Merce at Black Mountain, revisited by L.A. Dance Project @ the Hammer
The Hammer Museum took on a Merce-ish mood, February 20, when L..A. Dance Project revitalized a classic Cunningham event to mark the opening of a new exhibition, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933 – 1957. [In the photos, “Project” dancers Anthony Bryant and Lilja Rúriksdóttir.] Cunningham, along with artistic collaborator and life partner ...
REVIEW: Garth Fagan Dance @ the Nate Holden
In the photos, captures from “So You See,” a stand-out work in the rich program presented by Garth Fagan Dance at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center last weekend. Choreographed in 2015 by longtime Fagan dancer Norwood Pennewell, to a jazz score by Marc Carey and Vijay Iyer, the work enjoyed two outstanding performances by ...
Denishawn could not hold her down, Louise Brooks
Actress/dancer/flapper-provocateuse Louise Brooks made her Denishawn company debut in 1922, when the company had already relocated from Los Angeles to New York. Brooks was shown the door by company matriarch Ruth St. Denis and after playing dozens of bit parts in Hollywood movies, hit it big as bad-woman “Lulu” in G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box in ...
Valentine to “All That Jack (Cole)”
A Valentine to all the super-talented folks who contributed, by way of interviews and film introductions, or just by being there, to renewed appreciation for a great American choreographer. Thanks, all, for participating in “All That Jack (Cole)” at The Museum of Modern Art, Jan 20 – Feb 4, 2016. Below: director/choreographer Rob Marshall introduces ...
Thank you, New York! It ended with THE I DON’T CARE GIRL 4
A force stronger than Jack Cole — Mother Nature — caused the rescheduling of snow-cancelled programs, giving a new finale to “All That Jack (Cole)” at The Museum of Modern Art. The closing picture was THE I DON’T CARE GIRL, a “B” movie musical whose titular dance number, as I wrote on MoMA’s “Inside/Out” blog, ...
Check it … check your body
Check Your Body at the Door, a film conceived by dance historian Sally R. Sommer and dancer Archie Burnett, documents some of the remarkable House dancing styles in New York’s underground scene in the 1990s. Through interviews and rare dance footage, “Check Your Body” memorializes the enduring legends of House dance and contextualizes a wide ...
From “Fame” to “Freeze Frame,” Debbie Allen ties dance to real world
Dance critic Gillian Anne Renault anticipates Debbie Allen’s “Freeze Frame” at The Wallis. I first fell in love with three-time Emmy Award-winner Debbie Allen when she choreographed and acted in the 1980s escapist TV series “Fame.” Now, decades later, after a wide-ranging career, she’s taking on big, serious issues far removed from the rarefied atmosphere ...
Barrie Chase meets Fred Astaire once again
Hollywood dancer/actress Barrie Chase, in New York for appearances at “All That Jack (Cole),” the historic film-retrospective now on offer at The Museum of Modern Art, burst into a spontaneous expression of physical joy at the sight of the Fred Astaire caricature in Ed Sorel’s mural at The Monkey Bar on East 54th Street. Barrie, ...
L.A. Dance Project to dance in L.A.
Some are still in a huff about Benjamin Millepied’s decision, in 2014, to leave Los Angeles and L.A. Dance Project, the much-hyped dance collective he co-founded less than two years earlier. But how could he not accept the offer to be dance director of the Paris Opera Ballet, one of the world’s oldest and most ...