Merce Cunningham goddess Carolyn Brown enters modern-dance eternity
Jan
13
2025
Carolyn Brown and Merce Cunningham in Suite for Five. Photograph by Marvin Silver, 1968, courtesy Cunningham Trust It’s all in the photo. An unusual pose, but Merce Cunningham rolled that way … unusual. With the early female Cunningham dancers — Viola Farber and Sandra Neels come to mind, each an iconoclastic dancer — Carolyn Brown ...
Clothes make the man, in ‘Monte Cristo’ & ‘West Side Story’
If clothes make the man in real life, then it’s only more so in the movies. That’s when an audience is maximally focused and alert, and processing quick information about characters. I found myself repeatedly distracted, in an awesome way, by the stunning men’s wear in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (2024), which I recently ...
Doubling down: MOMO, major Naharin work for Batsheva Dance Company, soon at Music Center
Jan
7
2025
“Sorrow and beauty” forms a bittersweet promise augured in Batsheva Dance Company‘s upcoming performances at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, February 14-16, in which a challenging-looking full-evening work dating to 2022 by choreographer Ohad Naharin, MOMO, will have its North American premiere. It is the first time the groundbreaking and influential national dance company of Israel ...
Stirring farewell to ‘Dancing Spirit’ Judith Jamison at New York City Center
There was a vast family gathering at New York City Center on Wednesday December 11, and it felt like a warm embrace encompassed everyone in the theater. While there were no blood relatives of Judith Jamison speaking from the stage at this superbly and lovingly produced tribute, the Alvin Ailey family was out in full ...
To historic Sierra Madre Playhouse, for ‘Bob Baker’s Nutcracker’
We’re heading into the beauty time in Southern California, the holiday season when the air grows nippier, the sun seems more yellow and warming than ever, and white caps of snow decorate the San Gabriel Mountains as you venture east toward the desert. And what better stopover than the charming Sierra Madre Playhouse, where this ...
Sugar Plums for the ages, in ABT’s ‘The Nutcracker’ at Segerstrom Center
Nov
26
2024
Her name is Antonietta Dell’Era (1861-1945), and, as legend goes, in 1892 she was the first to dance to Tchaikovsky’s magical foray on the celesta as the Sugar Plum Fairy. That music the brilliant composer concocted to give aural evocation of “drops of water shooting from a fountain.” Ms. Dell’Era’s first performance received good reviews, ...
Westside Ballet of Santa Monica stages vibrant ‘Nutcracker’ starring Tiler Peck, Roman Mejia 1
Nov
23
2024
An invitation to attend a holiday production of “The Nutcracker” — that of Westside Ballet of Santa Monica, with live music from the Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra, and starring New York City Ballet principal dancers Tiler Peck & Roman Mejia — is an offer a ballet fan finds hard to refuse. Peck is at ...
Death of a dancer: Vladimir Shklyarov
Nov
18
2024
Thanks to the Internet, balletomania is a global phenomenon. YouTube viewing of classical dance from such far-flung spots as St. Petersburg is a boon to fans across the universe — equally, it aids dance critics and scholars. So when word spread that Vladimir Shklyarov, 39, had tumbled from a balcony five floors to his death ...
Portrait of an Artist – the many roles of Medhi Walerski
Nov
12
2024
ed. note: This story written in advance of a November 23 performance by Ballet BC in Los Angeles was commissioned and first published by The Soraya on November 8 2024. It is reprinted with permission. Soft-spoken but emphatic, Medhi Walerski, at 45, is a ballet prince with piercing eyes, a crown of clipped curls, and ...
On Hallo•meme, be bewitching, like ‘Gilda’ 6
I was thinking about my costume for this Halloween. Who better to embody than Rita Hayworth in her hallowed role as a film-noir temptress in the movie of the same name, Gilda (1945), from Columbia Pictures?Here she is in her nightclub number in the movie, “Put the Blame on Mame.” Rita was dressed in a ...