Young lions of modern dance – Hofesh Shechter, Kyle Abraham – set to roar 2

Dance
A very rich week in dance is upon us. Two strong young choreographic voices are contending across town, both are must viewing, indeed game changers, for the art form. Wednesday and Thursday nights, the Israeli-born, London-based, pants-on-fire Hofesh Shechter brings “Political Mother” to Royce Hall (huge thumbs up on that title, Hofesh). And the equally ...

Barak Marshall’s MONGER danced in mameloshen 1

Dance · Reviews
mameloshen: (yiddish) the mother tongue It’s been a Barak Marshall festival in Los Angeles lately and that’s the way it should be. Because this guy, a nervous bundle of Harvard-educated brains topped by a black-corkscrew hairdo, is the closest thing L.A. offers to a worldly — and if he continues on track — a world-class ...

Accomplished arts professional Kristy Edmunds to head UCLA Live

Architecture & Design · Dance · Music · Theater
Performing arts curator Kristy Edmunds has been named executive and artistic director of UCLA Live, the venerable outlet for music, dance, and theater at Royce Hall on the UCLA campus. Edmunds, an American, born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, comes to UCLA Live from Australia’s University of Melbourne, where she was head of the ...

Ornette Coleman, at 80, can still change the way you listen . . . or even scare you 2

Music
Jazz enthusiast Adam Hyman contributes this appreciation of Ornette Coleman to arts·meme: Ornette Coleman, who returns to UCLA Live on November 3, is one of jazz’s few remaining legends to walk among us. He’s usually credited with creating “free jazz.” In fact, a variety of free-jazz experimentations preceded him. What Coleman created, as part of his truly ...

The eyes have it …

Dance · Reviews
Indian dancers dance with their eyes. They train them too. That’s evident in this image of the great Indian classical dancer Uday Shankar (Ravi Shanker was his little brother and Jack Cole was his student). Modern-dance choreographer Yvonne Rainer wisely reminds us that the mind is a muscle. So, too, are the eyes. The pedagogy ...