Pierre Étaix’s “Heureux Anniversaire” (1962) screened @ the Academy 1

Film
An exquisite evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences on Wednesday night, when two beautifully refurbished films by the comic French filmmaker, Pierre Étaix, 82, got rare American screenings. Étaix, who started as young man in circus and remained faithful to clowns, casting them in cameo roles in his films, was present ...

Michael Jackson visited Martha Graham studio 2

Dance · Music
“And then he’d have to go back to whatever he’d go back to. And it just went wrong. Who knows what happened?” Michael Jackson lived the life he lived. He navigated a tangle of destiny and choice, as do we all. Jackson was born into a certain family, a certain fate, and he was a ...

“LA Rebellion” filmmakers featured at UCLA Film & Television Archive series

Film
They came from Watts. They came from New York City. They came from throughout America or crossed an ocean from Africa. At a unique time and place in American history, a critical mass of filmmakers of African descent came to the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television to make movies and produced a rich, ...

Chakiris, Tamblyn, Moreno cement their memories @ Grauman’s 1

Dance · Film · Theater
A touching trio of memories left behind at Grauman’s Chinese Theater on November 15, 2011, as three “West Side Story”‘ stars join the Hollywood ritual and deposit paws and hooves in cement. Long live the dancers! Like this? Read more: Enjoy arts·meme‘s “West Side Story” thread

Saul Bass lives

Film · Visual arts
The Title Design of Saul Bass from Ian Albinson.

Joseph Horowitz’s spoken-word exploration of Mahler marriage to precede Pacific Symphony’s Mahler Ninth symphony

Music · Theater
Our trek southward along the mighty 405 freeway this Thursday evening will be a journey in search of musical profundity. And like a good DVD, it comes with bonus material. We’re attending the Pacific Symphony performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, considered one of his greatest works, a sweeping musical exposition of the composer’s innermost ...

The Little Prince

Fashion · Music
    Like this? Read more: A dancer’s shoes Michael Jackson’s gold trousers MJ dances

Something’s coming … tonight at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, “West Side Story” 50th birthday party

Dance · Film
1961 marquee In a great American pas de deux, George Chakiris partners Rita Moreno in “Dance at the Gym.” Co-choreographer Peter Gennero added sizzle to Robbins’s choreography in this number, so says dance-in-film historian Larry Billman. Jerome Robbins smiles.  Thank you Lynn Becker and Doc Macro for the WSS images.

David Hallberg, Moscow movie star

Dance · Film
When we last saw David Hallberg—the first American to join the prestigious ranks of  Bolshoi Ballet principal dancers—he was clamoring through modern works by Nacho Duato and Mauro Bigonzetti as a guest artist in “Kings of the Dance” at Segerstrom Hall in Orange County. That was just a few weeks ago. This Sunday November 20, ...

Villella violated

Dance
Since writing in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago about local hero (he got Disney Hall built) Nicholas Goldsborough’s appointment at Miami City Ballet in an executive function, we’ve been hearing screams through the grapevine that things are in a mess in Miami. A story in the NYT clarifies  — while setting the ...