A Paul Taylor premiere at ADF, always a joyous event
Jul
14
2011
**LATE BREAKING NEWS ** UPDATE ** LATE BREAKING NEWS ** UPDATE** The Paul Taylor Dance Company announced today that its upcoming 2011-12 three-week New York season will be held at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center from March 13 – April 1, 2012. “I am looking forward to seeing my amazing dancers perform ...
Docu honors Gospel music, born in America, underpinning jazz and blues
Jul
3
2011
As a teen, I had my first exposure to gospel music listening to Sunday broadcasts on Pittsburgh’s black radio station, WAMO. So I wouldn’t miss the documentary film, Rejoice & Shout: Those beautifully named gospel singing groups — The Mighty Clouds of Joy, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Soul Stirrers. Why don’t dance companies have ...
Mick Jagger’s ‘Exile,’ says fellow traveler John Van Hamersveld, named in downtown Los Angeles 1
Who knew? When we were high school kids in suburban Pittsburgh in 1972, devouring the images on the cover of The Rolling Stones’s unspeakably great double album, “Exile on Main Street,” who knew that 39 years later, in a Los Angeles art gallery, I’d have a nice chat with the graphic artist who created the ...
Letter from Wuhan 1
Jun
9
2011
Greetings from Wuhan, one of China’s “four furnaces.” It’s a hot one today, blazingly sticky and humid; for every particle of air, an equivalent particle of dirt. The dancers already had class and rehearsal and are hanging out, resting, before tonight’s show. Wuhan is a big old-industry town in the heartland of China, a bastion ...
Yo Martha, Martha Graham! Yvonne Rainer wants to teach you something. 1
May
11
2011
Graham was featured as a Google “Doodle” on her birthday today Happy Birthday Martha Graham born in Pittsburgh on May 11, 1894, 117 years ago
Get stoned … go higher! See David Dorfman’s “Prophets of Funk”
Dance maker David Dorfman throws down the gauntlet. And the gauntlet is this: Can he out-do, in his choreographed tribute to Sly & the Family Stone, what the great sixties interracial funk band achieves in a cold television studio? Check out this video: I wouldn’t miss it — if only because the cast includes Kyle ...
Gene Kelly’s television broadcasts @ Hammer Museum 1
I’m looking forward to attending UCLA Film & Television Archive’s Gene Kelly event which comprises part of their film preservation festival . Event is called,“Gene Kelly On Television.” OMNIBUS: ‘Dancing: A Man’s Game NBC, 12/21/1958 (1958) Directed by Gene Kelly and William A. Graham In writing, choreographing and directing this program for the prestigious Omnibus ...
Marvelous Marvin Hamlisch picks up Pasadena Pops baton 2
Mar
16
2011
“I love Pasadena,” proclaimed the new conductor of the Pasadena Pops, Marvin Hamlisch. The award-winning film and Broadway composer is perfectly suited for the family-oriented position because, for one thing, he’s no shrinking violet. With a portfolio studded with mega-hits for Broadway (“A Chorus Line”) and Hollywood movies (“The Way We Were,” “Sophie’s Choice,” “The ...
Hoppé’s impromptu Nijinsky photo session 1
This dapper fellow is E.O. Hoppé, Great Britain’s German-born society-and-arts photographer (1878-1972) whose current show at London’s National Portrait Gallery has spawned very positive reviews. [Click on E.O.’s photo for better view] And it all has a Los Angeles connection. arts·meme friend, Graham Howe, who divides his time between Sydney and Pasadena, is a distinguished photography ...
Bessie Awards honors west coast choreographers 1
Oct
18
2010
In a joyous ceremony that ended only one hour ago at Symphony Space on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, two West Coast choreographers were among those honored with Bessie dance awards. The awards returned with a vengeance following a one-year hiatus. Faye Driscoll of Los Angeles was recognized for her dance-theater piece “837 Venice Boulevard.” Accepting ...