“Bebo’s Girl,” at fifty, to screen at MoMA’s “To Save and Project”
Oct
21
2014
Fifty years ago, in November 1964, a beautiful and moody Italian film, La Ragazza di Bube (Bebo’s Girl) opened in theaters. Based on an acclaimed novel by Carlo Cassola, the film recounts a love triangle in an anguished and entangled setting: Italy’s post World War II struggle to come to grips with its fascist experiment ...
Irina Baronova, baby ballerina no more
Oct
14
2014
In 1932 George Balanchine happened upon a ballet protégée, Irina Baronova, when she was a 12-year-old pupil of Olga Preobrajenska, the Russian ballerina teaching in exile in Paris. The visionary choreographer, who throughout his career would repeatedly mentor and package outstanding female dance talent, bundled Baronova with two equally precocious ballet cohorts, Tamara Toumanova (12) ...
George Chakiris in double NYC honor: first MoMA, then Juilliard
In fitting recognition of a great dancer whose searing, Oscar-winning performance as “Bernardo” in “West Side Story” was filmed on NYC’s Upper West Side terrain where the Juilliard School now stands, George Chakiris will visit the renowned conservatory for an interview and dance conversation. Location shooting of the playground sequences that open “West Side Story” ...
The essence of tap is a rhapsody
Among the more quixotic ventures one might try, maintaining a tap dance company ranks somewhere between reviving the celluloid collar and loading mercury with a pitchfork. The degree of difficulty—in attracting and keeping good dancers, choreographing for their collective and individual talents, finding sympathetic musicians, securing a worthy facility, mounting shows, and obtaining funding—keeps growing. ...
Fresh air on a very hot night: No)one. Art House @ Highways
It was a sultry, sweltering, wonderful Saturday evening when a new dance posse, No)one. Art House, propelled ‘danse du moment‘ onto the stage of Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. The audience, half-shvitzing from the room temperature, also seemed half-stunned by how stimulating, immediate and excellent the experience. An amazing cluster of nine dancers arising ...
Classical audacity at The Broad
There are three extraordinary opportunities to experience daring, innovative classical music at The Broad Stage this fall. First, the Isango Ensemble of South Africa re-imagines Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Then the local, stellar, Calder Quartet will perform twice, once with soprano Yulia Van Doran and then with film composer Bear Mcreary. The best Mozart operas ...
Vaslav & the Tramp 2
Los Angeles, December 1916: An encounter between two great body-artists — Vaslav Nijinsky and Charles Chaplin. Never saw Nijinsky looking happier. Chaplin was making Easy Street. The Tramp met The Dying Swan in 1922. Like this? Read more: The Tramp meets the Dying Swan Charlie Chaplin in China
Brilliant at ‘transforming people’ says Tippi Hedren of Edith Head
One of the marvelous interactive exhibits at the just-opened “Hollywood Costume” exhibition, a co-presentation by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the Victoria & Albert Museum at LACMA’s May Company building, is a virtual conversation between three movie collaborators. Two, alas, are deceased, but one is still vibrantly alive. Director Alfred Hitchcock ...
UNESCO cultural treasure Royal Ballet of Cambodia to Long Beach
Oct
1
2014
Three decades after near elimination by the Khmer Rouge, the Royal Ballet of Cambodia miraculously endures as the cherished emblem of Khmer culture. The Royal Ballet’s visit to Long Beach is part of a six week tour of the US and Mexico which follows a decade of resurgence after the 2003 designation by UNESCO of ...
Arts ladies of the weekend 2
It gave pleasure, in disparate performances over the weekend, to find and then ruminate on two outstanding players — both exemplary contributors operating in a mixed terrain. The duo included dancer Taisha Paggett and actress Carolyn Ratteray, both top notch, both, by happenstance, African-American artists. Ms. Paggett appears to be the muse of the savvy ...