Performing Arts

Between 1840 and 1870, over 250,000 Americans traveled west by covered wagon on the Oregon Trail. Some claimed land in Oregon; others headed for California gold country. Many went enthusiastically. Others reluctantly left homes, family and friends to face hardship and an uncertain future. Actress Amy Warner vividly presents the experiences and feelings of these pioneers in her one-woman performance based on entries from diaries, letters and memoirs of pioneer women and a young girl who trekked the Oregon Trail.

The historical collage of Cuban Dance forms, including contradanza, danzon, son, mambo, cha-cha-cha, and culminating in an exuberant carnival celebration, features dancers from Cuba's famed El Conjunto Nacional de Danza Moderna.

Features conversations with Oscar and Grammy Award winning composer John Corigliano and Tony and Obie Award winning playwright and librettist William Hoffman, who discuss the challenges they faced in creating their first opera, The Ghosts of Versailles.

Caution: Show Dogs profiles four top breeders and their dogs, who share the years of knowledge and experience required to produce consistent champions, and behind-the-scenes footage and interviews at numerous dog shows reveal the excitement and exhilaration of the world of Show Dogs.

The Soviet Union had recently collapsed, food was scarce, but spirits were high. The tiny dirt road town was turned upside down with audiences and media from every corner of the world—and those involved in the production that summer in Ivye were forever changed.

This documentary profiles three women who are reviving a musical legacy, a birthright, which so many of have lost the simple act of singing.

Profiles actor, comedian, impersonator and variety performer Sid Raymond, in the process challenging the assumption that celebrity defines success.

Profiles four young people at the Hetrick-Martin Institute in New York, which supports lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual youth.

This documentary surveys the revolutionary new developments in American puppet theater, profiling many of puppetry’s most imaginative contemporary artists.

Portrays the revival of Los Pastores (The Shepherd's Play), an ancient Christmas morality play that has long been part of Hispanic folk traditions in the American Southwest.

This entertaining documentary features a variety of African-American poets from all over America, who have gathered to perform at Kafe Kuumba in Indianapolis, a local cultural center sponsored by the Midtown Writers Association.

Offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into one of the country's top opera schools, Indiana University's School of Music, where young singers prepare for one of the world's riskiest careers.

Features interviews with retired artists' film and theater actors and actresses, set designers, cinematographers, casting directors, script supervisors, and so on—who reside in the Motion Picture Country Home in Los Angeles or in the Performing Arts Lodge in Toronto.

The 1950 debut of Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, a "mixture of social satire, Alice in Wonderland-type logic, verbal delirium and surrealist farce," stirred a sensation in Paris. For the fiftieth anniversary of the Theater of the Absurd's founding work, the piece has been adapted by The Center for Contemporary Opera into a delightful comic opera in English.

Weimar: A Modern Day Renaissance City is a celebration of the small town that has capped its triumphant comeback by being recognized as the Culture city of Europe in 1999. This video looks at Weimar's past and present.

This documentary chronicles one week in the life of street kids living in Cusco, Peru. Working in collaboration with a shelter for some of Cusco's 3,000 street kids, the filmmakers enlist several of the youngsters to form a street theatre company.

This video explores the vitality of ancient African traditions regarding the links between life and death.

This video examines the world of amateur Irish dancing, featuring interviews with Irish women in Great Britain who have passed on this cultural tradition within their own families and the wider Irish immigrant community.

Introduces viewers to the step show, an exciting dance style popular among black fraternities and sororities. In addition to many rousing, crowd-pleasing performances, the program examines the cultural roots of steppin' in African dancing, military marching and hip-hop music, and discusses its contemporary social significance on college campuses.

Profiling four artists who have had to cope with adversity, while persevering in their respective performing arts careers, this documentary celebrates the healing and restorative powers of music, dance and friendship.