A sculptor’s inner life: Michelle Williams in Kelly Reichardt’s ‘Showing Up’ 2
I was entranced by the generically titled, but otherwise awfully good example of ‘slow cinema,’ Showing Up, directed by down-to-earth filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. This movie, opening April 7, is made by a woman artist; it concerns a woman artist, who is played by Michelle Williams, one of the foremost actresses of our time, in her ...
Double Grammy-awardee Samara Joy to front Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra at The Soraya
Feb
24
2023
Best wishes poured in from all around the world. But a special frisson of joy came from The Soraya Stage in Los Angeles. That’s because Sunday March 26 at 7 pm, the 23-year-old Wonder Woman Samara Joy, @samarajoysings), who (how can we put this calmly?) killed at the GRAMMY® Awards a month ago 🎉 will ...
Within her delicacy, strength: Raven Wilkinson appreciated 1
Feb
23
2023
Raven Wilkinson (1935-2018) broke as rigid a color barrier as could be found in the mid-fifties, when she was hired, in 1955, to join the all-white corps de ballet of Sergei Denham’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. She went on to dance with the Dutch National Ballet as a soloist, and (similar to Janet Collins, ...
Flying high! Luminario Ballet’s aerial dance-art to The Wallis
Feb
6
2023
An exciting occasion for one of Los Angeles’s most fun and resilient dance companies is its debut at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Arts, aka The Wallis, in mid-February. Luminario Ballet of Los Angeles. is a repertory ballet, aerial, and modern dance troupe founded in 2009. A hearty crew, it has trod all channels ...
REVIEW: Cécile McLorin Salvant’s singular jazz style, at Royce Hall
While she’s no stranger to Southern California audiences, vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s show presented by CAP UCLA’s Royce Hall on January 26 reinforced her status as a one-of-a-kind singer. Through her idiosyncratic artistry, willingness to indulge the moment, and her genial manner, Salvant charmed and thrilled the near capacity of Royce’s floor. In the broader ...
Hélène Grimaud, with Wild Up & wild wolves 2
Jan
16
2023
Ed. note: This story by Debra Levine, commissioned and published by the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for the Arts, is reprinted with permission. As a child growing up in Aix-En-Provence, the French-born piano virtuoso, Hélène Grimaud, was rambunctious. Her parents, both professors, clambered to channel her energy. Lessons in martial arts, tennis, and ballet ...
Lewitzky doc to open Dance Camera West at Barnsdall Art Park
I was delighted to learn that the annual DANCE CAMERA WEST festival will take place this year, the weekend of January 19, in the cozy underground theater of Barnsdall Art Park, one of the truly happy places of our fair city. The urban-rustic setting fits well with the California theme of the Festival’s opening film, ...
Julianne Moore, actress of our times, in ‘When You Stop Saving the World’
Dec
23
2022
eisenberg, moore, courtesy variety studio at cannes Some guys have all the luck. Take Jesse Eisenberg, for example. As an actor he has inherited the mantle of stammering Jewish neurotic as a surrogate for Woody Allen, who is now in retreat. In his feature-film directorial debut, “When You Stop Saving the World,” he has a ...
Divas of our lifetime! Dionne Warwick, Chita Rivera on stage
stellar ladies of the arts, one singer, one dancer She’s a beloved American cultural icon. She’s beautiful and well preserved. AND she has a new movie, a documentary. Dionne Warwick began singing professionally in 1961. Discovered by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the marvelous songbird went on to record 18 consecutive Top 100 singles (Don’t ...
Movie picks: by, for, and about grown women
The fascinating actress, Tilda Swinton, gives a pitch-perfect performance that traverses the wide-ranging emotions — tenderness, sadness, yearning, powerlessness, regret — of the mother-daughter relationship. The Eternal Daughter, the latest in a series of artistic collaborations between Swinton and director Joanna Hogg (prior forays, The Souvenir, Parts I & II), never jars as it moves ...