Arts reporting and criticism from journalist Laura Bleiberg
Just a quick reminder that Dance Camera West, Los Angeles' screen-dance festival, and To the Sea: Dance Concerts at the Santa Monica Pier run through Sunday. I made it to Friday's (4/13) To the Sea performance and sitting at the end of the pier is a remarkable--and utterly unique--place to see a dance concert. The …
Continue reading DCW & To the Sea
The Orange County contemporary dance company Backhausdance celebrates its 15th anniversary this year and artistic director Jenny Backhaus is taking a bit of a break from creating the bulk of the group’s repertory. This strikes me more as an evolutionary development than a major sea change. I’ve been watching the company’s development almost from its …
I don’t often do dance two-fers, but Saturday, Feb. 3 offered a tantalizing opportunity by two different companies and I didn’t want to have to choose between them. So what to do? Go to both, naturally. As the late afternoon shadows stretched to about double one’s size, and encroaching ocean breezes chilled the warm daylight, …
I have been a San Francisco Ballet fan since the early 1980s, when Michael Smuin ran the company. I was living in the city and had a ballet subscription. They have only gotten better since then, growing into one of this country’s most distinguished classical companies. Sadly, they infrequently come south to perform here. We’re …
The Music Center last week presented “The Nutcracker” for the first time in five years. The two-act ballet premiered in Russia in 1892, but, as we all know, it ended up becoming a holiday obsession here in the U.S. instead. (Read Jennifer Fisher’s excellent book “Nutcracker Nation” to find out how that happened.) Rachel Moore, …
Continue reading Not a review: Thoughts on Miami City Ballet & George Balanchine’s ‘Nutcracker’
In 2013, Israeli dancer and choreographer Danielle Agami migrated from Seattle to Los Angeles with her young company, Ate9. In the past four years, she’s had so many gigs that I wondered if she had a magical Time-Turner (see “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”), to be everywhere at once. Two shows at Los …
The Music Center kicks off a new initiative this summer, called The Music Center on Location. The downtown performing arts center is moving off campus, presenting two smaller dance companies and music artists at the Ford Theatres: Aszure Barton Dance in "Awáa" on Aug. 18 and Jacob Jonas The Company on Aug. 19, in shared program with …
