Spend a sexy evening at an Eagle Rock motel …
Jan
12
2012
… if your idea of a sexy evening is hopping, like a cockroach, between motel rooms, while listening to cool experimental music. Sounds good to me. The Welcome Inn Time Machine — series of free micro concerts in motel rooms that explore the history of local experimental music is part of the Pacific Standard Time ...
Go postal: use choreographer commemorative stamps
Finally. A great reason to use snail mail. You can smack a beloved choreographer right onto the envelope. Jim McMullan, the well known poster designer for Lincoln Center, created the images following a first lot of choreographer stamps in 2004. That group featured mini portraits of dance giants: George Balanchine, Agnes de Mille, Martha Graham, ...
John Singer Sargent dresses Rita Hayworth for “Put the Blame on Mame” 2
“The designer Jean Louis, supposedly inspired by John Singer Sargent‘s famous portrait of the décolleté Madame X, created for Miss Hayworth a fetishistic black satin strapless gown, with elbow-length gloves, and the dance director Jack Cole devised the strip-tease routine in which she flung those gloves to her audience. The director, Vidor, expected the filming ...
Remembering last December’s TCM Cruise
Jan
11
2012
This story first appeared in The Huffington Post. When Turner Classic Movies announced its first-ever “classic film cruise,” which took place early last December to the joy of 1,800 participants, combining a full program of movie mania with the pleasures of cruising — fresh air, glistening ocean, tropical cocktails — Graham Phillips, and his wife ...
Between “Pina” and a hard place 4
Heavy-hitting filmmakers are turning their cameras on dance and it’s an honor. It’s also a puzzlement, to the dance world. It surprises us. We thought that the only folk attending dance performances were fellow dancers, parents, and dance critics. But clearly we were wrong. Other artists – filmmakers – love dance too. With “Pina,” German ...
In Hines vs Davis, Sammy wins by decision in first round 3
Jan
8
2012
The wonderful and charming Gregory Hines (1946-2003), try though he does in this touching dance-off, cannot out perform his idol, Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-1990). The event took place soon before Davis died. Davis’s feathery touch on the floor is a revelation. Watch Hines watch Davis, 1:48 to 2:04. Watch him try to get in. Pure ...
Preparing for “Pina”? Watch Sprockets.
German filmmaker Wim Wenders’s sumptuous new film about the choreographer, Pina Bausch, is a wonder for the eyes — tucked though they are behind thick 3-D glasses. The film, “Pina,” opening in L.A. on 13 October, is marketed as a documentary. But aren’t ya ‘spozed to learn stuff from a documentary? Part of the film’s ...
Distinguished dance professional, Jodee Nimerichter, named as director of American Dance Festival
Jan
5
2012
It wasn’t a surprising announcement but a pleasant piece of news nonetheless to learn of strong recognition for a well qualified woman of the arts today. Jodee Nimerichter, long associated with the historic and esteemed American Dance Festival (ADF), was named as director of the 79-year-running summer dance festival. Nimerichter will be the first woman ...
Robert Johnson writes on demise of Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Jan
4
2012
“If the demise of a national treasure like the Merce Cunningham Dance Company is not sufficient to convince us we must rescue the arts from the hands of capricious millionaires and from the boom-and-bust cycles of legislative appropriations, then our civilization is lost. It is past time to stop accepting their miserly handouts gratefully, and ...
Micah Moch: one of 25 talented young dancers to watch in 2012
Jan
3
2012
Touring with Lula Washington Dance Theatre in China late last spring, I couldn’t see straight for all the great dancers in that company. But my favorite — by a significant smidgen — was Micah Moch. Born at Hollywood’s Queen of Angels Hospital in 1987, Moch’s now 24. He explained his unusual name as follows: “Moch ...