At Jacob’s Pillow, with dance writers
Drawn to the Berkshires by an touching inter-generational mix of post-modern-dance artistry — Trisha Brown Dance Company celebrating its fortieth anniversary year at the Ted Shawn Theater, Jodi Melnick & David Neumann in the Doris Duke’s black box — a parade of dance writers sojourned to Jacob’s Pillow this weekend. We have: Jenny Hansell, Lakeville ...
What friendship hath wrought: Jodi Melnick & David Neumann’s “July” premieres at Jacob’s Pillow
“July,” a stirring dance duet whose refined physical beauty gives form to its tender emotions, had its premiere Wednesday night before the great open backstage door of Jacob Pillow Dance Festival’s Doris Duke Theater. The gifted duo, Jodi Melnick, a former Twyla Tharp dancer, and David Neumann, a dance-theater-comedy specialist, created the absorbing work on ...
Pillowtalk.2011 release 4
Beyond giving me a life-long hankering for a pink counter top, “Pillow Talk,” the Rock Hudson/Doris Day romantic comedy, is not to my liking. Made in 1959 right when I was hitting little girlhood, I find the film’s fifties innuendo and double-entendres, well, nauseating. My ’50s guy is Jack Cole — hard core, provocative, sexy, ...
Dance photog Christopher Duggan shoots Lar Lubovitch Dance Company 1
New York-based dance photographer Christopher Duggan snapped these amazing rehearsal photos of Lar Lubovitch Dance Company performing this weekend at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Lar Luvovitch Dance Company first performed at the Pillow in 1971, and since then five more times, including the troupe’s fortieth anniversary celebration in the Ted Shawn Theater. photo credit: Christopher ...
Seen at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Jun
30
2011
artsmeme thanks the joffrey ballet for the funny foto
Mark Morris loves the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
The choreographer whose troupe, the Mark Morris Dance Group, opened a four-day run last night at the Music Center, shared his affection for the theater when I interviewed him in 2007: “It’s fabulous to be performing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion,” he told me then. “I just love the mid-century-modern touches,” he said, indicating the ...
Honoring America’s greats: National Medal of Arts
President Obama this morning honored some of our nation’s great artists in a ceremony at the White House. Receiving the 2010 National Medal of Arts were Robert Brustein, the theater producer and critic; Van Cliburn, the pianist; Mark di Suvero, the abstract expressionist sculptor; poet Donald Hall; and the pioneering dance organization, Jacob’s Pillow Dance ...
Congratulations, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival! 1
Mar
1
2011
President Barack Obama will tomorrow honor Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival with a National Medal of Arts, the highest arts award given by the United States Government. The medals will be presented by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in an East Room ceremony at the White House on March 2 at 1:45pm, streamed ...
Sydney Skybetter: from living room to living art
Feb
7
2011
In a living room audition for “A Chorus Line,” the young dancer, Sydney Skybetter, brings enviable energy to his task. It’s not surprising that the twig grew to a tree, choreographing this lovely solo to Schubert lieder for dancer Bergen Wheeler. [Music: Schubert’s Schwanengesang, D.957 (Cycle): Ständchen “Leise Flehen Meine Lieder, Fritz Wunderlich tenor.] In ...
Music and dance contribute to early Disney animation
In this clip from a talk at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival last summer, the amazing Marge Champion, 91, chats with the Pillow’s Director of Preservation, Norton Owen, about her participation in Walt Disney’s Snow White (1937). The occasion was the publishing of Mindy Aloff’s super book, “Hippo in a Tutu: Dancing in Disney Animation.” Mindy, ...