arts•meme arts•meme
29 July 2011

Not a Jet, but still the swingingest thing: West Side Story’s George Chakiris

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Thrilled to be photo’ed with former Shark, George Chakiris, were Renae Williams Niles, the Music Center’s head of programming, and Jane Jalenko, President of Center Dance Arts and a big West Side Story fan. A dance critic was also hanging around. [...]

18 July 2011

Carmageddon cannot crush communist caper-ballet

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Despite best efforts, California authorities (the people who brought you Ronald “Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev!” Reagan) could not put the kibosh on American Ballet Theatre’s “The Bright Stream,” choreographed by their new in-house guy, Alexei Ratmansky. Clearly controlled by Soviet agents, ABT foisted a clever piece of communist propaganda on our sunny [...]

28 June 2011

George Chakiris remembers West Side Story in advance of 50th anniversary screening @ Hollywood Bowl

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Prior to next week’s “West Side Story” night at the Hollywood Bowl — a screening of the ten-Oscar-winning, Bernstein-Robbins-Sondheim-Laurent film celebrating its 50th year anniversary — it’s a great pleasure to post L.A. renaissance guy Tom Gregory’s lovely interview with Bernardo, er… the wonderful George Chakiris. [...]

3 May 2011

Movie musical talk with George Chakiris

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A few leftover quotes from my L.A. Times interview with actor/dancer George Chakiris. The conversation took place on April 30, 2011. [...]

30 April 2011

Chatting with Chakiris today …

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I’m interviewing Academy Award winning actor/dancer George Chakiris, famous for West Side Story and so much more. [...]

13 February 2009

Jerome Robbins in your living room

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Celebrating the choreography of Jerome Robbins and ballet dancers Violette Verdy and Edward Villella. [...]