Festival
2010 SPRING SCREENING SERIES
Dancing Across Borders
April 16 – 22, 2010
Landmark NUART
Q & A with director Anne Bass opening weekend
On a trip to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia in January 2000, filmmaker Anne Bass came across a sixteen-year-old boy who moved her immensely with his amazing natural charm and grace as a dancer. A longtime devotee of the world of dance, Bass felt compelled to give this teen the opportunity to leave his home and follow a dream that he could not yet have fully imagined. Peek behind the scenes into the world of dance and follow the intimate and triumphant story of a teenager who was discovered, and who only much later discovered all that he had in himself.
More about the film>
Film screens daily April 16-22 at 5:10, 7:30, and 9:50pm with Fri and Sat matinees at 12:30 and 2:50pm.
Q&A with filmmaker Anne Bass following 7:30pm showings on Fri and Sat. Special introduction by Anne Bass at 9:50pm Fri and Sat showings.
Special event screening on April 13 at 6:00pm to benefit Center Dance Art, the founding supporter of Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center to be held at AMPAS Samuel Goldwyn Theater 8949 Wilshire Bld, Beverly Hills. Opening remarks followed by screening at 7:00pm Directors Q & A and cocktail reception. Tickets: $175 general - $350 reserved.
GOTTA MOVE: Women in Tap
April 22, 2010
Glorya Kaufman Hall UCLA
A symposium of five generations of phenomenal tap dancers came together in Los Angeles to share stories, talk tap, celebrate, and dance... now debuting as the new documentary Gotta Move: Women in Tap by Lynn Dally.
Lynn Dally is currently celebrating thirty years as a professional tap dancer, choreographer, Artistic Director, and co-founder of the Jazz Tap Ensemble. She has toured worldwide in venues including Carnegie Hall, Maison de la Danse, the Smithsonian, Kennedy Center, and NY's Joyce Theatre with legends including Gregory Hines, Jimmy Slyde, and the Nicholas Brothers. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Tap at UCLA. Gotta Move: Women in Tap is her first film.
Come experience a full evening celebrating tap:
6:00pm- author Constance Vails Hill will discuss her new book, Tap Dancing America: A Cultural History.7:00pm- Screening of "Gotta Move: Women in Tap"
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers giving a behind the scenes look at the making of the film. Admission is free. Seating is limited and reservations are required. Contact Jazz Tap Ensemble at 310-475-4412 or jensemble@aol.com
BREATH MADE VISIBLE: Anna Halprin
May 7- 13, 2010
HELD OVER THROUGH MAY 20!
Q & A with Anna Halprin and Director Ruedi Gerber in person, May 7 & 8 following 7:40pm shows
Laemmle Music Hall
Breath Made Visible is the first feature documentary about the life and career of Anna Halprin. For the last seven decades, Anna Halprin, an American dance pioneer, has redefined our notions of modern art by exploring one question in her work: What is important in life? The search for that answer has ushered in such revolutionary experimentation in theater, music, and performance that it's reach extends beyond the arts and into our cultural conscience.
This cinematic portrait blends recent interviews with counterparts such as the late Merce Cunningham, archival footage, including her establishment of the first multiracial dance company in the U.S, and excerpts of current performances such as "Parades and Changes" at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, to weave a stunning, inspiring account of one of the most important cultural icons in modern dance.
More information on the film, showtimes and trailer.
2009, 80 min. Switzerland, USA, Directed by Ruedi Gerber
"It's hard to overestimate the influence the dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin has had on New York dance, even though she has made a point of staying far from the city."
-NY TIMES
"Engaging. Illustrative. The quintessential Left Coast choregrapher Anna Haprin has helped push the boundaries of modern dance."
-VARIETY
"An intelligent, beautifully photographed, smartly edited film."
-BACKSTAGE
Behind the Burly Q
Opens May 7, 2010
Laemmle's Sunset 5
Behind the Burly Q reveals the true story of burlesque by telling the intimate and surprising stories from its golden age through the women (and men!) who lived it. Featuring dozens of interviews with performers, musicians and authors including actor Alan Alda, whose father Robert Alda was a handsome “tit singer”; Lorraine Lee, who used to dance for Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd; Tempest Storm, who still performs today and claims to have been lovers with Elvis and JFK; the notorious Blaze Starr, who escaped a life of poverty to rise to the heights of fame and became involved with Governor Long; Kitty West, aka Evangelina the Oyster Girl, the Bourbon Street star, who entertained busloads of tourists as she “came out of her oyster”; Taffy O’Neill, who performed at night and spent the days taking her young son, stricken with polio to treatment; Mike Iannucci, star stripper Ann Corio’s husband and producer of “This Was Burlesque”; and Janet Davis, author of the extensively researched book on Tiny Kline, who Walt Disney himself discovered and made the first Tinker Bell when she was in her 60s.
Written, Produced and Directed by: Leslie Zemeckis.
Merce Cunningham films at MOCA
A partnership between Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at
the Music Center, MOCA and Dance Camera West
Sunday May 23, 2010 at 3 pm
Visit MOCA for directions
Join us for a Sunday matinee of three short films highlighting the legendary collaborations of choreographer Merce Cunningham with other renowned artists. Films include the never before screened “Story” with costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and Merce himself dancing, “Melange” a film shot in Paris and directed by Cunningham and Charles Atlas, and “Beach Birds for Camera” with music by longtime collaborator John Cage.
STORY (1964, 20 mins.)
Few people get to see this special historic footage of the dance performed in Finland during the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's 1964 World tour. STORY was indeterminate in its composition and could change depending upon the theater from performance to performance. This particular theatre had a moving circular platform on the stage, which was utilized during performance. The title refers not to any implicit or explicit narrative, but to the fact that every spectator may interpret the events in his own way. Features Merce Cunningham dancing and John Cage making sound with Rauschenberg's one-off decors from materials he found around the theater very grainy but wonderful. The music sounds produced have different qualities: either they are sustaining sounds, sometimes constant in pitch, sometimes sliding; or they are vibrant, sudden and shocking. The performers also exchange parts not only among themselves, but on occasion with the conductor too, who, like them, is also free to produce sounds.
MELANGE (2008, 8 mins.)
A film dance that utilizes multiple locations and an engaging score by John Cage to transport the viewer through a distinctive and captivating performance environment. The film was shot on location in Paris. This work is one in a long series of collaborations between Charles Atlas and Merce Cunningham, a relationship that spanned four decades and greatly influenced both artists and their work. Costumes designed by Suzanne Gallo and were never used again. As was the case with many of Cunningham’s film dances, movement ideas and materials often informed the next work he created. In this way, Melange anticipated the creation on Interscape, a full-scale stage production with set and costume design by Robert Rauschenberg and music by John Cage.
BEACH BIRDS FOR CAMERA (1993, 28 mins.)
Beach Birds for Camera is an adaptation of a dance work originally made for the stage. This film combines different shooting locations, black and white and color film, and Dolby stereo sound to present dance through the visual medium of film. When it was first suggested to John Cage that he should create a work in collaboration with Merce Cunningham for the 1991 James Joyce/John Cage Festival in Zurich, Cage had the idea to write a large scale piece to be called "Ocean," the projected title for Joyce's next novel—never to be written—following "Finnegan’s Wake." No suitable space was available for such a project, so it was decided that instead a new dance would be made for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company's repertory. Cunningham had always intended to call his part of the work "Beach Birds," and so the title remains.
