Eiko & Koma’s “Event Fission” before the twin towers of the World Trade Center (1980) 2
Sep
10
2011
How did these two artists foresee that there would be hell to pay on this site? Who knows? They’re artists. They probably don’t know themselves. “Event Fissions” took place at sunset at Battery Park Landfill in Manhattan, which was created from sand dredged from New York Harbor and earth excavated during the construction of the ...
The Agnes & Cecil Show 1
From Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille, by Scott Eyman, published by Simon & Schuster, 2010, page 307-308. Agnes deMille was struggling in London to make ends meet when Cecil hired her for six weeks at $250 a week to create the dances for Cleopatra. It ended badly, but then it ...
The Juilliard School tells you everything you always wanted to know about Swan Lake but were afraid to ask
The survival, let alone the mystique, of the ballet, Swan Lake, is a phenomenon few would have predicted at its premiere in Moscow in 1877 — which was a flop. Wikipedia notes [with added commentary]: The premiere of Swan Lake on March 4, 1877, was given as a benefit performance for the ballerina Pelageya Karpakova ...
America’s greatest immigrant: the Georgian, Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze 1
Sep
2
2011
What a man, what an artist! It’s not a glower, it’s not a gloat; what on earth is that expression? [click on photo for better view.] It’s brains, bearing, and class. It’s the look of pure culture. But whatever was going through his mind, there stood Balanchine, majestic Georgian gentleman that he was, photo courtesy ...
Rita’s dad
Hurricane Irene, heading our direction in New York City, where we are visiting, can prove no match for Hurricane Rita. Lovely Rita’s dancing father, Eduardo Cansino, tangoes here, courtesy of the digital photo collection of the New York Public Library. I spent the last two days in the glorious Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center, ...
Met @ Jacob’s Pillow: post-modern dance pioneer Trisha Brown
trisha brown, burt barr, jacob’s pillow dance festival What an honor to meet the great Trisha Brown, who graced Jacob’s Pillow with a three-day visit in tandem with her company’s 40th anniversary performances here. Accompanying the influential post-modern-dance choreographer was Burt Barr, the video artist, and also Brown’s husband. In the photos: Trisha Brown, ...
At Jacob’s Pillow, with dance writers
Drawn to the Berkshires by an touching inter-generational mix of post-modern-dance artistry — Trisha Brown Dance Company celebrating its fortieth anniversary year at the Ted Shawn Theater, Jodi Melnick & David Neumann in the Doris Duke’s black box — a parade of dance writers sojourned to Jacob’s Pillow this weekend. We have: Jenny Hansell, Lakeville ...
What friendship hath wrought: Jodi Melnick & David Neumann’s “July” premieres at Jacob’s Pillow
“July,” a stirring dance duet whose refined physical beauty gives form to its tender emotions, had its premiere Wednesday night before the great open backstage door of Jacob Pillow Dance Festival’s Doris Duke Theater. The gifted duo, Jodi Melnick, a former Twyla Tharp dancer, and David Neumann, a dance-theater-comedy specialist, created the absorbing work on ...
Pillowtalk.2011 release 4
Beyond giving me a life-long hankering for a pink counter top, “Pillow Talk,” the Rock Hudson/Doris Day romantic comedy, is not to my liking. Made in 1959 right when I was hitting little girlhood, I find the film’s fifties innuendo and double-entendres, well, nauseating. My ’50s guy is Jack Cole — hard core, provocative, sexy, ...
Still the swingingest thing: West Side Story’s George Chakiris
A lot of ladies — and quite a few gents including American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Marcelo Gomes and the just-retired Jose Manuel Carreno — gawked as West Side Story star George Chakiris entered the Founder’s Room of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center. It was the opening night reception following ...