Alma would be happy. Celebrating the UCLA dance department, the nation’s first 7
It was nearly an uproar; a spontaneous outpouring of love and appreciation filled the room when the image of Alma Hawkins, the founder and guiding force behind the dance program at UCLA (now called World Arts and Cultures/Dance), was flashed on an on-stage screen. “A Celebration of UCLA Dance 1962-2017” was not the anticipated turgid ...
Doubling up to double down: Lula Washington & Pony Box @ Nate Holden 2
Mar
29
2016
“We all live together on this one planet and we all need to get along.” So states choreographer Lula Washington in her inimitable straight-ahead fashion that has made her not just a beloved figure, but a bulwark, of the Los Angeles dance community. She’s referring to her work “Global Village,” pictured above, which will be ...
Washington family affair: dance by Lula, music by Kamasi
A new dance work by choreographer and dance educator Lula Washington, who heads up Lula Washington Dance Theatre, now celebrating 35 years of existence, will soon have its premiere. Nephew Kamasi Washington — he of the soaring brilliant career as a tenor saxophonist — provides the score. It’s Re-run home, from Kamasi’s EPIC cd on ...
Review: Under pink clouds, Music Center’s “Moves After Dark”
Dance critic Gillian Anne Renault contributes this review to arts·meme: As grey clouds turned pink Monday evening and a cool breeze dimpled the Mark Taper Forum pool, a powerful alto voice quieted the crowd for Moves After Dark, The Music Center’s inaugural, site-specific, mainly outdoor dance concert. The ambitious evening, well executed, proved a worthy ...
Step aside, Sugar Plum Fairy! Enter the Kwanzaa Kween.
Dec
30
2013
Much as we love the chiming celesta that signals an indelible ballet escapade, that of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the beloved holiday favorite, “The Nutcracker,” we’ve also grown to love another special solo. I’m calling it the Kwanzaa Kween — a ballet divertissement porting a heady tinge of the African continent. The dance is ...
Lula Washington dance touches Elizabeth Eckford of Little Rock Nine
Feb
12
2013
arts·meme friend Erwin Washington sends this letter from the Lula Washington Dance Theatre tour bus. Elizabeth Eckford, one of the original Little Rock Nine, was on hand January 31 at Stuttgart, Arkansas’ Grand Prairie Center when Lula Washington Dance Theatre performed its dance suite about the nine high school students who integrated Central High School ...
Little drummer boys at Lula Washington Dance Theatre 1
Interspersed amongst the thundering herd of kickin’ African drummers that propelled Kwanzaa madness at Lula Washington’s Crenshaw Boulevard dance studio over the holidays was a passel of tiny tots … young gentlemen. They banged the drum, and not slowly. I asked our friend Erwin Washington, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Lula Washington Dance Theatre, for ...
Kwanzaa madness at Lula Washington Dance Theatre
Jan
3
2013
Point me to a better show. I’m open minded! But now in my third year of attendance, I find the year-end Kwanzaa Celebration at Lula Washington Dance Theatre not just exhilarating fun, not only pulling you to the edge of your chair with non-stop great dancing, but, an added pleasure, it blasts off to a ...
Micah Moch: one of 25 talented young dancers to watch in 2012
Jan
3
2012
Touring with Lula Washington Dance Theatre in China late last spring, I couldn’t see straight for all the great dancers in that company. But my favorite — by a significant smidgen — was Micah Moch. Born at Hollywood’s Queen of Angels Hospital in 1987, Moch’s now 24. He explained his unusual name as follows: “Moch ...
Lula Washington’s “tutu raffia” bids 2011 adieu
A highlight of the blistering Kwanzaa show staged by Lula Washington Dance Theatre at the Nate Holden Theater this weekend was a sinewy solo by Haniyyah Tahirah bedecked in what the choreographer Lula Washington calls a “tutu raffia.” It’s a clever cultural mash-up combining Africa & classical ballet. The eternally creative Washington explained: “The look ...