Review: Los Angeles Ballet “Directors’ Choice” program

Dance · Reviews
by 
The last time I saw Los Angeles Ballet was at the Ford Theatre in the early 1980s – that, of course, was the other Los Angeles Ballet, the one directed by John Clifford. Always on shaky ground, and much maligned by the Los Angeles Times, it later faced dwindling financial support and stiff competition from ...

Magritte “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” to hang @ LACMA

Visual arts
Just one incredible canvas of the approximately 47 works recently bequeathed to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art by collector A. Jerrold Perenchio is this incredible painting dating to 1935 by Belgian Surrealist artist, René Magritte. Fundamental to the work of the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte is his play with pictorial reality, which is presented ...

How beautiful! French art bequeathed to LACMA

Architecture & Design · Visual arts
Love the work of French artist Pierre Bonnard and his inimitable ‘interior’ paintings, an example, “Apres le repas,” from 1925, above. That’s just one canvas of a huge trove of French and other European art bequeathed last November as a major gift to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) by the Los Angeles-based ...

Biennale Golden Lion for De Keersmaeker

Dance
An alluring invitation just arrived from Italy. The occasion is the Venice Biennale’s granting of a Golden Lion award, perhaps the most acclaimed honor the art world has to bestow, to Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, on June 27. It was wonderful to see Judson Church pioneer Steve Paxton honored in a similar way ...

L.A. ballet builders give boost to Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

Dance
A bevy of Angelenos joined forces with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and its artistic director, Glenn Edgerton, to make a June 1 gala fundraiser a rousing success. Los Angeles philanthropist Glorya Kaufman presented an artistic Spotlight Award to renowned choreographer William Forsythe, associate choreographer with the Paris Opéra Ballet as of fall 2015, and incoming faculty ...

Let’s meet architecture’s bright light, Kulapat Yantrasast

Architecture & Design
A very cool architecture event upcoming this Sunday, a benefit for the wonderful Veteran’s Auditorium in Culver City — clearly as a community one of the most progressive outposts of urban design in Los Angeles. Architect Kulapat Yantrasast, founding partner and creative director of wHY, will discuss how his firm enriches projects through design conversations and ...

A hillside wonderland: John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in transition

Architecture & Design
We recently spoke to our friend Kim Glann, Productions Marketing Manager at the beloved John Anson Ford Theatres, managed by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. We learned that the landmark amphitheatre is closed, closed, closed for renovations this summer. Warning: if you go there by mistake, you’ll have to carry your picnic basket across ...

Anton Dolin, a rapturous partner to Irina Baronova

Dance
Not sure how others are coping, or not, with the lack of meditative time to peruse books — it’s pretty obvious that staring at an electronic screen (thank you for reading arts·meme!) is not remotely the equivalent. One place I read is on an airplane. Thus it was my pleasure to board United Airlines last ...

This was Denishawn

Dance
We’re looking forward to spending an evening  — picnic and free music concert — at outdoor-amphitheater Levitt Pavilion Los Angeles in MacArthur Park on June 12. Does everyone know the rich dance history of that neighborhood, whose prior name “Westlake” derived from the beautiful urban lake that the park surrounds? Read this, first, from the ...

Do the La Gelosia … with Catherine Turocy

Dance
Our favorite Baroque dance expert is offering a rare class on early ballet pantomime and expression that is open to all levels of experience. Catherine Turocy will guide students through the “passions” inspired by descriptions of 18th century ballerina Marie Sallé. Turocy will teach her choreography based on the music of La Gelosia from Handel’s Terpsichore in ...