Author: Liam Otten

Acclaimed dancer and choreographer Claire Porter will present an informal dance concert titled Namely, Muscles at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the Annelise Mertz Dance Studio. The hour-long, one-woman show features Porter as Dr. Nickie Nom, a “forensic orthopedic autopsy muscular anatomical specialist” whose poetry enacts all the major muscles of the body — and then some.

Pianist and harpsichordist Charles Metz, Ph.D., will perform an intimate program for the Washington University Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 22, as part of its spring 2009 concert series. The concert — which will take place at the 560 Music Center in University City — will feature 16th-century English and 17th-century Italian music performed on the virginal, a smaller, rectangular version of the harpsichord.

Courtesy Photo”Wonderboy,” the new collaboration by San Francisco choreographer Joe Goode and master puppeteer Basil Twist, comes to St. Louis Feb. 20 and 21 as part of Edison Theatre’s OVATIONS Series.

Photo by David KilperBeginning Friday, Feb. 13, the Performing Arts Department in Arts & Sciences will put a new twist on the production of “Hamlet.”

Courtesy PhotoTwo powerhouses of American theater, The Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company, will join forces to present a pair of adventure classics at the Edison Theatre Feb. 13 and 14.

Courtesy Photo-Jefferson National Expansion Memorial ArchivesThe Jefferson National Expansion Memorial — popularly known as the St. Louis Gateway Arch — is an icon of modern architecture, its great steel arc embodying strength, elegance and simplicity. Yet creation of the Arch was anything but simple. This spring, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will explore that complex history with an exhibition “On the Riverfront: St. Louis and The Gateway Arch.“

Beginning Jan. 30, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum will present “Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future,” the first retrospective to explore the complete career of the acclaimed Finnish-American architect of the Gateway Arch.

Courtesy photo*Wonderboy*Superpowers aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.Take Wonderboy, the new collaboration by San Francisco choreographer Joe Goode and master puppeteer Basil Twist. Blessed with uncanny empathy and superhuman sensitivity, the title character is virtually paralyzed by everyday sights and sounds — the clash of bells, the glare of sunlight, a young man passing on the street. Yet Wonderboy is not without resources, nor without courage. In February the Joe Goode Performance Group will bring its three-foot-tall wooden hero to St. Louis as part of the Edison Theatre OVATIONS Series.

Poet Carolyn Forché, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will read from her work at 8 p.m. Jan. 22. The talk — part of The Writing Program Reading Series — is free and open to the public and takes place in Duncker Hall, Room 201, […]

Photo by Ron Steele”Masked Marvels & Wondertales,” the eye-popping one-man variety show by Michael Cooper, launches Edison’s ovations for young people series and takes place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 17, at the 560 Music Center.