Chita Rivera tells it like it is prior to her PBS “Great Performances”
A very fun exercise on Thursday’s Facebook had Chita Rivera — Broadway doyenne, empress and icon, a queen of the art of song-and-dance — chattering on line in a PBS-hosted forum with (among others) Grover Dale of Answers4Dancers with whom she performed in the original production of West Side Story. Chita’s words strike me as ...
On Veteran’s Day, Hollywood legend Norman Lloyd to introduce “The Great Dictator” 1
Nov
5
2015
photo credit: Valerie Macon/Getty Images For November’s edition of “Evening @ the Barn,” the fun monthly presentation series of Hollywood Heritage, a fitting event will truly let freedom ring, American-style. Charles Chaplin‘s political satire, “The Great Dictator” (1940, starring Chaplin, Jack Oakie, Billy Gilbert and Paulette Goddard) will have a special Veteran’s Day screening at the ...
Happy 100th, Frank! Love, The Wallis
For many he remains forever young, but the truth is Frank Sinatra would turn 100 on Dec. 12, 2015. Honing in on just one aspect of his performance career — his movie-making — The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is rolling out a screening event of three of Sinatra’s best known films. From ...
De Keersmaeker soon revealed in CAP UCLA retrospective
New York Times dance critic Anna Kisselgoff once described Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker as “a cross between Lucinda Childs and Pina Bausch … a choreographer who makes you think and feel at the same time.” That was in 1986, the year that “Rosas danst Rosas” caused a sensation at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next ...
Danny! Mr. Ezralow to receive Lifetime Achievement Award 4
Nov
1
2015
He merits a citation from the United Nations. With his prolific dance internationalism—choreographing dance concerts, operas, film, television, rock shows, spectacles, musicals, happenings and events in China, Russia, Japan, Italy and New York—that would make perfect sense. Instead, Daniel Ezralow’s considerable portfolio, cutting across borders and dance genres, is garnering for the 58-year-old dance maker ...
Proud tradition: Lifetime Achievement Awards at the McCallum
Nov
1
2015
Since 1998, a proud tradition in the desert: the McCallum Theatre’s annual Choreography Festiva honors a dance legend with a Lifetime Achievement Award. This year’s Award goes to Daniel Ezralow. 1998: Marc Breaux Award winning dancer, director and choreographer 1999: Grover Dale Tony Award winning director and founder of Answers4Dancers.com 2000: Lula Washington Choreographer and ...
Cinefamily in Chantal Akerman tribute
Oct
31
2015
The honoring of a highly respected filmmaker, Belgian-born Chantal Akerman (1950 – 2015), who died October 5 in Paris, apparently by her own hand at age 65 — a sad occurrence. The Cinefamily will screen Akerman’s chef d’ouevre, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce-1080 Bruxelles, which when premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975, ...
Chicago troupes bring “The Art of Falling” to Los Angeles
It’s not immediately obvious why Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and The Second City improv troupe collaborated on “The Art of Falling,” coming to the Ahmanson Theatre next weekend, except that both companies are based in Chicago. So I asked Michael Solomon, Associate Vice President of Programming at The Music Center, if he knew why. “Both ...
Jack Cole’s precious “Ain’t Misbehavin'” from GENTLEMEN MARRY BRUNETTES (1955)
In which Cole first slows the Fats Waller song to a snail’s pace for Alan Young to sing, then ramps it up, to a jungle beat, spewing forth his love of African dance.
William Forsythe in conversation @ The Getty Center
Looking forward to a session of “Getty Perspectives” in which Alva Noё, professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley, will discuss his new book “Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature” with choreographer William Forsythe. The duo will ponder, in public, their take on the many connections between choreography and philosophical practices. Alva Noe & William Forsythe ...