Film review: ‘In Balanchine’s Classroom,’ a dance documentary

Dance · Film · Reviews
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George Balanchine (1960s). Photo: Ernst Hass. As seen in In Balanchine’s Classroom. A film by Connie Hochman. A Zeitgeist Films release in association with Kino Lorber. Watching In Balanchine’s Classroom, the new dance documentary directed by Connie Hochman, you wait and hope for a movie about a significant, if rarefied, subject to add up to ...

Chase Finlay, who danced Balanchine’s ‘Apollo,’ calls women ‘sluts’ 1

Dance
As the young god Apollo, the title role of the ballet masterpiece created by the choreographer George Balanchine at the precocious age of 28, former New York City Ballet dancer Chase Finlay had “great dignity,” “tapering limbs,” “a beautifully long and firm neck,” and a “powerful thorax.” Those words were written by New York Times ...

Proud tradition: Lifetime Achievement Awards at the McCallum

Dance
Since 1998, a proud tradition in the desert: the McCallum Theatre’s annual Choreography Festiva honors a dance legend with a Lifetime Achievement Award. This year’s Award goes to Daniel Ezralow. 1998: Marc Breaux Award winning dancer, director and choreographer 1999: Grover Dale Tony Award winning director and founder of Answers4Dancers.com 2000: Lula Washington Choreographer and ...

Rod Alexander’s “The Birth of the Blues” dance number rediscovered 3

Dance · Film
Please, please God, don’t let the world blow up before Sunday night. Because Sunday night at 9 pm, I get to see choreographer Rod Alexander‘s brilliant dance number, “The Birth of the Blues” from THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE (20th Century-Fox 1956), at CINECON Classic Film Festival — in a new 35mm print, ...

My favorite brother of seven, Matt Mattox 3

Dance · Film
Last night at TCM Fest: my first big-screen viewing of Stanley Donen’s “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” Especially fun since Jacques d’Amboise was just in Los Angeles on a book talk. He spoke quite a bit about making the film. Indeed d’Amboise’s name, well-known considering he’s “just” a dancer, buzzed around the TCM Fest screening ...

Melissa Hayden hops a train — just as she hopped into the arms of Jacques d’Amboise 2

Dance
A characteristic shot of the inimitable New York City Ballet ballerina Melissa Hayden (1923-2006), nee Mildred Herman, a nice Canadian Jewish girl (who knew?) who wanted to be a champion swimmer, or so we learned from Milly’s habitual partner, Jacques d’Amboise, at an ALOUD book talk last week. D’Amboise reveled in stories about the extroverted, ...

Good god! Apollo visits Los Angeles, twice.

Dance · Visual arts
The bronze art treasure, Apollo Saettante, Apollo the Archer, is visiting Los Angeles through the summer, far from his home in the Real Museo Borbonico in Naples. The luminous statue arrived on the cliffs of Malibu, California, where he received a tender beauty treatment from Getty Museum conservationist Erik Risser and curator David Saunders, antiquities ...

Arthur Mitchell delights in his ballerinas

Dance
“I love to partner,” admits the great pioneering African-American ballet dancer Arthur Mitchell who joined New York City Ballet in 1955. In conversation he shares affectionate sound bites about the ballerinas he partnered when dancing for choreographer George Balanchine at New York City Ballet, 1955 – 1966. On Allegra Kent: “Otherworldly. A real creature, there was nothing she ...