Robyn Gardenhire’s garden of riches
In the video, artistic director Robyn Gardenhire rehearses her wonderful troupe, City Ballet of Los Angeles, which just delivered a mightily entertaining evening of dance at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in central Los Angeles. Gardenhire’s diverse dancers bring fine integrity to her vivid, high-energy dance works. She has two strong prima ballerinas: the ...
Angelin Preljocaj’s “Empty Moves”
I loved this thoughtful, high-quality dance work presented at the Irvine Barclay Theatre this week — found it smart and profound. Having sat through another entire dance concert since, I’m still pondering this one. Read my review in the Los Angeles Times.
A map of Ralph Lemon’s mind
Nov
4
2010
News! Ralph Lemon, choreographer, had a brain x-ray and we got an exclusive on the result! It’s a map of Ralph Lemon’s mind. It could come in handy when you go see How Can you Stay in the House all Day Long and Not Go Anywhere? at REDCAT next weekend. Here are explanations, courtesy of ...
Ornette was fantastic. Frances Davis was also fantastic. 3
“Miles liked Ornette,” said the restaurant hostess as though first-name-basis chatter about two jazz-world geniuses was the most natural thing in the world to do while seating customers. Adam and I were grabbing a bite at Hamburger Hamlet before what would be a wonderful Ornette Coleman concert at Royce Hall. Yes, that Miles. And this ...
A chat with Ralph Lemon
Nov
2
2010
“How do you watch something kind of unwatchable? How do you hear something unlistenable?” asks Ralph Lemon, multi-media choreographer, addressing no one in particular. Talkative in a cross-country phone interview, he’s musing on his latest dance work, How Can you Stay in the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? It’s a good title for ...
Cannibals found in New Zealand! 1
Nov
2
2010
I read with interest the news that Ethan Stiefel and Gillian Murphy, two of America’s strongest home-grown ballet talents, got plucked by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Stiefel as artistic director. A nice move for a gifted and beautiful couple. Even more delighted by the way Kiwi journalistTom Cardy cannibalized my descript in the L.A. Times of ...
USC festival to screen historic LA experimental films
Oct
31
2010
Professor David E. James asks arts•meme to announce this upcoming event,Alternative Projections: Experimental Film in Los Angeles 1945 – 1980, a three-day symposium aims to expand understanding of how experimental film making evolved in Los Angeles and to contextualize its place in postwar art history. The project places focus on the community of filmmakers, artists, ...
Ruth Page’s Pavlova passion
Oct
31
2010
Ruth Page, seeing the Russian ballerina perform in Indianapolis in 1914, was not the the only American girl of her generation to be transfixed by Anna Pavlova. The same thing happened to Agnes DeMille in Los Angeles. Enjoy!
Ballet is dead. Long live ballet. 1
In the October 13, 2010 issue of The New Republic, dance critic Jennifer Homans queries, “Is Ballet Over?” In her essay, Homans notes: “Ballet has always and above all contained the idea of human transformation, the conviction that human beings could remake themselves in another, more perfect or divine image. It is this mixture of ...
Jackie K’s symphony seat before she was Jackie O
Oct
24
2010
This snapshot was taken by my colleague Bret at Avery Fisher Hall, where over two evenings, we watched the New York Philharmonic’s young new conductor Alan Gilbert do his thing. Mrs. K/O, in her time, sat in the seat in front of us. The first concert was a mixed bill of Debussy, Sibelius Violin Concerto ...