James Mitchell, who danced “Dream Curly” in OKLAHOMA! 1
We just lost Marc Platt, his strong dancer’s heart finally giving way, at age 100, on March 29, 2014. Platt originated the role of “Dream Curly,” a dancing doppleganger to the dramatic actor who plays the same role — the dancer picks up the plot line in choreographer Agnes deMille’s acclaimed “dream ballet” sequence created ...
“Oklahoma!” choreographer, Agnes deMille, appreciated 2
TCM Classic Film Festival 2014 opens Thursday April 10, 2014, with a screening of “Oklahoma!” at Grauman’s TCL Chinese Theatre. Shirley Jones, the film’s star, will be honored. Let’s learn about “Oklahoma!”‘s great choreographer who transferred groundbreaking stage choreography to the screen in 1955. AGNES (George) deMILLE b. Harlem, New York, Sept 18, 1905 d. ...
Story of Tanaquil
We are so looking forward to Dance Camera West‘s special screening of “Afternoon of a Faun” at the Aero Theatre next Thursday evening, co-presented with the American Cinematheque. I will be interviewing Nancy Buirski, the documentary film’s director, after the screening. It portends to be an amazing event, mixing and matching a crowd of dance ...
Bill T.’s “D-Man in the Waters” revived by Ailey @ Segerstrom
Mar
26
2014
On offer this weekend at Segerstrom Center for the Arts from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: a major reconstruction of Bill T. Jones’s AIDS-related dance work, “D-Man in the Waters.“ The controversial choreographer created “D-Man” in 1989 at the height of the auto-immune-disease pandemic that robbed our world of many lives nonsensically but hit the ...
Catch it! David Parsons’ “Caught” @ Valley Performing Arts Center
Mar
20
2014
Roll with Parsons Dance Company, one night only, at the Valley Performing Arts Center, as the contemporary dance troupe — 13 movement frolickers, they’re nearly dance punsters translating tongue-tanglers into clever body licks — parades forth David Parsons’ uber-physical dance creations. It’s happening this Saturday night at the chic and lovely theater that sits at ...
Tere O’Connor Dance @ Skirball Center
Mar
19
2014
I see a lot of performances. Did you notice that? I do. But few dance concerts left as strong an impression as Tere O’Connor Dance‘s oh-so-casual “Rammed Earth,” presented at a downstairs performance space of the Skirball Center in 2008. I remember dancers cruising, moving, in clusters, formations, lines and rows. Simple, throwaway stuff that ...
Review: Danielle Agami’s “EXHIBITa” @ Celebrate Dance 2
Think of a Robert Crumb cartoon strip — in all its gnarly, grotesque glory. That roughly equates to watching the weird and wonderful foot-parade choreographer Danielle Agami sent across the Alex Theatre stage last night at the ninth annual “Celebrate Dance.” Agami’s “EXHIBITa,” chock-filled with witty movement invention in its Los Angeles premiere, offered the ...
Kosloff, unfurled
He worked for two of the greatest arts titans of the 20th century: Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev and Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille. After a long career as a silent movie actor, Theodore Kosloff made his final film appearance in DeMille’s “Madam Satan,” DeMille’s failed movie musical created on the cusp of the Depression. ...
Radio celebrates ballet man Theodore Kosloff
This cool guy is John Rabe. As host of KPCC-Pasadena’s “Off Ramp,” Rabe captures a mixed bag of hip stories in radio’s radiant realm as they tumble forth in the wee village of Los Angeles. This Saturday, March 8, at high noon, on 89.3 on your FM-radio dial [repeats Sunday 6 pm] Rabe’s “Off Ramp” ...