Teasing apart the movie musical a few years back, cultural critic Gilberto Perez wrote that each successful musical positions one of two figures of the artist in the fore: either the performer or the director. Sometimes, as in "The Band Wagon," we actually see the two figures characterized on film, fighting for prominence. But usually, one of the … [Read more...]
Top 10 Must-See Dance Concerts in L.A. this Year
If you count carefully, you'll actually find 16 concerts listed here. I expanded the roundup I wrote for the OC Register -- which highlights the great companies that Orange County's deep-pocketed Segerstrom Center and Irvine Barclay can bring in -- to add a few more affordable offerings in Los Angeles and beyond. It's a good year for dance: read … [Read more...]
Osipova and Vasiliev Debut World Tour at California’s Segerstrom Center
In the promotional image for “Solo for Two,” the first independent concert tour from dance superstars Ivan Vasiliev and Natalia Osipova, the formidable Russian dancers appeared side by side in dramatic grand-allegro jumps that would have certainly resulted in a mid-air crash were it not a collaged image. Culled, it seems, from promo shots for … [Read more...]
Essential Viewing: Ethan Stiefel’s “Giselle” for Royal New Zealand Ballet
On Friday night, opening its first U.S. tour in decades, Royal Ballet New Zealand performed on L.A.'s premium dance stage, the Los Angeles Music Center, presenting the U.S. premiere of a new "Giselle," the company's first full-length creation under the guidance of artistic director Ethan Stiefel, who took the helm of the company in 2011. Here … [Read more...]
A Fizzled Evening with Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal
The house was packed. The second-ever dance company to perform at the cushy new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal easily sold out its two-night run (January 10-11 2014), and was welcomed by a good faith audience, comfortable and ready to cheer. The program had strong local ties, with … [Read more...]
Great Moments in L.A. Dance in 2013
With strong flavors of Stravinsky, Balanchine, and Trisha Brown, 2013 was a satisfying year for iconic dance, and dance music, in Los Angeles. The centennial of Stravinsky’s game-changing “Rite of Spring” for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes delivered unto us both the Joffrey’s faithful reconstruction of the nervy Nijinsky choreography and, earlier in … [Read more...]
Blood-Rich ‘Beauty’
Considered the consummate classical ballet, "The Sleeping Beauty" features devilishly hard technical challenges, with nowhere to hide. Traditional stagings -- like Pacific Northwest Ballet's long, rich, drafty one -- have pretty vapid storylines. Instead, the audience identifies with the dancers' technical struggles. That's the meaningful, heroic … [Read more...]
The Well-Oiled Alvin Ailey Audience in SoCal
Southern California is old, good friends with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, with a rightful claim to a crucial piece of Ailey choreographic history (the Lester Horton connection was forged here) and a revered longtime company member (Matthew Rushing). Ailey concerts have a party atmosphere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion -- the houses … [Read more...]
Buried Love Affair Evokes Elusive Moment in American Ballet History
With ballet’s 15th-century Renaissance origins still somewhat imaginable, it’s hard to keep in mind that American ballet -- born in 1940s New York City -- is still less than 100 years old. The two pillars of American ballet -- George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet and Lucia Chase’s American Ballet Theatre -- both arose in that same urban, … [Read more...]
Wheeldon’s Wonderful ‘Alice’
[slideshow] When British choreographer Christopher Wheeldon left his dance company Morphoses in 2010, I was so worried he might retreat from choreography, exhausted from the battle of keeping a transatlantic dance company funded and strong. How glorious, then, to see the National Ballet of Canada (NBC) bring Wheeldon's robust new creation, a … [Read more...]