Title: New Years Dance
Location: Los Gigantes Church Plaza
Description: Welcome the New Year in musical style starting with Old Dogs, New Tricks at 9pm, followed by the orchestra Falo y Punto Tres, and the Arguayo Band. dancing will gon on well into the early hours.
Start Time: 21.00
Date: 2011-12-31

Title: Confraternizacion Capoeira
Location: Church Plaza, Los Cristianos
Description: You may have seen this lively Brazilian mix of dance and martial arts on Saturday afternoons in the church square. This is a big gathering and dance off and a great chance to enjoy the passion and spectacle-all free of course. Starts at 2pm.
Start Time: 14.00
Date: 2011-12-24

Title: Christmas Concert
Location: Plaza de España, Adeje
Description: What a magical setting, the plaza between the church and council building with the Barranco del Invierno behind. Local folklore music and costume, food and drink and dancing. Starts at 8pm.
Start Time: 20.00
Date: 2011-12-17

Title: Folklore Festival
Location: Adeje, Plaza de España
Description: The recently renovated Plaza de España is a magnificent setting in the heart of Adeje overlooking the Barranco del Invierno. Live music and dance, with the odd drink or two, into the early hours of the morning. Starts at 10 pm – ends when it ends.
Date: 2011-10-11

Title: Romeria
Location: Adeje, Calle del Cerco
Description: If you haven’t been to a romeria before try this one. Animals, produce, music, costume, and dance, a great way to get a glimpse of the old rural Canarian ways.Plenty of food and drink, by mid afternoon you will be up and dancing. Starts at 1pm.
Date: 2011-10-12

Title: Storm
Location: Auditorio Infanta Leonor, Los Cristianos
Link out: Click here
Description: Ahead of its Santa Cruz run there are two shows in the south unveiling this new spectacle which melds dance with the circus and amazing visual effects. The Cirque Imaginaire has a world wide reputation and the show is directed by Manchesters Tony Mercer who brought Swan Lake On Ice to Santa Cruz earlier this year so expect something special. Shows start at 8.30 pm on i & 2 October.
All tickets are 25 euros and can be bought from the Cultural Centre desk Mon, Wed, Fri from 5 to 8 pm, or from the Auditorium Cafe just outside from 8am to midnight any day.
Start Date: 2011-10-01
Start Time: 20.30
End Date: 2011-10-02

Title: Circo Storm
Location: Teatro Guimera, Santa Cruz
Description: Here’s a circus with a difference, music, magic, dance and comedy all mixed together by France’s Cirque Imaginaire for their new show called Storm. Teatro Guimera is a fine old historic theatre in the grand style with circles, stalls and balconies, and a short walk from the bus station or Plaza de España, or you can follow the tram line and look for the large sculpture of a theatrical mask outside.
Tickets range from 12 euros to 39 euros and the 19 shows include 3 a day at weekends. Book via www.generaltickets.com/cajacanarias or try the box office.
Start Date: 2011-10-06
End Date: 2011-10-16

You can’t suppress Tenerife’s love of dance music. Just when you thought the music scene had settled into a sedate round of middle of the road music it’s veered off into the fast lane with two, big outdoor concerts in one vibrant August week.

DJ Tiesto, praised as the world’s best, heads in from Holland on Saturday 6 August to light the fuse at Golf Costa Adeje with his Club Life experience. With the music memories still reverberating, it’s followed up on Friday 12 August with 13 hours of music at the Arona Summer Festival at the Las Americas football stadium (below). This one features French house music DJ David Guetta and a host of top acts from around Europe.

So let’s take a back stage pass and find out a little more about these big events.

As you probably guessed the Golf Costa Adeje concert is from the people that brought over Elton John, Rod Stewart, Simply Red and on 8th July this year, Michael Bolton. All great acts but not everyone’s cup of tea. DJ Tiesto is a different animal. Born in Breda as Tijs Verwest he has made an international name as a trance DJ and producer with mega shows at places like Ibiza, Amsterdam and the O2 Arena in London. He even performed at the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympics in Greece. This show starts at 8pm, ticket details have not been released yet but watch Tenerife Magazine for more news and booking details on the promoters website.

On to the Arona Summer Festival at the Antonio Dominguez Alfonso Olympic stadium, to give it its official name.

It’s early days for times and ticket prices but we have been promised 13 hours of music on a grand scale not seen since the Son Latinos beach concerts in Los Cristianos. DJ David Guetta is joined by Roger Sanchez, the New Yorker with the big following. Tenerife’s own Bikini Invaders add a local flavour; from France Rinoceroise could be a surprise packet and Madrid is sending The Zombie Kids.
It’s pretty impressive that Adeje and Arona are serving up such a mid summer treat and there are sure to be more additions to the musical menu for Tenerife.

Swans are majestic and serene on the surface but frantically paddling below the water, hardly the case with Tony Mercer, Artistic Director for Swan Lake On Ice. Just a few hours before the opening show in Santa Cruz he looked calm and relaxed as he drew on his cigar and blew smoke out to the Atlantic below the concourse of the Adan Martin Auditorium. As four of his cast emerged to grab some sunshine he pointed them out to me; “ah here come my children”.

The Imperial Ice Stars are like a big family, 25 world class skaters with a haul of 250 competition medals and a dedicated technical team of set builders, designers, and ice engineers. Tony hand picks new cast from his Moscow base “before we started this two year tour I looked at 50 possibles but only chose two to join us”.

Growing up in Salford, Manchester, Tony was already juggling his options “I loved sport and drama, I was playing football as a goalkeeper for Droylsdon in the Northern Premier League and one of my Manchester United heroes, Alex Stepney was my coach. My school drama teacher had encouraged me to move into the directing side and I was enjoying working on local productions but then I broke my leg at football.”

The 9 month recovery changed the course of Tony’s life.

“Football was finished for me and luckily I was offered a job with Playlight Lighting Company that was desk based at first. Those were great times working with musical heroes like The Three Degrees, Harold Melvin, The Supremes, Elkie Brooks, Jack Jones, I even got to do the lighting for the Popes visit to Heaton Park in Manchester“.

Teaming up with award winning Russian choreographer Tatiana Tarasova, Tony formed Wild Rose Ice Theatre and took Sleeping Beauty on the road with the aim of taking arena shows onto stage settings but it was difficult to hit the balance that would please fans from both sides of the artistic fence.

So Tony and James Cundall founded The Imperial Ice Stars with an initial four month run for Sleeping Beauty but calls from venues like the Lyric Theatre in Sydney stretched the run to 18 months, now the company tours for 40 weeks a year. It’s not always smooth running, last year’s volcanic ash cloud stranded Tony in Bulgaria: “The show was on in Montreal so I ended up overseeing the rehearsals on Skype”. The sheer logistics of the shows are staggering; the Tenerife show meant 140 hours laying the ice pad and another 30 to demolish it later.

Sounds like hard work. “Anyone who says it’s hard work hasn’t got the mentality we need for the performances. We all love what we do and get to tour to some tremendous places. I had only been to Tenerife before on holiday as a 17 year old and didn’t really think of it as a theatrical base. When the proposal to perform here came up I was flown out and was staggered by the quality of the Auditorium and the level of commitment to performance.”

The opening show lived up to all expectations, Tchaikovsky’s strident and emotional music couldn’t have found a better acoustic home, and the clever use of layered backdrops and lighting made each scene visually stunning. It was the vibrancy, skill and interpretation of the skating cast that captured the imagination. They were all outstanding but the main players relished every moment with towering performances. Andrei Penkine made hero Siegfried vulnerable but ultimately strong; Vadim Yarkov oozed evil as Count Rothbart; Olena Pyatash teased and tempted as the black swan, and Olga Sharutenko was the shining light as the white swan. The standing ovation was warm and prolonged. Let’s hope the next tour flies in to Tenerife.

FACT FILE

El Lago de Los Cisnes Sobre Hielo (Swan Lake On Ice)

Adan Martin Auditorium, Santa Cruz

Shows Thurs 26 May 8.30pm, Fri 27 May 6pm and 9.30pm, Sat 28 May 6pm and 9.30pm, Sun 29 May 6pm.

Tickets from 19 to 45 euros. Book in person at the Auditorium box office 10 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays, or phone 902317327 from 10 am to 7 pm Monday to Saturday or on line.

Title: Hofesh Shecter – Political Mother
Location: Adan Martin Auditorium, Santa Cruz
Link out: Click here
Description: Dance doesn’t get any more cutting edge than this. Hofesh Shechter was born in Israel but moved to the UK and has established his dance Brighton quickly earning a big reputation.
Political Mother is the company’s first full length work and involves 10 dancers, drummers and guitarists. The tour has earned rave reviews in Paris and Barcelona and will finish at the Sadlers Wells in London where ticket prices will dwarf the mere 20 euros across the board in Tenerife.Starts at 9 pm on both 17 and 18 May.
Book in person at the Auditorium box office 10 am to 3 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays, or phone 902317327 from 10 am to 7 pm Monday to Saturday or on line from www.generaltickets.com/cajacanarias

Start Date: 2011-05-17
Start Time: 21.00
End Date: 2011-05-18