http://www.firstnightaustin.org/ Event: December 31, 2005

From the reviewers and staff of Foodquest, we wish you all the best in the coming year.  For the first time, Austin has hosted an arts festival on New Year's Eve to celebrate the diversity and creativity of Austinites and to spread the word about the amazing work being done everyday in our fair city.  First Night Austin, as the event is called, brings together dancers, musicians and artists together to welcome in the new year.  While various downtown restaurants and vendors provide concessions for the event, the focus tonight is on the artistic performances. 

The Grand Procession at First Night Austin kicks off the festivities for the evening.  Featuring performers and representing various countries like Cuba, India, China and Scotland, the procession travels down Congress and culminates at City Hall. 

New work by Jose Luis Bustamante of Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks is featured as one of the first events immediately following the Grand Procession.  Rather than being performed in a theatre, the work is performed in the lobby of the new Frost Bank building.  The audience looks in from the outside entranced as the dancers with mesmerizing Jane Jetson-like costumes engage one another in a performance that is as funny as it is spellbinding.

The dancers of Sharir+Bustamante Danceworks perform in puppet-like poses interact both with each other and the audience.  The performance is brilliantly executed with the lobby of the Frost Bank building being utilized to its fullest.  Indeed, nothing is missing from the dance's placement in a bank building rather than in a theatre.  Kudos to the dancers for a job very well done. 

A uniquely Austin performance would be Ballet dancers on Segways.  The aptly named Segway Ballet does just that.  Turns and Pirouettes are executed fluidly on Segways with seemingly little effort.  The Segways seem to anticipate the whims of its rider and partner beautifully with the dancers.  The effect is like that of fluid roller skating.  Performed at the newly constructed Austin City Hall, the exhibition area perfectly exhibits the movements of the dancers. 

A final treat before the clock strikes midnight.  Elsewhere Dance Theatre presents a performance at the Wells Fargo Bank building.  Using the escalators in the building in a piece entitled "For Office Use Only", the dancers performing while ascending or decending on escalators while interacting with one another along with props.  Featuring a hilarious take at the everyday events that take place in the office, the high energy performance provides an excellent culmination to the performative events for the evening. 

First Night Austin brings to Austin a unique and definitely excellent event to send off the year and bring in the New Year.  This inaugural year provides only a hint of the possibilities of the years to come.  Let us hope that this becomes an annual tradition in our fair city and one that is awaited with eager anticipation.

 Happy New Year Austin!  This coming year will bring many exciting new additions to the Foodquest as we delve even more into the exciting world of food around us.  Thank you for your support.  It is you, the reader, that makes this site what it is.   

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