Ballet magic. Misty Copeland, Roberto Bolle open for La Scala @ Segerstrom
Jul
28
2017
Our friends at Segerstrom Center for the Arts have a rare selling-out situation in their beautiful Costa Mesa arts campus this weekend. Tonight, and continuing through the weekend, the La Scala Ballet opens a weekend run of “Giselle.” Dancing the leading roles of Giselle and Albrecht are the hot hot hot pairing of Misty Copeland ...
Time has finally come today. The Chambers Bros at Levitt Pavilion
Jul
26
2017
The Chambers Brothers are an American soul band, best known for its eleven minute long 1968 hit “Time Has Come Today”. The group was part of the wave of new music that integrated American blues and gospel traditions with modern psychedelic and rock elements. Like their West Coast contemporaries Sly and the Family Stone, the ...
Get to know European dance, courtesy of the EU Delegation to the U.S.
A fascinating trio of works of avant-garde German choreography and performance is being presented around town, soon, sponsored by the Getting To Know Europe program, awarded by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and hosted by the Goethe Institut of Los Angeles, and its savvy director Fareed Majari. This virtual mini festival ...
Tough guys have centenaries. Robert Mitchum feted on his 100th
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series, curated and hosted by film critic Stephen Farber, celebrate the centennial of Hollywood icon Robert Mitchum (b. August 6, 1917) with two of his best roles. Out of the Past (1947, 70th anniversary) and Cape Fear (1962, 55th anniversary). The double bill is playing at Laemmle Theatres in ...
Norman Bel Geddes interior-design sketch for Palais Royal
Norman Bel Geddes (American, 1893-1958) Geddes’s design of a dancing couple for the Palais Royal Cabaret Theatre Ca. 1922 Watercolor on paper Courtesy Norman Bel Geddes online database, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin Jack Cole danced at the Palais Royal in December 1933. It was Cole’s first nightclub gig. The building, which ...
REVIEW: Savion Glover sizzling at the Ford 2
It is a Dance Criticism 401 assignment describing Savion Glover in performance — savagely fit, in top form, at his most forthcoming. Words fall short. Yet that is what we had at Saturday’s festive season-opener of the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The refurbished Ford’s long commitment to dance, season after season presenting local and visiting ...
Gwen calls out Bob’s choreography in Gap commercial 4
Jul
16
2017
In a 1999 interview, Gwen Verdon (1925 – 2000) expressed mild exasperation at the use of choreography by Bob Fosse (1927 – 1987) in a commercial by The Gap. “It’s very interesting that right now there is “Go Go Khaki,” a commercial for The Gap. They are doing the Frug. It’s amazing. They are not ...
Savion Glover vs. Ford Amphitheatre soundwall
Jul
13
2017
A sound-worthy evening awaits us Saturday as the beloved John Anson Ford Amphitheatre is poised and ready for its festive inaugural season-opening night, a re-opening after a major retrofit. A noisy tumult normally accompanies an event at the Ford, which is set in a natural hollow of the Cahuenga Pass, but faces off with a ...
Photographer Carinthia West rolls with the Stones in Malibu 1
Jul
13
2017
Carinthia West’s intimate photographs of Mick Jagger, Helen Mirren, Anjelica Huston, David Bowie and Ron Wood among others languished for years in boxes in an attic and she never dreamed of exhibiting these personal memories. Many of these photographs taken between 1975 and 1985, center around Malibu, where an eclectic group of friends would gather ...
It’s Savion time … at the spanking new Ford Amphitheatre
Jul
10
2017
Saturday night there’s only one place to be. That’s at the much loved, super historic John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, fully renovated after its multi-phase expansion. We’ve been clued in that the Ford’s $75 million re-do is nothing less than “gorgeous.” A real stunning gift to our little hamlet of Los Angeles. Breaking in the stage ...