DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709040218

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: CRAIG SHAPIRO

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

ARTS CALENDAR YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE 1997-1998 SEASON

AMONG LINGUISTS, cliches are a bone of contention.

You've got the stuffed shirts who dismiss them as hackneyed. Lowbrow, they sniff. Avoid them like the plague, they say.

Get off your high horse, though, and cliches aren't bad at all. Warm and fuzzy, they're practically a shared language. And while some are as old as the hills, they ring true in 1997.

We know because we thumbed through ``Cliches,'' a hefty collection compiled by Betty Kirkpatrick, and applied them to our annual Arts Calendar, the liveliest, most comprehensive, up-to-date package you'll find about what's in store the coming season. Consider:

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It's been a long, hot, lonely summer, when the art scene is quietest. The calendar will whet appetites.

The best things in life are free. Plenty of the events listed are offered gratis. (The wide range of prices for the others makes everything affordable.)

Everything you always wanted to know about (fill in) but were afraid to ask. Music? Theater? The visual arts? They're all here, with lectures and workshops to demystify them.

If you've got it, flaunt it. When we put out the call for season schedules, more than 200 groups responded. That's flaunting, baby.

Put one's best foot forward. Check out those schedules. Each and every one. We double-dog dare you to find a dud among the bunch.

Practice makes perfect. The Virginia Symphony is more than 70 years old. The Feldman Chamber Music Society was formed in 1948. Virginia Opera starts season No. 23. Virginia Stage Company turns 19.

The more the merrier. See following example.

Variety is the spice of life. See previous example.

But for all the examples Kirkpatrick collected, and ``Cliches'' includes more than 1,500, there are two glaring omissions, especially in regards to the Arts Calendar:

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. See Ting-Li Wang's photos on the calendar cover? The arts picture in Hampton Roads would be incomplete if even one was missing. All together, the body lives.

There's no time like the present. Proceed to Page E3 and start planning your season now. ILLUSTRATION: TING-LI WANG COLOR PHOTOS/The Virginian-Pilot

MUSIC, VISUAL ARTS AND THEATER PHOTOS SHOT AT THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF

ART. DANCE PHOTO SHOT AT THE VIRGINIA BALLET THEATER. LECTURE PHOTO

OF CHRYSLER MUSEUM VISITOR LOUIS VON STEIDL.

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