Pittsfield Street Dance Festival: Saturday, August 27

From Megan Whilden, Cultural Pittsfield, 499-9370
mwhilden@pittsfieldch.com
Posted Sat, 20 Aug 2005 16:35:18 -0500

DOWNTOWN PITTSFIELD STREET DANCE DAY HIGHLIGHTS COMMUNITY GROUPS
Over a dozen local dance and music groups to perform free on North Street.

Local dancers and musicians both young and old will bring their art to the
streets of downtown Pittsfield on Saturday, August 27, from 12noon to 6pm
in free outdoor performances open to all.

Entitled Pittsfield Street Dance, the multicultural performing arts festival
celebrating community will be held on the City of Pittsfield’s Artabout stage
on the lawn of St. Joseph’s convent on North Street between Melville and
Maplewood Streets. The festival is co-sponsored by the City of Pittsfield’s
Office of Cultural Development and ArtShow Street Galleries and produced by Ken
Duncan of Berkshire Earth Charter and Jeff Winslow of Wild Sage. Pittsfield
Street Dance is being held in conjunction with the final weekend of ArtShow
Street Galleries, a summer-long juried outdoor fine art show featuring
sculptors, painters, printmakers, photographers and more from Berkshire County
and throughout the Northeast.

Over a dozen local dance and music groups will take to the stage throughout the
afternoon. The performances begin with the Rising Stars, a youth hip-hop group
from the Gladys Allen Bingham Center (formerly Girls Inc.) at 12noon, the
“Focus is Our Children” Dance Company performing ballet, jazz and hip-hop at
12:30pm, and Youth Alive! a step dance and drumming group from the Westside
neighborhood of Pittsfield at 12:40pm.

Darrell Pucciarello of the newly opened Studio One dance school at North Street
will perform modern, jazz and ballet at 12:45pm, followed by students from
downtown Pittsfield’s Terpsichore dance school performing ballet, jazz and
hip-hop at 1:20pm, and rhythm tap dancer, choreographer and teacher Stefanie
Weber at 1:45pm.

Beginning at 2pm, there will be dancing to disco music from Albert Turner,
followed by the Straight Ahead Jazz Trio, featuring Dave Christopolis, Fran
Curley and Ben Cohn at 2:15pm. Guitarist and balladeer Octavio Hernandez will
play Mexican and Cuban-Caribbean music at 3pm.

Planet Blues Harpoon, playing earth-friendly improvisational rhythm and blues,
will perform at 3:15pm and again at 5pm, the Berkshire Fiddlers youth group
play at 3:45pm, and LiquidBody, a dance group inspired by the movement of
water, performs at 4:30pm accompanied by the World Music of Nana, a solo act
featuring Indian sitar, Greek bouzouki, and aboriginal didgeridoo.

For more information, please call the City of Pittsfield’s Cultural Development
Director, Megan Whilden, at 413-499-9370 or email mwhilden@pittsfieldch.com.

Pittsfield Street Dance Performance Schedule
Saturday, August 27, 12 noon –6pm
The lawn of St. Joseph’s Convent; 414 North Street, Pittsfield

Rising Stars youth hip-hop group: 12noon
“Focus is Our Children” Dance Company: 12:30pm
Youth Alive! step dance and drumming group: 12:40pm
Darrell Pucciarello of Studio One Dance School: 12:45pm
Terpsichore Dance School students -- ballet, jazz and hip-hop: 1:20pm
rhythm tap dancer and choreographer Stefanie Weber: 1:45pm
Disco music from Albert Turner: 2pm
Straight Ahead Jazz Trio: 2:15pm
Octavio Hernandez playing Mexican and Cuban-Caribbean music: 3pm
Planet Blues Harpoon: 3:15pm
Berkshire Fiddlers: 3:45pm
LiquidBody dance group with World Music of Nana: 4:30pm
Planet Blues Harpoon: 5pm