Holiday Season Happenings -- [The Porches Inn] at MASS MoCA

Potter Brothers invites you to come to Jiminy Peak to try new skis, snowboards, and helmets from top manufacturers. Reps from the companies will be on hand to answer your questions, too. When you try before you buy, you get the best gear for your style. Demos are available to all skiers and snowboarders with ID or credit card for deposit. For more info, please call (413)738-5500

DRAWN TO DRAMA: ITALIAN WORKS ON PAPER
Only through January 04, 2009!

Clark Art Institute; (413) 458-2303; 225 South Street, Williamstown, MA
Drawn to Drama features Italian Old Master drawings by a wide range of artists. Through telling juxtapositions focusing on such concepts as expression, gesture, and motion, the exhibition reveals the ways in which these artists used the human body for visual storytelling. Visitors are invited to explore the creative solutions that artists devised to meet the narrative challenges of depicting miraculous, visionary, heavenly, and obscure imagery.

NORTHERN (LITERARY) LIGHTS...

Inkberry's mission is to promote the literary arts in the Berkshires with events and community partnerships that celebrate writing and reading. Inkberry's Wordplay series features established writers from around the country, creating a venue where the public can talk with these writers about their craft, and to promote up-and-coming writers from our own region whose work may not yet have found a wide audience. These two readings take place at Papyri Books, the series co-presenter and an excellent indie bookstore in North Adams.

- On December 13, Jennifer Trainer Thompson will read selections from her book The Joy of Family Traditions: A Season-by-Season Companion to 400 Celebrations and Activities, a season-by-season journey through the year that presents family-oriented holidays, holy days, milestone events, curious customs, and once in a lifetime occasions. The reading will be followed by open-mike.

- On January 10, poet Robert Ronnow will read from his newest book titled New and Selected Poems, 1975-2005, in addition to other selections. Ronnow has previously published two poetry collections, has served as executive director of several non-profit social service and environmental organizations, and has also been a forest worker in the western and northeastern U.S. He plays jazz trumpet. He lived in New York City for twenty years before relocating to the Berkshires. He currently resides in Williamstown with his wife and two sons.
After a brief intermission, Ronnow's reading will be followed by an open-mike.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE'S 62 CENTER FOR THE ARTS MIXES IT UP

Studio Series

January 16 , 17; 7:30 PM; David Evans Morris '96

The free Studio Series is a new opportunity for the Williams theatre community to bare their creativity on an intimate scale in a raw space-and you get to watch! The Studio Series is open to all individuals or groups to showcase their latest work. Come support these risk takers as they develop and explore new ideas for the stage.

THE BOX - Music by Living Composers

January 9, 2009, 8:00 PM, CenterStage, Free

THE BOX series presents the debut of I/O new music ensemble--composers, Williams faculty, and guest artists dedicated performing the most cutting-edge music being written today. I/O will serve as the "house band" for the BOX series in addition to its performances in other venues during the year which also include significant works written in the last 100 years. Its inaugural concert, "objects may be closer than they appear" features Entrelacs by Yan Maresz, Red Shift by Lois V Vierk, Billie by Jacob ter Veldhuis, Sept crimes de l'amour Georges Aperghis, and COLLIDING OBJECTS: Interactions for Piano and Percussion by David Kechley

The Limon Dance Company

Rooms

January 24; 8:00 PM; MainStage; $10

The Limon Dance Company will revive Rooms (1955), Anna Sokolow's seminal masterwork about urban alienation. The reconstruction of this groundbreaking piece, including a new version of Kenyon Hopkins' jazz score performed here by the Williams Jazz Ensemble, epitomizes the spirit of the company on the 100th anniversary of Limon's birth. Founded in 1946 by the pioneering dancer and choreographer Jose Limon (1908-1972, b. Culiacan, Mexico), Limon is a company steeped in history and has had a tremendous impact on the development of modern dance in the 20th century.

Dance Winter Study Showing: "Bodies in Motion: Introduction to Dance Composition"

Hosted by Dance Program guest artist Erica Dankmeyer '91

January 28; Adams Memorial Theatre; Free

This workshop to create dance choreography will focus on unlocking students' individual creativity through improvisation, characterization, imagery, collaboration, and explorations of space. The program also studies the work and methodology of master dance makers from diverse forms of dance through film viewings and readings.

Click here to go to the '62 Center's website.