In 2017 I wasn't able to get out to the theater often (so I reviewed film and book and other events as well). I maybe saw 10 concerts, including the big bubbly premiere of American Balllet Theatre's "Whipped Cream," the new Alexei Ratmansky creation replete with 3-D ferret-giraffes and Abe-Lincolns from artist Mark Ryden. Many of my friends … [Read more...]
The Society of the Spectacle
Does one really need to see Swiss filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Bron’s “The Paris Opera?” It's opening in L.A. at the Laemmle theaters this weekend. You can already imagine it, right: Venerable themes of youth and beauty and lonely artistic labor, as expressed by the bulging calf muscle and pointed toes of the student at the ballet barre? Or the … [Read more...]
Phantasmic Freaks and Geeks in ABT’s Scrumptious “Whipped Cream”
No one in their right mind thinks the ballet stage needs any more dancing sweets, yet there was something irresistible about the announcement that American Ballet Theatre Artist-in-Residence Alexei Ratmansky planned to resurrect Richard Strauss’ 1924 two-act ballet “Schlagobers” (Whipped Cream) with sets and costumes by the inimitable Mark Ryden. … [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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
Teatro Zinzanni Comes to Southern California
[first published in the L.A. Times] As the outré Euro-style dinner-theater called Teatro ZinZanni parks its vintage 1910 Belgian spiegeltent on the scrubbed architectural grounds of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts for the next three months, there's much cooing among the ZinZanni staff about the luxuries of this Costa Mesa locale. "Marble … [Read more...]
Radiolab with Pilobolus tours “In the Dark”
[This ran in the L.A. Times.] Before touring live versions of Radiolab, his gripping radio shows of scientific discovery and biography concocted with co-host Jad Abumrad, Peabody-winning reporter Robert Krulwich made just one brief stage appearance, decades ago, when he was recruited off the Manhattan streets to play a frozen, chair-bound Prince … [Read more...]