REVIEW: ‘Rise’: dance film earnestly misses its pointe
The French film En Corps, curiously translated as Rise and presented by Blue Fox Entertainment, is a well-made, earnest, and thoroughly innocuous movie. It will interest anyone who watched Natalie Portman in Black Swan and railed to the heavens, “Why didn’t they cast a real dancer in the role!?” This new film will more than ...
Dance film ‘RISE’ at American French Film Festival
Film director Cédric Klapisch, seen above in action mode directing Paris Opera Ballet premiere danseuse Marion Barbeau and contemporary choreographer Hofesh Shechter, continues his balletmania in rendering his latest dance film, RISE. The movie, augured to include marvelous footage of life behind the curtain at the Palais Garnier, is slated for its West Coast premiere ...
Dudamel to lead stars of Paris Opera Ballet at Hollywood Bowl
gustavo dudamel, courtesy los angeles philharmonic Our man at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, who was recently named Music Director of the Paris Opera, has invited a few of his new-found friends, stars of the Paris Opera Ballet (“etoiles”) to perform classic and contemporary ballet repertoire on the Hollywood Bowl stage ...
Curtain up for ‘Bayadère’ rehearsal at Palais Garnier
Aug
8
2021
Front-row seats in a live, costumed performance would be better. But, for second best, watch this video’ed répétition, (rehearsal) of an Act Three duet from La Bayadère danced by these two full-bodied, gorgeously trained grands étoiles of Paris Opera Ballet: Amandine Albisson, as Nikiya, partnered by the hunky-but-sleek dreamboat, Hugo Marchand, as Solor. The rehearsal ...
Balanchine goes global in City Center festival
The elegant brochure and historical resonance of Balanchine: The City Center Years generated great promise as a highly anticipated event marking the 75th anniversary of midtown Manhattan’s richly dance-historic theater. The six-performance festival (Oct 31 – Nov 4, 2018), which showcased an array of landmark Balanchine works performed on the stage where nearly all had ...
L.A. Dance Project to dance in L.A.
Some are still in a huff about Benjamin Millepied’s decision, in 2014, to leave Los Angeles and L.A. Dance Project, the much-hyped dance collective he co-founded less than two years earlier. But how could he not accept the offer to be dance director of the Paris Opera Ballet, one of the world’s oldest and most ...
Remembering Rudi
July’s onset has us excited about a special event taking place in the City of Lights in a week. A new documentary “La Passion Noureev,” directed by Fabrice Herrault, will have its premiere in Paris. The venue is the Cinéma le Balzac on the Champs-Élysées. Herrault clarifies, via email, that “La Passion Noureev” is not ...
CDA President Jane Jelenko comments on Millepied’s move to Paris 1
Jan
25
2013
We had a nice phone chat with Jane Jelenko, President of Center Dance Arts and a major backer of L.A. Dance Project, a young dance company still in its first season with upcoming performances, through the end of May, in Europe. Caught in between screenings at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Jane addressed ...
Fred Wiseman, documentary film’s wise man
Last fall, we were spared the euro:dollar exchange rate and whisked back stage at the Paris Opera Ballet via Frederick Wiseman’s glorious — and rigorous — documentary “La Danse.” Months later, I saw Wiseman’s “Meat” at REDCAT. Amazing. Mr. Wiseman will be honored with a lifetime achievement award from Loyola Marymount College’s School of Film ...
Not the Nutcracker 1
Dec
17
2009
By now many of you will have seen the film from which this marvelous image is plucked — a mash-up of mesdemoiselles pounding the floorboards in Frederick Wiseman’s ballet documentary “LA DANSE.” They’re Paris Opera Ballet dancers hoofing it in Rudolph Nureyev’s version of Tchaikowsky’s “Casse-Noisette” or “The Nutcracker.” It’s my favorite scene in the movie. You gotta see these ...