Hoop troupe makes its rounds

If you’ve been to any rock festivals in the area, you have probably seen Infini-Tribe.

The hula hoop troupe – Youngstown’s only – will mark its third anniversary Saturday with a special event its calling A Night of Arts and Lights.

It starts at 8 p.m. at Krakatoa Tropical Food and Spirits, which is in the small plaza on South Avenue in Boardman that it shares with Vintage Estate.

At the show, the tribe of hoopers will put on some group routines, some using light-up hoops.

There also will be some other entertainers, including belly dancer Katie Cat, rain stick dancer Will the Rainman, and hula hoop performer Samantha Novak.

Kelsi Federspiel, who is one of the six-person Infini-Tribe, suggests guests get to Krakatoa early, because it gets crowded. They can get a good seat, have dinner and then enjoy the show. But even if you don’t get a good seat, there will be screens relaying the performances across the large room.

Admission is free, and all ages are welcome. The evening will include a raffle table and a hula hoop contest for audience members who want to shake their hips. After the show ends, a DJ will keep the party going.

Federspiel said Infini-Tribe practices on Sundays and has already committed to performing at a few events this summer around the Valley.

OPERA WESTERN RESERVE EXPANDS ITS SCHEDULE

Ever since it started, Opera Western Reserve has done just one show per year, in November. But beginning in spring of 2018, OWR will add a second – and smaller – production.

An operatic version of Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess” is first on the schedule. It will be presented as a staged concert with scenery, and not a full-blown opera, said Marisa Zamary, adminstrative assistant at OWR.

The OWR is looking to increase the number of performances it does each year, but the spring productions will be “more like a chamber concert” said Zamary.

Next up for OWR is an opera cabaret, May 19 at Stambaugh Auditorium’s ballroom. Tickets are $60 or $400 for a table of eight. Call 330-259-0555.

In November, it will stage “Lucia di Lammermoor.”

DAVE GROHL’S MOM WRITES BOOK ABOUT MOMS Of FAMOUS KIDS

Virginia Hanlon Grohl, mother of rock star Dave Grohl, has written a book titled “From Cradle to Stage,” in which she interviews the mothers of 18 famous musicians (like herself).

Hanlon Grohl has attended dozens of shows by her son’s band, Foo Fighters, over the years but rarely ran into other mothers on the road. She told Rolling Stone that, when she did, “they all said, ‘Oh, there’s nothing interesting about me except for my son or daughter.’ And then it turned out that wasn’t true at all.”

Included in the book is Miranda Lambert’s mom, Bev, who was a private eye, and Geddy Lee’s mom, Mary Weinrib, who is a Holocaust survivor.

Dave Grohl and his parents lived in the Warren area until they moved to suburban Washington, D.C., when Dave was 3.

GOOD WEEK FOR STYX FANS

Styx has been booked for a few months now to play Stambaugh Auditorium on May 11.

This week it was announced that Dennis DeYoung, co-founder of the band but no longer with it, will play Akron’s Goodyear Theater on May 5. He plays Styx songs in his shows.

COOLEST THING AT THE BUTLER

There are a lot of amazing and fun things at the Butler Institute of American Art, and one of my favorites has been the Rube Goldberg-type machine in the Beecher Center. But even better is the art work “Dimensional Homage to Van Gogh” by Patrick Hughes, which is at the rear of the main room, on the right. The way it tricks the eye, using an anamorphosis perspective technique, works every time. It’s better than a hologram, and that’s all I’m going to say.