Jerome Robbins, in 1947 the king of high/low art
Jan
27
2015
In this photo dated September 7, 1947, choreographer Jerome Robbins coaches chorus kids in ballet. He’s preparing dancers for “High Button Shoes” [music Jule Styne, lyrics Sammy Cahn, book Stephen Longstreet, direction George Abbott, choreography Jerome Robbins]. The show opened October 9 1947 at the Century Theatre on Broadway, then moved to London’s West End ...
“Oklahoma!” choreographer, Agnes deMille, appreciated 2
TCM Classic Film Festival 2014 opens Thursday April 10, 2014, with a screening of “Oklahoma!” at Grauman’s TCL Chinese Theatre. Shirley Jones, the film’s star, will be honored. Let’s learn about “Oklahoma!”‘s great choreographer who transferred groundbreaking stage choreography to the screen in 1955. AGNES (George) deMILLE b. Harlem, New York, Sept 18, 1905 d. ...
Gomes transcends in Balanchine’s “Apollo” for ABT
Jul
12
2013
It was not just “awesome,” but indeed a privilege to watch Brazilian-born Marcelo Gomes, a great personal favorite, stretch his lovely long limbs as the Greek god, Apollo, in George Balanchine’s plotless ballet dating from 1928. In the dance the young man encounters and frolics with three muses, Calliope, the muse of poetry, Polyhymnia, the ...
While in Moscow, California dreamin’: ABT’s Ivan Vasiliev
Jul
10
2013
We very much enjoy seeing this photo of the divine Ivan …That would be Ivan Vasiliev, heading to Los Angeles for weekend performances with American Ballet Theatre. Here’s Ivan, caught by the camera pouring CALIFORNIA wine at a recent Moscow dinner party. On his teeshirt: True Believer Los Angeles, California That is so righteous. We ...
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 ...
Dueling ballet headlines: ABT vs. Bolshoi 4
Sep
28
2011
You cannot make this stuff up. You just can’t. Dueling headline news … first from the Bolshoi Ballet, then from American Ballet Theatre … Bolshoi Theatre via RIANOVOSTI Sept 28, 2011 The Bolshoi Ballet picks up an American accent Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater has broken new ground by inviting David Hallberg, of the American Ballet Theater ...
How could this happen? David Hallberg joins Bolshoi Ballet 2
Sep
21
2011
In a tremendous blow to American ballet, our best home-grown talent, literally a corn-fed farm boy from South Dakota, David Hallberg, 29, announced today that he is joining the Bolshoi Ballet. Ka-thunk. This caps off, in one stunning announcement, twenty years, at a minimum, of Europe stealing the U.S.’s thunder as the global bastion of ...
Still the swingingest thing: West Side Story’s George Chakiris
A lot of ladies — and quite a few gents including American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Marcelo Gomes and the just-retired Jose Manuel Carreno — gawked as West Side Story star George Chakiris entered the Founder’s Room of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Los Angeles Music Center. It was the opening night reception following ...
Carmageddon & ABT’s communist caper-ballet 5
Despite best efforts, California authorities (the people who brought you Ronald “Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev!” Reagan) could not put the kibosh on American Ballet Theatre’s “The Bright Stream,” choreographed by their new in-house guy, Alexei Ratmansky. Clearly controlled by Soviet agents, ABT foisted a clever piece of communist propaganda on our sunny climes. ...