NYC's Ballets With a Twist Presents COCKTAIL HOUR: THE SHOW, 6/23

New York City's Ballets with a Twist celebrates summer under the stars with a performance of Cocktail Hour: The Show at the Chautauqua Auditorium (900 Baseline Road) on Friday, June 23, at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 ($27 for Concert Members). To purchase, visit chautauqua.com or call 303-440-7666.

The Show
Created by artistic director and choreographer Marilyn Klaus, Cocktail Hour: The Show reinvents the glamour and excitement of classic entertainment with an original mix of charismatic choreography, intoxicating music and exquisite costume design. This pop-infused performing arts experience combines the magnetism of Hollywood's Golden Age with a sleek twenty-first-century sensibility, capturing the timeless American spirit in a series of witty, sparkling vignettes. It's high-style fun for all ages to enjoy.

Program highlights include
• "Champagne" - A glittering ballroom bubbles to life in this silver-screen dream.
• "Rum Runner" - A spicy night in Cuba, a promenade through Puerto Rico, a samba in Brazil... This lively Latin suite brings on the heat!
• "Singapore Sling" - Shimmering sirens glide through an exotic soundscape to paint this haunting fantasy.

The Company
Klaus, whose choreography has been seen internationally, formed Ballets with a Twist in association with Grammy-nominated composer Stephen Gaboury and costume designer Catherine Zehr. Her company - lauded by The Huffington Post for "blasting the boundaries between high art and entertainment" - has appeared in a wide range of venues, from Cleveland's PlayhouseSquare and New York City's Beacon Theatre to Lincoln Center and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Gaboury's compositions have been performed by celebrated musicians nationwide. He has collaborated and toured the world with pop/rock icon Cyndi Lauper for more than a decade, and has also shared the stage with legends such as Patti Labelle, Suzanne Vega and Ute Lemper. Gaboury's music has been heard in concert, on television and in films (including Boyhood and American Beauty).

Zehr is the artistic force behind the company's costume design. Her creations evoke the origins and essence of each dance with dazzling colors and ornamentation. Zehr honed her skills while working at major American fashion houses, then by designing and manufacturing attire for her own label. She studied art and design at Washington University and New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, where she and the company recently delivered the presentation "Designing Costumes for Ballets with a Twist" as part of The Museum at FIT's Fashion Culture series.

Craving more Twist culture? Visit balletswithatwist.com.

The Venue
For 120 years, the Chautauqua Auditorium (b. 1898) has held a special place in the hearts of artists, speakers, and guests, and has brought the latest in arts, culture and education to the Boulder and Colorado Front Range community.

Sometimes fondly referred to as "the barn," the Chautauqua Auditorium was erected in 45 days for $6,700, and opened on July 4, 1898, as the tabernacle for the new Colorado Chautauqua. The interior of the structure has witnessed only minimal modifications and remains lofty and open, with only unfinished timber supports interrupting the space and single piece beams of Oregon fir spanning the 80 feet expanse above. Heated and cooled by Mother Nature, the Chautauqua Auditorium is open annually from May through September, and is a preferred performance venue by artists because of its incredible acoustics and unique architecture. Distinguished speakers such as William Jennings Bryant, Al Gore, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and a diverse array of performers ranging from the Reverend Billy Sunday to music legends such as Wynton Marsalis, Lyle Lovett, Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter, BB King, Chris Isaak, The Indigo Girls, John Hiatt, Los Lobos, Ziggy Marley, and many more, have graced its stage over the last 118 years.

The Chautauqua Auditorium was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Colorado Chautauqua was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

For more information about the Colorado Chautauqua, visit chautauqua.com.

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