Hardest hit on ‘White Christmas’ movie set? Dancers. 2
The lyric may be “iconic,” but it’s also “ironic.” Robert Alton’s sumptuous dance duet, “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing,” a classy, flowing number for Vera-Ellen and Danny Kaye, in White Christmas (1954) reveals the choreographer’s signature moves. Alton [Easter Parade, There’s No Business LIke Show Business, White Christmas] could move bodies around a ...
Dance-movie delirium, as vibrant posters invade Pillow 1
Four years have passed since Mike Kaplan, an art director, marketing strategist, film producer and friend of arts·meme (FOAM), shared his hugely popular collection of dance movie posters at Jacob’s Pillow, GOTTA DANCE. Now, in certified Hollywood tradition, that exhibition has spawned a sequel. GOTTA DANCE TOO now hangs in the Pillow’s Blake’s Barn, displaying ...
Review: ABT’s Misty·fying ‘La Bayadere’ disappoints 2
Let’s start at the end: During curtain calls at American Ballet Theatre’s “La Bayadère” Friday night at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, ballerina Isabella Boylston gave her bouquet to her partner Jeffrey Cirio with a deferential flourish. Then, in a strange, gender-bending moment, she and third lead Misty Copeland curtsied, and curtsied some more to Cirio, ...
‘Bolshoi Ballet Summer Series’ leads off with Polunin/Zakharova ‘Giselle’
‘Bolshoi Ballet Summer Series’, coming to movie theaters nationwide soon presents Ballet’s ‘Big-Three’ full-evening classical works on subsequent Mondays in July. The series, presented by Fathom Events, includes July 9, Giselle, cast, Svetlana Zakharova, Sergei Polunin July 16, Romeo and Juliet July 23, Swan Lake All performances were captured live from the Bolshoi Theatre stage ...
Gorgeous! Ruth St. Denis headdress in Denishawn costume show 1
The headdress from Ruth St. Denis’s 1919 Chinese-inspired “Kuan Yin,” with buttons, feathers and artificial pearls. credit David Dashiell for the New York Times. Dance writer Gia Kourlis writes in the New York Times about an exhibit of 30 costumes worn by Denishawn dancers under the aegis of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. The ...
Capezio, in 130th anniversary, throws huge dance party in Las Vegas
Jun
19
2018
From our friend Ann Marie deAngelo, the impresario supreme and executive producer/director of The Capezio 130th Anniversary and Capezio Awards in Las Vegas comes a slew of superb photography in what looks to have been a pretty spectacular celebration of dance of all genres. The event, held May 14, 2018 at the Smith Center in ...
Be-thigh-ed themselves in India
What prudes! It’s just a little leg! Okay, it’s a lotta leg…The clipping at bottom is from the Los Angeles Times, Nov 9, 1954.
Wild rhythms of Japan & India to tumble from Ford Amphitheatre stage
Ask the average American theater-goer or music listener to describe Japanese taiko drumming and you’ll probably hear a description something like this: solemn men in loin cloths and sweat bands who beat oversized drums in unison — loudly and interminably. Brian Yamami has spent his last 18 years trying to change that perception. He’s a ...
Be sublime! instructs ‘Bayadere’ coach Susan Jones
Jun
11
2018
It was nice to hear from Susan Jones, the impassioned ballet mistress of American Ballet Theatre who lately admits to a special assignment indeed. “For weeks we have worked on every detail of La Bayadère Act 2 Shades,” she shares on Facebook, referring to the famous sequence that opens the second act of “La Bayadère,” ...
Gifted women of dance revive community connection – courtesy of DVP
Jun
4
2018
Myna Majors (Baba Olatunji Drum and Dancers), Shirley Black Brown Coward (Audelco Award, Black Nativity), Ellen Graff (Martha Graham Dance Company), Naomi Goldberg Haas (Dances for a Variable Population), Audrey Hubbard Madison (Charles Moore Dance Theater), Elizabeth Keen (Paul Taylor, Helen Tamiris/Daniel Nagrin), Marnie Thomas Wood (Martha Graham Dance Company) and Alice Tierstein (Young Dancemakers ...