Madam Mayor, aka Heidi Duckler, occupies City Hall 1

Architecture & Design · Dance

I’m looking forward to seeing Heidi Duckler | Collage Dance Theatre‘s “Governing Bodies,” a wild event in which the choreographer takes over Sergeant Joe Friday’s favorite digs: Los Angeles City Hall.

Joe’s proud LAPD badge (number 714) bore the emblem of City Hall, once L.A.’s proudest architectural beacon —  it’s certainly still iconic — and for years the city’s tallest structure.

In the local dance community there is only one Heidi. Celebrating 25 years as a Los Angeles dance maker, the choreographer/urban enthusiast has long staked her claim on site-specific happenings.

Rambunctiously introducing her audience to L.A.’s most interesting nooks and crannies, she’s staged works in the Ambassador Hotel (during its pitiful last days), in the dry crevice known as the Los Angeles River bed, and in the Lincoln Heights Jail, among other hoary locales.

A wonderful, colorful tour of Collage Dance Theatre’s repertory is here.

This weekend’s work takes place in City Hall’s beautiful domed rotunda, explores its limestone corridors, and frolics in the Council Chambers Room where august legislators feign control over our sprawling village of 11 million.

In the George Reeves television series “Superman,” (episodes 27-104 ), this noble edifice served as the visual exterior for the Daily Planet newspaper offices, snubbing the L.A. Times building right across the street.

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One comment on “Madam Mayor, aka Heidi Duckler, occupies City Hall

  1. Keith Nov 12,2010 11:06 pm

    Love the vintage TV clips!

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