REVIEW: ‘Rise’: dance film earnestly misses its pointe
The French film En Corps, curiously translated as Rise and presented by Blue Fox Entertainment, is a well-made, earnest, and thoroughly innocuous movie. It will interest anyone who watched Natalie Portman in Black Swan and railed to the heavens, “Why didn’t they cast a real dancer in the role!?” This new film will more than ...
Jerry Robbins to be remembered on ‘Meaningful Monday’ at cool shul
They call it the Actor’s Temple. They also call it the “cool shul.” Both names work for artsmeme! Douglas J. Cohen and Carol Ostrow present an special event celebrating the Broadway career of the Broadway director and choreographer Jerome Robbins; well as honoring Tony winner actor Jason Alexander on his Broadway debut as director of The Cottage. It happens as part ...
For the kid in you! Saturdays with Max Fleischer cartoons at The Panorama
May
19
2023
The great Polish-American animator Max Fleischer (1883-1972) and his production studios created iconic animations with characters like Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Felix the Cat, Popeye the Sailorman, Superman and more. In 1926, Fleischer released the first cartoon with synchronized sound, My Old Kentucky Home. His love of jazz led to cartoons (live action & ...
What is Alonzo King’s ‘Deep River’ ?
It’s a rare circumstance that we in Southern California have two viewing possibilities of an artistic-and-timely, multi-disciplinary work uniting a top-notch dance company with jazz artists, also of the highest caliber. Deep River by the San Francisco-based Alonzo King LINES Ballet features a score by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran, and in ...
At the Three Deuces with Art Tatum
May
18
2023
Well, he was a genius. But that didn’t stop the yahoos in the audience from talking and smoking and drinking while he was playing. Here’s a chance to get a front-row seat on the great Art Tatum, as, in all good cheer, he pulverizes a little ditty with his inimitable rollicking harmonic deconstruction. 43/12/5, NYC., ...
post sponsored by Segerstrom Center
Exiled Ukrainian dancers to unite ballet fans in Ratmansky ‘Giselle’ at Segerstrom
May
8
2023
In a glorious summer classical-ballet event, a great patron of the arts, Elizabeth Segerstrom, in honoring the centenary of her late husband, Henry T. Segerstrom (1923-2015), Orange County’s peerless titan of business, philanthropy and the arts, is presenting the United Ukrainian Ballet in its West Coast debut at Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The four-performance ...
At The Actors’ Gang, watching ‘(Im)migrants of the State,’ in mutual migration
May
2
2023
It packs a wallop. So seeing it on a Sunday matinee was a nice way to go. After being intensely swept into a theatricalized showcase created and performed by a compelling chorus of the formerly incarcerated, I felt blessed to walk freely into the late-afternoon sun. It’s (Im)migrants of the State, a workshop-style production at ...
Through the doors of Abbey Road Studios — at The Wallis
Remember the famous shot …? Taken a few seconds after this one? The crosswalk photo of the Beatles crossing in London’s St John’s Wood before their recording session at Abbey Road Studios, in which the image of a barefooted Paul McCartney spawned a crazed conspiracy theory that Paul was dead? And that John Lennon’s subterfuging ...
REVIEW: Paul Taylor repertory a miss in Music Center dance-season opener 2
Who signed off on the venerable Paul Taylor Dance Company’s repertory-mix shared with fans at the Los Angeles Music Center this weekend? What should have been a joyous Los Angeles reunion with one of the nation’s longest-lasting dance companies (it dates from 1954!) felt like modern-dance homework. This show, in its totality, did not connect. ...
Movie-viewing happiness @ The Montalbán
Apr
25
2023
When I like something, I like it. And, lately, I like the summer movie-viewing series high atop the venerable Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, aka The Montalbán, located dead center of Hollywood, on Vine Street just south of Hollywood Boulevard. The above image of director Quentin Tarantino’s single-card credit for his kick-butt KILL BILL, VOL II (2004), ...