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A New Zealand dance troupe adds Santa Fe to their limited world tour

We can bet good money few of you readers have ever seen anything quite like Black Grace. Founded by dancer Neil Ieremia in 1995, this New Zealand-based troupe introduces audiences around the world to traditional Samoan dances. But don’t misunderstand—this isn’t the kind of thing you’ll find at a resort catering to tourists for hundreds of bucks a show. Black Grace is a first-of-its-kind performance that blends modern contemporary dance into Indigenous movement traditions. The results speak for themselves, and now Santa Feans can see Black Grace locally for the first time ever, thanks to the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.

“It’s not only highly physical, it’s very moving,” Tom Mossbrucker, artistic director of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, tells SFR. “It relates to a lot of things that are going on in the world right now. [The company] is quite noted everywhere, but this is their first arrival in Santa Fe.”

A Black Grace show is a constant display of movement, like an avalanche of energy that touches down on multiple fronts. The dancers explore masculinity as well as an entire suite punctuated with the music of Vivald; they dance to express the loss of traditional Samoan culture and the anxiety and frustration spawned by a world changing beyond our control. The show’s romantic elements are contrasted by explorations into the dancers’ personal spheres, including tough topics like childhood abuse. They dance for happier things, too, mind you, and the slap dancing, stomping and chanting grows beyond a mere cultural showcase to broach subjects that Indigenous people in New Zealand experience daily. Still, the performers celebrate the artistic triumphs of their people. Look carefully to see powerful individualism amidst a strong collective foundation.

“We’re thrilled to be back to live performances too, given everything that’s happened in the past few years,” Mossbrucker continues. “And Black Grace is only hitting three spots in the United States, Santa Fe being among them, and they are one of the most prestigious international dance companies out there.”

Who knows if Santa Fe will be graced with their presence once again? (Riley Gardner)

Black Grace: 8 pm Friday, July 22. $36-$94. The Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St. (505) 988-1234

Farmers Only

We’re loving this trend of queer-centered nights popping up all over Santa Fe, and we’re extra loving that this particular night pops off on the farm. Reunity Resources has proven itself quite the ally to the broader community with a fridge crammed with food for those who need it, a plot of land run by Indigenous folks and a series of summertime concerts and parties and such. Last time we visited, they’d just poured the concrete for a stage/dancefloor kind of area, too. At Queer Night, find DJ The Muse spinning hot jamz for your socializing pleasure—and you can even bring your kids along to hang out. Hey, Reunity? Nice. (Alex De Vore)

Reunity Queer Night: 6 pm Thursday, July 21. Free. Reunity Resources Farm: 1829 San Ysidro Crossing, (505) 393-1196

You’ve Got One Shot

To fill a tome with the names of notable artists who came out of Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts would be quite the task, so it’ll just have to suffice for us to say the school straight-up generates fire creators. That is why, when the powers that be down at the school tell you they’re opening up the campus’ Balzer Contemporary Edge Gallery for a special one-off event featuring 2023′s MFASA cohort, you take note and do your best to get over there. Artists like Shane Henderson (Navajo), Carmen Selam (Yakama and Comanche), Angélica Garcia and many more make up Finding the Center, and believe us when we say these are the very names you’ll start seeing up in lights in the coming years. Feels good to get in on something early for once. (ADV)

Finding the Center: 5-7 pm Friday, July 22. Free. Institute of the American Indian Arts, 83 Avan Nu Po Road, (505) 424-2300

Work It at the Workshop

We’ve been enamored with the local stationary champs at the Pushpin Collaborative Co. since it first flared into existence, and seeing as how we believe that everyone can be an artist, we’d like to point out that they’re hosting a workshop. This weekend, make your way over to the Midtown shop/learning space to learn how to make cyanoprints on paper. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, it’s more complicated than what we’re about to say but, in a nutshell, participants will learn how to create cards, prints and more using botanicals from the shop’s gardens. By the time you leave, too, you’ll have items you can keep or gift or put in the mail or whatever else. Imagine how satisfying it’ll be to tell people you sent them a card you made your damn self. (ADV)

Cyanoprint on Paper Workshop: 10 am-2 pm Saturday, July 23. $80. Pushpin Collaborative Co., 1925 Rusina St. Ste D, (505) 372-7728

Winter in the Summer

It goes a little something like this: The maybe not-so-good King Leontes starts to think his pregnant wife Hermione might be screwing around behind his back. So, like any sane person would do, he throws her in jail, murders their son and sends infant daughter Perdita into the freaking countryside to be raised by sheep-herding folk (sometimes known as shepherds). After some number of years goes by, Perdita returns because of, like, love or something, and maybe there’s magic, but also that dude threw his wife in jail and killed his son. Families, as it turns out, can be rough. This is The Winter’s Tale, and a new production from the folks at International Shakespeare Center through the New Mexico Actors Lab. How you slap so hard, Shakespeare? (ADV)

The Winter’s Tale: 7:30 pm Saturday, July 23 and 2 pm Sunday, July 24. $10-$50. New Mexico Actors Lab, 1213 Parkway Drive, (505) 466-3533

The Absolute Best

If you’ve somehow missed out on Metalachi during any of the band’s previous Santa Fe shows over the years, then shame on you. A glorious combination of metal and mariachi, the band of unruly misfits makes traditional sounds new again with a deep reverence for both the mariachi and metal forebears who made it all possible. You’ve not lived until you’ve caught a tuba blasting out the riffs from “Crazy Train,” and some of those Metallica jamz are so much sweeter than the original band it’s not even funny. Look, we’re telling you firsthand that this is one of those shows you can’t possibly regret. Prepare thyself for the onslaught. (ADV)

Metalachi: 6 pm Tuesday, July 26. Free. Santa Fe Plaza, 100 Old Santa Fe Trail, ampconcerts.org

Global Musical Chairs

Spanish, Arab, Jewish and North African musical traditions comprise the first of three programs presented in the Santa Fe Desert Chorale’s 2022 Summer Festival, Pilgrimage: Songs of the Mediterranean Basin. The repertoire brings love, lament, celebration and longing through both sacred and secular music from each region, notably including the deeply moving setting of Abun D’bashmayo (The Lord’s Prayer) sung in Aramic. Moroccan musician Fattah Abbou joins the 24-member ensemble in the final segment and leads a call-and-response trio of songs accompanied by rhibab and banjo. The crowd might be mostly seniors, but these singers are young and immensely talented. Support the future of top-notch choral singing. (Julie Ann Grimm)

Pilgrimage: Songs of the Mediterranean Basin: 7:30 pm Tuesday, July 26 and Thursday, Aug. 4, $25-$100 (discounts available with student ID). Christo Rey Catholic Church, 1120 Canyon Road, desertchorale.org