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 ...

Biennale Golden Lion for De Keersmaeker

Dance
An alluring invitation just arrived from Italy. The occasion is the Venice Biennale’s granting of a Golden Lion award, perhaps the most acclaimed honor the art world has to bestow, to Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, on June 27. It was wonderful to see Judson Church pioneer Steve Paxton honored in a similar way ...

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker to enjoy Los Angeles showcase

Dance
News from our Italian friends at the Dance section of the Biennale di Venezia forges an excellent fit with a major dance event just announced for the 2015-16 season at the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA in Los Angeles. The Biennale announced that choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker will be awarded the ...

Boyhood revisited: in film, dance, and theater 1

Dance · Film · Theater
Some contend that the final frontier is space. But in the creative world, that distinction has been relegated to childhood — an exploration lately undertaken by kids themselves. Many by now have seen Richard Linklater‘s astonishing and critically acclaimed film BOYHOOD. The movie tracks one young man’s bumpy coming of age, filmed in real time over ...

Strong women of European dance at Biennale Festival

Dance
Attending one week of the recently concluded Biennale Dance 2014 in Venice, I was struck and impressed by the strong roster of female dancers and choreographers on display. A critical round-up of the Festival just published on The Huffington Post.

Steve Paxton lionized in Venice 3

Architecture & Design · Dance
In an incredibly generous and appropriate act of recognition, the International Dance Festival of the Venice Biennale last week honored American modern dancer Steve Paxton with one of the art world’s greatest accolades: the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. The Biennale dance division, under the directorship of Virgilio Sieni, offered the following in praise ...

Biennale Dance Festival finds new humanity for art form

Architecture & Design · Dance · Ideas & Opinion
Venice’s enchanting waterways have given rise, lately, to political discord, when on June 4, Mayor Giorgio Orsoni and 30 fellow government officials were charged with corruption related to flood-control project Mose. But the converging Po and Piave Rivers will soon revert to a more customary role – acting as a fluid crossroads for a vanguard of ...