Experimental Exploratorium activates awe at 40

Experimental Exploratorium activates awe at 40: "A museum of ideas and playthings, of serious thinking and sheer aesthetics, of raucous shrieks of delight and quiet moments of discovery, the Exploratorium has striven to be more than just a typical science museum, to represent a culture of thinking differently - a place where art and science are not separate categories, but two sides of the same idea: comprehending the world around us.

Nowadays, it's nearly impossible to find a museum or educational institution that isn't employing the buzzwords 'interactivity' or 'hands-on.' But before Frank Oppenheimer opened the doors at the Exploratorium in the fall of 1969, museums were places with 'Do Not Touch' signs posted everywhere. Oppenheimer (the younger brother of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer) believed in learning by doing, in staying endlessly curious and in delighting in what the world had to offer, and much of the character of the Exploratorium is the thoroughly unpretentious character of the founder himself."

Performing Diaspora Festival - beyond tradition

Performing Diaspora Festival - beyond tradition: "It was the Sufi poet Rumi who asked, 'When will you begin that long journey into yourself?' The 13 artists of CounterPulse's Performing Diaspora Festival, which begins next weekend have been on that journey for a year, and now dance audiences will have a chance to see snapshots of their trip. This ambitious new festival - which brings together artists from the Bay Area, Fresno and the Los Angeles/Pasadena area - has been as much about the process of creating the works as about the produced pieces that will be on the stage over the next three weekends."

'HallowScreen': Classic spooky Disney cartoons

'HallowScreen': Classic spooky Disney cartoons: "We're looking for the new Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio, and after driving around the Main Post, we spot a pleasant-looking guy waving at us from the porch of a red brick building, indistinguishable from the other red brick buildings next to it, save for the discreet white sign."

Alonzo King's 'Refraction' dazzling jazz ballet

There's a whiff of pensive yearning, even nostalgia, to 'Refraction,' which Alonzo King's Lines Ballet premiered on Friday night at the Yerba Buena Center's Novellus Theater. Casual intensity weaves in and out constantly - a couple may enter hand in hand, but their relationship is as likely to drift away as coalesce into confrontation. Strolling gives way to fitful drives across the stage, paralleling the score by jazz pianist Jason Moran - who accompanied the nine dancers live with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Dance Review: Trolley Dances a San Francisco Treat

Bright blue skies favored the sixth annual Trolley Dances, the itinerant series of performances in various sites along the J-Church line from Dolores to Balboa parks on Saturday and Sunday.

Most people on the first tour - there were half a dozen excursions each day - seemed to know all about the event, but a few were drawn up the hill to the statue of Miguel Hidalgo by the music of Mexican folklorico dancers Rosamaria Garcia and Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos Jr.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Alonzo King Lines Ballet season to premiere

The conversation is quiet but characteristically intense as Alonzo King and his dancers try to work out the shape of the rehearsal periods for the day. It seems that the creative drive and the relentless demands of Lines Ballet's schedule have bumped up against the physical realities for the nine company members - no one wants to interrupt the momentum as the company races to create two world premiere works, but there are corporeal limitations to consider, too.
Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Plus also check out the sidebar, What other artists say about Alonzo King

96 Hours Family: Petaluma Pumpkin patches

In the pristine world of Facebook's Farmville, nothing is ever dusty, there's no smell of manure and the pumpkins only take eight hours to grow. With Halloween fast approaching, though, the time is ripe to detach from the computers and take the kids out to pick pumpkins for real.

This weekend, you don't have to brave traffic jams headed to Half Moon Bay's Art & Pumpkin Festival to get good jack-o'-lantern material. Consider, instead, heading to some of the working farms of Petaluma, like Peterson's Farm or Andersen's Organic Vegetable Stand and Pumpkin Patch.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

Dance Review: Smuin Ballet's "Soon These Two Worlds"

A genuine sweetness pervades Amy Seiwert's carefree new ballet, "Soon These Two Worlds," which Smuin Ballet premiered Friday night at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Perhaps it sounds dismissive to call something "sweet" these days, but Seiwert's latest is a genuinely upbeat diversion that melds solidly structured energy with a fresh, sunny disposition.

Lit with a dusky, afternoon glow by David K.H. Elliott, the six couples have the vibe of companionable friends, perhaps celebrating after a long workday - individuals make their own interpretations of Seiwert's complex steps, but everyone is dancing to the same purpose.

Although there's a hint of African influence in Christine Darch's vibrantly striped tights and skirts - which elicit a pleasant dizziness as the dancers twirl, like watching the slots of a zoetrope go 'round - and an unmistakable African dance flavor to the rounded arm swoops and hip accents, the overall effect of the choreography is 100 percent Seiwert.

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.

96 Hours: The Blessing of the Animals

Four legs, two legs, Episcopalian, agnostic, furry, feathered or scaled - everyone is welcome at Grace Cathedral's blessing of the animals, an annual celebration of the guy for whom San Francisco is named, St. Francis of Assisi.

Although this favorite traditional ceremony traces back to the fourth century, when St. Anthony of the Desert allowed animals into the church to be blessed - most churches now celebrate the event on Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis, well-known to Christians for his love of animals. After naming him the patron saint of ecology in 1979, Pope John Paul II wrote that he hoped St. Francis' example would, "help us to keep ever alive a sense of 'fraternity' with all those good and beautiful things which Almighty God has created. And may he remind us of our serious obligation to respect and watch over them with care, in light of that greater and higher fraternity that exists within the human family."

Read more at the SF Chronicle website.