By Victoria Looseleaf
We’ve been on a mini-hiatus, so a belated happy new year, peeps. And what a weird 2013 it’s been already. We lost Huell Howser, folksy journalist who brought California to life for millions and whose legacy lives on through his many PBS television shows. We were particularly upset at his death at age 67, as we got to know him over the years.
In fact, he was a guest on one of our very first Looseleaf Report TV shows, along with the Del Rubio Triplets (all three are also gone now), and it was always great talking with him. He called us not too long ago to say how happy he was that he’d heard our KUSC-FM interview with the Labèque sisters. Goodbye, Huell…you are missed.
And just a few weeks ago, The Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director, Sergei Filin, was attacked by an acid-hurling maniac (Russian authorities still have not caught the perp). Causing a tsunami of attention on this hallowed institution (one that’s been beset by troubles in recent years), the unspeakable act has shown Filin to be an extraordinarily courageous man. After undergoing several eye surgeries, the erstwhile dancer and father of three sons has a hugely positive attitude and says he forgives his attacker. Our heart goes out to him.
But fear is in the air in Russia: Prima ballerina Svetlana Lunkina has defected to Canada (not that any dancer needs to defect from Russia these days); and the Bolshoi recently announced that it has cancelled its new Wayne McGregor Rite of Spring. This is the 100-year anniversary of the Ballets Russes’ Le Sacre du Printemps, and the dance is being staged everywhere around the globe in some form or another. (In October the Netherlands Dance Theater will be mounting its new Re-Rite as part of this year-long celebration, and we’ll be doing the pre-concert talks at the Music Center in L.A.)
We adore McGregor (click here for our coverage of Entity and here for our more recent dance festival coverage, including the Lyon Biennale), and trust that his Rite will be mounted in the not too distant future. As for us, we’re thrilled to be going to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion tonight (click here for tickets) to see The Joffrey Ballet perform Nijinsky’s reconstructed choreography of this mind-blowing work. (He’s pictured at right as the Golden Slave in Scheherazade.) L.A. also presented the world premiere of Rite in 1987 (top photo by Herbert Migdoll), after a 16-year process of terpsichorean archeology, undertaken by Millicent Hodson and Jeffrey Archer. We’re also ecstatic that there will be an orchestra playing Stravinsky‘s fiendishly difficult score live, no easy task, to be sure.
“But why do they call it a ballet,” a student asked recently.
Well, since Nijinksy was the preeminent male ballet dancer in the world at that time, and wildly broke with convention (indeed, Sacre was anti-ballet, if anything, with the dancers knock-kneed, crouching and far from being on pointe), and there was no term ‘contemporary’ in 1913, this is a legitimate question (if not merely a question of semantics), which brings us to this: What is the difference between modern and contemporary anyway?
That was what Dance Magazine recently asked 10 top choreographers, artistic directors and the like. We only wished we could have included more dance denizens to explore this intriguing topic (click here to read our article), as this is a discussion that never seems to go away. In essence, whether modern or contemporary, the notion reflects the times in which we live, be they troubled: acid-hurling; the economy; wars; information overload – or glorious: Obama’s second inauguration (Beyoncé lip-synched, big whoop); sharing art with friends; or breathing fresh air and waking up to the infinite possibilities of another day…it’s all part of a larger scheme that, hopefully, reveals itself in some way.
To that end, let’s continue our Feburary kick-off with renewed spirits, including checking out Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance, the beautifully mounted exhibition at San Francisco’s De Young Museum. With more than 70 costumes from ballets danced or choreographed by Nureyev, including Swan Lake and The Nutcracker (the ornate wardrobe pieces, valued from $45,000 to $95,000, are a testament to the dancer’s obsession with detail), as well as a slew of photos, videos and other ephemera chronicling his life, the exhibit was pristinely curated by Jill D’Allessandro. As for ephemera, newspaper clippings from Nureyev’s visits to the Bay Area are also featured, notably one from that 1967 night of infamy, when, after a performance, he and Margot Fonteyn were arrested at a Haight-Ashbury party that police raided over suspected presence of marijuana. (Nureyev, above at right, in Moments, with the Murray Louis Dance Company, 1977. Photograph © Francette Levieux)
But hurry: The exhibition ends February 17, with its greatest achievement making the legendary dancer come alive, or, as Nureyev himself said with his usual dramatic flair, “You only live as long as you dance.” He obviously lives on, in exhibitions such as this and throughout the dance world where his many roles and choreographies light up stages around the globe. As last month marked the 20-year anniversary of this legend’s passing, we’re lucky we had the chance to see him honored in this fantastic exhibition. And, not to worry: If you can’t make it to San Francisco, you might wish to purchase the catalogue, featuring more than 200 photographs, with bilingual text in English and French. In any case, we’re lucky we had him for some 54 years. (Costume at left by Nicholas Giorgiadis for Rudolf Nureyev in the role of Prince Siegfried, Act I, in Swan Lake, Vienna State Opera Ballet, 1964. Photograph by Pascal François/CNCS)
And after the inauguration, the first couple danced…
