Koplowitz’s ‘Learn Capture Repeat’ fun feature @ Dance Camera West

This nice-looking guy, Stephan Koplowitz, a valued member of the Los Angeles dance community, is ready to give you your three seconds of fame in Learn, Capture, Repeat, his proprietary video project slated for this weekend’s Dance Camera West Festival. Wait till you see what Steve and his colleague, software designer Alan Price, can do ...
Girlz n the hood hang out with Misty Copeland

It was a real girl’s night out — a few righteous gents joined in — as Dance Camera West and The American Cinematheque joined forces, Tuesday evening, to host a sneak preview screening at the Aero Theatre of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” the new documentary about our first African-American principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre, Misty ...
Los Angeles talent highlighted in “A Ballerina’s Tale”

Misty Copeland grew up in Los Angeles. So did Robyn Gardenhire. Both are beautiful black ballerinas, Misty, of course, is the first African-American principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre. And in the 1990s, Robyn danced in the company’s corps de ballet. Robyn, a very active, admired and even beloved member of the Los Angeles dance ...
“A Ballerina’s Tale” special screening, arts•meme to host q & a

Just announced by Dance Camera West and The American Cinematheque, a special screening on Tuesday, October 20, at the Aero Cinema in Santa Monica, of “A Ballerina’s Tale,” which will open Friday Oct 23 at Laemmle Theaters. Following the free screening of the documentary, a Q & A film discussion will be conducted by arts•meme‘s ...
Cyd Charisse at the ballet barre, in full flush of Technicolor

In opening moments of director Henry Koster’s The Unfinished Dance (1947), the audience gets the distinct pleasure of peering in as ballerina Mlle Bouchet (Cyd Charisse) does her daily warm-up. The gorgeous burnt-yellow tutu Cyd wears is the vision of costume designer Helen Rose. The color-saturated image — the yellow costume, Cyd’s red-red lipstick against ...
Technicolor rapture of THE UNFINISHED DANCE

This hallucinogenic slice of celluloid captures Cyd Charisse, playing prima ballerina Mlle Bouchet, in director Henry Koster’s movie-tour of the world of ballet neurosis, THE UNFINISHED DANCE. Here Cyd performs a balletic “combré,” a deep back-bend, at the barre. The movie, made at MGM in 1947, starred child actor Margaret O’Brien. It’s a ballet soap ...
Fare-thee-well, glorious Kathak dancer Chitesh Das 2
Jan
7
2015

Saddened to hear news of the departure from Planet Earth of the great San Francisco-based Kathak dancer, Pandit Chitresh Das, whose brilliant cultural ambassadorship for his native art form extended to a eye (and brain)-popping performance at Grand Performances last September. [arts·meme loved and reviewed the show here] We also saw Chitresh hit the floorboards, hard, ...