If you're still mistakenly laboring under the impression that ballet is dry, dusty and boring, the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater would like the chance to persuade you otherwise. This Saturday and Sunday night at Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Dominic Walsh company is putting on a decidedly modern and contemporary production of the classic ballet Sleeping Beauty, set to Tchaikovsky's original score but with choreography and costumes that are anything but traditional. Dominic Walsh himself......

The clap of the hands, the sounds of dancing and the mystical flamenco guitar all await you upstairs at Avant Garden tonight at 8pm. Flamenco Andaluz, a local flamenco troupe, led by the extremely talented, Bianca Antonia has been holding regular Thursday night performances upstairs at Avant Garden for the past few months. Bianca Antonia is no stranger to dance. With a history of modern dance and ballet, she has been dancing flamenco since......

::Sangria & Salsa at the Tasting Room:: Does dancing With the Stars make you wonder just how many washed up D-List stars are in Hollywood? Us, too. Who's next? The cast of Gimme a Break? Check out some Houston A-List dancers tonight as the Tasting Room in Rover Oaks hosts Sangria and Salsa Wednesdays! Heck, it takes us a few bottles glasses before we're any good anyway. Enjoy great music from the Charlie Perez Trio......

Houstonist recently heard a rumor that you know it is Spring when your asparagus garden is ready to harvest. Hogwash!!! Here in Houston, we know that it is Spring when The Orange Show begins to ramp up their activities. Of course, these just preclude the most exhalted display of eclectic coolness, ever, The Art Car Parade (we lurve it). This weekend brings us some deluxious Orange goodness, beginning with the up and coming (and......

::SNEAK PREVIEW: Dance Salad:: Get a sneak peak tonight of the fourth annual Dance Salad Festival as the MFA hosts a Choreographers’ at 6:30 p.m. in the MFAH’s Brown Auditorium, Caroline Wiess Law Building. This free event highlights the creative process of making dance and is a wonderful opportunity to understand some of the work being presented at Dance Salad Festival from the choreographers’ perspective. A reception to meet the panelists follows the program,......

::SUCHU DANCE: 8:10 Assembly:: Contemporary dance has found a home in Houston, in the shape of north downtown's Barnevelder Movement Complex, and this weekend is your last chance to catch Suchu Dance's 8:10 Assembly. As unpretentious and laid-back an evening as you'll find anywhere, this newest production from Suchu Dance lets things unfold at an unforced and casual pace, like what you might get to experience when people-watching out in public... including witnessing those......

::Sandra Organ Dance Company Performs José Limón's There Is a Time :: For the ten year anniversary of the Sandra Organ Dance Company, the group will be performing the outstanding choreographer José Limón's work, There Is a Time. Formerly a soloist at the Houston Ballet where she was the first African-American in the company, Organ founded her own company in 1998, focusing largely on black history themes. Limón's work is some of the best......

It's official: Houston is taking it's A game to Austin for the 2008 South By Southwest music showcase. From March 12 through 16, you can catch some of your favorite local acts play in the so-called music mecca of the American South. Some of our favorites get to tackle the festival, including Katie Stuckey and (The Band Formerly Known As) The Dimes. In fact, Austin will get the full spectrum of Houston music this year.......

::Dominic Walsh Dance: Celebrating Moving Bodies - Moving Minds:: Dominic Walsh wows again with this excellent lineup celebrating the fifth anniversary of the company's premiere performance. The centerpiece of the program will be Double You by with Jiri Kylian, one of the most renowned contemporary choreographers in the world today. Also on the program is the world premier of Walsh's Amadeus and a pas de deux from his full-length Orfeo ed Euridice, created for......

Fresh off the heels of winning a second consecutive MLS Cup championship, the Houston Dynamo are preparing to fill out their cheerleading squad this month. With preliminary auditions set to take place on February 16 from 9am-6pm, the Dynamo Girls are looking for a few good women. Houstonist caught up with Team Director Marilu Harman to find out just what it takes to be a Dynamo Girl, whether the squad members spend any time with......

Tomorrow night, you should check out local favorites The Mathletes last show of the year (already?). They headline the line-up at The Proletariat. Another local favorite, Orange Is In, hits Rudyard’s Saturday night. Tuesday night sees the arrival of the Foo Fighters at the Toyota Center. If that venue is a little too big for you, check out actor/singer/songwriter Jeff Daniels at the Mucky Duck the same night. Did we miss something? Let us......

::Hope Stone Dance Company premieres SEE Me:: How do we see? Do we need sight to know the world? How are we blind to ourselves? Tonight at the Wortham Center, under the direction of award-winning choreographer Jane Weiner, Hope Stone Dance Company wil premeire SEE Me, . While general admission is $25, Hope Stone, Inc. will open the 800 balcony seats free to at risk youth from local schools and after-school programs. Implicit in......

What up, Houston? Houstonist is glad to be back in the saddle after our "long winters nap." Looks like the Missed Connections crowd didn't take too much time off for Hanukwanzmas. Plenty of folks were out ho ho hoeing around. Enjoy. J - please talk to me - w4m I meant what I wrote in that last email. I'm sorry you can't deal with someone like me. You wanted a freak... I'm freaky.. and......

You read that headline right, folks. The year is 2006 and The Medicine Show is playing at Helios again. Sort of. Rekindle those lovely memories of finishing a long day's work and partying at Helios on Monday night to the rousingly rambunctious Medicine Show. Instead the place is technically called AvantGarden, it'll actually be a Friday and the band changed its name to the Sideshow Tramps. Not to worry, though. You still get to listen......

::Double Header at AvantGarden:: A great double-book tonight at AvantGarden: Terell James opens his "Neoformalism 1" exhibit, followed by FrenetiCore's production of "Exile", a dance film. "Neoformalism" Terrell James Terrell James' paintings and prints evoke nature rather than depict it. With minimal contour line, gestural rubbing, and reserved color her works describe the landscape through abstraction. James' work is included in numerous collections including Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, Museum of Fine......

A lighter week for concerts, but many home-state bred musicians are in town. Tomorrow night, we recommend San Antonio's Girl In A Coma, but if you prefer 90's rock, you might want to catch Dallas' The Toadies return to Verizon Wireless. Speaking of returns, Bandera's Robert Earl Keen brings his annual Christmas show to town Friday night. Saturday, Warehouse Live is hosting a few local bands, headlined by Million Year Dance. Not from Texas,......

December already? Everything is reversed from the summer: back then, the Astros were dead in the water, the upcoming Texans season looked promising because of some new additions, and the Dynamo were gearing up to defend their MLS Cup title. Now, the Texans are DOA, the Astros are looking exciting next year, and the Dynamo, well, at least someone's consistent. Here's what's been going on this week in the Houston sports blogosphere: - The Dynamo......

::Touring Taste of Dance Salad Film at MFA:: Ok, so you're perplexed on what to watch now that Dancing With the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance have both finished their seasons. We feel your pain. I mean, how else are you supposed to practice your movers for the company holiday party? Well, dance friends, you are in luck. If you missed the 2007 Dance Salad Festival, catch a special (read: free) screening......

In 2003, Detroit's Electric Six effectively made it okay for heterosexual males to sing about gay bars to fellow heterosexual males without opening the door for a sexual harassment lawsuit or nursing a bloody nose. Newly armed with their latest and release, I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master, Electric Six is ready to blow Houston's mind one more time. "I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me......

Filled up on turkey and dressing? Here's some event stuffing fer youse. add event to your Google Calendar view all events on the Houstonist Google Calendar [26 MONDAY]Double Feature: Monday Movies at MFA and Domy BooksMemories of Irving Berlin (last Monday)Bayou City Concert Musicals | doors at 7pm, ensemble Theatre ($20) [27 TUESDAY]Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison: book signing and discussion | 3pm, Barnes & Noble Town & Country (free)Rice Humanities Lecture: An Ordinary, Everyday......

Spent all your cash on girlie drinks and shattered dreams again this weekend, didn't you? No worries - Thriftster gives you the lowdown on cheap stuff to do until Paycheck Friday. Monday: Movie night!! MFAH (1001 Bissonnet St.) continues their $7 'Movies Houstonians Love' series with a pick by Dr. John H. Lienhard (the dude from NPR's Engines of Our Ingenuity) - No Highway in the Sky. Afterwards, steak night at Baba Yega (2607 Grant......

We've already told about the concerts we're most excited about this week: Peter Bjorn and John at Warehouse Live and local artist Ethan Durelle at Fitzgerald's, both this Friday night. We also told you about Tori Amos' visit to Jones Hall this Sunday. If that's not enough for you, a lot of local acts are leaving their parent's dinner table early and playing some great shows all throughout the holiday weekend. Maybe you should......

::Diverseworks Presents Jean Baptiste André: Comme En Plein Jour:: If you've picked up the Novemeber issue of ArtsHouston, you may have noticed the "clown" in the corner on the cover. No, it's not a mime. It's French performance artist Jean Baptise André. Tonight, the Texan-French Alliance for the Arts and its presenting partners Global Quality Imports, Inc. help welcome Jean Baptiste André's performace of Comme En Plein Jour to Diverseworks, for a two night engagement......

A lot of jokes are made at the expense of the boy-girl synth and vocal duo. Granted, it has become a recipe in the D.I.Y. music scene. And sure, the charming and attractive female singer and the quietly reserved guy on the keys being relatively easy to come by, but Portland's Glass Candy is anything but formulaic. So polish those dancing shoes because these heralds of the newly revived Italo disco movement are coming back......

Henry Dittman and Joan (justjoan) are the hosts of the Internet-based travelogue called The Smart Show sponsored by Holiday Inn Express. By now you're probably familiar with the H.I.E. ads that purports to convey savant-like intellect on its patrons. "I'm not a vascular surgeon, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night," says a broke writer after requesting a scalpel from the O.R. nurse. Despite having a title sponsor, The Smart Show does......

::Suchu Dance premieres Babka at Barnevelder Movement Complex:: Tonight opens Suchu Dance's newest performance, Babka, at the neato Barnevelder Movement Complex. If you've not been to a Suchu Dance performance, or visited this unique performing arts venue, you are in for a treat tonight. In a unique way to kick-off this performance, Suchu Dance is offering a dinner/show preview tonight. For $29.99 you can catch a sneak peek of the new performance and have a......

Ghostland Observatory’s Thomas Turner and Aaron Behrens just might be the hardest working men in the electronic/funk-glam/rock music biz. In less than two years, the Austin, TX duo have released two records and have toured from coast to coast, all while running their own music label, Trashy Moped. The band’s latest CD, Paparazzi Lightning, is a high-voltage rocking dance record that the Dallas Observer says would “do Daft Punk, Giorgio Moroder and Freddie Mercury......

If you are looking for someway to enjoy the outdoors this weekend, check out the 2007 Ballunar Festival in Clear Lake at the Johnson Space Center. The festival started in 1993, when Steve Lombardi (head balloon pilot for RE/MAX) wanted to celebrate the 200th anniversary of man’s first flight at the location of today’s most technologically advanced flight operations. 14 years later the Ballunar Festival is still going strong, with over 60 Balloons registered......

Mash-up DJ Girl Talk rolls into town to play a show at the Engine Room on Thursday night. Armed with his laptop and ready arsenal of body-thumping mixes, Girl Talk’s Gregg Gillis will make you move. If you don’t know, now you know; less than two years ago, Gillis worked as a biomedical engineer by day-turned-mad scientist of beats and samples at night and on the weekends, mixing potent mash-ups and performing in front of......

::MFA Presents Movies Houstonians Love:: "Singin' in the Rain" Guests Speaker: Lauren Anderson, Houston Ballet We are big fans of this MFA series, as past participants include Bun B, Barbara Bush, Larry Dierker, and Mayor Bill White. Tonight's film, "Singin' in the Rain," will be presented by principal ballerina, Lauren Anderson, who danced with Houston Ballet from 1983 to 2006, starring in classical ballets, appeared across the world to critical acclaim. In January, Anderson assumed......