I know five admirable young women who work exceptionally hard — much harder than you or I — six days a week, at their chosen vocation. At 4:30 p.m. each day, after their studio closes, they carpool home and force themselves to turn in for sleep time at about 6 p.m. Why? Their “day” job is — as one colleague put it — “dealing with the crazies who need their caffeine during the morning shift” and my friends have to get up real early for that particular type of punishment.

They are counter staff at a well-known (and, in my opinion, impressively overpriced) coffee chain.

To be paid their minimum wage earnings, the ladies must rise by 3 a.m. in order to arrive at work on time. Once the early morning café shift is over and ordinary humans are tapping on keyboards in office cubicles, my friends try to fit in a super-quick shower, and then head back to the studio for a 10 a.m. start to that previously mentioned vocation. One apprentice in the group routinely works at a fast-food joint until 4 a.m. — after daily putting in 6 1/2 hours of the most strenuous and taxing activity. She grabs a few hours sleep when she can, before the next punishing round of physical training begins. Why would anyone do that? What kind of devotion must you have, what kind of drive, to push yourself so hard, to believe so completely in what you do?

My friends are dancers with Ballet Tucson.

Last year’s art auction at Ballet Tucson’s Urban Picnic

Sadly, we live in a country where arts funding is one of the lowest priorities, probably slightly behind our nearly nonexistent space program. Artists, dancers, performance groups struggle to survive, and without the arts, why would any of us want to survive anyway? What is the point of working hard and putting away a few dollars if you cannot enjoy a great novel, a brilliant movie, a rousing live concert, or an alluring dance performance? These are the things that make life worth living — at least for the people I know.

Our celebrated local dance company, Ballet Tucson, just finished its short run of “Dance & Dessert” performances. It was the best BT program I’ve seen in the past three years (and I’ve seen all of them) — a period in which I happen to have fallen in love with one of the company dancers, become engaged to her, and also become a corporate sponsor of the dance company. One of the great things about Ballet Tucson is they don’t just hold out a cap and say: “Please give.” They organize enthralling events that delight attendees, yes with dance, but also with great food and wine, art auctions, invitations to open rehearsals, outreach projects to underprivileged school children, and other actions that demonstrate caring and dedication to their art and to their community.

“Do Cats And Dogs Go To Hell For Fighting?” an intriguing creation by William Skiles

Each spring, a small army of generous artists — some local, some nationally recognized — contribute a fairly dizzying array of original works of art for Ballet Tucson’s Urban Picnic. Funds raised go directly to help keep the determined dance company gliding through another year of performances. Donations include paintings, ceramics, Navajo rugs, unusual jewelry, pencil sketches, and charismatic custom lunch boxes designed specifically for the event (very much in keeping with the outdoor picnic theme).

I wrote about last year’s Urban Picnic, and I had a blast. It’s a chance to meet artists, dancers, and the generally interesting culturally-minded Tucson set — as charming and eclectic a group as I can imagine. The $45 ticket will admit you the event, win you a very tasty al fresco picnic lunch complete with mimosas, give you the opportunity to bid — in a relaxed manner — on a gallery-sized lot of underpriced art, enjoy live music and a live performance by Ballet Tucson dancers themselves, all of it in Tucson’s most delightful shopping venue, complete with fountains, La Encantada.

“Bird Song” by Jennifer Suhm, one of the specially-created lunchboxes on offer at the Urban Picnic art auction

The 16th Annual Urban Picnic & Art Auction will take place on Friday, April 12, 2013 at La Encantada Shopping Center from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Admission is $45 and tickets can be purchased at the door, by calling Cynthia Hansen at (520) 400-5426, or safely and easily online here. La Encantada is located northwest of Skyline and Campbell, in Tucson.

“Tucson Blue” by Brenda Semanick, oil on canvas will be auctioned tomorrow at Urban Picnic

With the spring Open Studio Tour starting this Saturday, a brunch auction and dance performance on Friday is, without a shadow of a doubt, the smartest way to kick-start your Tucson art weekend. View the lunchbox creations here and the rest of the original art here.

“Summer Street” by award-winning Indiana artist Chris Griffin-Woods

Arts funding is down, attendance at many arts events seems to me to be down. People are worried about the economy, as usual. I moved to Tucson nearly a decade ago, largely because of its astonishing arts scene. Our thriving and quirky creative community is way out of proportion (in a good way) to our modest little city. I want to keep it that way, so I donated a $400 custom piece of meteorite jewelry to Urban Picnic. It’s not in my nature to ask people to support something unless I’ve done so myself.

And I quite like the idea of taking lunch to the office from now on, in a one-of-a-kind specially-created, hand made food transportation vessel, the purchase of which may just have helped win a modest company dancer’s salary for a talented young woman (thereby allowing her to give up the soul-destroying 4 a.m. coffee crazies thing and concentrate on her art). Now, that’s a worthy cause.

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Text and auction photograph © by Geoffrey Notkin.
Artwork photographs are © by respective artists and are used with permission.
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

One of my happiest holiday childhood memories revolves around chestnuts. As a little boy, growing up in London in the late 1960s, I would look forward, with great anticipation, to the arrival of roast chestnuts. These decidedly December-flavored treats never seemed to be available during the rest of the year and I, therefore, have always associated the tasty nut with Christmas.

My favorite childhood haunt was the British Museum, sitting in all its Greco-Roman splendor on Great Russell Street. Londoners call it “The B.M.,” and its paved forecourt always seemed dizzyingly awash with visiting students and scholars, meeting, laughing, hugging, comparing notes, and poring over guides and floor plans to the museum’s astonishing collection of artistic and archaeological treasures. Around the middle of December, each year, the throngs of budding intellectuals were quietly joined by a solitary, hardworking and — in my mind at least — somewhat melancholy old man hunched, slightly, over an incandescent steel barrel. He was the Chestnut Man. I took him to be a World War II veteran dressed, as he was, in a faded military jacket, with a grey, flat cap, and palm-sized woolen gloves that exposed his fingertips. I found the Chestnut Man fascinating and — aged perhaps six, and clutching my mother’s hand — I would trade him two shillings for a small, white paper bag filled with chestnuts, hot to the touch and freshly plucked from his roasting barrel.

Not to be confused with the horse chestnut — an unpalatable nut common in the United Kingdom and used by school boys in the strange game called “conkers” — the edible or “sweet” chestnut is actually produced by a beech tree of the family Fagaceae. When properly roasted, and once the hard, reddish brown shell has been removed, the sweet chestnut is a heavenly snack: pale yellow in color, with a meaty consistency and a taste similar to macadamia nuts.

And so, each December when Ballet Tucson’s award-winning production of the ever-popular Nutcracker opens with an alluring and solitary dancer, The Chestnut Lady, elegantly serving her wares, it cannot fail to strike a chord of memory and delight in my heart.

Nutcracker was first performed in St. Petersbug, Russia in 1892, based on a story by the German author E.T.A. Hoffman, and choreographed by Lev Ivanov and Franco-Russian ballet dancer Marius Petipa. It was first performed outside Russia in 1919 (Budapest), and in the Twentieth Century went on to enjoy tremendous worldwide popularity, especially in the United States.

Kendra Clyde as Clara in Ballet Tucson’s “Nutcracker.” Photo by Ed Flores

The decidedly cosmopolitan origins of Nutcracker are well reflected by the international flavor of Ballet Tucson’s company: long-time principal male dancer Daniel Precup is of Romanian origin; Kyle Peterson was born in the United Kingdom; Akari Manabe joins the company from Kobe, Japan; while Canadian dancer Kate Kaupas’ home town is Calgary. And Kate’s success story with Ballet Tucson is particularly noteworthy. She joined the company three years ago as an apprentice; in her second year she won the Kim Terry Memorial Scholarship for excellence in dance; and is, this year, a featured soloist as the Dew Drop Fairy. Perhaps one out of every class of young dance students will be fortunate enough to land a job as a professional company dancer, and perhaps one in twenty of those will experience the thrill of performing onstage as a featured soloist, so the Friday premiere of Nutcracker will be a big night for Ms. Kaupas.

“Performing with Ballet Tucson is one of the most inspiring experiences of my professional dance career,” Kaupas said. “I feel very privileged to be cast in such an important role and I look forward to bringing Dew Drop Fairy to life this weekend at Centennial Hall.”

Kate Kaupas performs as the Dew Drop Fairy this weekend in Ballet Tucson’s “Nutcracker.” Photo by Geoff Notkin

And it’s not just the dreams of professional dancers that will manifest themselves this weekend. Ballet Tucson is committed to sharing the uplifting experience of Nutcracker throughout our community. “We give 1,000 free Nutcracker tickets to underserved children and their families, and to social service agencies in our community,” said Operations Manager Cynthia Hansen. “The Board of Directors goes out and raises money to support this program. We travel to Tucson’s most needy schools to teach dance with our ‘Put Your Best Foot Forward with Ballet Tucson’ educational outreach. In addition Assistant Artisitic Director Chieko Imada and her team of Ballet Tucson dancers teach five classes per week to elementary students in some of Tucson’s most impoverished areas.”

As I have said in this column before, it is one thing to talk about supporting the arts and another to actually do it. Ballet Tucson brings excellent classical and contemporary ballet to Tucson, while reaching out to underprivileged communities to foster an appreciation of the arts at a grassroots level. That is more than supporting the arts; it is building an artistic community from the ground up. And, perhaps most important of all, Founder and Artistic Director Mary Beth Cabana’s Ballet Arts School is training the next generation of professional dancers. Her students have gone on to win scholarships and/or perform professionally with New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet (PNB), The Kirov Academy and many other world-class companies. That is quite a remarkable accomplishment for a school in our small city. You have to start somewhere, and many of Ms. Cabana’s youngest students will be appearing in this weekend’s Nutcracker, some of them in their first-ever public performance.

Operations Manager, Cynthia Hansen, says it perfectly: “We believe the arts have the power to transform lives and we do our part by introducing children to the discipline and wonderful world of dance.”

Jenna Johnson as Sugar Plum Fairy and Stuart Lauer as Her Cavalier. Photo by Ed Flores

So, if the Chestnut Lady, the feisty Mouse King, the Fairies, the Snow Queen, and the Snowflakes are still not quite enough excitement for you, bear in mind that this production of Nutcracker may just introduce some of the great dancers of tomorrow. One of the mice children making his or her debut this weekend could be soloing at American Ballet Theater ten years from now. That is the stuff of Christmas dreams.

A few days ago, and to my considerable amazement, I discovered a small stash of fresh, sweet chestnuts at the supermarket.”What are these?” the lady at checkout asked, wrinking her nose and holding them up close, then peering, quizzically, at their dark and streamlined shapes. Unroasted, and still cased in tough, sanguine shells, the pretty chestnuts looked nearly identical to the ones a little boy used to wolf down during cold winter evenings on Great Russell Street.

I’ll be roasting them tomorrow afternoon, so if you see happen to see a TucsonCitizen.com blogger and dance enthusiast outside Centennial Hall this weekend, with a smile on a face and a little white bag of chestnuts in his hands, that’ll be me.

Ballet Tucson performs Nutcracker this weekend at Centennial Hall. Show times are Friday, December 21 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, December 22 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm; Sunday, December 23 at 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Ticket prices range from $17 to $56 and are available through the Centennial Hall Ticket Office.

Text © by Geoffrey Notkin. Photographs © Ed Flores and Geoffrey Notkin, as noted above.
All rights reserved. No reproduction without written permission.

The inaugural Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo (ASAE) will kick off at the Tucson Convention Center tomorrow, Saturday, November 10 and is certain to enthrall science buffs of all ages. Event Director, Alan Traino, is a solar telescope pioneer, a highly respected member of the astronomy community, and a proponent of science education for young Americans. For the past three years, along with my Meteorite Men co-host Steve Arnold, I have been a speaker at Alan’s Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) in New York. NEAF is the largest astronomy event in the world and I know from personal experience that Alan is one of the foremost promoters and organizers of science-related events in the country.

“2012 is our first year here,” said Alan Traino, “but we are going to build on it, and Tucson will be the center of the astronomy universe within five years.”

For this weekend’s Tucson expo, Alan and his associates have put together a stellar lineup of speakers, including NASA astronauts Story Musgrave and Donald Petit; Canadian scientist Dr. Carin Bondar, “The Biologist with a Twist, a brilliant science writer, blogger and television personality; Dr. Phil Plait, AKA “The Bad Astronomer,” who delights thousands of fans around the world with his illuminating writing and lectures; astronomy writer and podcaster Dr. Pamela L. Gay, solar telescope expert Stephen Ramsden; Adam Block from the Mount Lemmon Sky Center, and Dr. Steele Hill of NASA’s Goddard SOHO mission.

Celebrated scientist and blogger, Dr. Phil Plait is a featured speaker at this weekend’s Tucson science expo. Photograph © Phil Plait.

I was honored by the invitation to put together a meteorite panel entitled, “Out of the Sky: How Meteorites have Changed the World.” The panel begins at 10 am on Sunday, November 11, and will be moderated by asteroid expert and former Meteorite magazine editor, Dr. Larry Lebofsky. The panelists are Dr. Melissa Morris from ASU’s Center for Meteorite Studies; world famous meteorite hunter Sonny Clary; Director of Operations for Aerolite Meteorites, LLC and Meteorite Men location photographer, Suzanne Morrison; and myself. NASA Edge TV will be filming the panel for live broadcast, and interested parties are invited to watch it live on the web.

Dr. Carin Bondar, “The Biologist with a Twist,” will delight audiences at the expo this weekend. Photograph © Carin Bondar/Kim Mallory Photography.

In addition to the scheduled speaking events the Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo will be offering remote telescope viewing with the Mount Lemmon Sky Center, imaging workshops, ongoing digital planetarium shows, daytime solar observing and night time viewing through an impressive array of telescopes. The expo “will be featuring exhibitors and manufacturers of astronomical products from around the world, including telescopes, binoculars, mounts, cameras, domes, and all related accessories. You can also shop for all your extras including meteorites, flashlights, gifts, and much more.”

The Mule, the special expedition vehicle seen in action on Meteorite Men, Globe Trekker, and How the Earth was Made will be on display for the entire weekend.

In addition, NASA has generously loaned an extraordinary collection of historic memorabilia and artifacts to the expo, including flown space suits and their display collection of meteorites.

ASAE will feature a spectacular display of space rocks, provided by NASA and Aerolite Meteorites of Tucson. Photograph by Suzanne Morrison © Aerolite Meteorites, LLC.

“We are trying to engage our young people and show them that it’s cool to be a science geek,” said John Joseph, President of Starlight Instruments and an exhibitor at the event. “We may not have a space program anymore, but some of the kids attending ASAE this weekend are going to grow up and start their own.”

Admission is only $10 each day and includes access to all exhibits and talks. Kids under 12 receive free admission with an adult, and veterans are invited to accept complimentary admission on Sunday.

Visit the official website for more information >>>