The Gig Guide: December 2017

Planning on attending a concert, show, or gig in Christchurch? Then why not take a look at what we’ve got of that artist’s back catalogue?

Comedy

• 7 Days Live featuring Dai Henwood, Jeremy Corbett, Paul Ego, Ben Hurley, Josh Thomson, Jeremy Elwood and Justine Smith 9 December

Music

Christmas

Special performances incorporating festive music.

• Christchurch City Chorus – Merry & Bright 2 December
• Christchurch City Choir – Handel’s Messiah 9 December
• Christmas Joy with Ali Harper 15 December
• Sol3 Mio – Christmas in the city 16 December
• Leighs Construction CSO Presents: A Festive Christmas 20 December
• Carols by Candlelight with conductor Andrew Withington 24 December

Popular music

• Glass Vaults 1 December
• Fiona Pears Celebrates Stéphane Grappelli 1 December
• Marky Ramone 2 December
• The Coalrangers 2 December
• Paul Ubana Jones 7 December
• Estère 7 December
• Jordan Luck 7 December
• Live in the Park – featuring Shapeshifter, Shihad, Kora, and Drax Project 9 December
• Angus and Julia Stone 17 December
• Yusuf – Cat Stevens 19 December
• Jordan Luck Band 31 December
• Head like a hole 31 December

Theatre & Dance

• Chicago 25 November – 20 January
• Saturday Night Fever – The Musical 7 December
• The Southern Ballet Theatre: The Wizard of Oz 15-16 December

What gigs are you looking forward to in the near future? Anything we’ve missed? Do let us know in the comments.

The Gig Guide: August 2017

Planning on attending a concert, show, or gig in Christchurch? Then why not take a look at what we’ve got of that artist’s back catalogue?

Comedy

• Nick Rado & Raybon Kan 3 August

Dance

• Royal New Zealand Ballet, Romeo and Juliet 25-26 August

Kids

• CSO Music trails through the library 2 August

Music

• Lamb & Hayward Masterworks: Europa, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra 5 August
• One Night of Queen 6 August
• NZTrio 9 August
• Shayne P Carter and band 11 August
• Devilish Mary & the Holy Rollers 11 August
• Rebecca Nelson 11 August
• Lawrence Arabia 13 August
• Katchafire 19 August
• George Garzone 19 August
• Hobnail 20 August
• Bill Direen 20 August

Theatre

• Steel Magnolias 5 August – 1 September

Other

• Parenting Week talks and lectures featuring authors Jax Hamilton, Lucy Hone, Diane Levy, Philippa Murphy, Karyn Riley, Pio Terei and more.

What gigs are you looking forward to in the near future? Anything we’ve missed? Do let us know in the comments.

The Gig Guide: July 2017

Planning on attending a concert, show, or gig in Christchurch? Then why not take a look at what we’ve got of that artist’s back catalogue?

Comedy

• Nick Rado & Raybon Kan 13-15 July
• Rhys Darby 28-29 July

Dance

• Deesie’s Big Adventure Southern Ballet Theatre 11-15 July
• Coppelia Southern Ballet Theatre 18-22 July

Kids

• CSO Music trails through the library 5 July
• Snow White 10-22 July
• Lemony Snicket‘s The Composer is Dead Christchurch Symphony Orchestra 19 July
• The Wiggles 20 July
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar show 25-26 July

Music

• Ali Harper 17 June – 15 July
• Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone in concert Christchurch Symphony Orchestra 5 July
• The Wedding Present 7 July
• Theia 8 July
• Lizzie Cook 8 July
• Naomi Ferguson and Alex van den Broek 9 July
• Devilish Mary & the Holy Rollers 14 July
• L’Arpeggiata: Kuijken Quartet (featuring Sigiswald Kuijken) 12 July

• 

  Carmen with chorus members. Image credit: Marty Melville

  New Zealand Opera: Carmen 13-22 July

• The Miltones 16 July
• Lemony Snicket‘s The Composer is Dead Christchurch Symphony Orchestra 19 July
• The Bads 20 July
• The Simon & Garfunkel Story 27 July
• Winter Jazz (with Woolston Brass, Cameron Pearce, Gwyn Reynolds, and Scott Taitoko) 30 July
• Steve Abel 30 July

Other

• Neil deGrasse Tyson 4 July

What gigs are you looking forward to in the near future? Anything we’ve missed? Do let us know in the comments.

The Gig Guide: December 2016

Planning on attending a concert, show, or gig in Christchurch? Then why not take a look at what we’ve got of that artist’s back catalogue?

Comedy

• 7 Days Live – Including Dai Henwood, Urzila Carlson and Josh Thomson 16 & 17 December

Dance

• St Petersburg Ballet – Swan Lake 29-31 December

Kids

• Nano girl in Little Bang, Big Bang – The Live Science Show 5 December
• Peter Pan 16-17 December

Music

• Lindon Puffin 1 December
• Christchurch City Choir & The CSO – Handel’s Messiah 2 December
• Soulsystem and Troy Kingi 2 December
• Left or right 3 December
• Amiria Grenell 8 December
• Graham Wardrop 9 December
• Leila Adu 10 December
• Sons of a Bitch & Mel Parsons 10 December
• The Eastern 10 December
• Bach – Cello Solo Suites – Christmas Charity Concert with Tomas Hurnik 20 December
• Leighs Construction CSO Presents: Festive Christmas 21 December
• Devilskin 31 December

What gigs are you looking forward to in the near future? Anything we’ve missed? Do let us know in the comments.

The Gig Guide: August 2016

Planning on attending a concert, show, or gig in Christchurch? Then why not take a look at what we’ve got of that artist’s back catalogue?

Music

• Lamb & Hayward Masterworks: Piers Lane Plays Rachmaninov 13 August
• Lindon Puffin 14 August
• The Greatest Love of All – Whitney Houston Tribute Show 16 August
• Ultimate Bowie 17 August
• Shayne P Carter & Band 25 August

Comedy

• Alan Carr 18 August

Dance

• Giselle, Royal New Zealand Ballet 23 & 24 August

In addition August features both the NZIFF and WORD Christchurch festivals

What gigs are you looking forward to in the near future? Anything we’ve missed? Do let us know in the comments.

… and the peasants rejoiced…*

Anyone who has anything to do with professional dancing knows that it requires extraordinary levels of physical fitness, control and dedication to make it as graceful and seemingly effortless as they do.

I’ve loved the ballet ever since my Mum took me to a Southern Ballet production of Stravinsky’s The Firebird as a six year old and pestered her into lessons. It still grabs me in a way that no other live performance does, surely a combination of the setting, music and movement, so I’m thrilled to be going along to the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream later this week.

I know the story well enough of course, it being based on one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, but I am not at all familiar with the music by Felix Mendelssohn. According to liner notes for one recording found in the libraries’ Classical Music Library eResource (see below) the music was composed to be incidental music for a performance of the play in 1843.

• Listen to Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ recordings in Classical Music Library (you may need to log in with your password/PIN first).
• Find Midsummer Night’s Dream titles in our catalogue

Find out more about this production via their twitter feed.

Tweets by @

More Ballet resources

• Ballet videos on Naxos Video Library
• Ballet books and other resources for adults
• Ballet books and resources for kids and teens
• Find Ballet or other dance classes and groups in CINCH

Where Snowflakes Dance and Swear

---

* blog title is a bad ’90s TV show reference for which I apologise.

Dancing through the dark

If you are related to, are friends of, live next door to, have your paper delivered by school age children, chances are you’ve been invited to attend a performance to celebrate the hard work they’ve put into their chosen pursuit this year.

Initially, I cringed at the thought of squeezing into a crowded auditorium packed with proud parents to spend two hours of precious Christmas planning time watching a show, but I seized the moment and went to one ballet and two jazz dance performances. And I’m so glad I did – it’s been enchanting.

The young people and the dance teachers of Christchurch have somehow achieved the impossible and brought a bit of magic to this battered city. Thanks guys. You’ve lifted my spirits. Three hearty Christmas cheers to you all!

Useful resources for dancers and dance-lovers:

• Books, CDs and DVDs about ballet and dance in BiblioCommons
• Links in our Internet Gateway
• our Dance page in The Pulse

Dancing with the stars

Been inspired by Dancing with the stars and want to sharpen up your dance techniques?

Christchurch city libraries has the resources to set you on the road to stardom! Here are some fabulous DVDs and CDs to get you started. We even have some books! Try a search in our catalogue under the subject “Ballroom dancing”.

Our CINCH (Community Information in Christchurch) database lists dance classes around Christchurch including everything from Salsa to Belly Dancing.

If you are more of an spectator than a participator, these exciting and diverse dance extravaganzas are on offer throughout New Zealand this year –

• Cuban Carousel
• Peter Pan
• Stomp
• Les Sylphides

Put them in your diary – Enjoy!