Casita Maria's Pachanga Luncheon

 

 

Jacqueline Weld Drake, the longtime chairman of the Casita Maria Center for Arts Education, hosted her annual Pachanga luncheon last Monday at her Park Avenue residence. The annual event allows the Junior (“Pachanga”) Committee to plan for the upcoming Fiesta Gala at The Plaza Hotel Tuesday October 16th. This year's Pachanga Chairs are Adriana Echavarria-Eisenhower, Anthony Souza, and Sean Souza. Guests included Fabiola Arias, Andrea Casanova,  Atencio Coromoto, Henry Lord Boulton VI, Halim Bulos, Bella Eastham, Hanson Greene, Elizabeth Jacoby, Michelle Karut, Alicia Lubowski-Jahn, Henrique Cisneros, Gabriel Rivera-Barraza, and Sabrina Wirth. 

Casita Maria's Fiesta 2018 Gala will honor Isabel Goldsmith-Patiño, Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, Mary Snow, and Carlos Souza. The Dinner Chairmen are Jacqueline Weld Drake, Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, and Carlos Mota. This year's Honorary Chairs are Elizabeth Peabody, Christine Schwarzman, and Lynn Wyatt. 

The Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education offers high quality, innovative after school arts education to over 1,000 students daily in their state-of-the-art facility in the South Bronx. Casita's enriching programs produce engaged, well-rounded individuals, who go on to fulfill their dreams.

 

Photo Credit: Annie Watt Agency

The Artists Behind "Sleeping Beauty Dreams"

 

 Sleeping Beauty Dreams is a retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.  The highly anticipated work is an artistic exploration of the untold story of Princess Aurora's 100 years of dreams, set to premiere in Miami at The Adrienne Arch Center on December 7th and 8th.  It will be very different from the fairy tale and popular The Sleeping Beauty ballet, and I'm both intrigued and excited to see the project come to life.  

The piece will star American Ballet Theatre's former principal dancers Diana Vishneva as Aurora, and Marcelo Gomes as the Prince.  It will be the first time the pair has performed together since leaving the company.

I recently attended the exclusive Sleeping Beauty Dreams presentation at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and learned about the project.   The work is a mixture of dance, music, technology, film, and art.  The panel included Diana Vishneva (principal dancer), Tobias Gremmler (digital artist), Thijs de Vlieger (composer) Edward Clug (choreographer), Bart Hess (costume design) and Laurent Fort (light artist).  Each artist gave remarks about their part in the creative process.  

Costume designer Bart Hess said "My work is known for using materials that are not usually considered for fashion like silicon, latex, plastic, foil, and metals. Some of the costumes and installations I’ve designed in the past, employ completely not wearable materials like shaving foam or iron or like the 'slime dress' for Lady Gaga."

Digital artist Tobias Gremmler, explained the creation of 3D digital avatars that will dance alongside Vishneva and Gomes, and react to the dancers' movements in real time.  This innovative technology will make its debut on the stage inside the dance world for the first time.  I expect this will be more then another brilliant performance art lovers will be raving about.  Sleeping Beauty Dreams sounds like a surefire new experience that anyone with a beating heart should go see.  

You can get tickets to the New York’s Beacon Theater December 14th and 15th performances here:

 www.ticketmaster.com. 

 

 

Photo credit: Presley Ann for PMC and Brian Willam Waddell