Houston Arts Alliance Spotlight Stage

Performances add local spice to this weekend's Bayou City Art Festival

Bayou City Art Festival is more than a juried art wonderful.
The Houston Arts Alliance Spotlight Stage features Houston best and diversecultural music and dance groups.
Photo by Ed Schipul
Guests can hear, see and experience a wide range of cultural groups,exemplifying Houston's cultural and ethnic diversity.

The Bayou City Art Festival is more that just the commingling of more than 300 artists and artisans showcasing their best work to a strolling, curious crowd. With the help of the Houston Arts Alliance (HAA), an ambitious line-up of performing art groups will entertain festival goers Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m, with a new show every hour on the hour.

The Houston Arts Alliance Spotlight stage showcases the rich cultural diversity of groups throughout the area. Working mostly with performers the alliance has funded or will fund through one of its grants, festival goers can hear, see and experience anything from the finest-of-the-finest to the earthy and raucous, primarily in music and dance.

"We draw upon our partnerships with HAA grantee organizations and upcoming performers in the local community to highlight our stage," Jerome Vielman, HAA's program and services manager, explained.

Saturday performances

Opera Vista will kick-off the festivities Saturday at 11 a.m. This is not your granny opera — it has earned a reputation for presenting operatic works with sass and energy. Throw any misguided expectations you have about the genre, this is highbrow art du jour, relevant and fun.

The Houston Swing Dance Society brings its dazzling rhythmic quick grooves at noon. And if you are curious, the group also offers beginner classes.

Touring troupe CORE Performance Company has a reputation for impassioned dance. Its premier work, The Unstable Nature of Color, encourages dialogue with the audience using color as inspiration. CORE will appear at 1:45 p.m. on both days.

Exercise your jazz hands with the Houston Choral Showcase and sing along your favorite pop, jazz, swing and show tunes, at 2 p.m.

Exemplifying Houston's colorful side, Ambassadors International Ballet Folklorico at 3 p.m. and MECA Mariachi jam to traditional and modern Latin beats, 4 p.m.

Much like Houston, The Global Movement band is not confined to a single music genre. Comprised of four men, a guitar, a drum set and a cello, the energetic crew blends many styles, expanding geographical, racial and generational boundaries. The group will perform at 5 p.m.

Sunday performances

Sunday at 11 a.m., Brazilian Arts Foundation debuts its new larger music ensemble, Brazilian Nuts Band, and performs Capoeira. Half Afro-Brazilian dance, half martial arts, its playful practice is enhanced by improvisatory segments, coordinated agility and teamwork.

"We’re partnering with Dance Houston to present Global Moves and Dance Slam, showcasing over 80 dancers among multiple small dance companies," Jerome Vielman, HAA's program and services manager, said.

A dance advocacy organization, Dance Houston fosters collaboration between dance companies and presenting organizations making its involvement in BCAF organic. Global Moves is at 12 noon and Dance Slam is at 1 p.m.

Bella Donna Dance Company looks to the East for inspiration, its members flexing abdominal muscles while staying loyal to the Oriental style of belly dancing. Catch these sexy ladies at 2 p.m. on Sunday, followed by the urban vibes of Houston City Dance Studio at 3 p.m. Led by Sherese Campbell, City Dance's aesthetic juxtaposes global influences with hard core contemporary philosophies.

The Greater Houston All-Star Band, also a newcomer to BCAF, and The Conrad Johnson Music & Fine Arts Foundation bring the youthful energy of talented high school musicians to close the festival Sunday at 4 and 5 p.m. respectively.

"I’m really excited to see all the color, experiences and creative activity resonating from the HAA pavilion and throughout the entire festival," Vielman said.

For those wishing to get up close and personal, a demo booth will be set up near the stage, showcasing some of the visual artists funded through HAA's Individual Artist Grant program including Yu Ru Huang, Jorge Galvan and Robert Hodge.

Now, that's artsy.

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Movie Review

Shaun the Sheep welcomes spooky season with PG-scary new movie

Photo courtesy of Aardman / Sky UK LTD / StudioCanal 2026

Shaun the Sheep in Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.

Since his introduction over 30 years ago, the Aardman Animations character Shaun the Sheep has been almost as popular as the studio’s flagship characters, Wallace and Gromit. There is never a shortage of trouble Shaun can get into as he leads his flock and proves to be a thorn in the side of his farmer and Bitzer, the farmer’s loyal sheepdog.

His antics lead everyone down some slightly spooky roads in the new film, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. At first, things are only slightly awry as Shaun and the flock are growing a secret pumpkin patch to have their own jack-o-lanterns. But when the farmer accidentally destroys the pumpkin patch, Shaun tries to regrow it quickly with a Frankenstein-esque experiment.

However, disaster looms when Shaun uses an old bottle of Hair-Gro as the container for the serum he creates. Naturally, the balding farmer uses it on his head, and everyone soon discovers how truly successful it is, with pumpkins growing out of control and the farmer sprouting hair all over his body. Through a series of mishaps, the farmer becomes the titular beast, creating mayhem while Shaun and others try to stop him.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, and written by Mark Burton and Giles Pilbrow, the film goes down just as easy as every other Aardman project has. They get the Halloween vibes started from the opening credits, with things like the sheep doing the “Thriller” dance, and continue the fun throughout, referencing everything from Psycho to Friday the 13th in a nice, PG way.

With no script — every character is mute save for reaction noises — the movie relies on sight gags for its humor, and the Aardman team is endlessly inventive in that respect. Sometimes it’s small things like a sheep using toilet paper rolls as binoculars, and sometimes it’s something like forcing the Bigfoot-like farmer to be shaped into a rectangle as he escapes through a window. But there’s a never-ending stream of such moments, so even if one doesn’t tickle your funny bone, chances are the next one will.

The biggest benefit of the characters not talking is that there’s no need for deep character development. The filmmakers do a great job of giving the basic traits of each character, and then use those attributes to color everyone’s actions for the rest of the film. Shaun is the troublemaker, the farmer is a bumbling fool, Bitzer is preternaturally smart, and the town’s vet is empathetic, and the combination of those characters and others makes for a highly entertaining blend.

Like all Aardman creations, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is a fun lark that doesn’t make its audience think too hard. With just enough references to keep viewers engaged but not so many as to be overbearing, the film puts its well-worn characters to good use once again, delivering a Halloween season story that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

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Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is now playing in theaters.

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