Rauschenberg a pawn in Cold War politics, asserts new doc TAKING VENICE

Dance · Visual arts
A new documentary that addresses a seminal moment in which the art world came mano-a-mano with political intrigue is director Amei Wallach’s TAKING VENICE , from Zeitgeist Films, which opens tonight at the Laemmle Royal theatre in West Los Angeles, followed by a Q/A with the director. The doc examines the rumors that the 1964 Venice ...

Traffic-distraction: Cunningham dancers displayed on high

Dance · Film
They move faster than L.A. traffic and they are infinitely more beautiful. From February 4 – 17 excerpts from Scenario and Views on Camera, filmed by Charlie Atlas, are spooling on a big distracting screen outside the Marriott Hotel across from LA Live. On Olympic, east of the 110, west of Figueroa, guys. The screen ...

Merce & Co as beautiful museum pieces @ LACMA

Dance · Visual arts
They don’t make ’em like Merce Cunningham (1919 – 2009) anymore. And the dance world is the poorer for it. For those who did not have the distinct honor of face time with the great dancer/choreographer (I studied modern dance with ‘Merce’ as he was ubiquitously known in the dance world, and attended concerts by ...

Rauschenberg dance contributions recognized in live MoMA performance

Architecture & Design · Dance · Visual arts
Who’s going to New York? Oh, you already live there? Then get thee to MoMA on Wednesday, September 6, for a curated performance of mid-century dance masterworks at the vaunted MoMA Sculpture Garden twice that day. The dance program accompanies Robert Rauschenberg: Among Friends, the exhibit now on at the Museum through September 17. Rauschenberg ...

Robert Rauschenberg, dancer

Dance · Visual arts
Hazel Larsen Archer Elizabeth Schmitt Jennerjahn and Robert Rauschenberg C. 1952. Gelatin silver print, 6 1/4 x 9 ¼ inches. Estate of Hazel Larsen Archer and Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center. Not just company ‘stage manager,’ longtime friend, and resident designer to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, but Robert Rauschenberg, the great abstract artist, ...

Merce at Black Mountain, revisited by L.A. Dance Project @ the Hammer

Dance · Visual arts
The Hammer Museum took on a Merce-ish mood, February 20, when L..A. Dance Project revitalized a classic Cunningham event to mark the opening of a new exhibition, Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933 – ­1957. [In the photos, “Project” dancers Anthony Bryant and Lilja Rúriksdóttir.] Cunningham, along with artistic collaborator and life partner ...

Merce lives

Dance
It’s exciting to see the Merce Cunningham Trust kick into high gear, deploying, under strict license and supervision, the master’s iconoclastic choreography onto dance troupes around the world (Cunningham died in 2009). Over the years, it’s been controversial whether dancers without specific training in Cunningham’s rigorous technique can properly execute his choreography. Clearly, based upon ...

Our great choreographer Merce Cunningham explained 2

Dance
I’m in a Cunningham frame of mind. Please enjoy and learn from this wonderful Cunningham tribute by Alastair Macaulay, the chief dance critic of the New York Times.

Merce Cunningham’s “Winterbranch” by L.A. Dance Project 2

Dance
SEPT 29 2012 UPDATE: CONCERT REVIEWED ON THE HUFFINGTON POST HERE. A wonderful dark and gloomy photo of Merce Cunningham’s “Winterbranch” (1964) with early cast members Carolyn Brown and Gus Solomons, Jr. We’ll watch the re-staging of this High Cunningham classic this weekend courtesy of L.A. Dance Project, the newly launched repertory dance company sponsored ...

One of a kind, Merce Cunningham … and the lore left behind

Dance
Courtesy of arts·meme friend Nancy Dalva [her blog, the informal formalist], the recently named Merce Cunningham Trust Scholar in Residence, comes this marvelous photo of the great dance maker who passed away in 2009. Nancy sits, at right, in conversation with Cunningham. Among her other activities, Nancy has been producer/writer of the Internet series Mondays ...