South Los Angeles dance warriors visit Shaolin Temple monks
Jun
4
2011
A tribe of urban warriors — skipping, leaping, jumping and hip-hopping their way across Henan Province — scaled the hills of Shaolin to visit the local Buddhist monastery.
Cultures collide, collaborate, in Xucheng, P.R.C.
Jun
2
2011
Lula Washington & Chinese colleagues and hosts In the arts funding world, they call it “cultural exchange.” In the real world, we call it the love and mutual respect that flows between artists. Here, where the bare foot meets the marley floor, artists mash up and collaborate. Two Chinese choreographers, Ma Bin from Hainan Island ...
Lula Washington Dance Theatre superb in Zhengzhou 6
There was no better place to be on earth — not New York, not Paris, not London, nor Beijing. All of the action tonight was at a Roman-style outdoor amphitheater one hour outside Zhengzhou, PRC. That’s the capitol city of Henan Province (pop: 94 million). There, at SIAS University, the 13 dancers of Lula Washington ...
Train to Zhengzhou for Lula Washington Dance Theatre 1
May
26
2011
The only booties that were not shaking after Lula Washington Dance Theatre’s visit to Xian (she-yan) were those of the 3,000-year-old terracotta warriors. The lively, Los Angeles-based, African-American dance troupe performed in Xi’an twice, both times to about 1,000 people. Everybody got all shook up. But the stony warriors proved impervious to modern dance. Here ...
Lula Washington Dance Theatre rocks Xi’an
May
24
2011
[slideshow id=17 w=500] Lula Washington with her indefatigable stage manager Terri James. Lula with Erwin Washington, husband/business manager Dancers Dwayne Brown, Micah Moch, Ramon Thielen stretch. Four-piece jazz combo accompanying the tour, plus a fifth wheel. Band tunes up on local instruments. Audience includes a brigade of security guys. Young dance fans peek thru a ...
In China, with Lula 1
May
23
2011
At right, the irrepressible dancers of Lula Washington Dance Theatre, who open a 25-day tour of China, noodle around the Air China terminal at Beijing Airport prior to flying to Xi’an, the capital city of Sha’anxi province. The tour’s sponsors include the U.S. Department of State and SAIS University of Henan Province. The troupe and ...
arts•meme to China 4
May
16
2011
Soon to board a slow boat to China — modern version, a big silver bird at LAX, Friday morning. Destination: first Beijing, and then to Xi’an, Zhengzhou, Hangzhou, Kaifeng, Ningpo, Shanghai among other cities. A month long tour accompanying Lula Washington Dance Theatre — a tremendous honor and opportunity. Our delegation of 25 will be ...
If it’s August, it’s NYCB Nutcracker time in Los Angeles 2
May
14
2011
This fascinating poster — click on it for detail — dating near to 1954 when Balanchine first staged the Nutcracker [Maria Tallchief as Sugar Plum Fairy, Tanaquil LeClercq as Dewdrop] — comes from the collection of Edith Brozak McMann, a former New York City Ballet dancer. It may interest Los Angeles dance fans of a ...
L.A. dance programmers add to U.S. trade deficit with tempting imports 1
May
13
2011
We’ve always imported major dance companies in Los Angeles. In the old days, that meant New York City Ballet romping at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. But now we go global. And this is worsening the nation’s nettlesome trade deficit. We buy more of their stuff and they don’t buy enough of ours. Our ...
‘Footwork’ explodes out of Chicago — on the radio
Hey Wills Glasspiegel of National Public Radio, thank you for hipping us to Chicago ‘footwork’ on the airwaves, All Things Considered, today. Great story: Listen here. Read it here. The best dancing is in the last four minutes of the video. Thank you Luke Hartley for your very kool foto.