Northward-bound … for San Francisco Ballet ‘NEXT@90’ anniversary celeb

Dance
War Memorial Opera House interior, photo robert canfield I’m heading north — to attend a friend’s birthday party. That is, San Francisco Ballet, the oldest extant classical-ballet company in our nation. Established in 1933 by Adolf Bolm, and developed artistically and institutionally by three ballet brothers, Willam, Lew and Harold Christensen, the SFB staged the ...

To San Francisco for ‘Mrs. Robinson’ the ballet, and more

Dance · Film
Coo coo ca choo, Mrs. Robinson! So go the whimsical lyrics of the buoyant-yet-melancholic Simon & Garfunkel song that burbles behind The Graduate, the seminal film 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols that introduced Dustin Hoffman to the world. Playing the 21-year-old recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, Hoffman can’t exactly decide his next step. That ...

Death of a dancer: Elyse Borne

Dance
Elyse Borne, after a long battle with cancer, passed away December 16, 2019. After her career as a soloist with New York City Ballet, Ms. Borne further distinguished herself as one of the world’s foremost George Balanchine repetiteurs, and over a period of 20 years from 1996-2016 she staged, with permission of the George Balanchine ...

L.A. dance programmers add to U.S. trade deficit with tempting imports 1

Dance
We’ve always imported major dance companies in Los Angeles. In the old days, that meant New York City Ballet romping at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park. But now we go global. And this is worsening the nation’s nettlesome trade deficit. We buy more of their stuff and they don’t buy enough of ours. Our ...