A tapping good time: For those who thought tap-dancing was only something people did during Shirley Temple movies, Michelle Dorrance will prove them wrong. She is the MacArthur “Genius Grant”-winning dancer and choreographer who in 2011 founded Dorrance Dance, a contemporary company known for ambitious tap dance performances. The form, defined by the rhythmic clack-clacking sound created by shoes with metal pieces attached to the heel and toe, was developed by African American dancers during the advent of jazz music. But companies such as Dorrance Dance continue to refine and expand the art. This weekend, Dorrance Dance arrives in the Bay Area to apply tap dancing to a beloved holiday favorite, presenting the Bay Area premiere of its adaptation of “The Nutcracker Suite.” The work, performed to a reworked version of Tchaikovsky’s storied score created in 1960 by jazz icons Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, fuses clever 21st-century alterations into the story line. As organizers put it, the work “transforms the Sugar Plum Fairy into a slinky Sugar Rum Cherry” and the “March of the Toy Soldiers becomes a swinging brass Peanut Brittle Brigade romp.” Presented by Cal Performances, New York-based Dorrance Dance will perform the 70-minute production at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. Tickets are $30-$125. Go to calperformances.org.
Austen for the holidays: Jane Austen is justifiably revered for her exquisite prose, savvy critique of the British upper class and emotionally satisfying romantic storylines. She’s rarely been considered the go-to author for the winter holidays. But TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, along with Bay Area playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, are changing all that. The Palo Alto stage company is presenting Gunderson and Melcon’s Austen-themed work, “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley” as its holiday stage show this year. The rom-com is described as a sequel to Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” and, as the title makes clear, it is set during the holidays. The play focuses on the middle Bennet daughter, the “bookish” Mary, as organizers put it, who is weary of always being in the middle of her siblings’ romantic issues until a dishy new visitor arrives at Pemberley to light up her world. Having scored with audiences in a trio of Austen adaptations of “Pride and Prejudice,” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Emma,” it’s not surprising that TheatreWorks returns to the beloved author, as well as acclaimed playwrights Gunderson and Melcon, for holiday cheer. Directed by Jeffrey Lo, “Miss Bennet” plays at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto through Dec. 29. Tickets are $34-$115; go to theatreworks.org.
Some perky Prokofiev: We always expect the San Francisco Youth Symphony to bring families a rousing performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s charming “Peter and the Wolf” every holiday season, but we don’t know until the date approaches what celebrity will be picked to fill the narrator’s shoes. Past performers have included Sharon Stone, Linda Ronstadt, Robin Williams, Bobby McFerrin and Rita Moreno. This year, it’s the Filipino American Broadway star of “Aladdin” and current host of the kids TV series “Blues, Clues and You” Josh Dela Cruz who will be telling the tale of the plucky boy, his animal friends and the unlucky duck who gets swallowed whole. The concert, conducted by Radu Paponiu, takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday in San Francisco’s Davies Hall. There are other fun works on the program, including the “Thunder and Lightning Polka” by Johann Strauss Jr., and it will wind up with a traditional holiday carol singalong. Tickets, $37.50-$199, are available at sfsymphony.org.
Going for Baroque: Jeffrey Thomas and the American Bach Soloists and Choir have two terrific holiday programs lined up in the sonorous interior of Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill in San Francisco this week. First up on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. is Part One of Johann Sebastian Bach’s glorious “Christmas Oratorio” plus the Christmas portion and the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah.” Then on Friday, also at 7:30 p.m., it’s the full performance of the “Messiah.” The vocal soloists for both nights are soprano Mary Wilson, countertenor Eric Jurenas, tenor Jon Lee Keenan and baritone Jesse Blumberg. Tickets, $25-$135, can be purchased at americanbach.org.
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