BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. ( May 4, 2012) — Amazing dance performance and audience cheering followed by live band dance party until mid-night, “A Night with Iny Asian Dance Theater” last Friday at the Buasavanh Banquet Hall.

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It’s been said, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.”  That just changed with the double disc set being released by Twin Cities jazz guitarist Cory Wong.

The name of the disc itself encourages a curiosity.  Quartet/Quintet was released in April 2012 and is described as diversified jazz.

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New York, NY (April 30, 2012) – Music Choice is set to air a documentary made by Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles called “A Trace of the Sun: Volunteering in Japan.”

The documentary will be available nationally the entire month of May during Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on Music Choice On Demand.  Last month marked the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami that devastated coastal cities and left over 26,000 people without homes. The documentary chronicles Bareilles’ trip to Japan where she joined All Hands Volunteers relief efforts in the city of Ofunato.

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Every time history repeats itself, the price goes up.

Director Mathieu Roy and Co-director Harold Crooks present “Surviving Progress” (National Film Board of Canada), the feature documentary story of human advancement as awe-inspiring and double-edged, opens at Landmark Lagoon Cinema on Friday.

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Miko Fogarty

First Position, the documentary feature from director Bess Kargman about young dancers put their lifelong dreams on the line at the world’s most prestigious ballet competitions — Youth America Grand Prix  — will open at the Landmark Lagoon Cinema on Friday.

With hundreds competing for a handful of elite scholarships and contracts, practice and discipline are paramount, and nothing short of perfection is expected. Kargman’s award-winning documentary, Fist Position, follows six young dancers as they prepare for a chance to enter the world of professional ballet, struggling through bloodied feet, near exhaustion and debilitating injuries all while navigating the drama of adolescence.

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The first Hawai‘i Poet Laureate Steven KealohapauŒole Hong-Ming Wong presents his first official duty with a poem following Governor Neil Abercrombie’s proclamation. (Hawai‘i Governor’s Office photo)

HONOLULU ‹ Governor Neil Abercrombie on Thursday proclaimed award-winning slam poet Steven Kealohapau‘ole Hong-Ming Wong, better known by his pen name, “Kealoha” as Hawai‘i Poet Laureate.

Moments after being named the state’s official poet, Kealoha was asked by Governor Abercrombie to complete his first ceremonial duty under the new title by performing at the dedication of the Hawai‘i State Art Museum’s Sculpture Garden. Titled “Garden”, the spoken word performance complemented the occasion in both name and genre, as Kealoha has often chosen HiSAM as a venue.

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St. Paul, MN—Hmong College Prep Academy will be hosting an evening of music and theater on May 11^th.

The school’s drama class, a mix of students in grades 9-12, will be presenting a set of 5 one-act plays—Duck, Dorothy & Alice, Post-it Notes, There Shall Be No Bottom (a bad play for worse actors…) and Words, Words, Words.  HCPA’s Middle School Choir is also on the entertainment docket and will be performing Guys and Dolls, Jr.—A Musical Review.  The Middle School Choir to also Perform.

Chinary Ung

Cambodian-American composer Chinary Ung is set to highlight the Zeitgeist’s concert season with a special concert performances May 17-19, 7:30 p.m. and May 20, 2 p.m. at Studio Z, 275 E. 4th Street, Suite 200, St. Paul, MN 55101.

Ung will be present for the Zeitgeist world premiere of his major new chamber work Spiral XIV: “Nimitta”.

Ung’s music weaves together his Cambodian heritage, Western classical training and a powerful sense of purpose born of life’s challenges to create music that is profoundly moving and transformative. His singular approach to color, gesture, timbre and form results in a highly authentic music that sounds unlike anything else being created today.

Spiral XIV “Nimitta” incorporates vocalization, chant and Cambodian percussion instruments in addition to Zeitgeist’s unique instrumentation of two percussion, clarinet and piano.

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New York, NY (April 30, 2012) – Music Choice is set to air a documentary made by Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles called “A Trace of the Sun: Volunteering in Japan.”

The documentary will be available nationally the entire month of May during Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month on Music Choice On Demand.  Last month marked the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami that devastated coastal cities and left over 26,000 people without homes. The documentary chronicles Bareilles’ trip to Japan where she joined All Hands Volunteers relief efforts in the city of Ofunato.

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Mei (Catherine Chan) and Luke Wright (Jason Statham) in SAFE. Photo credit: John Baer

Safe (Lionsgate, IM Global) opens at Landmark Lagoon Cinema in Uptown Minneapolis on May 4.

It is the story of a second-rate cage fighter on the mixed martial arts circuit, Luke Wright, who lives a numbing life of routine beatings and chump change — until the day he blows a rigged fight.

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