Monthly Archives: November 2010

On Swans, Seasons Greetings and Boxed Sets: Calling All Balletomanes

By Victoria Looseleaf With swans in the air, or at least on screen (my review of the new Darren Aronofsky film, Black Swan, is coming, not to worry, while in L.A. Opera’s misguided premiere of Lohengrin, peeps sing about the … Continue reading

Posted in ALICIA ALONSO, BLACK SWAN, BUD CORT, DARREN ARONOFSKY, FIDEL CASTRO, FIRST RUN FEATURES, KNOPF, LOHENGRIN, LOS ANGELES OPERA, NIJINSKY, NUREYEV, PAVLOVA, SVETLANA ZAKHAROVA, VAI, VLADIMIR MALAKHOV | Comments Off on On Swans, Seasons Greetings and Boxed Sets: Calling All Balletomanes

Start Him Up: Keith Richards Spills the Book Beans

By Victoria Looseleaf A drug-saturated, ego-obsessed, musical and literary roller coaster ride, Keith Richards’ 469-page tome, Life, published by Little, Brown and Company (564 pages counting the index), has been touted as a memoir of Proustian proportions, his madeleines a … Continue reading

Posted in CHARLIE CRIST, KEITH RICHARDS, LOUIS VUITTON, MICK JAGGER, PROUST, THE DOORS, THE ROLLING STONES | Comments Off on Start Him Up: Keith Richards Spills the Book Beans

Opera, Opulence and Oysters: Hola, Valencia

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia; or Santiago Calatrava’s Moby Dick of an Opera House By Victoria Looseleaf Who knew that Spain’s third largest city was the coolest hot spot on the Mediterranean. Truly, this seaside burg of some 800,000 … Continue reading

Posted in BERND KOLLER, FERRAN ADRIA, HELGA SCHMIDT, HORCAHTERIA, LA PEPICA, LAS ARENAS, LORIN MAAZEL, PLACIDO DOMINGO, ROLANDO VILLAZON, SANTIAGO CALATRAVA, SPAIN, VALENCIA, VERDI, ZUBIN MEHTA | Comments Off on Opera, Opulence and Oysters: Hola, Valencia

Dancing Dreams: Pina Bausch Lives

The above clip is in German with French subtitles, but now Dancing Dreams is available on DVD with English subtitles. Hooray and danke schon! By Victoria Looseleaf A year before she died unexpectedly, in 2009, the incomparable dancer/choreographer Pina Bausch … Continue reading

Posted in ANNE LINSEL, DANCE MAGAZINE, MONTPELLIER DANCE FESTIVAL, PINA BAUSCH, RAINER HOFFMAN, TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL | Comments Off on Dancing Dreams: Pina Bausch Lives

On Equal Footing – Or Not

Flying high at City Hall, Collage Dance Theatre-StyleBy Victoria Looseleaf Not wanting to gild the lily, squash the pumpkin or get all Looseleafean on you, here is my Los Angeles Times review of Collage Dance Theatre. Founded and directed by … Continue reading

Posted in COLLAGE DANCE THEATRE, HEIDI DUCKLER, LOS ANGELES CITY HALL | Comments Off on On Equal Footing – Or Not

Her Body Was Music: Isadora & Abraham on the Page

By Victoria Looseleaf Life is a dance, and in a perfect world it should be artfully executed. Though I’m not talking 32 fouettes, we do need to be reminded of this from time to time, especially now, when the Twitterati … Continue reading

Posted in ABRAHAM WALKOWITZ, ANN COOPER ALBRIGHT, GERTRUDE STEIN, ISADORA DUNCAN, PICASSO, WESLEYAN PRESS | Comments Off on Her Body Was Music: Isadora & Abraham on the Page

Three for the Road

The prolific guitarist/composer  Howard Fishman. By Mary Lyn Maiscott Jazzy singer-songwriter Howard Fishman—who as a guitarist has played with such luminaries as Nellie McKay—recently released not one, not two, but three CDs of his songs. “I kind of lost my … Continue reading

Posted in Better Get Right, Howard Fishman, Marie Le Claire, Nellie McKay, No Further Instructions, The World Will Be Different | Comments Off on Three for the Road