Balanchine invites you to a ball
What a dream is the performance (video below) of a duet from George Balanchine’s “Vienna Waltzes” sublimely danced by Karin von Aroldingen and Peter Martins. “Vienna Waltzes” had its premiere at New York City Ballet on June 23, 1977. Original cast: Karin von Aroldingen, Sean Lavery, Patricia McBride, Helgi Tomasson, Sara Leland, Bart Cook, Kay ...
L.A. traffic jam inside Caroline Graham’s home 2
Super-publicist Caroline Graham’s holiday party in Santa Monica last night was akin to the 405 freeway bumper-to-bumper. Navigating the human traffic-jam conjured Blake Edwards’s party scene in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” It took a full forty minutes to cross Caroline’s cozy living room to greet a friend. It took just as long in the other direction ...
Odette/Odile for a discerning audience — kids
Dec
22
2011
You live or die in front of an audience like this — London schoolkids watching a lecture demonstration of “Swan Lake.” Because unlike adults kids don’t fake being interested. Ursula Hageli and Richard Slaughter coached in Swan Lake by Svetlana Beriosova with the Michael Basset at the piano at a lecture-demonstration/performance under the auspices of ...
Transferring high art in a forlorn ballet studio, Svetlana Beriosova
Dec
21
2011
The great Royal Ballet prima ballerina, Svetlana Beriosova, coaches Richard Slaughter and Ursula Hageli in a photo by Linda Rich taken at Dance Works, in London, 1989. Beriosova’s obituary here. Thank you Richard Slaughter for sharing your photo.
Twentieth century’s greatest male dancers
Dec
19
2011
I was born mid-century. So I wasn’t around for the first half. I missed Nijinsky. But here are my candidates for the four most influential male dancers of the twentieth.
David Hallberg grew up obsessed by Fred Astaire
Dec
18
2011
Studying tap dance as a kid, before he got proper shoes, says David Hallberg, “I taped nickels on the bottom of my penny loafers.” Hallberg explains this charmingly in a marvelous profile that aired today on CBS’s News’s “Sunday Morning” program. The premier dancer of the Bolshoi Ballet and principal at American Ballet Theatre more ...
Julius Shulman’s 1936 shot of Griffith Observatory — and beyond
The other evening, touring the Pacific Standard show at the L.A. Municipal Gallery on Olive Hill, I was caught off guard by a four-inch square print of this precious, heroic Julius Shulman photograph dating from 1936. It almost made me cry: the two caps, shape of building [it was then only years old], hills and ...
Merrily TCM Classic Cruise rolled along . . .
It was a wild & crazy cruise. Robert Osborne, usually a pretty tamped-down guy, skipped the light fantastic through the casino with Eva Maria Saint in tow. In this amazing shot by TCM photog, Ted Pio Roda, Ms. Saint, one of the silver screen’s most enduring method actors, looks not one day older than when ...
Quiz: Find Tippi Hedren in the photo 1
Dec
14
2011
It was quite a moment, on TCM Classic Cruise, when the stars & celebs gathered on deck for the launch of the Celebrity “Millenium,” … and out waltzed Tippi Hedren, beyond fabulous in a zebra-striped cruise outfit. Tippi just pops out of this fun foto, which also features Ernest Borgnine, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Osborne, ...
Setting sail! The gang poses for launch photo @ TCM Classic Cruise 3
Dec
13
2011
Last Thursday afternoon, December 8, 2011, punctually at 4:30 pm, a boatload of movie nuts set sail on the first ever TCM Classic Cruise. What a party! Click on photo for detail. Like this? Read more about TCM Classic Cruise on arts·meme soon!