Monday, June 18, 2007 f The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 7 S oartspage@michigandaily.com 734-763-0379 Songs of an Ann Arbor summer AnnArbor Summerfest provides top attractions and musical distractions By ANNA ASH Associate Arts Editor Mingled in with the circus per- formers and comedians at the Ann Arbor Sum- mer Festival, is an interna- Alll Arbor tional array Summer of some of the most talented FeStival contemporary musicians. June15- July 8 With two ven- At the Power Center ues, the Power and Ingalls Mall Center and Top of the Park at Ingalls Mall, the festival is able to feature both mainstream head- liners and up-and-coming local talent. From Pink Martini's orchestral gallivants through Parisian cabaret and Brazilian sambas to the soaring swing of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, the three-week festival will be a musi- cal excursion across oceans and through time. Starting off the mainstage music is Cesaria Evora on June 19. Hailing fromAfrica'sCapeVerde,Evoraisone of the most illustrious performers of morna - a soulful musical style simi- lar to the blues but with significant Portugese fado influences. Joining Evora will be Brazilian actor, com- poser and musician Seu Jorge, whose EMMA NOLAN-ABRAHAMIAN/Daily Workers setting the stage for Ann Arbor's music, dance and performance series, Top of The Park, in Ingalls Mall. Portuguese David Bowie covers for Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" earned him some well-deserved North American exposure. His pop-conscious samba music has since traveled to last year's Bonnaroo music festival in Tennes- see and Ottawa's Bluesfest. On the same night at the Top of the Park stage at Ingalls Mall and Washington St. Ann Arbor fiddler Jeremy Kittel will perform. Known for his superb Celtic, bluegrass and jazz techniques, Kittel recently earned Outstanding Jazz Compos- er, Outstanding Jazz Recording and Outstanding Folk Artist honors at the 2006 Detroit Music Awards. The following week, the main- stage will present Grammy award- winning artists Lyle Lovett and k.d. lang on June 28. Lovett will be per- forming with his Large Band and lang with her quartet. On July 1, the evening after the Second City comedians cause a bit of a ruckus inside the Power cen- ter, the West Virginian radio show Mountain Stage will be broadcast live. Returning to Ann Arbor for the second time this year, Jeff Daniels will be bringing his humorous sto- rytelling to the stage. Filling out the show will be the politically-charged singer/songwriter Catie Curtis, the Boston-based folk musician Antje Duvekot and Australia's The Cat Empire, whose funky melding of jazz and ska will round out the two- hour show For more events and details check out the festival's website at www.annarborsummerfestival.com More than just a music festival By MAUREEN SULLIVAN Daily Arts Writer Ann Arbor's 24th annual 24 day- long Summer Festival brings big names in entertainment to the main stages at Hill Auditorium and the Power Center. The diversity of per- formers this year include retro swing superstars Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on Thursday and as renowned modern dance troupe MOMIX: Opus Cac- tus on Friday and Saturday, among various other respected performers in coming weeks. The MOMIX show aims to convey the life within a wild desert as danc- ers contort their bodies in unusual yet graceful ways combining ballet, illusion and acrobatics. The dance is primal yet sensual. With Middle Eastern music infused to create an exotic flair and with the juxtaposi- tion of motion and light, the dancers bring a desert landscape to life. Step just outside of these venues onto Washington Street any night until July 8, and you will find diverse streetperformers,myriad localunder the radar bands and film screenings of everything from "The Great Out- doors" to "Edward Scissorhands." Though the free outdoor festival focuses primarily on regional acts, this year's prime and most atten- tion-grabbing attraction is sure to be Australian-based street perfor- mance artists Strange Fruit. The group's act fuses modern acrobatics with a traditional theatrical plot. Bringing to life the lost art of the captivating street performers free of excess flash, Strange Fruit has been billed as a "sublime response to a world that has begun to lose its sense of romance." Becoming one with the 13-foot fiberglass poles upon which they are perched, members of the interna- tionally-renowned performing arts troupe rhythmically sway and bend at seemingly impossible angles, swimming through the air above an encircled audience below. The troupe's movements are inspired by the image of a field of wheat sway- ing in the breeze. More than feats of daring and balance,thegrouppresents aunique fusion of theatre. dance and circus. telling stories of love, conflict, birth and death in eye-catching colorful costumes. Every performance is dialogue-free, allowing the dance and universal themes to speak for themselves. The dynamic group will perform their hypnotic act at the festival this weekend. Music, theatre, dance and film appreciators in Ann Arbor will defi- nitely be able to find something that will entertain them this week at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. There could really be no better way to spend a summer night.