Two new ‘now’ ballets in world premieres by Ballet BC at The Soraya
Apr
24
2023
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. It is a big, hopeful, nervous-making, celebratory event when a ballet has its world premiere. The preparation is immense, with many moving parts to orchestrate: choreography and rehearsals, of course, but ...
Baroque musicians/dancers to prance & Zoom thru time
The Julliard School’s primary period-instrument ensemble, Juilliard415, Robert Mealy, Director, has scheduled a time-traveling performance enhanced by students from Juilliard Dance and baroque dancers. That means that added to the frolicking among woodwinds and strings, there will be prancing, high-stepping, posing, bourréeing, sissoning, and throw in a contretemps. All of that is coming your way ...
Lauren Lovette ‘Dreamachine’ for Paul Taylor Dance Company soon at Music Center
Apr
10
2023
lauren lovette, choreographerphoto: erin baiano One piece of the esteemed Paul Taylor Dance Company‘s three-work program at the Los Angeles Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion the final weekend of April has our special interest. It’s a world premiere, first of all. That’s a big deal — and an honor for Los Angeles. But it’s the ...
Wheeldon doubles-down in Southern California events of fascination
Mar
7
2023
Photos by Reed Hutchinson/Los Angeles Ballet It’s a veritable festival of choreography by the Briton Christopher Wheeldon in the next weeks in Southern California. Neatly, the presentations will all spool under the watchful eyes of female artistic directors, Melissa Barak at the Los Angeles Ballet and Susan Jaffe at American Ballet Theatre. That fact alone ...
Let’s get this party started! Memphis jookin’ with Lil Buck at Carpenter Center in Long Beach
Feb
28
2023
As a dance writer and historian, I’m completely fascinated — and on board — with the seemingly inexhaustible supply of witty, innovative new dance forms that arise from the streets of our society. A crash course in one such form will be on tap at the Carpenter Center in Long Beach, with the entertaining showcase, ...
Within her delicacy, strength: Raven Wilkinson appreciated 1
Feb
23
2023
Raven Wilkinson (1935-2018) broke as rigid a color barrier as could be found in the mid-fifties, when she was hired, in 1955, to join the all-white corps de ballet of Sergei Denham’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She went on to dance with the Dutch National Ballet as a soloist, and (similar to Janet Collins, ...
artsmeme to abraham: let’s talk ‘requiem: fire in the air of the earth’!
Feb
17
2023
Kyle Abraham | Credit: Peter Hönnemann artsmeme founder debra levine recently enjoyed a zoom conversation with the very talented kyle abraham, who has been a choreographer ‘du-moment’ for nearly 15 years. this interview was commissioned, and first published, by the soraya, where a.i.m. by kyle abraham will perform his ‘requiem: fire at the center of the ...
Flying high! Luminario Ballet’s aerial dance-art to The Wallis
Feb
6
2023
An exciting occasion for one of Los Angeles’s most fun and resilient dance companies is its debut at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Arts, aka The Wallis, in mid-February. Luminario Ballet of Los Angeles. is a repertory ballet, aerial, and modern dance troupe founded in 2009. A hearty crew, it has trod all channels ...
REVIEW: Aaron Copland meets the 21st at New York City Ballet 1
Megan Fairchild, Roman Mejia, center. From left, Emilie Gerrity, Jonathan Fahoury, Daniel Applebaum, Isabella Lafreniere. photo: Erin Baiano There is so much that is invigorating and innovative about Copland Dance Episodes, Justin Peck‘s major new full-evening work for New York City Ballet in its world premiere on January 26. Yet it also connects with, and ...
Northward-bound … for San Francisco Ballet ‘NEXT@90’ anniversary celeb
Jan
25
2023
War Memorial Opera House interior, photo robert canfield I’m heading north — to attend a friend’s birthday party. That is, San Francisco Ballet, the oldest extant classical-ballet company in our nation. Established in 1933 by Adolf Bolm, and developed artistically and institutionally by three ballet brothers, Willam, Lew and Harold Christensen, the SFB staged the ...