How green is Thor’s Valley
Thor Steingraber, former vice president for programming for The Music Center in downtown Los Angeles, has been named the new executive director of the Valley Performing Arts Center at California State University, Northridge. CSUN’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Harry Hellenbrand heralded the occasion: “Thor is credited with the vision to blend classical ...
Fred Astaire’s songs that dance 2
If all you know of Fred Astaire is his movie dancing, the new two-CD set “Fred Astaire: The Early Years at RKO” (Turner Classic Music/Sony Masterworks) will be a revelation. With the possible exception of Bing Crosby, Astaire introduced more good songs — first on the Broadway stage, then in his movie musicals — than ...
Gillian Murphy’s historic footing in “Giselle”
Jan
25
2014
“Giselle” is arguably the greatest solo role for a ballerina in the classical canon. One proof point is that unlike “Swan Lake,” the ballet is named for a woman, not a bird or a lake! “Giselle” tells the story, over a full-evening performance, of a simple peasant girl smitten, then devastated, by love. She uses ...
Cecil B. DeMille’s “Madam Satan,” dance-dissected, March 15 5
Delighted to announce my talk, “Theodore Kosloff & Cecil B. DeMille Meet Madam Satan” concerning the notorious early talkie-musical, co-sponsored by the American Cinematheque and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles. The “illustrated lecture” is slated for Saturday March 15, 2 pm, coupled with a screening of MADAM SATAN (MGM, 1930), at the Egyptian ...
An artist embraced: Carmen de Lavallade
The amazing, still gorgeous, always regal Carmen de Lavallade — born in New Orleans, raised in East Los Angeles — exemplifies an Empress of dance, the kind of royalty spawned in Vernon, California. Thursday night, De Lavallade returned to Los Angeles — where she and chum Alvin Ailey attended Thomas Jefferson High School, where she ...
Carmen de Lavallade, in homecoming, celebrated in CAAM exhibit with Geoffrey Holder
So looking forward to viewing the California African American Museum’s latest exhibition, “A Memoir in Movement,” dedicated to the great dance/theater/visual arts couple Carmen de Lavallade and Geoffrey Holder, an exhibit comprising photographs, paintings, sculptures, and costume designs. De Lavallade, a Los Angeles native, is a living dance treasure whose legacy ports names like Lester ...
Meet Marc Platt, stage & screen dancer 2
Born ‘Marcel Emile Gaston Leplat’ in Pasadena, California, on December 2, 1913, Marc Platt’s passion (and training) for classic dance started at an early age. The son of concert artists, he began studying dance with Mary Ann Welles in Seattle, at age 12, when after watching her class he declared: “I could do that.” They let him ...
Step aside, Sugar Plum Fairy! Enter the Kwanzaa Kween.
Dec
30
2013
Much as we love the chiming celesta that signals an indelible ballet escapade, that of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the beloved holiday favorite, “The Nutcracker,” we’ve also grown to love another special solo. I’m calling it the Kwanzaa Kween — a ballet divertissement porting a heady tinge of the African continent. The dance is ...
Nureyev returns to Los Angeles 1
It takes a village to bring back a prince. And that’s exactly what happened on Thursday, December 5, 2013, when Dance Camera West hosted a tribute to the twentieth century’s greatest male ballet dancer, Rudolf Nureyev. The peerless Nureyev performed in Los Angeles on many occasions — primarily at the Shrine Auditorium with the Royal ...
Who was Sally Forrest? Let’s watch her dance. 2
Katherine Sally Feeney, the daughter of amateur ballroom dancing parents, was born on May 28, 1928. Her father, Michael Feeney, a U.S. Navy career man moved his family to various naval bases, finally settling in San Diego where little Sally was born and began dance classes with Marguerite Ellicott at the age of 12. “Miss ...