Susan Jaffe presents: casting for ABT ‘The Nutcracker’ two-week run opening at Segerstrom tonight
Dec
8
2023
Appointed to her post as artistic director of American Ballet Theatre over a year ago, Susan Jaffe is very much in the drivers’ seat. A transition ensued following the 30-year tenure of Kevin McKenzie with whom she danced in the course of her 22 years as among the company’s most sparkling principal dancers. Seguing into ...
Shaken but not deterred, Diavolo dancers to commemorate Northridge earthquake
Dec
5
2023
jacques heim, artistic director, diavolo dance Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is republished with permission. On January 17, 1994, slumberers across the city of Los Angeles were awakened by a heaving jolt. It was 4:31 a.m. (This writer was hurled from bed to ...
Middle Eastern cultures to convene in peace at Yuval Ron’s ‘Rumi’s Wedding’
banafsheh sayyad We’re in faraway Los Angeles. But here’s guessing peoples in every corner of our hurting world would love nothing more for our Middle East brethren to enjoy a resplendent Sunday evening of Arabic/Sufi/Israel culture at Rumi’s Wedding Night Celebration. The December 17 concert features acclaimed world music artist and peace activist Yuval Ron ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
Step into the holidays … with Trinity Irish Dance Company
Ed. note: This story by Mindy Aloff, commissioned and previously published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. During the 1960s and ‘70s, two young Irish step dancers growing up in Chicago proved to be outstanding champions in the rigorous world of dance competitions. Both studied at the ...
For the love of trees: Jody Sperling’s ecological dance at NY Society for Ethical Culture 1
Nov
6
2023
The New York Society for Ethical Culture presents the world premiere of Arbor, a free evening of ecologically themed works by its Eco-Artist-in-Residence, dancer-choreographer Jody Sperling, and her Time Lapse Dance ensemble. The residency is a unique and timely collaboration between the Society—whose mission is to encourage respect for humanity and nature and to create ...
New York City Ballet on your teevee, by way of Madrid
Once upon a time, USA television viewers could take for granted that the nation’s leading dance companies be showcased on television, thanks to the seminal Dance in America series on PBS. It was great while it lasted, but eventually dance programming became a rarity on PBS. Their Great Performances series broadcasts ten or more of ...
post sponsored by The Soraya
What would Pavlova do? Ask Tiler Peck, soon at The Soraya!
Oct
17
2023
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned and previously published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. The similarities are uncanny. By 1913, Anna Pavlova, the eternal exemplar of classical-ballet artistry, having danced with the Russian Imperial Ballet and, briefly, with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, took a handful ...
Boy, uninterrupted: Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky in new biography 3
alexei ratmansky, center, rehearses the sleeping beauty: from rosalie o’connor photo The Boy from Kyiv: Alexei Ratmansky’s Life in Ballet, Marina Harss’s biography of one of the world’s most active choreographers, is just exactly that: a beautifully written, close examination of the many ways in which the 55-year-old artist’s work and life are intertwined. Moreover, her ...
SoUNDz’ of Savion, at The Soraya
Ed. note: This story by Susan Reiter, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. Savion Glover has been in the spotlight on stage and screen since an impossibly young age. In his third appearance at The Soraya, on October 7, the one-of-a-kind tap virtuoso brings ...
artsmeme to glimpse CAP-UCLA ‘Nimoy’ the erstwhile Crest Theatre
photo courtesy chris nichols for los angeles magazine Named in honor of artist, actor, director and philanthropist Leonard Nimoy, The Nimoy is a reimagining of Westwood’s historic Crest Theatre, acquired by UCLA in 2018 and since renovated into a flexible 300-seat off-campus performing arts space. The show artsmeme will attend features performances by Grammy Award-winning ...