Steve Paxton lionized in Venice 3
In an incredibly generous and appropriate act of recognition, the International Dance Festival of the Venice Biennale last week honored American modern dancer Steve Paxton with one of the art world’s greatest accolades: the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. The Biennale dance division, under the directorship of Virgilio Sieni, offered the following in praise ...
Frutti di danza italiano
Jun
26
2014
I’ve been dining on Italy’s delightful frutti di mare dishes – pasta, pizza – since arriving in Venice Tuesday to attend the second and final week of BIENNALE DANCE 2014. The dance on offer in the Festival strikes me as rich and abundant as that hearty Italian seafood mix … so, then, a tour of DANCE ...
Dance Biennale 2014: Marina Giovannini meditates on beauty
The second week of BIENNALE DANCE 2014, an ambitious urban festival showcasing contemporary choreography whose tag line, “Gesture, Place, Community,” reflects curator Virgilio Sieni’s high aspiration for the art form, got off to a particularly strong start Tuesday evening in Venice. Among four vivid presentations by choreographers Sieni, Roy Assaf and duo Raffaella Giordano/Maria Muñoz, a ...
Biennale Dance Festival finds new humanity for art form
Venice’s enchanting waterways have given rise, lately, to political discord, when on June 4, Mayor Giorgio Orsoni and 30 fellow government officials were charged with corruption related to flood-control project Mose. But the converging Po and Piave Rivers will soon revert to a more customary role – acting as a fluid crossroads for a vanguard of ...
Dada Masilo does Swan Lake @ Sadler’s Wells
Jun
20
2014
A bare stage, the backdrop awash in pale blue light as a wedge of dancers in elaborate fluffy tutus process elegantly from the wings to a recording of Tchaikovsky’s overture. Their costumes’ snowy white makes striking contrast to the various browns of their complexions. The men are bare-chested; the women are not. A flute of white feathers ...
Glorya Kaufman joins Bernardo for the dance at the gym
It was mambo-mania Saturday night at the elegant Dorothy Chandler Pavilion when Los Angeles dance “angel,” Glorya Kaufman, posed with pleasure with George Chakiris, the Academy Award-winning star of “West Side Story.” Chakiris engaged in newsy dance conversation prior to a screening of the movie-musical masterpiece before a very full house of big-screen movie fans. ...
Tuesday is Wendy-day
Jun
6
2014
It’s always nice to have a special visitor from New York, in this case our good friend, the longtime editor of “Dance” Magazine, Wendy Perron. Next Tuesday evening, Wendy will join forces with a stellar line up of dance thinkers and dance talkers: the great dancer/dance maker Simone Forti and choreographer/educator Victoria Marks. It all ...
Rumble at “Last Remaining Seats” with “West Side Story”
We’re very thrilled to announce that arts·meme‘s Debra Levine will conduct a very special interview with the Academy Award-winning actor/dancer George Chakiris, a good friend of the blog, prior to the screening of West Side Story (1961) on Saturday June 14. The classic movie-musical is the jewel in the crown of this summer’s “Last Remaining ...
Dance Camera West’s “Restructure” festival to kick off with stylish sculptural dance 3
Wow, Dance Camera West! If this image does not capture the coolest vision of dance-of-the-future, then we must not be in the midst of the go-go dance explosion happening right now in Los Angeles. We sure are excited to see performances by BODYTRAFFIC on the crazy “structure” artist Gustavo Godoy has created on a commission ...
How do you spell civilization? Catherine Turocy’s historic dance workshop in Santa Barbara
May
19
2014
Why not consider a break from the unremitting wonderfulness of the 21st century — just for a few days — and meet some nice people? And while you’re hanging around, learn to stretch, spin, dip, tiptoe, curtsey and pose? Sign on for the Santa Barbara Historical Dance Workshop… run by amazingly well-credentialed experts in 17th ...