Segerstrom Center for the Arts Executive Vice President Judy Morr adores Russian ballet and loves to make history. She was the first U.S. presenter of Eifman Ballet – also appearing this season at the center – and she makes sure the Mariinsky and Bolshoi ballets perform as often as possible. But past Segerstrom Center events could barely … [Read more...]
What’s the Answer to Abstract Dance?
Batsheva Dance Company 50th Anniversary Tour “Sadeh21” U.S. Premiere Royce Hall, UCLA Thurs Oct 30, Sat & Sun Nov 1-2 Touring the U.S. for the company’s 50th anniversary year, Batsheva Dance Company performed 3 shows at UCLA last week. The first was an invitation-only event: a rare assemblage of L.A.-area dance artists and … [Read more...]
On Bessies Night, L.A. Cheers for Keen Presenters
On the night of the Bessie Awards, New York City once again feels to eclipse all, sending L.A. into dark orbit. At the end of the night, however, L.A. dance-lovers have to come away with renewed appreciation for the great programmers out here who recognized the evening's genius, prize-winning solo artists from the U.S. and beyond, way before they … [Read more...]
Off-the-Radar Akram Khan Concert Next Week
Red alert, to anyone anywhere near Northern California on Oct. 24: Akram Khan is presenting his latest piece,“iTMOi” (“In the Mind of Igor”), which sounds amazing, at the UC Davis campus theatre next week. This blog page doesn't usually run preview notices, but this is the ONLY U.S. performance during the London-based company's international tour. … [Read more...]
Australian Ballet’s Earthly, Wrenching ‘Swan Lake’
While it sounded unpredictable on paper, the 12th season of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center opened on a high note with the West Coast debut of Australian Ballet’s “Swan Lake,” choreographer Graeme Murphy’s 2002 reimagining of Tchaikovsky’s epic beauty through the lens of the Princess Diana tragedy. Though a hybrid … [Read more...]
Garth Fagan’s Ancient, Electric Storms
Back in 1991, when Tony Award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan first teamed with jazz composer Wynton Marsalis, Fagan gave Marsalis a poem he had written in the voice of a West African storyteller to use as a centering theme for the music of “Griot New York.” The juncture of these two revered artists made for soaring, warmth-spreading … [Read more...]
Do You Think You Know Gene Kelly?
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...]