Joseph Horowitz’s spoken-word exploration of Mahler marriage to precede Pacific Symphony’s Mahler Ninth symphony
Our trek southward along the mighty 405 freeway this Thursday evening will be a journey in search of musical profundity. And like a good DVD, it comes with bonus material. We’re attending the Pacific Symphony performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, considered one of his greatest works, a sweeping musical exposition of the composer’s innermost ...
Something’s coming … tonight at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, “West Side Story” 50th birthday party
1961 marquee In a great American pas de deux, George Chakiris partners Rita Moreno in “Dance at the Gym.” Co-choreographer Peter Gennero added sizzle to Robbins’s choreography in this number, so says dance-in-film historian Larry Billman. Jerome Robbins smiles. Thank you Lynn Becker and Doc Macro for the WSS images.
David Hallberg, Moscow movie star
When we last saw David Hallberg—the first American to join the prestigious ranks of Bolshoi Ballet principal dancers—he was clamoring through modern works by Nacho Duato and Mauro Bigonzetti as a guest artist in “Kings of the Dance” at Segerstrom Hall in Orange County. That was just a few weeks ago. This Sunday November 20, ...
Villella violated
Nov
14
2011
Since writing in the Los Angeles Times a few weeks ago about local hero (he got Disney Hall built) Nicholas Goldsborough’s appointment at Miami City Ballet in an executive function, we’ve been hearing screams through the grapevine that things are in a mess in Miami. A story in the NYT clarifies — while setting the ...
arts·meme exclusive: Ronni Chasen first anniversary murder slideshow
We lived through ’em all — OJ murder, freeway chase, and trial; Rodney King beating and ensuing riot; Northridge earthquake, and the endless parade of pulpy misdeeds that happen in Los Angeles all the time. But none of it, not a one, could top the Ronni Chasen murder last November for its undiluted brand of ...
African-American photojournalists capture L.A.’s rich post-War arts world 1
These arts images are drawn from “Identity and Affirmation: Postwar African-American Photography,” an exhibition of 125 images produced by Los Angeles African-American photographers during the postwar years from 1945 to 1980. The marvelous show, now on at Cal State Northridge, also includes social and political photographs. It’s part of the Getty’s “Pacific Standard Time” survey ...
MJ dances 2
When Michael Jackson died in June 2009, I was attending a three-week symposium for dance critics run by the National Endowment for the Arts at Duke University — an honor. This so-called dance criticism “Institute,” staged annually at the American Dance Festival, was think-tank focused on dance as an art form — geared for specialists ...
A dancer’s shoes
Zaldy, the trendy costume designer for Michael Jackson’s aptly named “This is It” tour, speaks in the film’s DVD-extras about the custom loafers he created for the singer-dancer. The designer describes how he knocked off the cut and dimension of [hundreds of] loafers that [Jackson told Zaldy], “I can dance in.” Michael Jackson was ...