The dancing Douglases
Does love of dance run in the family? If so, then actress/producer Illeana Douglas has traced her dance gene. Illeana, a great film buff, is hosting Turner Classic Movies’ “Second Looks” programming on Friday nights of this month. Her marvelous, quirky film curation is catalogued in a wonderful essay written for TCM by Roger Fristoe. ...
Ballet bends-and-stretches for Marilyn 2
The photos are from a Life Magazine ‘A Day in the Life of a Starlet’ photo spread. Pictured are ballet instructor Nico Charisse (husband of Cyd) and his keen pupil, Marilyn Monroe. Writes Joshua Ireland, who shared the photos with arts·meme: * * * “I am working on a research project about Los Angeles dance ...
A royal Hollywood evening with Astaire & Travolta 1
A Rat-Packy night in L.A. — so much royalty, show biz and more. The memorabilia comes from arts·meme pal Larry Billman, founder of the Academy of Dance on Film. From Larry’s photo archive, a groovy snapshot of cocktail hour preceding the 22nd annual ball of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honoring Fred Astaire. ...
Elgart’s aquatic adventure @ the Music Center 1
A marvelous event opened the annual Dance Camera West film festival Thursday evening. At dusk, we gathered ’round the Jacques Lipchitz “Peace on Earth” sculpture-fountain that anchors the plaza of the Los Angeles Music Center, one of our city’s rare pedestrian hobnobbing spots. Suddenly a tall tube of ruby fabric mysteriously appeared and began to ...
Fountain frolic by L.A. choreographers @ Dance Camera West
In the city that spawned Esther Williams’ aquatic dance-pageantry, I really like the commissioning of fun, site-specific water dances fashioned by a cadre of top Los Angeles choreographers. Some of the names may not be fully known to followers of “concert” dance. And that’s not right. The list comprises four highly successful film, television, stage ...
Commemorating George Balanchine who died 30 years ago 1
Apr
30
2013
Thirty years since he left us, we are still in his thrall. Here’s a wonderful historic photo of the great Russian-born choreographer-genius George Balanchine, provided to us by the chief archivist of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Norton Owen. In this beautifully composed photograph, Balanchine instructs Mary Ellen Moylan. Photo credit: Hans Knopf, 1942, Jacob’s Pillow ...
Paul Taylor’s gorgeous, sprawling “Brandenburgs” on PBS
Apr
29
2013
“This piece is meant to be very dancey, but it has a theme. I would say it’s about gallantry. The men are gallant towards the women. The women are more playful. Each of the women has a distinct personality. There’s a leading man, too. His relationship to the women, it’s gallant, but it’s not a ...
Dancers, meet the museum world. Museums: consider dance.
This weekend, the Hammer Museum presents Dancing with the Art World, a two-day symposium that convenes artists, choreographers, curators, and historians to reflect on the interface between dance and art, consider its historical precedents, and debate its effects on artistic and institutional practice. Dance has long intersected meaningfully with the visual arts. But in recent ...
Preeminent dance movie posters @ Barnsdall
We’re super looking forward to touring through a wonderful installation of dance movies posters now on display at Barnsdall Gallery Theater. We already saw it once, but it’s so fabulous that repeat viewings are called for. Twenty distinct pieces in varying sizes and rarity comprise GOTTA DANCE!, the majority dating from the golden age of ...
Maria Tallchief, who trained in Los Angeles, dies
Apr
12
2013
Excerpted from “Maria Tallchief, America’s Ballerina, Larry Kaplan [University of Florida: 2005]: When I was twelve years old and Marjorie was ten and a half, we went to a new ballet teacher. A ballet mother at Mr. Belcher’s told Mother that the great Bronislava Nijinska had opened a studio near Beverly Hills, and even though ...