Julie Andrews granted “Gypsy” award by Professional Dancers Society 2

Dance · Film · Music
An amazing line up of talent on view at the Professional Dancers Society 25th anniversary gala luncheon honoring Julie Andrews on March 18, 2012. Previous PDS honorees Carl Reiner, Dick Van Dyke, Marge Champion, Mitzi Gaynor, Carol Burnett, Joni Berry (Chairman of PDS), Rita Moreno and Florence Henderson, join Julie Andrews on stage as she ...

Strom’s socialist singspiel soothes Sunday’s squally storms 1

Music
No better way to pass a rainy Sunday afternoon than a concert at the Workman’s Circle/Arbeter Ring of Los Angeles. There, the cultural anthropologist and klezmer guy, Yale Strom, his string bass player Mark Dresser, and the sultry songstress Elizabeth Schwartz presented a program of socialist-themed Yiddish music. Strom, a torrid fiddler, is deeply steeped ...

Faded Los Angeles beauty to get a facelift: Lasky-DeMille Barn 1

Film
In keeping with the celebration of its 100th anniversary, Paramount Pictures is putting some loving care into the bricks and morter where their company was born – the Lasky-DeMille barn. Col. Robert Northam built the Hollywood structure  as horse stable, in 1901. The next owner, Jacob Stern was the owner when it became a film ...

The great Graham

Dance
The highlight of a dance-filled week in New York was seeing the Martha Graham Dance Company perform all three sections of Graham’s powerful anti-war screed, “Chronicle,” made in 1936. Part II of “Chronicle,” the reconstituted group dance, “Steps in the Street,” has been in circulation for a few years. But it was my first look ...

A horse is a good clean animal, says Betty Grable 2

Dance · Film · Music
Check out Betty Grable in “Meet Me After the Show” (1951): Dancing in silhouette, on the platform: Jack Cole, who staged the number. Paired with Cole for a dance-y horse race is the choreographer’s muse and assistant Gwen Verdon. This we learn from the horse’s mouth … er… from Academy of Dance on Film founder ...

Claire Falkenstein book talk at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts

Visual arts
  Claire Falkenstein: An Expansive Universe, a major survey of the late California multimedia artist’s work now on at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles, coincides with the release of the newly published, comprehensive book on the artist’s work and life, Claire Falkenstein. The Falkenstein material is paired at Rutberg’s with work of another ...

To New York for Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, Susan Marshall

Dance
You’ve heard of ‘Autumn in New York,’ correct?  Well, what about ‘Spring Dance Season in New York’? We’re eastward-bound to check it out. Like this? Read more: Paul Taylor Moves to Lincoln Center (The Huffington Post) Michael Jackson visited Martha Graham studio

Taylor-made

Dance · Visual arts
Read our story about Paul Taylor Dance Company’s premiere season at Lincoln Center. Read it in The Huffington Post.

Ailey-ites embrace their inner meshuggenah in “Minus 16” 1

Dance
I’ve seen Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin’s “Minus 16,” in its various bits and pieces, components and rehashes, on Batsheva Dance Company (his home base), Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and most recently on a gang of Cal Arts dance students. But what a wild trip, tonight in Costa Mesa, watching Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater try ...

Stephen Colbert placidoes Domingo

Music
The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Placido Domingo www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive