East Village building echoing art history gets preservation award

Architecture & Design · Dance · Film · Music
Our story concerns a grand, old New York City structure with a noble track record in art and cultural history. The pink lady in the picture has been home to creative endeavors in music, dance and film. Last year, the exterior of the building receive a $2.1 million restoration as part of the renovations of ...

Tribeca Film Festival off to the races with “Ballets With A Twist” 1

Dance · Film
On a recent visit to New York, it was my great pleasure to sit in on a rehearsal of a new work by choreographer Marilyn Klaus. She was preparing the latest addition to her roster of thirst-quenching ballets based on a cocktail menu. Thus the name of Klaus’s boutique troupe, “Ballets With A Twist.” By ...

Misha acts at Broad Stage, then Tavis Smiley chats him up

Dance · Reviews · Theater
I enjoyed watching Mikhail Baryshnikov prowl the Broad Stage, supple as an alert deer, in director Dmitry Krymov’s “In Paris.” Playing a rigid retired military man, Nikolai Platonovic, Barysh speaks mellifluous Russian, his mother-tongue, and Russian-inflected French. The 80-minute dance-drama, an adaptation of a Russian short story by Ivan Bunin, opened Wednesday night in Santa ...

George Balanchine dances in British film from 1929 1

Dance · Film
What we have here is not “Apollo.” That’s putting it mildly. But it’s still a very amusing, even amazing, piece of historic dance footage that’s making the rounds on Facebook. George Balanchine himself dances in a rather crude bit of his own choreography “Dark Red Roses,” in a British-made early talkie. Appearing in the pas ...

Our Lady of Lourdes blesses Miami City Ballet 1

Dance
Oh thank you, dear merciful Our Lady of Lourdes. And thank you to the 11-member committee, who along with Miami City Ballet’s new executive director, Nicholas Goldsborough, conducted the search for a successor to Edward Villella. You anointed in this heavenly role the French patron-saint’s name sake — Lourdes Lopez. And she’s a woman! Er .. ...

Lourdes Lopez to succeed Edward Villella at Miami City Ballet

Dance
In an electrifying announcement, Miami City Ballet shares the news that Lourdes Lopez, the Cuban-born and Miami-raised former ballerina with New York City Ballet, has been named successor to Edward Villella, the company’s founding artistic director who is soon to retire. Ms. Lopez’s post will commence in Miami City Ballet’s 2013-14 season. Mr. Villella’s immense ...

One of a kind, Merce Cunningham … and the lore left behind

Dance
Courtesy of arts·meme friend Nancy Dalva [her blog, the informal formalist], the recently named Merce Cunningham Trust Scholar in Residence, comes this marvelous photo of the great dance maker who passed away in 2009. Nancy sits, at right, in conversation with Cunningham. Among her other activities, Nancy has been producer/writer of the Internet series Mondays ...

arts•meme’s formidable flock of female facebook friends

Dance · Film · Ideas & Opinion
Yes, arts•meme has a Facebook “fan” page. We now have 372 fans on Facebook. That’s fantastic. Lately, however, we attracted a very cool line-up of new “likes” — all wonderful women working in the arts. It is noteworthy. Rose Eichenbaum Dance photographer, author, lecturer Melissa Silverstein Publisher, “Women & Hollywood” blog Shea New Producer, “Dance ...

Jean-Paul Gaultier “Snow White’ costumes recycle Cher’s 1989 thong 3

Dance · Fashion · Film
And now for something completely not different. We were distracted, at ‘Dance at the Music Center,’ by an unflattering costume created for the lead dancer in Ballet Preljocaj’s “Snow White.”   Baby-diaper by front, bird-tail by back, and bared flesh in between, it was fabricated by haute couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier. It sent the viewer’s eye ...

Julie Andrews granted “Gypsy” award by Professional Dancers Society 2

Dance · Film · Music
An amazing line up of talent on view at the Professional Dancers Society 25th anniversary gala luncheon honoring Julie Andrews on March 18, 2012. Previous PDS honorees Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Marge Champion, Mitzi Gaynor, Carol Burnett, Joni Berry (Chairman of PDS), Rita Moreno and Florence Henderson, join Julie Andrews on stage as she ...