Antiseptic dance antics for our era: Steve Koplowitz at The Wooden Floor
The cool kids who attend dance class at The Wooden Floor, the renowned and respected Orange County-based program that enhances youth development through dance, are not among the bummed-out performers sidelined by COVID-19. Heck no! They traded in the dance studio’s wooden floor for an asphalt parking lot! Under the command of a veritable P.T. ...
Meet director Roselynde LeBlanc of ‘Can You Bring It,’ Bill T. Jones doc
‘Can You Bring It’, courtesy Kino-Lorber films This most compelling image is from a dance work dating from 1989, Bill T. Jones’s “D-Man in the Water,” which was a tour de force group work Jones fashioned in response to the AIDs epidemic. So why does that matter now? We have a new pandemic to worry ...
Inspiring & relevant: ‘José Limón: A Life Beyond Words’ at 49th Dance Film Festival 1
photo by Barbara Morgan It was time very well spent, in my living room, viewing one of the many attractive offerings of the Dance Film Festival, ihat kicks off July 16 (in person, bring a mask) at the Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center. But, wait, world citizens, the Festival features streaming fodder as well. ...
Blonde on blonde @ Hollywood Heritage
Mar
5
2021
Alice Faye, Betty Grable Mitzi Gaynor, who worked at Twentieth Century-Fox in the ’50s (The I Don’t Care Girl, Golden Girl) knew what color her hair should be. Looking back at movies in which she appears in (her natural) mousy brown locks, she commented dryly, “Oh, that was before my hair grew in blonde.” We ...
Beautiful work, Miriam Nelson, in ‘Picnic’ (1955) 5
It was a delight to learn, after checking credits (“Who did this?”) on this sexy dance between William Holden and Kim Novak in PICNIC (1955), a YouTube phenomenon, that the choreographer was our good friend Miriam Nelson who died in 2018 at age 98. Deliciously done, Miriam. It was my honor to share a meal ...
Santa, please put Cary Grant under the tree!
Dec
21
2020
He was just so gorgeous right? And so very, very Cary Grant. That elocution, that accent: Cockney base, polished overlay. His comic timing, his dramatic line-readings. His credibility. His love-making, both on-screen and off. His pratfalls! His haberdashery. Everything under control; everything perfect. But then you would hear things to the contrary. That he was ...
For cinephiles, Francophiles, feminists: ‘Young French Cinema’! 2
Dec
15
2020
If you fit one, or all, of the categories — cinephile, Francophile, feminist — as do I (all three) then Wednesday night, December 16, Théâtre Raymond Kabbaz has something in store for you! It’s a new documentary, Delphine and Carole, slated to open a new, COVID-averse film festival, “Young French Cinema.” The friendship between screen ...
‘Give in!’ Buy Gwen Verdon portrait at Bonhams auction
little man little lola wants you. 12.5 x 17.75 in. As “Lola” in Damn Yankees, Gwen Verdon brought down the house with her powerhouse performance and her inimitable version of “Whatever Lola Wants,” performing the role over 1,000 times. She began both a working and personal relationship with choreographer Bob Fosse as a result of ...
David Winters ‘Cool’ solo, in ‘West Side Story’
Jets boys, David Winters at center in red In an interview with Toni Basil that includes rare footage of the original Broadway cast of West Side Story, Jerome Robbins protege David Winters (1939 – 2019) explains how he conjured his unusual solo in the role of “Baby John” in 1957. When it came time for ...
Drive-in movie for the angels
Nov
29
2020
photo by taylor umphenour courtesy of hollywood legion drive in We don’t need no suburban drive-in movie. We have the Hollywood Legion Drive In, a very urban one inside the wee village of Los Angeles. It’s the “first-ever drive in in the heart of Hollywood.” And here’s how it looks at night! Tonight, the hills ...