“The proximity of boredom to the work of art is somehow a clue to what art is and does,” said the captivating UC Berkeley philosophy professor Alva Noë during a talk with former Ballet Frankfurt choreographer William Forsythe at Los Angeles' Getty Museum on Nov. 12th. It was a quick, fascinating lecture that also addressed whether choreography can … [Read more...]
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker Fest in Los Angeles
Resistance is futile: There is no way to rank or prioritize all the myriad events occurring next week during the choreographic & performance feast by Belgium-based choreographer Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker and her company Rosas at CAP UCLA. Every event in "Then & Now" is unmissable -- Tuesday is the only time de Keersmaeker will dance; … [Read more...]
Refusal to Swoon: Ratmansky’s Stalinist-era “Cinderella” Debuts in LA
Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra Los Angeles Music Center Oct. 8-11, 2015 musiccenter.org/Cinderella No pumpkin, no fairy godmother, no big dress, no vengeful besting on the dance floor, no heraldic marriage ceremony. If a lacey, pale-blue firehose of royal transformation is not the essence of the Cinderella story, then what is? Opening Los … [Read more...]
The Communal High of Twyla Tharp in Los Angeles
In advance of Twyla Tharp's 4-day run at the Wallis Theater in Beverly Hills on Oct. 1-4 -- the second stop on the company's 10-week 50th Anniversary tour across the U.S. -- a call went out for public volunteers to participate in a staging of Tharp's 1969 piece, "The Hundreds," to take place on September 29, two days prior the formal concerts. … [Read more...]
The Mariinsky’s Full-Force “Raymonda” Debuts in U.S.
Continuing its run of historic ballet firsts, the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, CA opened its 30th season on Thursday night with the U.S. premiere of the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra’s production of the rare three-act classical ballet “Raymonda” (1898), one of Marius Petipa’s final works, and arguably the most sublime unveiling yet. Unlike … [Read more...]
NOW Festival 2015 at REDCAT
NEW ORIGINAL WORKS (NOW) FESTIVAL REDCAT Theater, Los Angeles Program One July 30 - August 1 What are you doing for the next three weeks? This year’s edition of REDCAT’s 12th annual New Original Works Festival (NOW) looks to be a colorful debutante ball, with several stunning Cinderella arrivals in the mix. In three program … [Read more...]
Eifman Ballet’s ‘Psychiatric’ Problem
Billed as “the culmination of the artistic director’s cycle of ballets on psychiatric themes,” Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg premiered “Up and Down” (2015) on the west coast on Friday. A cobbled story of love and madness set in the frenetic gaiety of the 1920s jazz-age, the off-key work earned tepid response from heretofore unshakeable fans at … [Read more...]
Could an L.A. Dance Hub Grow from a Mapping Tool?
The L.A. dance scene of late has felt a fresh momentum. And the decade-long accumulation -- of new companies, new venues, new academies and institutions, prestige teachers and choreographers -- took a leap in cumulative power this past month, thanks to the debut of an elegant digital source called Dance Map L.A. Simple census taking can be a … [Read more...]
American Ballet Theatre’s Historical, Eye-Popping New “The Sleeping Beauty”
Unveiled this week at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the world premiere of American Ballet Theatre’s newly envisioned “The Sleeping Beauty,” choreographed by ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky with sets and costumes by designer Richard Hudson, is a fevered outpouring of love for the art of ballet. Aiming to resuscitate the formal … [Read more...]
Los Angeles Ballet’s Notable “The Sleeping Beauty”
It’s all shiny and assured good news for Los Angeles Ballet -- as well as the evolving character of Princess Aurora -- in the lean, deftly satisfying production of “The Sleeping Beauty” that L.A. Ballet founders Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary have been debuting this winter in four different SoCal theaters. The third concert in L.A.B.’s … [Read more...]