RiverCenter presents the children’s musical Giraffes Can’t Dance Tuesday, February 13 at 9:30 and 11:30 AM

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All the animals in the jungle know their own special dance, but Gerald the Giraffe can't seem to move without a clumsy step. But with the help of a wise cricket, he finds his own song, and dances to the beat of his own drum! In this stage adaptation of the beloved children's book, with puppets, African rhythm, and lots of dancing, Gerald learns that his differences are what make him special.

ELTON BRADMAN (Composer) Elton's quest for fulfillment through sound, words, and spirituality has taken him all over the world, from a commune in Tennessee and a boarding school near the Taj Mahal to the New York offices of Rolling Stone. He has been a roadie for swordsmen from the Burmese border, a cook for a Miami Beach ashram, a booker at a tiny music venue, an intern at a drum & bass label, a kirtan bassist in South Africa and Australia, a producer of folk-music sessions in China, a drummer for a Polish Hare Krishna reggae band, a studio musician on albums of Sanskrit chants, and a chronicler of bass-guitar stores in Japan.  His resumé as a composer, sound designer, music director, musician, and performance coach includes ACT, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, the Geffen Playhouse, Bay Area Children's Theater, African American Shakespeare Company, Studio Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Cal Shakes, Lorraine Hansberry, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the New Pickle Circus.

GLORIA BOND CLUNIE was recently honored with a 2011 Medallion Award from the Children's Theatre Foundation of America. She is a member of the Playwriting Ensemble at the Regional Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theater, where her plays North Star, Living Green and Shoes premiered. Other works include Drip; Secrets; the musical Sing, Malindy, Sing!; Merry Kwanzaa; Dreams; Smoke; Quark (a STAGE finalist); and an adaptation of Patricia McKissack's Mirandy and Brother Wind. This drama specialist and founding artistic director of Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre in Evanston, Ill., has been given the Evanston Mayor's Award for the Arts. Clunie has been recognized for her work in the arts and education by the NAACP, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta sororities and the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. Other recognitions include a Chicago Jeff Award, a Scott McPherson, Theodore Ward Prize for African American Playwrights, New York's New Professional Theatre Award, the Black Theatre Alliance Award in Chicago, and Illinois Arts Council grants. In April 2011, Sweet Water Taste was featured in the Harriett Lake Festival of New Plays at Orlando Shakespeare Theater. In May 2011, Buck Naked won the Heartland Theatre Company's New Play Festival. In the summer of 2011, her new play Mercy Rising appeared in Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre's Summer Dramatic Reading Series and at Penobscot Theatre's Northern Writes Festival.