Greater Boston Arts Highlight

Greater Boston Arts profiles local post-modern choreographer Caitlin Corbett, who makes a virtue out of the non-virtuosic, drawing unexpected dance poetry out of everyday movements. Corbett is a descendant of the New York avant-garde dance scene of the 1960s, which stripped dance of psychology and explored the very meaning of movement - its dynamics, its tempos, and its directionality. Greater Boston Arts follows Corbett in rehearsal, where trained and non-trained dancers work on new choreography. The novices' unaffected motions contrast poignantly with the trained dancers' more stylized steps. "Why lose what1s most beautiful?" explains Corbett as she seeks to keep the natural idiosyncrasies of each dancer intact.

Caitlin Corbett Dance Company
Green Street Studios
185 Green Street
Cambridge
December 6 - 9, 2001
For reservations and more information call (617) 864-3191 or visit www.greenstreetstudios.org or www.home.earthlink.net/~cait333.

Touchable Stories: Fort Point

Greater Boston Arts takes a 200-year tactile tour of Boston's artist-rich Fort Point neighborhood with the Touchable Stories artist group. Touchable Stories uses interactive installation art as the platform to artistically describe neighborhood issues and concerns. Every Touchable Stories project begins with the voices of the members of the community. Founder and director Shannon Flattery1s research included dozens of interviews with Fort Point community members which serve as the soundtrack for the ten-room installation. To Flattery, the Fort Point area is more than the latest subject and setting for her work - past Touchable Stories projects have occurred in the working class neighborhoods of Allston, Central Square, and Dorchester - it is also her home of twelve years. Greater Boston Arts follows Flattery and the contributing artists as they give expression to the difficult issues of housing and gentrification in their own community. For more on Touchable Stories visit our highlight.

Touchable Stories: Fort Point
27 Melcher Street
South Boston
For information and reservations call (617) 423-3651. For more information visit www.touchablestories.org.

Arabesque

Ahmed Abdalla and Karim Mohammed are two Egyptian-Americans putting together a benefit evening of music and performance to raise money for an Afghan refugee fund. Boston-based painter Abdalla, whose large-scale abstract works touch on issues of identity and acculturation, dealt with his grief over the events of September 11 by acting on a constructive response. Musician Karim Mohammed is helping assemble a bill for the benefit that will include the classical Arab music "Sharq." In Sharq, musicians rely on equal parts "makam" knowledge (knowledge of the modes) and "tarab" (feeling) in their playing to create rhythmically diverse music. As musician Jamal Sinno puts it, "I always thought that music was an instrument of healing, even in the worst of times." Through an introduction to a variety of well-known Arabic pieces, Greater Boston Arts helps viewers appreciate the music that provides support and comfort to local Arab-Americans.

A Night of Light
Tower Auditorium
Massachusetts College of Art
621 Huntington Avenuee
Boston
December 15, 2001
For more information call (617) 330-1779.

Arabic music, programmed by musician Karim Mohammed, can be heard monthly at Club Passim.

Arabesque Mondays
Club Passim
47 Palmer Street
Cambridge
December 17, 2001
For Arabesque Mondays reservations call (617) 492-7679. For more information call (617) 924-7675 or visit www.kmplimited.com/sharq.

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