News From The Queens Tourism Council
French wine mixes with Frogtown this week, and orchids mix with a meditation extravaganza. The Manhattan Transfer comes to town, and a series on contemporary European films kicks off. All this and the opening of baseball season: Let’s Go Mets!
Here’s the rundown.
– Tonight (Thursday), Apr. 3, Merengue, 7 p.m. An hour lesson with the Farrington Ballroom Dance School followed by an hour of open dance. $10. Skip the class and join open dance at 8 p.m for $5. Queens Theatre, 14 United Nations Ave. S., Flushing Meadows Corona Park, www.queenstheatre.org.
– Friday, Apr. 4, Unit 7, 7 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image (MMI) presents Panorama Europe, a series of 17 contemporary films and a program of shorts. The first movie, Unit 7, presented by the Consulate General of Spain, is about a narcotics squad on the mean streets of late- 1980s Seville. Engrossing character development takes place as the fourman squad succumbs to corruption. $12. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Friday, Apr. 4 Queens Artists Slam, 7 p.m. Young, emerging artists across a range of disciplines come together to share new work and works-in-progress. These multidisciplinary performance artists explore the boundaries of poetry, comedy, sculpture, video art and music. $5. Queens Council on the Arts, 37-11 35th Ave., Astoria, www.queenscouncilarts.org.
– Saturday, Apr. 5, Taiwan: A World of Orchids, 9 a.m to 3 p.m. Sponsored by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, this exhibit celebrates the botanical accomplishments of the world’s largest exporter of orchids. Children’s crafts 10 a.m to 5 p.m, garden tour at 1 p.m, musical performance and tea ceremony at 1:45 p.m. Free with admission. Queens Botanical Garden, 43-50 Main St., Flushing, www.queensbotanical.org.
– Saturday, Apr. 5, One Night in Frogtown, 2:15 p.m. A multimedia musical based on Emmy-winning author/composer Philip Pelletier’s musical storybook. The story comes alive through projected animations, live reading and live music. Pelletier is available to sign books after the show. $12 adults/$8 children. Buy two family shows and the third is free. Attend and enter to win four tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s Amaluna at Citi Field. Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd., www.flushingtownhall.org.
– Saturday, Apr. 5, Wine Tasting, 5 p.m. Wines from France, light refreshments and a souvenir wine glass. $40 (must be 21 or older). Vander-Ende Onderdonk House, 1820 Flushing Ave., Ridgewood, www.onderdonkhouse.org.
– Saturday, Apr. 5, Domestic Life, 2 p.m.; Balancing Act, 4:30 p.m.; Paradise: Love, 7 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image presents Panorama Europe, a series of contemporary films and shorts. Domestic Life is a satire about women leading lives of quiet desperation in the Parisian suburbs. Balancing Act is about an Italian husband whose wife kicks him out after she discovers an affair. Paradise: Love depicts a middleaged Austrian divorcée who holidays in Kenya, where sex with buff African beach boys is plentiful-and ultimately ruinous. $12. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Saturday, Apr. 5, Wake Up For Spring, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. This daylong retreat includes instruction in meditation, stretching and yoga, walking meditation and silent practice. $45, to register, email mindfulastoria@gmail.com. The Presbyterian Church of Astoria, 23- 35 Broadway, Suite 3, LIC.
– Sunday, Apr. 6, The Manhattan Transfer. 3 p.m. These platinum selling, world-wide chart toppers made music history in 1981 by becoming the first group to win Grammys simultaneously in the jazz and pop categories. $40. Queensborough Performing Arts Center, 222-05 56th Ave., Bayside, www.visitqpac.org.
– Sunday, Apr. 6, Dream Team 1935, noon; Rosie, 2:30 p.m.; Life Feels Good, 5 p.m.; Seduce Me, 7:30 p.m. The Museum of the Moving Image presents Panorama Europe, a series of contemporary features and shorts. Presented by the Consulate of Latvia in New York, Dream Team 1935 is based on the true story of the scrappy Latvian basketball team. Presented by the Consulate General of Switzerland, Rosie is about a sadsack, 40-something gay novelist who moves back to his rural Swiss hometown to care for his ailing, alcoholic mother. Presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York, Life Feels Good chronicles Mateusz who was born with cerebral palsy and diagnosed at a young age as lacking the ability to communicate. Presented by the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian Film Centre, Seduce Me is about Luka, 19, who prepares to leave his group home for the first time, starting with a visit to his father’s grave. $12. MMI, 36-01 35th Ave., Astoria, www.movingimage.us.
– Monday, Apr. 7, Lecture and Exhibit: The 1964-65 World’s Fair, 7 p.m. Rosalie Kenny discusses the fair, which is best remembered as a showcase of mid-20th-century American culture and technology, including the launch of the Ford Mustang. Event also kicks off exhibit of at least 30 rare photographs from 1939 and 1964 fairs which runs through June 30. Suggested donation: $5. Greater Astoria Historical Society, Quinn Building, 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor, LIC, www.astorialic.org.
– Wednesday, Apr. 9. Forested, 8 p.m. (nightly through Saturday, Apr. 12). Dancer Amanda Loulaki flirts with fragmented time, imagery, empty space, non-linear narrative and the extremities of a movement’s physicality. The work contains a series of vignettes incorporating autobiographical elements while presenting the body as a container of history, and the space as a container of the body. $15. The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Ave., LIC, www.chocolatefactorytheater.org.
“It’s In Queens” column is produced by the Queens Tourism Council with the hope that readers will enjoy the borough’s attractions.
