BODYTRAFFIC to share wares at Jacob’s Pillow
Dec
5
2012
Some hugely happy news, we’ve learned that L.A.’s hard-dancing, home-grown repertory dance troupe, BODYTRAFFIC, now in its fifth year, will perform next summer at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. The Pillow, whose tony hilltop campus in the Berkshires houses two theaters, a summer dance program, picnicking grounds and a wonderful archives, has hosted a huge swathe ...
Jack Cole, superlative night club dancer, 1940s 1
Dec
5
2012
Photo of Jack Cole costumed for his seminal night club act (photo by Maurice Seymour). Like so much related to Cole, the pose is spectacular and unique. What other dancer would opt for this unusual, asymmetric position? With one leg turned out, and the other in parallel position? It was never seen before nor since. ...
His Royal Greatness. Michael Jackson in “Another Part of Me,” Wembley Stadium, July 1988 1
Like this? Read more: MJ dances — a dance critic’s manifesto to Michael Jackson
Thanksgiving with MJ
By any stretch of a writer’s imagination, a good day this Thanksgiving Day. My advance piece about Trey McIntyre Project got front-page Calendar section placement in the L.A Times. But sharing the page with my writing, an even more exciting dance story (sorry, Trey!). It concerns tonight’s ABC-television broadcast of Spike Lee’s documentary “Michael Jackson: ...
Trey McIntyre, the pride of Boise and beyond
Nov
22
2012
Trey McIntyre seems to have it all going for him. He’s talented, a gentleman, personable, accessible, friendly to all, hugely handsome and hey, he’s tall. Six foot six to be exact. Interviewing the Boise-based choreographer for a piece in the Los Angeles Times we conferred with a friend of arts·meme, Nancy Wozny, a long time ...
Judy Morr’s Thanksgiving weekend weight-loss program
Nov
20
2012
In as fine a pairing as Pinot Noir with turkey, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts executive vice president (and its dance doyenne for the past 26 years) Judy Morr has booked the all-American dance tribe, Trey McIntyre Project, for performances on Thanksgiving weekend. The TMP shows not only offer an alternative to football and ...
Jack Cole’s mid-century-modern dance design 1
A lost Jack Cole dance sequence from DOWN TO EARTH (Columbia, 1947). [click on the photo for detail.] Called the “New York number,” it used to be part of the larger “People Have More Fun Than Anyone,” number before it was cut from the film. It was absolutely common in Cole’s Hollywood career that his ...
Barrie Chase to reminisce about her favorite dance partner 1
Oct
30
2012
We would never miss the upcoming event at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences this Thursday evening when the elegant, long-legged beauty, Barrie Chase, appears in person for a fun screening and panel discussion. Clips from four of the Emmy-Award winning television specials Chase made with Fred Astaire in the late 1950s and early ...
Heidi’s healing happening in Elysian Park 2
In her most recent escapade, the skyscraper-topping “Cleopatra CEO,” Heidi Duckler ramped up her audience with an heady dance cocktail mixing corporate and sexual politics. This past weekend, the pied-piper choreographer, having transformed us into alpha men, led us to a forested glen in Elysian Park, one mile outside downtown Los Angeles. There on the ...
Ballet dancer, movie star Marc Platt’s “Culture by the Mile” 2
A marvelous Columbia Pictures publicity photo from 1947 features a rare creature: a ballet dancer who became a movie star — Marc Platt. And he’s still alive, with us, nearly 100 years old. Bravo Marc Platt, a beautiful American dancer! The touching, slightly potboiler “verso” text (posted below the photo) was written by a Columbia ...