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Culture Dallas lays claim to the biggest urban Arts District (tel: (214) 953 1977; website: www.dallasartsdistrict.org) in the USA, founded in 1983 and located on the north side of the town. It includes the Dallas Museum of Art (see the Key Attractions section); the major performing arts venue in Dallas, the Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center, at 2301 Flora Street (tel: (214) 670 3600); and the Arts District Theater (2401 Flora Street; tel: (214) 922 0427). Useful information points include the weekly Dallas Observer and a website (www.dallasculture.com). Music: The Dallas Opera (tel: (214) 443 1000; website: www.dallasopera.org) plays at the Fair Park Music Hall (tel: (214) 565 1116) all year. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (tel: (214) 692 0203; website: www.dallassymphony.com) is based at the Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center (see above), but also gives free performances at parks throughout the summer. Also based at the Morton H Meyerson Symphony Center is the Dallas Winds Symphony (tel: (214) 565 9463; website: www.dws.org) and the men's chorus, the Turtle Creek Chorale (tel: (214) 526 3214; website: www.turtlecreek.org). The range of classical music performances available is represented by the Dallas Bach Society, 2300 Auburn Avenue (tel: (214) 320 8700), the Dallas Chamber Orchestra (tel: (214) 321 1411) and the Dallas Classic Guitar Society (tel: (214) 528 3733). Theatre: The Dallas Theater Center (tel: (214) 526 8210; box office: (214) 526 8857 or 522 8499; website: www.dallastheatercenter.org) is based at the Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Boulevard, which is designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but also performs at the Arts District Theater (see above). Theater Three, 2800 Routh Street (tel: (214) 871 3300) and the Majestic Theater, 1925 Elm Street (tel: (214) 880 0137), a restored 1920s movie palace and vaudeville hall, are other options. Dance: The Fort Worth-Dallas Ballet (website: www.fwdballet.com) performs, along with the opera, at Fair Park Music Hall (see Music above) and the Majestic Theater (see Theatre above). The Dallas Black Dance Theatre, at 2627 Flora Street (tel: (214) 871 2376; website: www.dbdt.com) performs highly acclaimed modern dance. For a Hispanic flavour, there is the Anita N Martinez Ballet Folklorico, based at 4422 Live Oak Street (tel: (214) 828 0181) Film: Apart from the usual range of mainstream cinemas, there are also two specialist venues: The Granada Theater, 3524 Geenville Avenue (tel: (214) 823 9610), a 1940s 'movie theater' with a dinner menu and drinks, and the IMAX Theater, 11819 Webb Chapel Road (tel: (972) 888 2629). Films that have been shot in Dallas over the years include Bonnie and Clyde (1967), RoboCop (1987), JFK (1991), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), The Apostle (1997) and Batman and Robin (1997). Cultural events: Dallas has an extraordinary number of festivals and events throughout the year (see the Special Events section below for more details). There is a Special Events Hotline (tel: (214) 571 1301) to help. Starting in the film world, January brings the 14th Annual KidFilm Festival, with new and classic children's films from around the world, while the Annual Dallas Video Festival presents innovative work of video pioneers in March. April sees The Annual USA Film Festival AMC, bringing film enthusiasts and professional film-makers from around the world for screenings and discussions of the best new American films. May brings a wide variety, from the National Tap Dance Day Celebration to the African-American Festival Concert. The Shakespeare Festival of Dallas in June/July is highly regarded, while the season of Dallas Summer Musicals in June all come straight from Broadway. Dance comes to the fore in September with the annual Dallas Morning News Dance Festival. October sees the attention turn to music with the annual Dallas Jazz Festival and the North Texas Music Festival. In November, before the Christmas paraphernalia gets into full swing, there is the annual Deep Ellum Film Festival. Literary Notes It is not easy to find specific references to Dallas itself in literature. Most writers speak more generally of Texas. Amelia E Barr's Remember the Alamo (1888), in which a mixed Anglo-Mexican family in San Antonio overcomes its own cultural differences while tensions mount between revolutionary Texans and the Mexican government, is one early example. The short story 'Last of the Troubadours', by O Henry, first published in the July 1908 issue of Everybody's Magazine, deals with a strolling minstrel in turn-of-the-century South Texas and divides the world into three types of people, the barons, the troubadours and the workers. Neither of these accounts is easy to come by except in special library collections. Again taking the wider Texas theme but this time from a child's perspective is Janice Jordan Shefelman's A Paradise Called Texas (1983), about searching for a better life when Mina and her parents leave Germany in 1845 and sail to Texas. The story is based upon the author's own family history. Simone de Beauvoir travelled in Texas in 1947 and wrote her whole US diary as America Day by Day (1954), her route through the state taking her from San Antonio to Houston. She observed, 'Texans are proud to be Texans. They have the reputation of being the biggest braggarts in America, and they even brag about this. In their vast territory they've gathered all the world capitals: Paris, London, Madrid, Toledo, St Petersburg, Moscow ... and some can even be found more than once.' However, Dallas has been celebrated in song. The 1956 'Big D' by Frank Loesser (1910-1969), composer of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside', has this to say: You're from Big D My, oh yes, I mean Big D, little a, double l, a-s And that spells Dallas, my darlin', darlin' Dallas Don't it give you pleasure to confess That you're from Big D My, oh yes! |