Still in time for October dance month @ Brand Library & Art Center
Oct
13
2015
I’m often asked for names of interesting dance companies in Los Angeles. An intriguing locally produced series, Brand Associates’ Dance Series, offers a good selection in its two remaining showcases on a four-company roster on subsequent Saturday afternoons. The performances take place at the Skylight Gallery of Glendale’s fun Brand Library & Art Center. The four ...
Alex Hubbard’s massive ‘canvases’ stud new Maccarone Gallery
Oct
12
2015
The British aren’t coming; they’re already here, in a pub, in Santa Monica. But the New Yorkers are piling in, the latest and best evidence is Maccarone’s tricked-out art gallery, surely a bellwether for the new, gentrifying Boyle Heights. The 6,000 square-foot SoHo-style space, the Los Angeles outpost of a West Village parent gallery, occupies ...
Blowing in the wind with Jacaranda
Oct
8
2015
Nine bagpipes keening on the nearby ocean bluff, and twelve strings in a darkening sanctuary will unleash your imagination and cast a lasting spell of intangible magnitude. So promises Jacaranda in promoting two Los Angeles premieres slated to grace the contemporary classical music society’s 2015-16 season-opening concert. First up, in a free outdoor performance sure ...
“A Ballerina’s Tale” special screening, arts•meme to host q & a
Just announced by Dance Camera West and The American Cinematheque, a special screening on Tuesday, October 20, at the Aero Cinema in Santa Monica, of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” which will open Friday Oct 23 at Laemmle Theaters. Following the free screening of the documentary, a Q & A film discussion will be conducted by arts•meme‘s ...
Review: Twyla Tharp’s 50th, reminder of a revolutionary
photo: Sharen Bradford, New York Times Watching Twyla Tharp’s 50th Anniversary Tour performance at The Wallis in Beverly Hills was like taking a trip down memory lane with an old friend. (The Wallis co-commissioned the tour with four other presenters including The Joyce Theater in New York.) The old magic was there in Tharp’s juxtaposition ...
Gehry! Honoring L.A.’s great architect-designer
Oct
2
2015
A great party approaches at the end of October: Bill Stern’s annual fundraiser to support the virtual Museum of California Design. This year ‘s great ‘get,’ the honoring of the sage and visionary architect and designer Frank Gehry, who will be granted the Museum’s 2015 Henry Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Design by a ...
Sir Ken Robinson on the arts, at TedX Fulbright conference 4
Sep
30
2015
Parrying as an event host with the estimable educational thought-leader Sir Ken Robinson at the recent TedXFulbright Conference at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica (Sept, 26, 2015), I so enjoyed Sir Ken’s thoughtful and inspiring words about the arts: I talk a lot about creativity, but I’m very keen not to conflate creativity with ...
Raymonda “likes” Jean de Brienne’s profile picture
In this image from Act I of the Mariinsky Ballet’s “Raymonda,” the heroine’s faraway beau, Jean de Brienne, sends his honey a Medieval version (a kind of tapestry that gets unfurled) of his Facebook profile picture. From her posture, don’t you think she seems to be giving it a “like”? I do.
Mariinsky’s massive, still relevant, “Raymonda” at Segerstrom
Sep
29
2015
A whirlwind weekend included the privilege of watching the great dancers of the Mariinsky Theatre deliver a rarity: the full three-act version of Petipa’s Hungarian-themed, “Raymonda,” which the massive dance troupe exactingly performed, a tad jam-packed, on the Segerstrom Hall stage. It went beyond a complete balletic experience; it felt like a life experience to ...
Jack Cole choreography for GILDA set to sizzle on UCLA Film Archive big screen 1
Do you enjoy this classic image of Rita Hayworth as GILDA? It’s a capture from Hayworth’s iconic high-end striptease, “Put the Blame on Mame,” choreographed by Jack Cole, the brilliant dance maker who rocked Hayworth’s world at Columbia Pictures in the 1940s. Cole’s dance numbers (“Put the Blame on Mame,” “Amado Mio“), taken together, raise ...