Laura Bleiberg

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Los Angeles Ballet Needs More Than a Bland Swan Lake

Laura Bleiberg
First, a recap. Or as they say on television (in voiceover), previously, on Los Angeles Ballet... The drama of six months ago, recorded in an L.A. Weekly story, centered on dancer complaints and signs of trouble at Los Angeles Ballet, the ambitious fledgling company started in 2006 by husband-and-wife artistic......
Credit: Image by Ross Riege

Cari Ann Shim Sham*'s Documentary About Tap-Dancing on Sand

Laura Bleiberg
That's L.A. tap dancer Kenji Igus, on the right, watching as his father, Darrow, releases a fistful of sand. Darrow is readying the stage for a "sand dance," a rare style of tap dancing in which the dancer scrapes the gritty grains to extract whooshing and shussing sounds with the......
Credit: ILLUSTRATION BY JAW COOPER

L.A. Ballet: Dancer Turnover

Laura Bleiberg
If someone were to write a comprehensive history of Los Angeles' homegrown ballet companies, it would be part Greek tragedy, seasoned with Darren Aronofsky and antic comic relief à la Who Framed Roger Rabbit. "Alas! Classical Dance Cursed in Tinseltown." Small ballet companies abound, but a high-caliber troupe with crowd......
Holley Farmer and digital dancer share the stage; Credit: Priyank Mehta

Merce Cunningham and How Can Robots Can Help You Dance, at SCI-Arc

Laura Bleiberg
It was not a normal Thursday night lecture in Devyn Weiser's class, "Robotic Confections and Confabulations," at the Southern California Institute of Architecture or SCI-Arc last week. Fifty or so students, professors and guests gathered to hear Holley Farmer, one of the standout performers formerly with the Merce Cunningham Dance......
Ptero Dance Theatre's Kelly Gill (left) and Briana Masson prepare to dive into the banquettes.; Credit: Courtesy Denise Leitner

No Fresh Water Causes Disease. Let's…Dance About It? H2~Eau Does

Laura Bleiberg
Paula Present, artistic director of Ptero Dance Theatre, has a social conscience that triggers her creative juices. Some of her dances are born from a compulsion to spotlight the world's wrongs, and to help right them. In her latest full-evening piece, H2~Eau, which premiered Thursday (and goes through Sunday) at......
Darius Mannino and Gregory Barnett go head to head

Meg Wolfe Bangs Bodies Together in trembler.SHIFTER at REDCAT

Laura Bleiberg
Everyone has a signature walk/skip/movement, and Los Angeles dancer-choreographer Meg Wolfe is remarkable for her vertical swimming motion. The woman does the Australian crawl through the air. Her arms, tracing a delicate letter "C," whirl windmill-like, unfettered by the physical constraints of her shoulder sockets. Her arms pull along her......