Live it at the Levitt! Boco do Rio @ MacArthur Park Saturday
Aug
5
2014
Okay, guys we’re in it, it’s official, it’s on. It’s August! Summer 2014 is a happening thing; you could call it a “fait accompli”! Or, of greater concern, soon to wane! So the time is right for the swinging samba rhythms that always sound good, but somehow better on a sultry summer evening. Which brings ...
Jack Cole’s “Hindu Swing” revisited by Namita Kapoor
Aug
5
2014
We have been delighted to be in touch with fellow Jack Cole fantatic Namita Kapoor, a talented American dancer/choreographer and graphic designer who has found cultural connection in an odd (but awesome) phenomenon of nightclub culture from the late 1930s – 1950s. That is, Jack Cole’s mash-up of classical Indian dance with American jazz rhythms. ...
Mozart @ 18 in Glyndbourne’s “La Finta”
Haven’t heard of La Finta? Not to worry, few people have. Written when the composer was but 18 years old and very (very) rarely performed, the anonymous text is primarily to blame: The Podesta (Mayor) is in love with his new gardener Sadrina, which is too bad for the servant Serpetta who more than fancies ...
Catch it! Dance-movie posters @ The Pillow
Jul
30
2014
We last saw arts·meme friend Mike Kaplan at the wonderful display of his vast collection of dance movie posters at the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Now Mike turns up in the company of lovely Marge Champion, the special honoree of his current poster show, GOTTA DANCE!, at ...
Boyhood revisited: in film, dance, and theater 1
Some contend that the final frontier is space. But in the creative world, that distinction has been relegated to childhood — an exploration lately undertaken by kids themselves. Many by now have seen Richard Linklater‘s astonishing and critically acclaimed film BOYHOOD. The movie tracks one young man’s bumpy coming of age, filmed in real time over ...
California women of dance recognized
It took a New Yorker, dance writer Wendy Perron, to draw attention to an interesting phenomenon … In her recently published essay, Wendy notes the surplus of women holding leadership roles in California dance across the board: management, production, presentation, talent representation, criticism and, indeed, as artists. Read Wendy’s blog item here. The story includes ...
Breaking news: Los Angeles, 1984
Jul
24
2014
It was thirty years ago today, not that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play, but that a bunch of untrained dancers in South Central Los Angeles, utterly unimpeded by lack of dance pedagogy, or even the need to stand on their feet, brought to the West Coast, break dancing. The enduring street dance was ...
Los Angeles (architecture) in the looking glass
Jul
21
2014
An interesting architecture talk on tap this week at LACMA concerns seventies-era reflecting glass architecture as it developed in Los Angeles, and then became a corporate vernacular through the 1980s. In the 1960s and ’70s, Los Angeles was home to an era of experimentation and new advances in art and technology. The Light and Space ...
Strong women of European dance at Biennale Festival
Jul
20
2014
Attending one week of the recently concluded Biennale Dance 2014 in Venice, I was struck and impressed by the strong roster of female dancers and choreographers on display. A critical round-up of the Festival just published on The Huffington Post.
‘Solo for Two’ in steady preparation at Segerstrom Center
Jul
17
2014
It’s a pretty big stage — that’s why we love watching the great ballet companies of the world bourée and jeté across it. So let’s see how two of our best, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, succeed in riveting our attention over their full-evening performance “Solo for Two.” The showcase by the diminutive Russian duo, ...