Uneclipsed: George Balanchine’s ‘Serenade’ 1
Aug
21
2017
A celestial event today, a solar eclipse in which the moon passes between the sun and Earth and blocks all or part of the sun, mesmerizing the public for a good two to three hours. This cosmic happening spurred a memory by Gary Moore, a former dancer with the Harkness, San Francisco and Pennsylvania Ballets, ...
Miss Carmen regrets … 2
Aug
19
2017
“I am truly honored to receive the Kennedy Center Honors Award and look forward to attending the ceremony at the Kennedy Center. In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our existing leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, ...
Rauschenberg dance contributions recognized in live MoMA performance
Who’s going to New York? Oh, you already live there? Then get thee to MoMA on Wednesday, September 6, for a curated performance of mid-century dance masterworks at the vaunted MoMA Sculpture Garden twice that day. The dance program accompanies Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends, the exhibit now on at the Museum through September 17. Rauschenberg ...
Miss Ruth in the Valley 4
Aug
7
2017
Ruth St. Denis, featured in a newspaper story on elderly fitness, strikes a Denishawn pose for a photographer. Verso text: “Pictured are Frankie Van, owner of Frankie Van’s Health Club, 3717 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Studio City, along with famous modern dancer Ruth St. Denis. Ms. Denis once lived in the Valley and operated a school ...
Fascinating: Tino Sehgal mid-August @ LACMA
Highlights of the intriguing menu of performance happenings that comprise the European Union-sponsored “Getting to Know European Dance” are two outings by conceptual dance artist Tino Sehgal. Both are being staged at LACMA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in mid August. Born in London in 1976, the Berlin-based Sehgal constructs situations that challenge ...
Ballet magic. Misty Copeland, Roberto Bolle open for La Scala @ Segerstrom
Jul
28
2017
Our friends at Segerstrom Center for the Arts have a rare selling-out situation in their beautiful Costa Mesa arts campus this weekend. Tonight, and continuing through the weekend, the La Scala Ballet opens a weekend run of “Giselle.” Dancing the leading roles of Giselle and Albrecht are the hot hot hot pairing of Misty Copeland ...
Get to know European dance, courtesy of the EU Delegation to the U.S.
A fascinating trio of works of avant-garde German choreography and performance is being presented around town, soon, sponsored by the Getting To Know Europe program, awarded by the Delegation of the European Union to the United States and hosted by the Goethe Institut of Los Angeles, and its savvy director Fareed Majari. This virtual mini festival ...
Tough guys have centenaries. Robert Mitchum feted on his 100th
Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series, curated and hosted by film critic Stephen Farber, celebrate the centennial of Hollywood icon Robert Mitchum (b. August 6, 1917) with two of his best roles. Out of the Past (1947, 70th anniversary) and Cape Fear (1962, 55th anniversary). The double bill is playing at Laemmle Theatres in ...
Norman Bel Geddes interior-design sketch for Palais Royal
Norman Bel Geddes (American, 1893-1958) Geddes’s design of a dancing couple for the Palais Royal Cabaret Theatre Ca. 1922 Watercolor on paper Courtesy Norman Bel Geddes online database, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin Jack Cole danced at the Palais Royal in December 1933. It was Cole’s first nightclub gig. The building, which ...
REVIEW: Savion Glover sizzling at the Ford 2
It is a Dance Criticism 401 assignment describing Savion Glover in performance — savagely fit, in top form, at his most forthcoming. Words fall short. Yet that is what we had at Saturday’s festive season-opener of the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. The refurbished Ford’s long commitment to dance, season after season presenting local and visiting ...