Gabrielle Chanel: friend, patron, artisan of dance 4

Dance · Fashion
I was intrigued to receive a note concerning a new four-episode series from fashion house, CHANEL, entitled Gabrielle Chanel & the Arts. A new episode of the series, which spools on the CHANEL youtube channel, gives a whirlwind-but-witty overview of Gabrielle Chanel‘s personal and artistic connections with avant-garde ballet. At the turn of the 20th ...

Superb exhibition “Stravinsky and L.A. Dance” to close 2

Dance · Music
Stravinsky & L.A. Dance, located on the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion’s sunlight-strewn mezzanine celebrates the composer’s creative influence on Los Angeles dance-makers of the past. The photos (several by Otto Rothschild) are presented together with reconstruction materials of The Joffrey Ballet’s The Rite of Spring. Curated by Lorin Johnson and Mark Konecny and instigated and overseen by Music ...

Stravinsky in West Hollywood, 1967, captured by photog Bobby Klein

Music · Visual arts
I had been invited back to the Maestro’s house one evening to show him some of my previous work. He took me into his study and locked the door. Beethoven was playing on these huge Voice of the Theater speakers really loud. Stravinsky had been ill and was being watched like a hawk by his ...

Balanchine’s “Symphony in Three Movements,” from 1972, to Stravinsky

Dance · Music
Alastair Macaulay, in the New York Times, reviews the work in 2008, performed by NYCB, Macaulay at his most inspired: I marvel in particular to watch and hear the many strangenesses with which Balanchine answers Stravinsky’s “Symphony in Three Movements.” He makes you hear the music better, and yet he often does so by springing ...

Love among the geniuses

Film · Music
Read this story on The Huffington Post. Two recent biopics portray the torrid love lives of great artists — one of our favorite subjects. First, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky (2009), a chicly decorated French film about a purported love affair between the stern couturière and the equally rigorous modernist composer — all while Mme ...