Welcome to your weekend. Here's how to spend it.
Shaping Sound @ Chandler Center for the Arts As a young dancer Travis Wall dreamed of having a company of his own. Since those days, his work on So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars has rocketed him to the top of the dance world and finally he's been able to see his childhood dream come true.
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The newly formed contemporary dance company called Shaping Sound features some of the best-known names in dance and is coming to the Valley for a one-night-only gig. The show takes the audience into a high-energy world to tell the story of one woman's reoccurring reverie. It's a visually stunning showcase of the art of dance, featuring a range of music and dance styles.
Catch the show on Friday, June 7, at 8 p.m. at the Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 North Arizona Avenue. Tickets range from $39 to $89 per person. For more information call the venue's box office at 480-782-2680 or visit www.shapingsoundco.com. -- Lauren Saria
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson @ Phoenix Theatre If you could have dinner with anyone -- well, he's probably either dead or imaginary. (We get that. We dined with a real, live person yesterday.) Some of our most popular dead people are presidents, and not just folding green ones. Abraham Lincoln is timeless, and nobody can shut up about the Founding Fathers for five founding minutes.
Into this climate of Chief-hailing nostalgia comes Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a rock musical about the so-sexy seventh POTUS. A nightmare for anyone British or Native American, Jackson's the reason we have Florida and the Democratic Party. The tall, skinny ginger knew how to throw a real rager and had enough skeletons in his tiny 18th-century closets that nobody had to make up rumors.
The hotly anticipated BBAJ is directed by Ron May, who's made his bones inserting killer production numbers into plays that aren't even musicals. Feel the noise at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 7, at Phoenix Theatre, 100 East McDowell Road. Performances continue through Sunday, June 23. Tickets start at $25 at www.tickets.phoenixtheatre.com or 602-254-2151. -- Julie Peterson
Letterpress Swap Meet & Auction @ Radisson Phoenix Chandler Despite its Middle English definition as the time when printers eat a stubbly goose, a modern-day wayzgoose is more like a letterpress celebration. So all you Audubon aficionados getting amped for Phoenix Wayzgoose can go ahead and scratch it off your bird-brained to-do lists.
Chandler's Letterpress Central hosts the majority of the five-day convention, which includes speakers from across the country and workshops, too. Many of the gathering's events are designed to appeal to those who do letterpressing on the regular. But fans of the throwback artform will have a chance to get in on the inky fun during Saturday's Letterpress Swap Meet & Auction at Radisson Hotel Phoenix Chandler, 7475 West Chandler Boulevard. The event promises tables and tables of letterpress goodies for sale from 8 to 11 a.m., and an auction beginning at 1:30 p.m. Attendees can register to bid just prior to the auction.
The June 8 swap and auction are free to attend and open to the public. For the full event schedule, visit www.phoenixgoose.com. -- Becky Bartkowski
Khaled Hosseini @ Dobson High School Afghanistan is a touchy subject, but it's what Khaled Hosseini does and does well. The bestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns brings his newest work, And the Mountains Echoed, to the Valley this week for a book-signing and conversation about his oft-misunderstood home country.
His third novel spans not only the globe with its setting, but generations with its storytelling. Beginning with a folk tale and an act of sacrifice, the plot quickly morphs into a story within a story about love and family.
Though he calls it less "Afghan-centric" than his first two books, the novel is rooted in Hosseini's visits with Afghan refugees and their stories of devastation and survival.
Hosseini speaks at 1 p.m. Sunday, June 9, at Dobson High. Purchase of the book ($28.95) guarantees seats or designated standing room and a spot in line -- Janessa Hilliard
Tabatha Coffey @ Mesa Arts Center Maybe you look to former reality star Lauren Conrad's candy-sweet beauty blog, The Beauty Department, for help with your makeup and hair conundrums. But if we're talking best beauty advice, none compares to that of straight-talking Aussie Tabatha Coffey.
Coffey stars on Bravo's Tabatha Takes Over, a show that features her visiting salons (and this season, she's consulting almost any kind of business) and offering her expertise on how to better run them. It's kind of like Kitchen Nightmares, but usually involves way less disgusting stuff and unnecessary yelling. Plus most everybody has really good hair.
She'll offer her signature brand of tough love and business savvy when she stops to give a talk at Mesa Arts Center's Piper Repertory Theater, One East Main Street, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 9. General admission is $35, and VIP tickets are $100. Get yours via www.mesaartscenter.com or by calling 480-644-6500. --Becky Bartkowski