ROA, exceptional talent, to be featured in MOCA’s “Art in the Streets” 1
Mar
30
2011
The precocious and prolific Belgian artist, ROA, is among the selected fifty to be featured in Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum exhibition dedicated to graffiti and street art, opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art on April 17. We first encountered ROA’s critters, and their innards, painted on cardboard, brick, and ...
Boulez’s masterful “sur Incises” at Disney Hall 2
It was a privilege, last night, to watch Pierre Boulez conduct his own work from the late 1990s, “sur Incises,” written for a triplet of threesomes: three harps, three pianos, and three percussion clusters (xylophone, marimba, bells, tympani). A guided journey through a landscape of crystalline sound, the work clung miraculously to the air of ...
Get stoned … go higher! See David Dorfman’s “Prophets of Funk”
Dance maker David Dorfman throws down the gauntlet. And the gauntlet is this: Can he out-do, in his choreographed tribute to Sly & the Family Stone, what the great sixties interracial funk band achieves in a cold television studio? Check out this video: I wouldn’t miss it — if only because the cast includes Kyle ...
L.A. dance patron honored by NYC’s Joyce Theater Foundation
We’re very proud of Liz Hirsch, the longtime supporter of dance in Los Angeles, who is being honored along with her mother, Mimi Levitt, by the Joyce Theater Foundation on April 11. Liz, a classy gadabout, always superbly dressed and full of fire, was a key supporter of the Joffrey Ballet when it was resident ...
TCM to broadcast “Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Film” & “Unseen Cinema” 1
arts·meme friend Jeff Masino alerts us that next Sunday evening, April 3, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), cable’s outstanding classic film channel has an unusually interesting broadcast line-up. It’s a long evening starting at 5 pm LA time, 8 pm in NYC, so stock up on wine and cheese. Two “clips” programs of rarely seen early ...
Electric blue for Aszure Barton
Barton stretched her torso, and stretched the lycra, too, of designer Fritz Masten’s smart electric-blue pantsuit. Named for the color, the choreographer admitted in a private conversation that blue’s her favorite. (more…) I enjoyed the Irvine Barclay Theater performances of this 35-year-old Canadian-born choreographer who has as a key patron Mikhail Baryshnikov. Read my Aszure ...
Gene Kelly’s television broadcasts @ Hammer Museum 1
I’m looking forward to attending UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Gene Kelly event which comprises part of their film preservation festival . Event is called,“Gene Kelly On Television.” OMNIBUS: ‘Dancing: A Man’s Game NBC, 12/21/1958 (1958) Directed by Gene Kelly and William A. Graham In writing, choreographing and directing this program for the prestigious Omnibus ...
The second time ’round, Liz and Dick kept it simple
Mar
24
2011
I’m starting late, but undaunted, I still aspire to catch up with Elizabeth Taylor in the marriage department (sans Fortensky). Here’s Liz’s list: • Nicky Hilton (1950-51) • Michael Wilding (1952-57) • Michael Todd (1957-58) • Eddie Fisher (1959-64) • Richard Burton (1964-74) • Richard Burton (1975-76) • John Warner (1976-82) • Larry Fortensky (1991-96) ...
Shades of blackness … in full blasts of great dancing
A good kind of blackness ruled two dance concerts that demonstrated the huge range of vernacular dance arising from the African diaspora. Both were spiritual, moving, infectiously joyful, connective, and concerned with communicating with the audience — everything wonderful that dance can be. First came the Brazilians, the Balé Folclório de Bahia, the national folkloric ...
Happy 100th birthday, Tennessee Williams 1
Mar
22
2011
Two terrific Tennessee Williams shows are on right now, and what a lovely way to gain exposure to our great southern playwright, born March 26, 1911, who would turn one hundred years old this Saturday had he not choked on the cap of his eyedrop squeezer in 1981. But that’s a story for another time. ...