Stirring farewell to ‘Dancing Spirit’ Judith Jamison at New York City Center
There was a vast family gathering at New York City Center on Wednesday December 11, and it felt like a warm embrace encompassed everyone in the theater. While there were no blood relatives of Judith Jamison speaking from the stage at this superbly and lovingly produced tribute, the Alvin Ailey family was out in full ...
Critic’s notes: In Pasadena, Jammin’ with Jelly Roll Morton
Janaya Mahealani Jones, Naomi C. Walley, Cyd Charisse Glover-Hill Jelly’s Last Jam / photo by Jeff Lorch It doesn’t get more rollicking than the scene in the photo above, a trio of triple-threat red-hot mamas bumping and grinding in their bawdy-house skivvies in Dell Howlett’s well-crafted choreography for Jelly’s Last Jam, now on at the ...
SoUNDz’ of Savion, at The Soraya
Ed. note: This story by Susan Reiter, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. Savion Glover has been in the spotlight on stage and screen since an impossibly young age. In his third appearance at The Soraya, on October 7, the one-of-a-kind tap virtuoso brings ...
Gregory Hines forever
The United States Postal Service, a valued part of our Federal government, has honored a great American dancer by issuing its 42nd stamp in the Black Heritage series featuring an image of Gregory Hines (1946–2003). Hines was a monster-contributor to the dance field. Nominated for Tony Awards in the 1970s for three Broadway musicals — ...
Critic’s round-up: Indian Jazz Suites, Laguna’s ‘Stars of Dance’ 1
L.A.’s big dance weekend — it had the dance-infatuated scampering up the heights of Bunker Hill, across the Cahuenga Pass and down Laguna way — has come to its close. Certainly the weekend’s big draw was the launch of a new contemporary dance company, Ezralow Dance, an event that also closed the Ford Amphitheatre for a ...
REVIEW: Maurice Hines tappin’ to mother’s heartbeat @ The Wallis 1
The act was called Hines, Hines & Dad. But song-and-dance man Maurice Hines, 70, rectified any oversight of his mom, Friday night, as he opened his one-man show powered by personal history, “Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Thru Life,” at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The touching, classy, and beautifully staged cabaret program, ...
Debonair song-and-dance man Maurice Hines tappin’ @ the Wallis
Marvel of marvels, a beautiful event coming your way, in the still-new and pretty gorgeous Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Broadway legend Maurice Hines teams up with the Manzari Brothers and 11-year old tapping phenomenom Luke Spring, to tap through 40 years in show business. In “Maurice Hines is Tappin’ Through Life,” Hines, ...
Savion Glover, sole survivor
I’ve been paying attention to Savion Glover since he incandesced onto the theatre scene in The Tap Dance Kid at age 12. His level of virtuosity, enhanced by a cheeky grin and genuine joy at being up there just doin’ it! as impossible to resist as a warm sunny day (I live in London, remember). ...
In Hines vs Davis, Sammy wins by decision in first round 3
Jan
8
2012
The wonderful and charming Gregory Hines (1946-2003), try though he does in this touching dance-off, cannot out perform his idol, Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925-1990). The event took place soon before Davis died. Davis’s feathery touch on the floor is a revelation. Watch Hines watch Davis, 1:48 to 2:04. Watch him try to get in. Pure ...