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Culture The rich cultural diversity of Denver’s population means that black, Hispanic and Native American cultures have a vibrant presence in Denver. Denver citizens are highly supportive of the arts, contributing more public funding to the arts per capita than any other US city. The Denver Performing Arts Complex (DPAC), 14th Street and Curtis Street (tel: (303) 893 4100; website: www.denvercenter.org), is the world’s largest performing arts centre under one roof. Nine separate venues include the Auditorium Theater and Buell Theater for large dance, drama and opera productions; the cabaret-style Garner Galleria Theater; small intimate theatre spaces in the Helen Bonfils Theatre Complex; and the Boettcher Concert Hall, a large in-the-round concert hall. As well as hosting all the major touring companies, DPAC is home to Denver’s most prestigious music, dance and theatre companies. Tickets for all theatre and concert venues are available from The TicketMan, 6800 North Broadway (tel: (303) 430 1111; website: www.ticketmanusa.com), and Ticketmaster (tel: (303) 830 8497; website: www.ticketmaster.com). The Friday editions of the Denver Post (website: www.denverpost.com) and Rocky Mountain News (website: www.rockymountainnews.com) contain entertainment pages. The free weekly tabloid Westword (website: www.westword.com) also has extensive listings. Music: The Colorado Symphony Orchestra’s (website: www.coloradosymphony.com) season lasts from September to May at The Denver Performing Arts Complex – DPAC (see above). The occasional Sunday afternoon ‘casual classics’ concerts are particularly good value. Opera Colorado (website: www.operacolorado.org), also at DPAC, is the only company in the USA producing grand opera in the round. English translations of the words projected above the stage, children’s opera workshops and a road show of summer concerts are all designed to make opera accessible to a wider audience. Theatre: Denver is a major international theatre player, presenting prestigious world premieres as well as sustaining a thriving local theatre scene. As well as The Denver Center Theatre Company, resident at The Denver Center for the Performing Arts complex, there are countless small theatre companies. The Germinal Stage Denver, 2450 West 44th Avenue (tel: (303) 455 7108), stages everything from experimental productions to classics. Light comedies and musicals run at Denver Victorian Playhouse, 4201 Hooker Street (tel: (303) 433 4343). The Rattlebrain Theatre Co, 1601 Arapahoe Street (tel: (720) 932 7384; website: www.rattlebraintheater.com) has made headlines with its hilarious comedy shows. Dance: Colorado Ballet (tel: (303) 837 8888; website: www.coloradoballet.org) presents full classical ballet and shorter pieces at The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts. Two major modern dance companies do original pieces in Denver and on nation-wide tours. Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, 119 Park Avenue West (tel: (303) 295 1759; website: www.cleoparkerdance.org), is a multicultural group that performs at the DPAC, while Kim Robards Dance, 821 Acoma Street (tel: (303) 825 4847), brings in international choreographers for performances at various venues. Both companies teach dance with classes for all levels from tiny tots to professional dancers. Film: Multiplex cinemas showing all the latest releases as well as some classics are located at Denver Pavilions, Downtown, at the 16th Street mall and throughout the metropolitan area. Independent films, arthouse, foreign-language features and popular crossover titles can be found at the Chez Artiste, 2800 South Colorado Boulevard, Amherst Avenue (tel: (303) 757 7161), the Esquire Theatre, 590 Downing Street (tel: (303) 733 5757), and Mayan Theater, 110 Broadway (tel: (303) 744 6796), a restored Art Deco Mayan revival-style theatre. All are run by Landmark Theatres (website: www.landmarktheatres.com). For documentary and larger-than-life nature and adventure films, the giant screen at the IMAX film theatre, at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature, 2001 Colorado Boulevard (tel: (303) 322 7009; fax: (800) 925 2250; website: www.dmns.org) is spectacular. Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise (1991) and Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade (1989) are just two of the movies filmed in Colorado. For fans of George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing Fighter is on long-term display at Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, 711 East Academy Boulevard (tel: (303) 360 5360). Cultural events: Denver’s rich cultural mix is exuberantly celebrated in ethnic festivals throughout the year. The annual March PowWow is one of the country’s largest celebrations of Native American culture, featuring music, dance and storytelling. There is a Colorado Scottish Festival in August, a German Oktoberfest in October and the city’s biggest parade for St Patrick’s Day Parade in March. Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May) is one of America’s largest celebrations of Latino culture, with food, music, dance and arts. The Cherry Creek Arts Festival, held over the long Fourth of July weekend, has the tree-lined avenues of Cherry Creek North jam-packed with street entertainers and gourmet food booths. Every item in the arts and crafts exhibition, from photography to sculpture and jewellery, is of the highest quality. At the International Buskerfest in June, jugglers, mime artists and comedians transform 16th Street Mall into a 1.6km-long (one mile) outdoor theatre, while in September/October, the Colorado Performing Arts Festival has music, dance and theatre spilling onto the streets from The Denver Centre for the Performing Arts. However, true to its Wild West origins, Denver’s largest festival is the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo, in January, attracting over 400,000 cowboys. This began in a tent, on the present day showgrounds, in 1906, and is now one of the largest rodeos and livestock shows in existence. Literary Notes Horace Greeley, founding editor of the New York Tribune, described Denver in the mid-19th century, as a ‘log city of 150 dwellings, not three fourths completed nor two thirds inhabited nor one third fit to be’. By 1917, local author, Dabney Otis Collins, could declare, ‘When I walk down a Denver street, I always feel as if I were listening to a brass band.’ A different image again is portrayed in Jack Kerouac’s classic novel, On the Road (1957), where the action takes place in the loose-living Mile High City of the 50s. Denver is home to Stephen White, the best selling author and creator of fictional psychologist Alan Gregory, who first appeared in Privileged Information (1991). Much of the action in Michael Connelly’s thriller, The Poet (1996), is also set in Denver. |
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