Out & About
Friday, January 3
Cirque Éloize: Cirkopolis
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place
8 p.m.
$40
Bursts of color pierce a grey industrialized landscape and awaken one office worker who finds himself propelled on a journey of circus, dance, acrobatics and theater ? finding real connections through his fantasies in an isolating factory-city. Positioned at the heart of the renewal of circus arts, like Cirque du Soleil before them, Cirque Éloize has been changing the face of circus and carving out a niche in the growing popularity of the field.
Events.nyu.edu
Saturday, January 4
Asian American Festival
Children's Museum of the Arts, 103 Charlton Street btwn Hudson and Greenwich streets
10-5 p.m.
$10
To celebrate the diversity of New York City, CMANY present its sixth annual series of multicultural festivals that celebrate the artistic and cultural traditions of different communities.
Cmany.org
Union Square: Crossroads of New York
Union Square Park
2 p.m.
Free
With the help of your guide, you will explore the social and political history of the Union Square neighborhood through discussions of the people, history, architecture, and forces that have shaped this community.
unionsquarenyc.org
Sunday, January 5
'LA CANTATA DEI PASTORI'- The Shepard's Cantata
Theater for the New City,155 First Avenue btwn 9th & 10th streets
5 p.m.
$25; $15 children
Based on the traditional southern Italian play written by Andrea Perrucci in the 17th century and still performed annually in the city of Naples. This musical version has been adapted and directed by Alessandra Belloni and enacted by masked commedia dell'arte characters, puppets, devils, and the Archangel Gabriel on stilts. Original music by John La Barbera. Narrated in English by La Befana, the Good Witch of Christmas
212.254.1109; theaterforthenewcity.com
DRUMS OF ILLUMINATION
Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue
6 p.m.
$25
Alessandra Belloni and I Giullari di Piazza once again join forces with the Silvercloud Native American Singers and Dancers for a performance of Drums of Illumination/Sacred Drumming, a World Peace Celebration.
212-254-1109; theaterforthenewcity.net
Monday, January 6
ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC SAFETY & PUBLIC HEALTH CB2
CB 2 Conference Room, 3 Washington Square Village
6:30 p.m.
Free
Discussion of topics and agenda Items for the coming year.
212-979-2272; Nyc.gov
The Performance Artist
The Rubin Museum of Art, 17th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues
7 p.m.
$45
Actor Isabella Rossellini + cognitive scientist Diana Reiss. To what extent do animals determine their own actions independently of hard-wired instinct? Rossellini and Reiss compare notes about their observations how other animals exercise mind over matter by discussing animal communication, self-awareness, creative play, choice-making and altruistic behavior.
rmanyc.org
Tuesday, January 7
Gangs of New York walking tour
Broadway & Chambers Street, at the edge of City Hall Park.
1 p.m.
$20
Come explore the legends and lore of Five Points and Herbert Asbury's 1927 classic The Gangs of New York ? the inspiration for the film ? and learn about the real history of the area. Stops could include: Paradise Square, "Murderer's Alley", the African Burial Ground, the lost intersection of Five Points, and sites associated with Bill "the Butcher" Poole, William M. Tweed, Master Juba, and the 1857 Police and 1863 Draft Riots.
bigonion.com
Giuseppe Penone, Ideas of Stone
Madison Square Park, East 23 Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues
11-6 p.m.
Free
Throughout his 40-year career, Penone has employed natural materials and forms in an exploration of the contrasting and fundamental relationships between man and nature. He incorporates traces of fingerprints, nails, wires, carvings, and precariously placed boulders as remnant evidence of the sculptures' manmade composition and the effect of human interaction with the natural world. Penone addresses concepts of weight, balance, and scale, while merging the manmade and the organic.
madisonsquarepark.org
Wednesday, January 8
Land use and Development Committee CB8
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 408
6:30 p.m.
Free
Discussion of topics and agenda Items for the coming year.
212-979-2272; Nyc.gov
Hollywood and Hitler
36 Battery Place
7 p.m.
$15
Join Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty and New Yorker film reviewer David Denby for a conversation on the complicated, tangled history of Hollywood and Hitler. As Europe hurtled toward war, a proxy battle waged in Hollywood over how to conduct business with the Nazis, how to cover Hitler and his victims in the newsreels, and whether to address or ignore Nazism in Hollywood feature films.
92y.org
Thursday, January 9
TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION Committee CB2
NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 206
6:30 p.m.
Free
Discussion of topics and agenda Items for the coming year.
212-979-2272; Nyc.gov
The Nutcracker Rouge
Minetta Lane Theatre ,18 Minetta Lane, btwn Sixth Avenue and McDougal Street
8 p.m.
$48-$68
Nutcracker Rouge is a sparkling reimagining of the Nutcracker tale told with erotic, sensual and opulent flair. From the director/choreographer Austin McCormick comes a Baroque-Burlesque performance of theatre, dance, and circus . Immerse yourself in a hedonistic display of gorgeous and decadent winter entertainment that includes opera performed by Shelly Watson, text inspired by E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and 19th century poetry. Final run on January 12.
nutcrackerRouge.com