Dancing For Dollars (And Other Tidbits)

By Victoria Looseleaf

Now that February is over – and with the Oscars telecast finally marking the end of awards season (check out our before and after takes on Hollywood’s biggest night) – we’ve got other things on our minds – like work!

Seriously: Calling all terpsichores, at least those keen on strutting their stuff – for pay! The March issue of Dance Magazine is all about jobs – how to get ‘em, how to keep ‘em and everything else you need to know to further – or jumpstart – your career. And hey – we even contributed to the issue with a story, How I Got That Job, talking to four brilliant dancers about their paths to success, including Katricia Eaglin of Dallas Black Dance Theatre (above right). We’ve also written a piece about students and professional choreographers teaming up at UCLA, in a course called First Hand (click here for that).

As Martha Graham once said, “Movement never lies” (click here for our recent Graham coverage, including our LA Times review), so keep on dancing and the truth will set you free. In the interim, if you just like to watch, there’s plenty going on in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, including Los Angeles Ballet’s new production of Swan Lake (we’ll be covering the performance for the LAT this weekend; click here and here for some of our recent coverage on the troupe celebrating its sixth season); Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company (click here for our LA Times feature from, gulp, 2007), at the Ahmanson Theatre, March 9-12. On a more intimate scale: L.A.-based butoh artist extraordinaire, Oguri, will be at the Electric Lodge, March 16-18, with Andres Corchero, a guest dancer from Barcelona. (Click here for our Oguri Times coverage from 2009; click here for an earlier review. Then you’re on your own, though we’ve been writing about this master for many years and it’s cool to see the vast array of performances he’s given all over town in the past several decades.)

The end of the month (March 23-25), brings Ballet Preljocaj’s Blanche Neige, or Snow White, to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. (We covered the world premiere of the piece in 2008 in Lyon, France; click here for that; click here for our LAT coverage of Angelin Preljocaj dancing a solo in Montpellier in 2009; and click here for our Dance Mag coverage of the troupe’s performance of The Four Seasons at UCLA, also from 2009.)

If you can’t make any of those shows, well, you can always tune in to the new season of Dancing With the Stars, which, to our way of thinking, has come up with its weakest list of so-called stars yet, Martina Navratilova and Gladys Knight aside. (Click here for our Dance Teacher Magazine cover story on DWTS pro, Cheryl Burke).

In any case, we confess that we love to watch the pros (and have a fondness for Maksim Chmerkovskiy, whom we met in Vegas while covering a quartet of Cirque du Soleil shows; click here for our recent Dance Mag review of Iris, click here for our Vegas coverage; and click here for some of our Jacques Heim coverage – he choreographed Cirque’s KA and is artistic director of Diavolo, who, btw, will be at the Irvine Barclay Theatre March 22.) But enough about us, just go out and shake a tail feather. Who knows, you might even find yourself digging dance so much you’ll sign up for classes and dream about winning that mirror-ball trophy, a feat (no pun intended), that became reality for last season’s DWTS victors, the heroic JR Martinez (whom we adore!), and his partner, Karina Smirnoff.

 

P.S. And just cuz we love him, we’re glad that Ivan Vasiliev, left, has the job that he has – dancing with Mikhailovsky Ballet, whose current artistic director is Nacho Duato (click here for our 2007 LA Times story when Duato was still at the helm of Compañía Nacional de Danza). Yeah!

(Cover photo: Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away)

 

About Victoria Looseleaf

Victoria Looseleaf is an award winning arts journalist and regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times, KUSC-FM radio, Dance Magazine, Performances Magazine and other outlets. She roams the world covering dance, music, theater, film, food and architecture. Have pen - and iPad - will travel! Her latest book, "Isn't It Rich? A Novella In Verse" is now available on Amazon. Thank you for reading! Cheers...
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