Auditions set for Main Stage Dance Theatre Festival

The Department of Theatre and Dance announced that it will hold auditions Jan. 11 for this year's Main Stage Dance-Theatre Festival.

Organizers said the auditions are open only to UC Davis students, faculty and staff.

The auditions are scheduled from 7 to 11 p.m. in Hickey Gym, with the audition space opening at 6:30 p.m. for people who would like to come early to warm up.

The festival, set for April 9-10 and 16-18, comprises pieces created by graduate and undergraduate students. "These pieces will showcase a wide variety of styles of movement, and everyone is welcome, regardless of experience," reads the audition announcement.

"Please join us to earn units, make friends and partake in a performance experience like no other!"

Questions should be directed to cmnoble@ucdavis.edu.

Behind the scenes at SFMOMA

The Nelson ARTfriends organization is sponsoring a behind-the-scenes tour of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art during its 75th anniversary year.

Only 20 spaces are available for the Jan. 23 bus trip and tour. Reservations are due by Jan. 14 to Katrina Wong, (530) 752-8500 or kliwong@ucdavis.edu.

In an e-mail announcement, Wong said the museum's facility manager, Rick Peterson, will lead the tour — showing the conservation labs, art storage, shipping facility and other areas of interest that are normally closed to the public.

A break is planned after the tour, with people on their own for lunch at the museum cafe. After that, according to Wong, people will have time to visit the galleries with Renny Pritikin, Nelson Gallery director.

According to the museum's Web site, "SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted to modern and contemporary art. From the outset, the museum has championed the most innovative and challenging art of its time, and we continue to exhibit and collect work by both modern masters and younger, less-established artists."

The cost, including transportation and tour, is $50 for Nelson ARTfriends members and $75 for nonmembers. The fee for students is $25, with a limit of three student participants. Payment is due by Jan. 19, by cash, check (payable to the UC Regents) or credit card (Visa or MasterCard).

The bus is scheduled to leave from Lot 10 at First and A streets at 8 a.m., with an estimated return time of 5 p.m.

Weaving workshop fills quickly

The C.N. Gorman Museum's Jan. 23 workshop on American Indian basket weaving filled quickly soon after the registration period opened earlier this week.

"Julia is so well known in this area (that) I was bombarded by e-mails the minute I sent the announcement out (Jan. 4)," museum curator Veronica Passalacqua said Jan. 5. "The class (which I’ve expanded to 20) and wait list are full."

"Julia" is the instructor: Julia Parker, a Coast Miwok-Kashaya Pomo who learned the basket weaving craft from her husband's grandmother, Lucy Telles Parker, and other American Indian elders.

Lucy Telles Parker, now deceased, demonstrated basket weaving at Yosemite for many years, and Julia followed in her footsteps at the national park. Her daughter Lucy will join her in teaching the C.N. Gorman Museum's Jan. 23 class, Passalacqua said.

The Gorman announcement described the class as an introduction to basket weaving. Each student will prepare seasoned red willow and make a medium-sized gathering basket using the weaving technique of twinning, according to the announcement.

Julia Parker's basketry has been featured at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.; the American Museum of Natural History, New York City; and the Heard Museum, Phoenix.

In 1983, when Queen Elizabeth II visited Yosemite, Parker gave her a basket that is now on display at the Queen's Museum in Windsor Castle.

Parker received a National Heritage Award and Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007. A year earlier, the California College of the Arts presented her with an honorary doctoral degree in fine arts.