Doug Varone & Dancers flash fun, finesse in O.C.
All hail modern dance. Not “contemporary” dance, not “contemporary modern,” but old-school barefoot modern dance, a movement language spoken, traditionally, without the aid of shoes, that is, toes gripping the ground. A conversation, via a trained and fluid body, between music (sometimes text, sometimes silence), fellow dancers, and an audience. Doug Varone, veteran choreographer and artistic ...
Apply now! Seeking new artistic director, L.A. Dance Project 2
Jan
27
2013
arts·meme got an advanced copy of the application form for the newly opened position at L.A. Dance Project. This time ’round, they’re getting it right; they are going local! APPLICATION Job Title: Artistic Director, Los Angeles Dance Project Instructions: Fill up the form #1 Fine Dining: Name three best soft-taco stands in L.A. #2 Time ...
CDA President Jane Jelenko comments on Millepied’s move to Paris 1
Jan
25
2013
We had a nice phone chat with Jane Jelenko, President of Center Dance Arts and a major backer of L.A. Dance Project, a young dance company still in its first season with upcoming performances, through the end of May, in Europe. Caught in between screenings at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Jane addressed ...
Exceptional French film to spool at Laemmle Theatres 1
Jan
24
2013
Laemmle Theatres and Rialto Pictures present Marcel Carné’s Port of Shadows (1938) in a new DCP restoration featuring an all-new translation and subtitles by Lenny Borger. When Jean (Jean Gabin), a deserter from the Colonial Army, arrives in Le Havre searching for a place to lie low, he doesn’t expect to wind up in the ...
Merce lives
Jan
23
2013
It’s exciting to see the Merce Cunningham Trust kick into high gear, deploying, under strict license and supervision, the master’s iconoclastic choreography onto dance troupes around the world (Cunningham died in 2009). Over the years, it’s been controversial whether dancers without specific training in Cunningham’s rigorous technique can properly execute his choreography. Clearly, based upon ...
Good art-gab Saturday @ L.A. Art Show
The L.A. Art Show‘s featured exhibit, “Letters from L.A.,” addresses the unique use of text by the city’s visual artists, forms the centerpiece of the fair. And the fair is a huge, noisy and fun community celebration. The line-up at the Show this weekend got my attention; in particular a panel discussion that looks excellent. ...
Catherine Turocy goes for barocco
Jan
21
2013
Such a joy to meet Catherine Turocy, an awesome arts professional and a Baroque and Renaissance dance expert. She’s shown here dancing the Passacaille d’Armide. We took a saucy dance class with Catherine as part of her recent week-long residency in southern California. Normally based in Dallas (though she’s artistic director of The New York ...
Meredith Monk muses on “our intimate connection to nature”
Perusing program notes after enjoying Meredith Monk’s wonderful ensemble of songbirds at CAP-UCLA last night, I was moved by the veteran performance artist’s statement. After a bruising week of human destruction, with cataclysms in Algeria and Moscow, where the head of the Bolshoi Ballet was horribly attacked, the essay struck me as tonic. Writes Meredith ...
Jerome Robbins hits the bull’s-eye
As this Saturday afternoon draws to a gloomy conclusion, it seems like a perfect time to fire up the “Prologue” from WEST SIDE STORY (1961). But when is not a great time to watch this? Jerome Robbins’s brilliant storytelling through dance … Leonard Bernstein’s tremendous original score — the anthem of an urban jungle. A ...
E.O. Hoppé’s “London” a jewel in Santa Monica
Jan
17
2013
“Hoppé is to London as Atget is to Paris,” art curator Graham Howe tells us in an email. Howe manages the E.O Hoppé estate as the CEO of museum services organization, Curatorial Assistance, in Pasadena. He’s just organized a special exhibit of Hoppé’s London photography now on view at Bergamont Station in tandem with PhotoLA. The German-born ...