A b*stard by any other name: Robert Cenedella
The painter of the work above, Robert Cenedella, is the subject of a new documentary, ART BASTARD, soon to open in Los Angeles. Film is touted as the tale of a rebel at odds with today’s art world. Directed by Victor Kanefsky, “Bastard” is a portrait of New York artist, a contemporary of Andy Warhol who ...
You’re under arrest … for good dancing
Jun
12
2016
Dancing cops … seems unusual. But according to dance historian Jennifer Homans in her seminal book from 2010, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, classical ballet had its origins not with white-tutu’ed swans on pointe, but with drilling military men, much like the dancing Columbian cops seen in the video above. Writes Homans: Dance was ...
It’s in the details: California photographer Brett Weston @ PMCA 1
You’re forgiven if the mention of an exhibition of historic photographs by an artist named Weston suggests Edward Weston (1886-1958). The pioneering photographer gave a modernist profile to Southern California with his soft-focus studies of light and texture and their attendant implied narratives. The Pasadena Museum of California Art currently hosts a potent show of ...
Death of a dancer: Muhammad Ali
Jun
7
2016
When he floated like a butterfly, he was a dapper dancer. Like this? Read more: Death of a dancer: Albert Evans Farewell Violette Death of a great one, June 25, 2009
To higher musical spaces and places, with Jacaranda
Jun
6
2016
Chamber music, a relatively portable art form (relative to, say, a symphony orchestra), in May climbed our city’s peaks in celebration of The Big Vista, the annual summer party of our top-favorite contemporary-classical music series, Jacaranda. Bundling repertoire culled from the edgy, the new, and the yet-to-be-imagined into stimulating, curated concerts for receptive audiences in ...
Ana Laguna brings wisdom, depth to ‘Juliet & Romeo’ @ Segerstrom 1
Relatively unknown in the U.S., Ana Laguna is a legend in Europe — as a dancer, choreographer, and muse of pioneering choreographer Mats Ek, also her husband. At age 61, she’ll dance the role of the Nurse in the Royal Swedish Ballet’s “Juliet and Romeo” on Friday, June 10 and Saturday, June 11 at Segerstrom ...
Hip-hop hors d’ouevres, courtesy of Dance Camera West festival 1
We’re just about two weeks to blast-off for one of our favorite events of the annual calendar, the popular, fun and stimulating Dance Camera West film festival, an event that touches many in the dance community. The festival this year celebrates a biggie, its 15th anniversary, and a new association with the Center for the ...
Charles Lummis, Los Angeles city founder, sprung to life in dance & documentary
Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre will bring its site-specific brand of immersive performance, this weekend, to the historic Southwest Museum building. The performance, “143 Days,” is part of a commission by the Autry Museum of the American West and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Dance company will present a modern retelling of the pioneering American ...
‘Tooner’ trio tipped to tell ’bout time at Hanna-Barbera
A trio of ‘tooners’: Tony Benedict, Willie Ito and Jerry Eisenberg, talented, original animators from the Hanna-Barbera Studio in the sixties, will share memories of working at the legendary animation house — the home of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, and the Flintstones. The ‘kid fun for grown-ups’ program will address how Bill Hanna and ...
Ford Amphitheatre’s new summer season, a cause to rejoice
May
31
2016
Only in Los Angeles, on the grapevine of the Hollywood Freeway as it cuts a swathe from city to Valley, would a “summer season” extend through October 15. It happens, outdoors, at L.A.’s annual multicultural arts festival — the beloved and historic John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, now on the cusp of reopening after a two-year ...