Robert Rauschenberg, dancer
Hazel Larsen Archer Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn and Robert Rauschenberg C. 1952. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/4 x 9 ¼ inches. Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center. Not just company ‘stage manager,’ longtime friend, and resident designer to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, but Robert Rauschenberg, the great abstract artist, ...
Merce at Black Mountain, revisited by L.A. Dance Project @ the Hammer
The Hammer Museum took on a Merce-ish mood, February 20, when L..A. Dance Project revitalized a classic Cunningham event to mark the opening of a new exhibition, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933 – 1957. [In the photos, “Project” dancers Anthony Bryant and Lilja Rúriksdóttir.] Cunningham, along with artistic collaborator and life partner ...
REVIEW: Garth Fagan Dance @ the Nate Holden
In the photos, captures from “So You See,” a stand-out work in the rich program presented by Garth Fagan Dance at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center last weekend. Choreographed in 2015 by longtime Fagan dancer Norwood Pennewell, to a jazz score by Marc Carey and Vijay Iyer, the work enjoyed two outstanding performances by ...
Denishawn could not hold her down, Louise Brooks
Actress/dancer/flapper-provocateuse Louise Brooks made her Denishawn company debut in 1922, when the company had already relocated from Los Angeles to New York. Brooks was shown the door by company matriarch Ruth St. Denis and after playing dozens of bit parts in Hollywood movies, hit it big as bad-woman “Lulu” in G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box in ...
March means chamber music
Feb
23
2016
Well, Jacaranda. The blossoming bushes that seduce with the color purple reinvented as a cutting-edge contemporary classical music presentation series. On monthly Saturday nights in Santa Monica, there convenes the cognoscenti, a considerable who-is-who of Los Angeles’s serious music universe. They meet, greet, and eat (cookies served during the break). The thirteen-season-running series, a labor ...
When Martin met Lewis
Feb
21
2016
… hair was king. The story of this wildly successful comedy pairing — their youthful energy reenforced by Brylcreem — will be told in film clips, home movies, and kinescopes in the opening program of MoMA’s upcoming Jerry Lewis retrospective. photo courtesy Bob Furmanek The Birth of Martin and Lewis | The Museum of Modern ...
Zsigmond’s “McCabe” cinematography revisited
Feb
19
2016
Pauline Kael memorably described Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller as “a beautiful pipe dream of a movie.” This poetic, revisionist Western is set in the Northwest at the turn of the 20th century and stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie (Oscar-nominated for her performance). The screening is presented as a tribute to Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond ...
Valentine to “All That Jack (Cole)”
A Valentine to all the super-talented folks who contributed, by way of interviews and film introductions, or just by being there, to renewed appreciation for a great American choreographer. Thanks, all, for participating in “All That Jack (Cole)” at The Museum of Modern Art, Jan 20 – Feb 4, 2016. Below: director/choreographer Rob Marshall introduces ...
MoMA plots Jerry Lewis movie-birthday-bash 1
Feb
7
2016
Jerry Lewis turns 90 on March 16, 2016. That provides Museum of Modern Art film curator Dave Kehr with a solid reason to honor this most American of cinema artists with a career retrospective. Lewis’s best movies, all presented in rare 35mm prints, will be amped by special features: outtakes, screen tests, home movies, and ...