By Lina Broydo
“The Christmas Ballet” – Smuin’s Priceless Gift
November 16 through December 24, 2018
Walnut Creek, Carmel, Mountain View and San Francisco
Smuin kicks off the holidays with the return of The Christmas Ballet, the beloved Bay Area tradition featuring two acts packed to the brim with both flawless classical ballet and red-hot contemporary numbers.
Celebrating the company’s milestone silver anniversary, The Christmas Ballet will honor founder Michael Smuin’s original works while maintaining the company’s long-held tradition of unveiling new surprises.
The 2018 edition of The Christmas Ballet will include many original pieces from founder Michael Smuin, plus two festive world premieres: a beautiful new work by Rex Wheeler, plus a pas de deux by Erica Felsch set to the classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Featuring the perfect combination of long-time favorites and delightful new surprises, this charming and sizzling medley is set to holiday tunes and incorporates a variety of popular dance styles including ballet, tap, jazz, and swing.
A delightful holiday treat that was declared “the finest toast to the season” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Christmas Ballet will tour the Bay Area beginning with shows in Walnut Creek (November 16-17), continuing in Carmel (November 30-December 1) and Mountain View (December 5-9), and finishing up with its annual holiday run at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco (December 13-24). Definitely a special treat for the Bay Area audiences.
Tickets and Information
Prices range from $25 to $91
For locations visit smuinballet.org
Photos courtesy of David Allen and Keith Sutter
The Winter Park at Civic Center is Inaugurating a Sparkling Holiday Season
Opening Ceremony:November 30 at 11 a.m.
Open daily from Noon to 10 p.m. through Sunday, January 6, 2019
Don’t forget to say Happy Holidays to London Breed, the city’s Honorary Mayor who will welcome the attendees to the ceremony. The park is created by Willy Bietak Productions, which worked closely with the San Francisco Recreation & Park Department in presenting a winter wonderland, California style under the sun, just a few steps away from the Mayor’s office at the San Francisco City Hall. Modeled after the internationally-famed Wiener Eistraum—an ice-skating rink located in the City Hall Square of Vienna, Austria—The Winter Park will be the first attraction of its kind in the Bay Area. 
Check out the lineup of special Civic Center events throughout the holiday season.
Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World
November 10 through February 24, 2019
Exciting news from SFMOMA as it is presenting one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary art from China in North America.
Bracketed by the student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the spectacular pageantry of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World is an extensive survey of an historical period of Chinese contemporary art.
It looks at the bold movements that anticipated, chronicled and agitated for the sweeping social transformation that brought China to the center of the global conversation.
Featuring the work of more than 60 key artists and artist groups living in China and abroad during the onset of globalization, Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World presents over 100 works of photography, film, video, painting, sculpture, ink, performance, installations and participatory social projects.
You will be greeted by artist Chen Zhen’s dramatic Precipitous Parturition (2000), an 85-foot long writhing dragon sculpture created from found materials including bicycle inner tubes, bicycle parts and toy cars will be displayed suspended from the ceiling.
The work offers a sly commentary on China’s dramatic transition from an analog nation of bicycles into a highly industrialized nation whose cars emerge from the belly of the dragon. Truly amazing! From serious to whimsical this spectacular exhibit is an eye opening journey depicting the life in China after 1989.
The curators worked with an international advisory committee that has met under the auspices of the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.
The exhibition was previously presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
Tickets and Information
415-357-4000
sfmoma.org
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art SFMOMA
151 Third Street in San Francisco
Photos courtesy of SFMOMA and Lina Broydo
Tuck Everlasting – A Magical Musical for the Holidays
November 28 – December 30, 2018
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley does it again and again as it enriches our cultural life by bringing the best plays to the Bay Area audiences. Just in time for the holidays an enchanted bestseller springs to life with the regional premiere of Tuck Everlasting.
Set in the 1890s, free-spirited Winnie Foster searches for adventure, finding the Tucks, a close-knit family that has discovered the secret to everlasting life. Winnie faces the choice of a lifetime: return to everyday life, or join the Tucks on their infinite, irreversible voyage through time. Well, I guess you’ll have to see the play to find out what is her decision.
Directed by TheatreWorks brilliant Artistic Director Robert Kelley, Tuck Everlasting features a rousing score with music by Chris Miller and lyrics by Nathan Tysen and a wealth of warm-hearted humor in Claudia Shear and Tim Federle’s charming book.
Based on the bestselling novel by Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting has been adapted into a 2002 Disney film and a 1981 and Its 2016 Broadway debut was nominated for a Tony Award, as well as the Outer Critics Circle Award for “Outstanding Musical” and Drama League Award for “Outstanding Production of a Musical.”
The New York Times called it “Rapturous, warm-spirited and touching,” while Associated Press declared, “The music is magical. Long may it live.” Variety said, “This is an intimate family story of love, loss and the purpose and power of storytelling in the American folk tradition of Twain and Wilder.”
This whimsical Broadway musical should be added to your holidays calendar.
Tickets and Information
Prices range from $40 to $100
650-463-1960
TheatreWorks.org
Lucie Stern Theatre
1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto
Photo courtesy of TheatreWorks