Once In A Lifetime

It's going to be a circus around the Arts Center of the Ozarks on Feb. 19.

And that's not just a figure of speech.

For the second year, the ACO is bringing its annual "One Night Only" fundraiser home to downtown Springdale, putting every nook and cranny of the building to work to host every kind of art patrons can imagine. The theme for ONO is "Cirque Des Arts," says event chairwoman Ashley Cardiel, and she promises it won't be an overstatement.

At One Night Only, she says, patrons can be entertained by a "one of a kind experience" of arts in myriad mediums.

Orenda

Sahlah Tepes didn't dream about running away to join the circus.

A military brat, she dreamed about growing up to start one -- not a traditional circus with lions, tigers and bears, but a Cirque du Soleil style circus with acrobats, clowns, a unicyclist, belly dancers and "anything unusual." About a year ago, she did, calling it Orenda, defined by the Urban Dictionary as "a supernatural, divine force within every human being."

Right now, the troupe numbers about 30, but Tepes expects its size to double as she joins forces with a similar organization in Little Rock.

As artistic director, she says she'll choreograph what audiences will see at One Night Only, which will involve aliens, fairy wings and swords.

"My roots are in traditional Egyptian belly dance," Tepes says, "but when I saw Cirque du Soleil, I knew I had to be in that group or have one."

DJ Beat Bachs

Think of the patter of the old-school DJ in "Grease," and you know what Bo Counts sounds like on the phone. He talks fast, obviously thinks faster, but he does it with the outrageous charm you expect from a disc jockey.

"I am one of the most bizarre Renaissance men in Fayetteville," he starts out. "I run Art Amiss, repair and restore old vintage arcade and pinball machines [and I] DJ, do events, do a lot of film and production stuff, do audio for commercials at Walmart, radio -- I'm all over the place, doing tons and tons of silly stuff."

Counts says he became a DJ "a long time ago, back in the mid-2000s" and discovered he especially enjoyed the party planning aspect of the job.

"I grew up in a really musical household, where we listened to all kinds of music. I like people to listen to old stuff, new stuff, 10 years ago, 50 years ago -- I want to take them on a little trip and keep them on their toes. I get a lot of positive response."

But when he says DJ, Counts means in the new school format, mixing songs to create unique musical presentations. That's what he'll be doing at One Night Only, and DJ Beat Bachs promises listeners will hear new music, songs they've never heard before.

"You always have to stay fresh. There are gonna be classics that never die. But a set I played in 2009 is nothing like the one I played in 2013 or would play today. Music is always changing."

Matt Miller

Painters don't usually commit performance art.

Matt Miller does.

He says he's not revealing much of what he'll do at One Night Only, but it'll involve a large-scale painting, a live model, acrylics -- his preferred medium -- and perhaps some spray paint.

"I'm looking forward to it," the Fayetteville-based artist says. "I've always enjoyed painting live, especially if there's live music. You can't get the vibrations of live music from a radio."

Miller is perhaps best known to eventgoers for live painting at the Fayetteville Roots Festival for the past four or five years. He says even though he's accustomed to the solitude of his studio, "you just kind of create your own space within whatever is going on around you. It is abnormal, for sure! Breaking the silence definitely shifts the piece. But I've learned to adapt to that and just make it part of the flow. You just have to allow yourself to be malleable.

"Human interaction really inspires the art," he says. "Art is the window to the human conversation."

The event will also include food by Miles James of James at the Mill, a wine raffle and the annually anticipated silent auction.

NAN What's Up on 02/12/2016