A NOTABLE DEBUT: On Friday, TITAS brings Stephen Petronio Dance to Dallas for the first time. Founded in 1984, the company is known for its boundary-pushing shows that blur the lines between visual art, performance art and dance. “Working with interesting music, costumes and visual design I think helps bring different kinds of people to performances,” Petronio tells theaterjones.com. “Some people come for the music, some for the fashion and some for the visual art and if they don’t know dance maybe they will get interested in dance. I think that’s possibly part of the appeal.” Want more? Petronio also spoke with dallasnews.com about Friday’s show.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS: A number of Texans, including Dallas’ Ben Fountain, were up for National Book Awards, which were handed out Wednesday night. And unfortunately, they’ll have to hope for better luck next time. Louise Erdrich won the award for fiction for The Round House, while Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity earned the nonfiction award for Katherine Boo. The rest of the winners are on the National Book Foundation website.

NY SUCCESS (VIA DALLAS): “Soulographie: Our Genocides” is a series of 17 plays by Erik Ehn running at the famed off-off-off Broadway spot La MaMa. And one of those 17 – the race-riot drama, Diamond Dick – has strong Dallas ties as it had its premiere at Project X under the direction of Raphael Parry. Project X has since raised the money to bring the show to New York, and it sounds as if it was worth the investment. “On the first night of the cycle Diamond Dick, the story of the 1921 race riots in Tulsa, Okla., was the standout,” Anita Gates writes in her nytimes.com review.

A MEADOWS ANNOUNCEMENT: Congratulations to Nicole Atzbach, who has been promoted to Curator of the Meadows Museum at SMU. Atzbach has been an assistant curator at the museum since 2010, following a stop at the Kimbell.