Shake it! Bump it! Wiggle that Thing in the privacy of your living room — with Toni Basil
COVID classes for the non-contagious contingent The last time we checked out Toni Basil, it was, ahem, a different world. Seated at her dining room table, I interviewed the high-energy, hugely eccentric dancer/choreographer about her amazing contribution to the look, feel, sound and spirit of Quentin Tarantino’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019). My ...
Social distancing — from John Wayne
When film historian Scott Eyman published his comprehensive biography, John Wayne: The Life & Legend, in 2014, John Wayne, who died in 1979, was long since a controversial figure — and a polarizing one. But surely never in Eyman’s imagination could he predict that six years hence, the Democratic Party of Orange County, California, would ...
In defense of John Wayne … a statement from his son
ed note: Among the many jolting erasures of our time, a call has arisen to revert John Wayne Airport, named in 1979 in honor of the movie star, to its original name Orange County Airport. We are pleased to publish these words written by Wayne’s son Ethan. John Wayne was not a racist. That term ...
Best COVID-19 short video: Mark Morris Dance Group’s ‘Lonely Tango’
It’s unclear whether Morris and his gang (MMDG) assembled this Ode to Isolation prior to the pandemic or thereafter. I *think* I see a face mask in the grocery-shopping sequence. But it’s not that important: The dead-and-deader spirit suits the moment well. This is a COVID-era-disseminated short video — utterly witty in its minimalist approach ...
Don’t just sit there … jive with your hands!
Ed. note: We’re pleased to feature a fun item contributed by an expert in American popular dance, Julie Malnig. Take it away, Julie! The Hand Jive was one of the most popular rock and roll group dances of the late 1950s and became a hit on televised teen dance programs of the era such as ...
Through the eyes of Milton Glaser 2
If you lived in America in the last half of the 20th Century, you saw the country, in part, through the eyes of illustrator and graphic designer Milton Glaser (1929-2020). So prolific and widespread was his visual sense that, for a while, almost all good design looked like his. He co-founded Push Pin Studios, the ...
Show some respect! for Martha Graham … and Jack Cole 5
Jun
27
2020
I was intrigued to learn, while doing research, that Jack Cole, a great dance pedagogue, instructed his pupils as follows: “Jack asked us to stand when he entered the dance studio, like Martha Graham‘s students,” one of Cole’s late-life students at UCLA told me in an interview. Cole was long an admirer of Graham with ...
Ready, set … go back to the movies!
They could open, but they didn’t open, last Friday. Confusion reigns in the largest cinema market in the country, Los Angeles, which also happens to be a hotspot of COVID-19 infection. The MPAA website mentions nary a word about movie theater re-openings. Here are the California Department of Public Health guidelines: Limit attendees in the ...
Saturday afternoon with the in-crowd — and Ramsey Lewis
Jun
15
2020
How much more of an in-crowd guy can you be? The cool cat seated in front of the yellow backdrop is the GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist Ramsey Lewis. Lewis, an NEA Jazz Master who is still rocking it at 85, has a nice invitation to get onto your Saturday schedule — it’s a way to check ...
‘Instead of dance, it’s choreography,’ gripes choreographer Robert Alton 1
danny kaye, ‘choreography’ number from white christmas (1954) Danny Kaye, in the screenshot above, performs a send-up of Jack Cole‘s Hindu-Jazz in Robert Alton‘s “Choreography” number in WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954). The number is primarily a spoof on Martha Graham, and I imagine Kaye inserting this little fillip just for fun. Kaye worked extensively with Jack ...