Hilarity and humanity collide at the Santa Cruz Improv Fest

For those with a basic familiarity of improvisational theater, the words "improv" and "comedy" may be so closely related as to be virtually synonymous. Due in large part to the success of the television program Whose Line is it Anyway? and the ComedySportz live improv franchise, the theater genre is commonly associated with short-form gag-sprees, chock full of puns and one-liners.

Local artists explore emotions—the good, the bad, and the ugly—in new dance theater showcase

This isn't the first time that Per Haaland and Carol Fields have collaborated on performance art, but it might be their best effort yet.

Haaland—a local dance theater stalwart—has produced a provocative piece, entitled “But I Will Stay,” which focuses on the idea of attaining enlightenment and accepting emotion. Whereas Fields has created a multimedia performance, called “Exit Through a Revolving Door,” which presents the joys and perils of working as both an artist and in the tech industry. This weekend, the pair will present their united artistic visions in two showings at The 418 Project in Downtown Santa Cruz.

UCSC alumnus, Bassnectar, looks forward to playing his home away from home

Anyone who listens to pop music today is familiar with wobbly bass lines, wooshing filter sweeps, epic synth melodies and frenetic, stuttering collages of fractured digital noise. Electronic dance music took the Top 40 by storm in 2011, and four months into 2012 it is showing no signs of letting up.

David Herrera Performance Company places mortality under the microscope in ‘Slumber’

When I [die],” David Herrera once said to his mother, “hopefully it will be after your lifetime, but if I do, dance for me.”

Herrera, founder and artistic director of David Herrera Performance Company (DHPCo), believes that death should be celebrated, or at least not marked by dreary funerals and somber months of mourning.

National Dance Week hits its stride in year five
Special: Dance Week schedule and list of Free dance classes

Dance, dance … otherwise we are lost,” said the late Pina Bausch, the German dancer/choreographer who was honored last year in Wim Wenders’ performance documentary, Pina. With that advice in mind, you may want to consider an exciting (not to mention free) opportunity to find yourself, as it were.

From April 19-27, National Dance Week Santa Cruz continues its annual custom of showcasing the best of the local dance scene, which covers an impressively diverse range of forms and styles. With the participation of numerous dance studios and instructors, as well as hundreds of performers, the event offers accessible performances, public exhibitions, and free classes.

Diversity key in MAH’s ‘All You Need is Love’ exhibit

I love _______. After the breakup, I _______.  What is the craziest thing you’ve done for love? __________.

Filling in the blanks to these three questions is just one of the ways that community members are invited to interact with the Museum of Art & History’s current exhibition, “All You Need is Love.” On display now through July 29, the multimedia exhibition takes a “story first approach,” explains executive director Nina Simon. “It’s not just about the objects or what they’re made of.”

Local theater troupe presents poetry and prose of Patricia Hernan Grube

Despite a late start, Patricia Hernan Grube’s writing career has been fruitful. Marriage and World War II interrupted her education at UC Berkeley, and raising a family left little time to pursue a lifelong love of writing. But at age 50, she finished her studies at UC Santa Cruz and began writing regularly. Eventually, she began to call herself a poet and a playwright.

Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs earns street cred with edgy and experimental pop

Though 33-year-old Merrill Garbus is the master of mimicking sounds, has the ability to sing in all sorts of pitches—first apparent in tUnE-yArDs’ 2009 debut, BiRd-BrAiNs—and is frequently decked out in eye-catching face paint, that’s about as far as her relation to birds goes.

“I like imitating things with my voice,” says Garbus. “There is something pleasurable about that—this idea that I’m not stuck with having to be any one voice, but that I can be free to explore that voice.” Though born and raised in Connecticut, the singer/songwriter is now thoroughly thriving in Oakland, Calif., a city which, along with the rest of the Bay Area, Garbus finds both fashionable and liberating.

Editor’s note:  This week’s Poetry Corner features Javier Zamora, who was born and raised in La Herradura, El Salvador. At the age of 9, he emigrated to the United States to be reunited with his parents. He’s attended various writing conferences, including the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and one at The Frost Place. His chapbook, “Nueve Años Inmigrantes,” won the 2011 Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook Contest.

Dietzman & Co. examines heartbreak in debut showcase

It all started with a rough break up. Well, two actually. “Literally we were offered the show, my partner and I broke up a week later, and then I moved to Santa Cruz,” says Sierrah Dietz, co-director of “It Just Is,” an upcoming dance showcase. The performances run April 13-15 at Motion at the Mill.

Dietz’ longtime friend and fellow choreographer, Molly Katzman, was also experiencing a difficult breakup at the time when the pair was given the opportunity to direct the production. “When we were questioning what this show was going to be about, it was so clear that that was where I was,” explains Dietz. “I couldn’t vocalize anything that was going on for me and I just needed to get it out somehow.”