Framework Committee for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Education, currently consults and serves as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and is on the Board of Directors for both the New England Foundation for the Arts and the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. She will discuss her work and development as an artist and share an excerpt from a documentary on renowned dancer Chuck Davis that she is currently working on. Davis is the founder and artistic director of the African American Dance Ensemble, which seeks to preserve and share African and African American dance and music through research, education and performance. Burton was a member of the Chuck Davis Dance Company for twelve years, and considers him one of her mentors. Dance magazine wrote of Davis, "At any performance of the African American Dance Ensemble, artistic director, Chuck Davis, a supertall, joyous presence in vivid robes, entices you into the experience of the bantaba. You honor the elders and the rituals of nature and spirit--and then the drumming and dancing begins. Children dance in the aisles, and critics lose themselves in the rhythm of the moment. What you are doing is walking a bridge--a bridge constructed through the years by Davis to connect the roots and branches of African and African American dance." Burton's talk will be held at the Berkshire Museum, located at 39 South Street in downtown Pittsfield, MA, and is free, open to the public, and appropriate for people of all ages. The talk will run about an hour with a reception to follow. For more information, please contact the Berkshire Museum at (413)-443-7171 or visit www.berkshiremuseum.org The "From Eye to Ear" artist lecture series is sponsored by the Pittsfield Cultural Council to highlight local visual and performing artists and provide a forum where they can discuss the path that they took toward becoming an artist, their career, work, creative process, and professional choices. The last talk in the Spring 2005 series will be given by internationally renowned jeweler and Pittsfield resident Linda Kaye?Moses on Thursday, May 5th 2005 at 7:30 at the Berkshire Museum and will be free and open to the public The Pittsfield Cultural Council(PCC) is a municipal committee that administers funds allocated by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. PCC members are appointed by the mayor and charged with regranting these funds to foster cultural and interpretive science projects that benefit the residents of the City of Pittsfield. Each fall, the PCC accepts grant applications for such projects on or before the deadline of October 15th, and each spring awards scholarships for accomplished high school students seeking to further their education in the arts. PCC grant monies have supported hundreds of projects and institutions large and small over the years.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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