Dancing on the Dacha

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

Groucho Marx would have had a great time at The Bright Stream. More than Karl Marx, in any case. A comic ballet in two acts, this Stalinist era romp was made in 1935 by Fyodor Lopukhov, head of the Bolshoi, with his co-librettist Adrian Piotrovsky, all to the glorious music of Dmitri Shostakovich.  The composer, who had written music for two ballets prior, certainly knows his way around a grand jeté, with this work pulsating with melody, rhythms and motifs. Too bad then that Piotrovsky was thrown into the gulag and Lopukhov was axed from the Bolshoi because of this balletic farce. Shastakovitch, who feared arrest, ultimately fell out of favor with the Stalinist bureaucracy, and the ballet score, like his opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District soon disappeared from Soviet stages.

One of choreography’s ‘it’ boys, Alexei Ratmansky

But that was then and this is now. Happily, the brilliant Alexei Ratmansky has re-imagined the ballet (he choreographed it in 2003 for the Bolshoi when he was directing the stellar troupe), that is now being danced by American Ballet Theater. Flowing with wit, charm and virtuosic moves, Stream has become an instant classic. And with Ormsby Wilkins conducting an energetic orchestra, the Music Center of Los Angeles‘ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion came alive during ABT’s recent run of five performances.

Watching the effervescent dancers tear up the stage with unabashed joy, one wonders, though, how this hapless story – a pair of city artists visiting a Soviet farm collective, with cross-dressing, love triangles and merry mayhem ensuing – could truly have bothered the Soviets? Evidently, Stalin didn’t cotton to the Shostakovich score and was none too pleased that the dance made fun of farm-workers as opposed to showing proper – (read: politically correct) – respect.

David Hallberg in The Bright Stream, before he injured his ankle in New York.

The performance The Leaf saw featured the marvelous and radiant Julie Kent as Zina and the recently retired ABT star Jose Manuel Carreño as Pyotr, Zina’s hubby and an agricultural student. (Jose was moved to tears afterwards, a tiny taste of what had transpired on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House when he gave his farewell performance there several weeks ago). There were also sparks from a buoyant Isabella Boylston as the Ballerina who carried off her male solo with drag chic, and Daniil Simkin’s terrific Ballet Dancer, whose  turn as the Romantic tutu-sporting Sylphide was a fabulous hoot.

Sascha Radetsky and Sarah Lane in a playful mood.

Sascha Radetsky and Sarah Lane (Natalie Portman’s dancing double in Black Swan – for more about that click here to read some of The Leaf’s thoughts on the Aronofsky horror flick), were positively delightful as the Accordion Player and Schoolgirl, respectively. Then there was a host of Tractor Drivers, Highlanders, and a pair of dacha dwelling buffoons: Clinton Luckett (channeling Harold Lloyd) and Susan Jones, whose ample girth made her hippo-esque pointe work laugh-out-loud, nearly stole the show.

Amid the zaniness was a Grim Reaper, a crisp corps and astute characterizations –ABT’s dancers assayed Russian peasant mannerisms with ease  – as well as a hilarious dancing…dog. Ratmansky has been on a roll recently and shows no signs of slowing down. Sure, there was an element of vaudevillian Velveeta, but this is precisely what the world needs now.  Please pass the corn!

The Bolshoi production, The Bright Stream

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Dance, Drink, Whatever

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf


By Victoria Looseleaf

The Leaf traveled a lot in one of her past lives (her second book, Whorehouse of the Mind: A Novel of Sex, Drugs and the Space Program, chronicles some of those sojourns), and though it’s taken a while to rack up the miles again, she’s been doing it with a vengeance since 2006 (thanks, in part, to receiving a special Lester Horton Award, Furthering the Visibility of Dance, that same year).

So what does she love best, besides the food (foie gras, anyone…), the wine (who knew Switzerland grows grapes and has some very fine vinos, none of which they export but keep all for themselves…), the sights (from gothic to gorgeous, each city’s got its own fabulous architecture), the sounds (sirens are definitely different in Europe), the arts (what The Leaf’s life is all about, including checking out a very fine Brassaï photo exhibition in Montpellier), and all the different cultures?

Israeli choreographer Yuval Pick has something on his, er mind…

The peeps, of course. Meeting people, like-minded journalists and dance-lovers in general (including presenters, performers, choreographers, etal), at a host of different festivals, as well as those folks who actually live in the towns The Leaf visits, is absolutely the most gratifying part of traveling. Soaking up local color is always great, fersure, but it’s particularly fabulous to see old friends at the various festivals, as well as meeting new ones, to share experiences, to bond over good – and bad – art…and vin rouge, Perrier Menthe and macarons or Luxembergerli, as they’re called in Zürich. What could be better?

Bartabas on the horse with butoh dancer Ko Murobushi in The Centaur and The Animal, photo by Nabil Boutros

Of course, attending dance concerts in Montpellier has always been magnifique. On this, The Leaf’s fourth trip to that gorgeous town in the South of France, there has always been something fascinating to see, to talk about, to remember. Even if a performance wasn’t that great! So, click here to read her thoughts for Dance Magazine on the 31st Montpellier Danse Festival. Also, click here to view performance snippets.

Opera house, Montpellier, on the Place Comedie

In the interim, merci and let The Leaf know what you think. Au revoir pour maintenant!

Posted in BRASSAI, DANCE MAGAZINE, DRUGS AND THE SPACE PROGRAM, FOIE GRAS, GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE, LESTER HORTON, MACARON, MONTPELLIER DANSE, PERRIER MENTHE, SWISS WINES, WHOREHOUSE OF THE MIND: A NOVEL OF SEX | Comments Off on Dance, Drink, Whatever

Lang Lang: Feel the Love

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

He’s got both his groupies and garden-variety fans – as well as the whole world (or most of it, in any case) – in his precious hands: those hands that plunk out everything from Mozart, Rachmaninoff and Beethoven, to Chopin, Prokofiev and Liszt. (It’s Franz’ 200th birthday and consequently a big year for all things Lisztian, with Lang releasing an album of that titan’s music in October, along with a DVD of his life – Lang’s not Liszt’s.)

So how was it speaking with the Chinese-born superstar who began playing piano at age two (talk about tiger moms…)? Well, since The Leaf only got 10 minutes – 11 counting the 60 seconds she had to set up her microphone – in his dressing room at the famed Hollywood Bowl, it was short and sweet(ish). Oh, and happy 90th birthday, as well, to the Bowl, one of Los Angeles’ most beloved venues. Of course, the purpose of the, er, interview was to promote Lang’s first appearance with Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic. (Click here to read one of The Leaf’s posts on the fantastic maestro from Venezuela, another megastar.)

And while there is no disputing Lang’s phenomenal technique and rock-star status in the somewhat sacrosanct world of classical music, some critics have carped about his histrionics and Liberace-like affectations while performing. (Personally, The Leaf likes Liberace, so click here to see her farewell to the Liberace Museum in Vegas.)

But success breeds contempt, and since Lang has been wowing billions, including those viewing the 2008 opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, while the next year he was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people (there were 100 in total), Lang’s über-presence can get under some peeps’ skin. Not to mention that this is all heady stuff for someone under 30. (Hello Mark Zuckerberg…)

Lang Lang enjoying his Time in the spotlight.

Ach! The Leaf is still thrilled to have chatted with him. Whether there’s an entire radio story to be had, she’ll have to figure that one out anon. Hopefully, there is, as Lang talked about the meaning of his name, “brilliant guy, man, whatever,” he said, to which she replied, “doubled!” He also talked about the fact that he’s still working on Bach’s Goldberg Variations in order that he might record the monumental work – “some day.” To Lang, ancient history is something that occurred, say, four years ago, when he released his first autobiography, Journey of 1,000 Miles. And not to worry: Fans can look forward to Volume 2 in the not so distant future.

Lang as Fashion Plate (he’s got relationships with Calvin Klein, Adidas, Armani, etal…)

In the interim, click here to listen to her two KUSC Spotlight on the Arts with Lang. And keep spreading the music…

Posted in BACH, Beethoven, CHOPIN, GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, LANG LANG, LIBERACE, LISZT, LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC, MARK ZUCKERBERG, Mozart, OLYMPICS, PROKOFIEV, RACHMANINOFF, STEINWAY, TIME MAGAZINE | Comments Off on Lang Lang: Feel the Love

Au Revoir, Roland Petit

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

Just a few words to say ‘merci beaucoup, Monsieur Petit,’ for having given the world some of its most indelible choreographies, including 1946’s Le Jeune Homme et La Mort, followed by Carmen, the most sizzling cigarette girl on pointe, three years later. And helping polish those works to such a brilliant shine, was your wife, the astonishing Zizi Jeanmaire, the ballerina with the pixie haircut who survives you, as does your daughter Valentine. (And who should sport that same style haircut today, but the Bolshoi Ballet‘s ravishing Natalia Osipova).

Petit and Jeanmaire: In flight

And though I never was privileged to have met you, I feel I know you through your ballets, which continue to elevate, inspire and bring pleasure to so many of us. (We can see Nureyev and Zizi on YouTube in the 1966 version of Le Jeune Homme as well as Baryshnikov dance the role in the opening credits of Taylor Hackford’s 1985 film, White Nights.)


I was fortunate, however, to have met Jean Babilée (original danseur, Le Jeune Homme) at the International Ballet Festival in Havana in 2006 (founded by Madame Alicia Alonso, who still rules with her tulled hand, and where I also met Ospivoa and her betrothed, megastar Ivan Vasiliev). I also know Frédéric Flamand, the current director of Ballet Marseille, the troupe originally founded by you in 1972.

Frédéric Flamand’s Metapolis, a collaboration with architect Zaha Hadid for Ballet Marseille


And though you now are no longer choreographing on terra firma, the ballet world keeps on turning, with new generations of dancers learning your works. (Two Bolshoi über-stars, Nikolay Tsiskaridze and Vasiliev, comes to mind: Nikolay was supposed to dance Le Jeune Homme in Orange County in 2006 as part of The Kings of Dance program – click here to read my story for the Los Angeles Times – but because of problems transporting the set, it didn’t happen. I did learn, though, that you coached Nikolay for the work which he then performed in Tokyo.)

Baryshnikov as the tortured artist in Le Jeune Homme et La Mort

And we can still see your terpsichorean prowess from your Hollywood-dabbling days: You choreographed Hans Christian Andersen in 1951 (Danny Kaye and Zizi), 1955’s Daddy Long Legs (Fred Astaire and Leslie Caron), The Glass Slipper (also from 1955 and featuring Caron), and Anything Goes (Bing Crosby, Mitzi Gaynor, Zizi, etal, the following year).

The luscious Leslie Caron, also pixie-haired, in Daddy Long Legs

Quel fabulous career! In any case, for those wishing to read more about Roland Petit, click here for the New York Times obituary, written by my colleague, Anna Kisselgoff, former chief dance critic of that esteemed paper. Vive la danse!

Posted in ALICIA ALONSO, BARYSHNIKOV, BING CROSBY, DANNY KAYE, FRED ASTAIRE, JEAN BABILEE, LESLIE CARON, MITZI GAYNOR, NATALIA OSIPOVA, NIKOLAY TSISKARIDZE, NUREYEV, ROLAND PETIT, ZIZI JEANMAIRE | Comments Off on Au Revoir, Roland Petit

Goodbye, Betty Ford

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

She was one of our most outspoken, dynamic, fearless and memorable First Ladies. She was Betty Ford, née Elizabeth Anne Bloomer, in Chicago in 1918. Her improbable ascent to First Lady as the wife of Gerald Ford, our 38th president, was, however, a role she was born to play.

Slow dancing in the White House


And while The Leaf is not an obituary writer (click here to read Mrs. Ford’s obit from the always masterful New York Times), she used to have a segment on her erstwhile cable access TV show, The Looseleaf Report, called Who’s Dead Now? During that bit, she and her co-host, Eric Malone, would discuss the notable – as well as the outré – deaths of that week. The Leaf also dedicated each one of the more than 400 Looseleaf Reports to somebody’s memory. Alas, sometimes the list was quite extensive, including those who had been guests on the show, guests such as Timothy Leary, George Carlin, Steve Allen, Ivan Moffat (click here to read The Leaf’s recent remembrances of dear Ivan), and the list goes on.

Betty Bloomer in dance class


But The Leaf digresses: This is about Betty Ford…the dancer. Bet or Bets, as she was also called, had moved with her family to Grand Rapids, Michigan when she was two, where she began taking dance lessons six years later. And for two summers after graduating from high school, she also attended the prestigious Bennington School of the Dance. Then, at 20, living in New York’s boho Greenwich Village, Betty attended dance classes (as would the late actor Leslie Nielson and pop superstar Madonna), with the one and only Martha, i.e., Martha Graham, the Mother (capital ‘M’), of modern dance. (Click here to read more about Martha, including The Leaf’s recent Los Angeles Times review of Martha Graham Dance Troupe).

Martha Graham, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli, Betty Ford: Dancing the night away…at Studio 54, perhaps?


Betty Bloomer must have had some damn good moves, as she subsequently joined Martha’s company. And while Betty always had said she was “disappointed that she hadn’t been quite good enough” to be a first-rate terpsichore, for the rest of her life this remarkable woman showed off her dancing chops whenever the occasion rose. Here, then, is a small pictorial tribute to our Betty, not only a breast cancer survivor and advocate for early mammograms, as well as a champion of women’s rights, including abortion, but also an innovator in addiction recovery (who on this planet has not heard of the Betty Ford Center, where Liz Taylor met and subsequently married Larry Fortensky), and one of the supreme movers and shakers of our time.

Thank you, Betty Ford, for being you: Long may you jeté!

Posted in BARYSHNIKOV, BETTY FORD, FIRST LADY, GEORGE CARLIN, GERALD FORD, HALSTON, IVAN MOFFAT, LARRY FORTENSKY, LESLIE NIELSON, LIZ TAYLOR, LIZA MINNELLI, MARTHA GRAHAM, STEVE ALLEN, TIMOTHY LEARY | Comments Off on Goodbye, Betty Ford

Diavolo’s Derring-Do

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

It’s no secret that Diavolo, founded in 1992 by French-born Jacques Heim (his grandfather, also named Jacques Heim, was a couturier who co-invented the bikini and dressed Edith Piaf, among other notables), is Los Angeles’ most popular dance troupe. Popular in the sense that this is the troupe’s 12th year of international touring and that when the company does perform on its home turf (which is rare), audiences go wild.

Couturier Jacques Heim draping one of his evening gowns on a model.

This was in evidence at the Watercourt at California Plaza as part of Grand Performances’ annual summer concerts. (Kudos, too, to Michael Alexander and crew on GP’s 25th anniversary!) On an evening shared with Columbian-based Noruz, Diavolo offered a mixed bill of five oldies (two recreated this year, one in 2009), and a glimpse of a new work, Cubicle, whose set could have come from The Container Store (this is a good thing…).

Heim, enamored with geometric shapes and structures and their infinite possibilities, will be expanding this 4-cube work to nine cubes, but for now, the enticing piece proved a wonderful commentary on the workplace, being boxed into spaces (literally, with performers squeezing their gorgeous bodies into small squares), and the need to trust. But trust is in the DNA of 13-member Diavolo, as these flying, whirling, acrobatic dancers must rely on one another to partner, catch (oh, those death-defying swan dives) and play off of each other in neo-clown mode.

Wall, from Cirque du Soleil’s KA, choreographed by Jacques Heim

Two who clowned around were Garrett Wolf and Jones Welsh in Apex, a romp, in and out of the water that characterizes this urban performance space in downtown Los Angeles. Monkeying around with ladders, the duo, jostling with each other and the climbing devices, is reminiscent of erstwhile Cirque du Soleil jester David Shiner and his antics. But of course Heim is no stranger to Cirque, having choreographed the billion-dollar company’s most artistically creative show, KA, the permanent Vegas production helmed by Robert Lepage at the MGM Grand. (Naturally, I did write about Heim and Ka for Dance Magazine in 2005, but in order to read that article now, one has to pony up a few bucks to Amazon, of which I get nada, nil, not a cent, so…grr…)

Diavolo dancers with the rocking structure of Trajectoire

But I digress: As this concert was a “tasting menu” of small Diavolo works – sans huge structures such as the boat of Trajectoire or the massive cubes and pyramids from Foreign Bodies and Fearful Symmetries (click here to read my Los Angeles Times “diary” from 2007, the troupe’s first appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Bowl, and click here for my New York Times story on the second work of the trilogy, performed to John Adams’ music, from 2010), set pieces were minimal. In Origin, Jennifer Huffman did a fearless solo on top of, around and under a sleek sculpture of a nude woman, while Bench, from 2009 allowed seven dancers to frolic with and manipulate a small, yes, bench, to the music of Bach.

Talk about the world on your shoulders: Foreign Bodies

Bookending Diavolo’s concert were über-athletic performances of Cage (1995), which featured the troupe wrestling with a jungle gym-type prop and AWOL, a 1992 work revisited by Heim two years ago. And not to worry: If you missed the Grand Performances appearances (the troupe is also there July 8), here’s great news. Angelenos will have another chance to see Diavolo in October, when they will be in residency at the Los Angeles Music Center for the creation of a new piece inspired by the movement of skateboarding. Then, on February 2, 2012, Diavolo will debut at the spectacular new Valley Performing Arts Center. For the iconoclastic troupe once described as “the dance bridge to the 21st century” (by yours truly, actually, in the L.A. Times; click here for my1996 review), Diavolo has proven to be an even mightier force in the new millennium.


Diavolo: Los Angeles’ gift to the world, yeah!

Posted in BACH, BIKINI, CIRQUE DU SOLEIL, DAVID SHINER, DIAVOLO, EDITH PIAF, GRAND PERFORMANCES, JACQUES HEIM, JOHN ADAMS, LOS ANGELES MUSIC CENTER, ROBERT LEPAGE, VALLEY PERFORMING ARTS CENTER | Comments Off on Diavolo’s Derring-Do

Remembering Ivan Moffat

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

Yes, I’m guilty. Guilty of giving my dear friend, the great raconteur/screenwriter Ivan Moffat, a cigarette (American Spirit), when he was in Cedars-Sinai after having had a small stroke in the parking lot of Le Dome. That was nine years and four days ago today, July 4.

I know this, because Ivan, who was the associate producer of A Place In the Sun (he also gave the movie its name), and wrote a slew of other films, including Giant (co-written with Fred Guiol, earning the pair Oscar nominations), Tender Is the Night and Black Sunday, had asked me to take his cigarettes out of his pants pocket the day before.

Director George Stevens, Elizabeth Taylor, Ivan Moffat discussing Giant.

“Promise me that if I ever feel I must smoke, you’ll help me,” he had said.

Of course I would, I replied. The next morning, a Sunday, I was on deadline with the Los Angeles Times and then took a long distance call from my father, making me a few minutes late for my visit with Ivan at Cedars. I brought him the New York Times crossword, which we often solved together, but he brushed it aside, announced he craved nicotine and reminded me of my promise. When I tried to dissuade him, he told me to stop arguing with him and keep my word. (Okay, I thought, he was 84, after all, and, riddled with cancer, which he didn’t help by eschewing health foods, consuming, instead, large quantities of scotch and occasionally some pasta with olive oil, so what’s one cigarette…).

James Dean as Jett Rink on the set of Giant, his last movie

According to page 311 of the afterword of The Ivan Moffat File: Life Among the Beautiful and Damned in London, Paris, New York, and Hollywood, put together by Gavin Lambert (with my help and published in 2004 by Pantheon; a year later Gavin died a week shy of his 81st birthday), this is what happened next.

I kept my word even more reluctantly than I’d given it, helped him out of bed, wheeled him to the terrace, put a cigarette in his mouth and lighted it.

“Doctor says I can smoke!” Ivan said, took a triumphant puff and never spoke again. Almost at once his head slumped to his chest and he lapsed into terminal unconsciousness. But it’s unlikely that the cigarette was responsible. The doctor had decided not to tell him that the cancer had spread to his lungs and there was no way he could survive for more than a few days.

The Guinness Sisters, photograph by Curtis Moffat

Oy! Needless to say, I freaked. Once I got him back to his room, the doctors and nurses, who couldn’t revive him from the coma he’d lapsed into, told me to notify his family. I did, with everyone managing to arrive from wherever (London, Monterey, The Hamptons…), as Ivan hung on for four days. A British blue-blood, Ivan, born in Havana to bohemian poet/actor Iris Tree and the celebrated American photographer Curtis Moffat, lived an extraordinary life. He died on July 4 with many who loved him gathered around his bed.

Female nude, Modigliani, 1916 (Iris Tree)

July 4, for me, then, is not about blasting fireworks, barbecuing burgers or flying the flag. (Ivan certainly loved America, having met and worked with director George Stevens when they shot the first color footage of World War II before making his way to Hollywood where he lived and worked – doing several films with Stevens, including Shane, for more than half a century).

No, Independence Day for me is about remembering my wonderful friend, Ivan Moffat, whom I miss so very much and think of often, particularly on the Fourth of July.

Posted in BLACK SUNDAY, CEDARS-SINAI, CURTIS MOFFAT, ELIZABETH TAYLOR, GAVIN LAMBERT, GEORGE STEVENS, GIANT, IRIS TREE, IVAN MOFFAT, JAMES DEAN, PANTHEON, ROCK HUDSON, SHANE, TENDER IS THE NIGHT | Comments Off on Remembering Ivan Moffat

Hi-Def Dance

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

Having just jetted back to the City of Angels from a quick (16 days, boo hoo), European jaunt in search of high art, culture, haute cuisine and the meeting of fabulous new peeps, preferably those who are like-minded and also in pursuit of stellar performances – notably of the terpsichorean ilk – (click here for her Los Angeles Times’ Dispatch From Amsterdam, here for Zürich, and here for Montpellier), The Leaf is still train, bus and jet-lagged. But she carries on. And has Tivoed (DVR’d or whatever the hell one calls it these days), a host of must-see shows.

The Leaf’s Hero: Tony Soprano

A great way to help with her re-entry into La La Land, chilling in front of the flat-screen helps in a bizarre kind of way (as does Tweeting, FBing, emailing, eating homemade pasta and iChatting with her father), in order to get back into some kind of metabolic, i.e., normal time zone thing. Included in said TV-viewing is, of course, Treme, reruns of The Sopranos (on demand, and yes, The Leaf still digs David Chase’s classic fare), and So You Think You Can Dance, Fox’s hit summer show that’s proven to be great exposure for dancers of all stripes. (The Leaf regularly reviewed Melissa Sandvig – lately of Helios Dance Theater, for the Los Angeles Times – who also came to be known as The Naughty Ballerina during SYTYCD season 5, when Sandvig bourréed her way to the Top 6 and was seen by millions instead of the thousands watching her perform live on the concert stage.)

Ade Obayomi and Melissa Sandvig, So You Think You Can Dance

In any case, click here for Loose’s 2007 Dance Magazine interview, her first with SYTYCD executive producer/creator Nigel Lythgoe. And click here for her latest Dance Magazine story, one that asks the big question, “What Has the So You Think You Can Dance Effect Been” on mere mortals, i.e., those people in the trenches who own and operate dance studios across the country?

Some answers are surprising, some expected, all interesting. And for those who still like the feel of paper in hand, pick up the June issue of Dance Magazine and read all about it on the printed page. However you choose, enjoy, and let us know what you think. Merci beaucoup.

Posted in DANCE MAGAZINE, DAVID CHASE, DVR, FOX, HELIOS DANCE THEATER, MELISSA SANDVIG, NIGEL LYTHGOE, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE, THE SOPRANOS, TIVO | Comments Off on Hi-Def Dance

From Montpellier Avec Amour

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

How do I love thee, Montpellier Danse, let me count the ways: I love thee on opening night (June 22 – July 7, 2011), when old colleagues come together again, especially over beautiful French Champagne and tournedos de filet de bouef Rossini; I love thee at the relaxing, informative press conferences held in the belle jardin avec pomegranate juice, espresso and fresh apricots, where peeps like Batsheva Dance Company’s Ohad Naharin speak about their work with mind-boggling profundity; and j’aime thee most during performances, at least at those new creations that make one ecstatic to be alive and ever so grateful one has a career in dance, if only writing about this most ethereal of art forms.

FULL DISCLOSURE: The Leaf actually took a Gaga class under the master, Naharin, himself, who told her afterwards during lunch, “You did very well. You were listening.”

Ohad Naharin in grey, upper right. Free-for-all Gaga, Tel Aviv.

Wow! Talk about making my day, week, month and trip! But I digress: At 31 years old, Montpellier Danse, directed by Jean-Paul Montanari since 1983, is one of Europe’s most prestigious festivals, and The Leaf is honored to be covering it – this being her fourth time in the charming Southern French town. With numerous premieres – world and otherwise – and choreographers representing eight countries, this year’s works run the gamut from absolutely, well, awful, to staggeringly sensational.

The Trois Graces Fountain on the Esplanade

The venues are also varied, but nothing compares to sitting in the beautiful 15th century 550-seat Agora Amphitheater, also called Cours Ursuline and lovingly restored to the tune of 11 million Euros last year. With the stars and moon peeking through the mystical sky and the winds rustling sweetly through the trees, the top performers in the universe heat up the stage that was once a setting for nuns and prisoners. Vraiment: It doesn’t get much better than this.

From one great Spaniard, Rafael Nadal, to another – Israel Galván – The Leaf is living la vida buena as an arts journalist extraordinaire!

And as she recovers from jet-lag (while watching Wimbledon – hello Raffa – from the confines of her B. Hills-adjacent bedroom after dealing with the agonies and intricacies of TGV, CDG and Schipol in order to traverse the 6,000 miles to “commute” to this wine capital of the world – all helped, she might add, by what Tennessee Williams referred to as being dependent on the “kindness of strangers” – she realizes how much writing she must do to help justify/pay for her latest European jaunt. Still, The Leaf is oh-so grateful to have been in the presence of geniuses such as Ohad, Israel Galván, The Percussionists of Strasbourg, a quartet of Bartabas’ horses and the list goes on.

To read her Los Angeles Times’ Dispatch from Montpellier, then, click here. And not to worry, there will be more musings from The Leaf for Dance Magazine and for The Looseleaf Report on this incomparable festival. Merci et vive la France!

Posted in ALBAN RICHARD, BARTABAS, BATSHEVA DANCE COMPANY, ISRAEL GALVAN, JEAN-PAUL MONTANARI, MONTPELLIER DANSE, OHAD NAHARIN, PERCUSSIONISTS OF STRASBOURG, RAFAEL NADAL, WIMBLEDON | Comments Off on From Montpellier Avec Amour

On Zürich, Zeitgeists and Zingers

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Victoria Looseleaf

By Victoria Looseleaf

As you can tell, The Leaf loves alliteration – but there’s not much with the letter ‘Z,’ save in Scrabble and the OED. She could mention that Zürich, the lakeside hamlet she recently visited for the first time was somewhat of a zoo – as far as the wealth factor is concerned – but that will become obvious once you read Dispatch From Zürich, her Los Angeles Times musings on the city whose inhabitants speak both French and High German (with a bit of English thrown in for monetary reasons). As for this quaint town being part of the zeitgeist, let’s just say that paying 11,000 Swiss francs for a Chanel opera-worthy evening gown may be on some peeps’ radar, but The Leaf can only look. And dream. As for zingers, dear readers, go see Hangover 2 or something, cuz her mind is still fried from trying to process all the traveling, performance-going and dealing with the dollar’s ridiculously low rate of exchange. (Ouch!)

Some of the fabulous dancers of the Zürich Ballet

Also: In only 500 words (her LAT assignment), it’s hard to cover everything, including some of The Leaf’s insanely fabulous meals eaten in a garden sheltered from driving rains, some cool Swiss folks she met on a boat and two trains, and how incredibly easy it is to get around with the Zürich Card. For a longer dispatch, then, The Leaf will blab further once she hits home. In the meantime, click here for her LAT reportage.

Coming soon: The latest from Montpellier, the town The Leaf once dubbed, “a dance lover’s paradise.”

Posted in CHANEL, HANGOVER 2, Los Angeles Times, MONTPELLIER DANCE FESTIVAL, OED, SCRABBLE, SWITZERLAND | Comments Off on On Zürich, Zeitgeists and Zingers