Let freedom ring, courtesy of United Ukrainian Ballet ‘Giselle’ at Segerstrom Center
Jul
2
2023
As evenings at the ballet go, it had a complex agenda. It was an event fueled by the philanthropic largesse of Orange County arts patron Elizabeth Segerstrom whose sensitive stroke was to give an American audience the opportunity to enter the July 4 weekend with concern for the freedom and independence of others. The performance ...
Two’fer at Edward Cella gallery speaks with prescience to today’s world
Jun
20
2023
ed. note: I was much smitten by a visit to gallerist Edward Cella’s paired exhibition for two fine artists, Chris Trueman, a longtime practitioner based in northern California, and Jennifer Bannert, a younger, Germany-based artist whom Cella had in residence at his bright new digs on La Brea Avenue along a commercial business section of ...
REVIEW: Private dancer gone public: TINA, the musical, at The Pantages 1
The audience at TINA – THE TINA TURNER MUSICAL was mostly baby boomer. Which was fine by us. Because the audience was rapt. You felt the admiration, the place was oozing with it. With r-e-s-p-e-c-t for a formidable woman of entertainment, a force to be reckoned with: the late, great Tina Turner (1939-2023). The national ...
Adieu to two valiant dancing women of Los Angeles arts: Deborah Lawlor & Flip Manne 2
Fountain Theatre co-founder Deborah Lawlor, who died May 2, 2023, began her career in the ’60s as a dancer, choreographer and actor in New York, where she was a member of the Judson Church/Caffe Cino scene in the Village. She moved to South India in 1968, there pioneering Auroville, a 12-square-mile utopian international community created ...
REVIEW: Under The Nicholas’s watchful eyes: Dance @ The Holden 1
Fayard & Harold Nicholas mural blesses Dance @The Holden The community feeling at the Nate Holden Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday night was so comfortable that at key moments, often in dead silence, an infant in the house gave salient dance shout-outs. It was the second evening of ‘Dance@The Holden,’ a mini-festival curated ...
Feel it. Set your body on ‘vibrate’ at ambient bass-guitar concert 1
May
23
2023
I’m up for a bath. Any kind of bath — I’m dirty!!! But an ‘ambient soundbath’ particularly rings my chime. That’s what’s on offer at bassist and electronic producer John von Seggern‘s immersive audiovisual experience, a concert held in a structure of fascination on Los Feliz Boulevard — the one that houses the Philosophical Research ...
REVIEW: ‘Rise’: dance film earnestly misses its pointe
The French film En Corps, curiously translated as Rise and presented by Blue Fox Entertainment, is a well-made, earnest, and thoroughly innocuous movie. It will interest anyone who watched Natalie Portman in Black Swan and railed to the heavens, “Why didn’t they cast a real dancer in the role!?” This new film will more than ...
Jerry Robbins to be remembered on ‘Meaningful Monday’ at cool shul
They call it the Actor’s Temple. They also call it the “cool shul.” Both names work for artsmeme! Douglas J. Cohen and Carol Ostrow present an special event celebrating the Broadway career of the Broadway director and choreographer Jerome Robbins; well as honoring Tony winner actor Jason Alexander on his Broadway debut as director of The Cottage. It happens as part ...
For the kid in you! Saturdays with Max Fleischer cartoons at The Panorama
May
19
2023
The great Polish-American animator Max Fleischer (1883-1972) and his production studios created iconic animations with characters like Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Felix the Cat, Popeye the Sailorman, Superman and more. In 1926, Fleischer released the first cartoon with synchronized sound, My Old Kentucky Home. His love of jazz led to cartoons (live action & ...
What is Alonzo King’s ‘Deep River’ ?
It’s a rare circumstance that we in Southern California have two viewing possibilities of an artistic-and-timely, multi-disciplinary work uniting a top-notch dance company with jazz artists, also of the highest caliber. Deep River by the San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet features a score by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran, and in ...