REVIEW: ‘Rise’: dance film earnestly misses its pointe

Dance · Film · Reviews
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The French film En Corps, curiously translated as Rise and presented by Blue Fox Entertainment, is a well-made, earnest, and thoroughly innocuous movie. It will interest anyone who watched Natalie Portman in Black Swan and railed to the heavens, “Why didn’t they cast a real dancer in the role!?” This new film will more than ...

Dance film ‘RISE’ at American French Film Festival

Dance · Film
Film director Cédric Klapisch, seen above in action mode directing Paris Opera Ballet premiere danseuse Marion Barbeau and contemporary choreographer Hofesh Shechter, continues his balletmania in rendering his latest dance film, RISE. The movie, augured to include marvelous footage of life behind the curtain at the Palais Garnier, is slated for its West Coast premiere ...

Thank you, New York!

Dance · Film · Theater
A big bravo to Manhattan, Mecca of the Arts, where I have been in residence since September — aka The Season! I joined the furious tour of the performing arts, hitting the ground running, while on a Fellowship from The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU. Forays to Lincoln Center, the Joyce Theater, Brooklyn ...

Shechter, Cherkaoui @ Sadler’s Wells

Dance · Reviews
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The big kahuna of London dance, the temple, is Islington’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre. A place of entertainment for 300 years, dance became Sadler’s priority in 1928 when Old Vic manager Lilian Bayliss convinced Ninette de Valois to present the performances of what would eventually become the Royal Ballet (the English National and Birmingham Ballets started ...

Yes, concentration camp. Yes, Abu Ghraib. Yes, disturbing. Choreography by Hofesh Shechter.

Dance
The most interesting guy out there, an Israeli-born dance maker who came out of Ohad Naharin’s shop at Batsheva Dance Company. His “Violet Kid” took Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet to another level. Read my review in the Los Angeles Times.

Get ready for Hofesh Shechter’s “Violet Kid” @ UCLA Live

Dance
I’m a movement junkie. I like to watch the body in motion and I respond well to a lot of form and structure. I also like work that goes to the dark side. That’s why I’m so attracted to the choreography of the Israeli-born London-based Hofesh Shechter. His “Violet Kid” will be danced by Cedar ...

Young lions of modern dance – Hofesh Shechter, Kyle Abraham – set to roar 2

Dance
A very rich week in dance is upon us. Two strong young choreographic voices are contending across town, both are must viewing, indeed game changers, for the art form. Wednesday and Thursday nights, the Israeli-born, London-based, pants-on-fire Hofesh Shechter brings “Political Mother” to Royce Hall (huge thumbs up on that title, Hofesh). And the equally ...

Hofesh Shechter talks … 1

Dance
Lyndsey Winship interviews Israeli born, London-based choreographer Hofesh Shechter, an ex-rocker, in Time Out London published today: Shechter has difficulty acknowledging his own success. ‘I’m experiencing failure daily,’ he says. ‘It’s difficult for me to connect to the idea that I’m successful. I can see it in the fact that my work tours all around ...

L.A. dance programmers add to U.S. trade deficit with tempting imports 1

Dance
We’ve always imported major dance companies in Los Angeles. In the old days, that meant New York City Ballet romping at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. But now we go global. And this is worsening the nation’s nettlesome trade deficit. We buy more of their stuff and they don’t buy enough of ours. Our ...

Anna Halprin, Bill T. Jones, Hofesh Shechter

Dance · Reviews
The big event of a busy fall season has been the historic reconstruction of Anna Halprin‘s “Parades & Changes,” an influential landmark of postmodern dance dating from 1965-67 featuring a soundscore by electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick. The piece builds on improvisation on a set of movement  “scores” — a Halprin key word that she ...