Lost Martha Graham solo finds contemporary context in world premiere @ The Soraya
Martha Graham, ‘Immediate Tragedy’ 1937. Photo by Robert Fraser. Courtesy Martha Graham Resources, a division of the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance, Inc A scholar’s cache of rediscovered materials—remnants of a 1937 Martha Graham solo fashioned in response to the Spanish Civil War—has spawned a digital collaboration between Martha Graham Dance Company and the ...
John Garfield, glimpsed twice by his daughter’s oil paints
Jun
8
2020
The Postman Always Rings Twice: Portrait of John Garfield (2020)artist: Julie Garfield Haunted by the father she lost at a young age (he died at 39 in 1952 when she was just six) artist Julie Garfield paints her way to the essence of a great American actor via frozen cinematic moments from two of his ...
In Shanghai, where dancers breathe their own carbon dioxide
Jun
4
2020
Carbon dioxide is a natural by-product of the body’s respiration process, something we breathe in and out every day. Dancers obviously need more oxygen when their hearts are operating at elevated levels. And yet, here is the Shanghai Ballet taking class in face masks. How good, or harmful, can that be? According to Health, a ...
Meanwhile in China: a balancing act
Jun
1
2020
On Chinese television competition show, “Dian Feng Zhi Lu,” an unnamed husband and wife (unnamed to us, named to them and everyone they know) astound with their balancing ability. The Chinese have readily adopted a hybrid form of acrobatics and classical ballet that finds great popular reception across the universe.
Memorial Day 2020: Los Angeles theaters we miss 1
coveted during covid quarantine – the egyptian theatrethis spectacular photo of the egyptian’s balcony by morgan glier for the ucla daily bruin It all feels surreal — but my essential problem during the theater shutdown of the Covid-19 pandemic is that for me, art happens at night. Rarely during the day, sometimes at matinees, and ...
arts·meme reveals all at age twelve
At twelve, she’s a little lady. A proper one. But sometimes she lets it all hang out — just like Tamara Toumanova in this photo with bad boy Danny Kaye. arts·meme is getting up there in the pre-teen category. Twelve years old today ~ May 24, 2020! Please have fun with our annual birthday posts. ...
On Misty Copeland, gold is the new pink 1
May
13
2020
What ‘ballet pink’ has been for more than a century has gone redefined. It is high time. Enough of that insipid shade. Enter a new theme, dusky gold, the color magnificently worn in these photos by the glorious, triumphant ballerina and principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland. Seen sculpting space in the skyscraper ...
Martha Graham, Rita Hayworth share bill in 1923 2
Astonishing discovery by artsmeme‘s Hollywood dance detective … [More Hollywood dance detective stories here!] Every student of dance history knows that Martha Graham danced in the Greenwich Village Follies of 1923, produced by John Murray Anderson, first in Sheridan Square in the Village and then on Broadway. Correct? Yes, correct. Graham, above, appeared in the ...
‘Content’ is such an ugly word for the arts 11
Everyone is doing the best they can in a pandemic. But will the rush to provide online content serve dance well over time? Pictured: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in ‘Revelations’ photo credit Paul Kolnik In olden days, two months ago, we attended live performances — dance, theater, and music. Along with movie screenings, that ...
Marvelous new ‘Folies Bergere’ poster punctuates Dave Gould dance number
To commemorate the first-ever Oscar for Dance Direction, awarded to Dave Gould at the Eighth Academy Awards for his spectacular “Straw Hat” number from FOLIES BERGERE (1935), dance-movie-poster maven Mike Kaplan in tandem with the National Museum of Dance has introduced a new poster. The poster, created by a young artist, was part of the ...