On Oct. 25, Bucknell Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance Jaruam Xavier will take theWeis Center stage for Ori: An Exploration of Brazilian Dance and Music. The performancebrings together parts of Xavier’s life in Brazil with the dance traditions, memories and questionsabout spirituality that have shaped his work over the years. We spoke with Xavier about how he first found dance as a child, where Ori began, why the workhas continued to change and what he hopes audiences discover through it. You started dancing when you were 10 years old. How did dance first become part of your life, and […]

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Ahead of his Oct. 15 performance at the Weis Center, Bucknell Professor of EconomicsShahram Azhar sat down with us to talk about his lifelong relationship with music and the ideasbehind From the Wound to the Dawn. The evening draws from North Indian and Pakistaniclassical music, Urdu and Punjabi poetry and Azhar’s own compositions. In this conversation, Azhar reflects on discovering music as a child in Pakistan, the unexpectedconnections between music and economics, the spirituality behind his work and the personalexperiences that shaped this performance. You started singing at a very young age. How did music first become part of your […]

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Watching Ephrat Asherie and her company at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts felt unexpectedly familiar. From the opening sequence, where the performers entered with loose confidence and settled into a shared groove, the stage carried an energy that felt both contemporary and nostalgic. The movement drew from breaking, hip hop and social dance traditions, but it never felt like a history lesson. It felt lived in. What stood out most was the precision within the looseness. The performers shifted in and out of formation with ease. At one point, the entire group moved in tight unison, their footwork […]

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Walking into the Weis Center for the Performing Arts to watch Drum Tao, I noticed the crowd before anything else. On a night when the cold felt especially unforgiving, when staying inside would have been easier, the hall was full. Families sat beside students. Faculty members greeted neighbors. Coats were folded over armrests. Programs were already open in people’s hands. Everyone had come ready to give the evening their attention. When the performance began, the sound moved through the room like a wave. It started at the stage and spread outward, passing through the seats, the floor and the walls […]

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At Bucknell University, some weekends are spent studying, some are spent celebrating, but this one is about storytelling. On October 24, the campus will once again transform into a living film set as the Bucknell Film Club launches its 48-Hour Film Challenge, with this year marking an exhilarating collaboration with the Weis Center for the Performing Arts that dares students to write, shoot, and edit an entire short film within just two days. The challenge begins with a mandatory prop reveal at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 24, at the Weis Center. The props are random, sometimes ridiculous, and always […]

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Some performances feel less like concerts and more like ceremonies, moments that blur the line between past and present, between what is sung and what is remembered. Kurbasy’s Songs of the Ukrainian Forest was one of those rare evenings. It didn’t simply perform; it reached, branching outward from deep cultural roots and carrying with it echoes of survival, sorrow, and hope. Before the first note was sung, the Weis Center was already steeped in reflection. The pre-talk, led by Heather Almer, Assistant Director of International Student & Scholar Services, set the tone for the evening with both warmth and understanding. […]

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Originially published in The Bucknellian. On Oct. 21, 2025, the Weis Center for the Performing Arts filled with the glow of lamps, music and movement. The night carried a special meaning. It was Diwali, the Festival of Lights, when Hindus around the world celebrate hope, goodness and renewal. That same spirit of light and devotion came alive on stage as Nrityagram, one of India’s most celebrated dance ensembles, performed “KHAṄKHAṆĀ: The Sound of Dancing Feet.” It was an evening that went beyond performance. It was worship, storytelling and art all woven together with grace and meaning. Even before the lights dimmed, […]

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The Weis Center Atrium had never felt so alive. Before the performance even began, the space pulsed with an energy that was warm and contagious. Conversations intertwined, laughter filled the air, and a gentle hum moved through the crowd like the sound of anticipation itself. It was not noise but life, a kind of harmony that emerges when people gather for something they love. Children weaved through clusters of adults, friends called out to one another across the room, and strangers exchanged smiles that needed no introduction. Under that roof, the evening became a celebration of togetherness and of the […]

Continue reading Performance Review: Sprout of Movement: The Living Language of Ailey II »

This year, the Samek Art Museum and the Weis Center for the Performing Arts have cometogether under one unifying theme: trees. It is more than coincidence, more than a sharedimage. It is a collaboration that asks us to think about growth, process, and connection acrossart forms, and to experience how these lessons move between the museum and the stage. At the Samek, Gina Siepel’s exhibition To Understand a Tree anchors the season. The project,created over six years in communion with a single tree, blends ecology, queer experience, andenvironmental philosophy into a living portrait of interconnection. But the exhibition does notstand […]

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It is not every day that Bucknell becomes a portal to the rainforest. On the evening of September 30, the Weis Center for the Performing Arts transformed. What began as a crisp fall night soon unfolded into an immersive journey through one of the world’s most vital and endangered ecosystems. The performance, an extraordinary multimedia presentation by National Geographic explorer and ecologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, pulled back the canopy’s veil and invited us not just to see the rainforest but to feel it. Even before the lights dimmed, the Atrium pulsed with life. The Environmental Expo turned the space into […]

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