Even if you have two left feet (or are still perfecting and managing TikTok dance challenges), it’s hard not to enjoy a fun dance movie. From flashy, high-energy musicals to dark ballet dramas, films about dance are as impressive as they are entertaining. And while there are many great dance movies out there, we did the legwork for you and combed through the offerings on streaming giant Netflix to distill their options down to a list of the very best dance movies on Netflix.
Maybe you’re looking for a love story between a well-to-do ballerina and a self-trained street dancer. Maybe you’re in the mood for an inspiring tale about an unlikely dance duo training to win a competition. No matter what you’re into, if you need more high kicks, pirouettes, and breaking battles in your life, here are seven dance movies you should stream on Netflix tonight.
CRETEIL, France — In a sweltering enclosed stage, several dancers perform synchronized routines before scattering, as others practice twisting handstands and tumbles. Amid this, Mourad Merzouki directs them, ensuring their hip-hop moves are flawless.
It’s the final day of rehearsals for the renowned French-Algerian choreographer and his energetic group of dancers who are preparing themselves for a huge Olympic Games festivity. Merzouki and his dance troupe will take center stage near the Eiffel Towel in Paris, showcasing the official dance of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games on Monday.
The four-day “Dance of the Games” marks a triumphant moment for Merzouki, 50, whose hip-hop style, once doubted 30 years ago, has now proven its lasting appeal.
“It’s great to see that hip-hop dance will be one of the major events watched by the whole world,” said Merzouki shortly after rehearsals at a choreographic center in Créteil, a suburb of Paris. His showcase will be held at the Trocadéro Champions Park, a free access arena where his choreographed performance will feature 30 dancers and urban artists.
Merzouki’s dance routine is one of three styles featured on the stage at Champions Park, where Olympic medalists arrive. His choreography blends the elements of martial arts, visual arts, circus, boxing and live arts, tailored to engage audiences of all ages and abilities.
Despite the weight of expectations, Merzouki remains confident in both himself and his dancers because of the positive message he’s trying to convey.
“I have a lot of pressure, because I want everything to go right,” he said. “We want the message of generosity of this dance to raise awareness to as many people as possible. This moment should allow us all to connect.”
From humble beginnings to a global platform, Merzouki’s innovative style took some time to gain widespread appeal. He started his dance company in 1996, naming it after his inaugural piece, Käfig, which means “cage” in Arabic and German. Merzouki was told his dance style wouldn’t resonate or maintain the attention of large audiences in Europe.
However, he received a different response while dancing in the United States, in cities such as Miami, Los Angeles and New York, the birthplace of hip-hop. In America, Merzouki’s his unique style was widely embraced, and he could have thrived there. But he chose to return to France to challenge doubters and break down barriers.
Merzouki eventually succeeded in doing just that. His company has had more than 4,000 performances in France and more than 60 other countries in a three-decade span.
“I think that this recognition is due to these 30 years that we have all spent fighting, holding on, believing in our dreams,” he said. “It’s so that precisely this dance can have a place like any other dance in the choreographic landscape.”
Throughout the years, Merzouki has kept his routines fresh with an open mind while selecting dancers — even asking those interested to submit dance videos via YouTube. He’s worked with reliable dancers and inserted new ones too with backgrounds in hip-hop, contemporary, classical and circus.
“It’s a a sign that this dance can be addressed to all audiences,” he continued. “With this competition, I think we can say that it’s an honor and that it’s encouraging for the future of this dance.”
French dancer Joël Luzolo called Merzouki an influential figure who brought his dance style from the streets to the theater. He said many dancers wouldn’t have sustainable careers without Merzouki’s impact.
“Back then, it was way hard than now,” said Luzolo, 30, who has danced for Merzouki for five years. “Every year, he tries to raise the level even higher to make people understand what hip-hop is and what it can be. He’s been a really great influence. It can help dancers with having a career and life.”
Merzouki is grateful for the reemergence of the breakdancing culture, which is debuting as competitive event during the Paris Games — though some in Paris’ local breaking scene were skeptical of the subculture being coopted by officials, commercialized and put through the rigid judging structure.
“Some were for it, some were against it. But I think it’s very good news that breaking was propelled to the forefront into such an important event,” he said. “The DNA of breaking and hip-hop dance is competition. It was battles. It’s a continuation of this great story of hip-hop. I hope the visibility will allow this dance to be better recognized and reach a larger, wider audience.”
After the Olympics showcase, Merzouki will focus on his new show called “Beauséjour” in Lyon, France. He has upcoming projects with different orchestras, collaborating with several artists and just creating as much as possible.
With grand plans up his sleeve, Merzouki is ready to present his artistic dance to the Olympic world.
“I hope that the public, who thinks hip-hop dance is not for them, can discover a new discipline they necessarily didn’t know,” he said. “This is a great moment of visibility. … The symbolism is strong. It’s an artistic recognition. French youth from working class neighborhoods, dancing in the heart of Paris.”
Getty/Illustration by Keila GonzalezGetty/Illustration by Keila Gonzalez
Ask anybody from New York, and they’ll tell you that summers in the city are special. They are so special that they’ve been immortalized in great works of literature, cinema, and songs for decades now. Perhaps most famously on the Latine side of things, El Gran Combo’s “Un Verano En Nueva York” stands as an ode to New York City summer and everything it brings with it: street festivals, block parties, boat tours, beach days. And for many Latines in the city, summertime marks the return of a time-honored tradition: Latin dance nights.
As a kid, my father had my sister and me on the weekends, and he would take us down to South Street Seaport for salsa night. This was before the recent renovation, back when the Fulton Fish Market still operated out of downtown and would fill the air with the strong scent of tilapia, salmon, and sea bass. But as you got closer to the water, the scent dissipated, and the rhythm of the clave got stronger. You’d pass Pizzeria Uno and the now-defunct bar Sequoia, turn a corner, and boom, a dance floor full of NYC’s best steppers, the bass thick enough to swim through.
These parties are an important part of maintaining the culture, language, and political power we’ve seen dwindle as rents have soared.
Those Latin dance nights were a formative part of my childhood. Not because I learned how to dance there (I still haven’t fully), but because of the experience of the community they provided, the enclave of Latinidad that enveloped you when you walked in. It was like a big family, where faces you hadn’t seen in years would bob up and out of the crowd. I still have good relationships with all my dad’s friends (who are now in their 60s) because of those Latin dance nights. I still remember the many times my parents — separated for years at that point — would bump into each other by chance at an event or party, and the more difficult aspects of their relationship would be forgotten as they spun their way through a song or two.
But this summer, rather than reliving those fond memories, I plan to make my own and go to as many Latin dance nights as possible. Toñitas 50th Anniversary Block Party in June was a sight to behold. Amid the clash of boutique restaurants and three-story brick buildings in South Williamsburg, Grand Street was packed with gyrating bodies swaying to the rhythms of salsa and reggaeton. Vendors from all over the city, such as La Fonda, served up Puerto Rican staples, while others provided classic Caribbean refreshments such as coco frio; DJs and live bands played in the background. It was a day that felt like you were in old New York City.
But while Toñitas was a legitimate throwback, two other organizations, Perreo 2 the People and La 704, have been hard at work trying to bring the future sounds of Puerto Rico to the Big Apple. Two times in as many months, the collectives have hosted perreo parties at Starr Bar in Bushwick, showcasing the next generation of island talent. More than being a platform for up-and-coming artists like Bendi La Bendición, Taiana, Keysokeys, and Enyel C, the parties also serve as a bridge between diaspora and the motherland. At a time when Puerto Ricans are vanishing from the city we helped build, these parties are an important part of maintaining the culture, language, and political power we’ve seen dwindle as rents have soared. And for me, they represent a kind of homecoming.
I’ve been a professional of color for many years now, navigating the ups and downs of the corporate world. As I have, I’ve found that new environments and opportunities opened up to me, taking me far away from my concrete beginnings. Working in tech meant nights filled with craft beer, ping pong, and karaoke. Advertising led me to the snowy-covered streets of Buffalo, where decades-old pubs and ritzy fine dining mingle on Main Street. However, the more ingrained I became in corporate culture and the more I looked for out-of-the-box experiences, the further away I drifted from the humble Latino parties that sustained me in my younger years. We didn’t need a lot to have fun, no top shelf liquor or fancy appetizers. We just needed a beat and a dance floor.
Now that I’m older and wiser, I’m looking forward to getting back to my roots, to getting back and giving back to my community, and getting back a piece of myself I had long ago put away. And maybe I’ll finally become the salsa dancer I always wanted to be.
Miguel Machado is a journalist with expertise in the intersection of Latine identity and culture. He does everything from exclusive interviews with Latin music artists to opinion pieces on issues that are relevant to the community, personal essays tied to his Latinidad, and thought pieces and features relating to Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican culture.
Gabbi Beauvais, as Peter Pan, and Quinnlyn Scheppner, as Wendy, in “Wendy’s Peter Pan” at Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum on various dates through Oct. 4 in Topanga. (Photo by Ian Flanders/Courtesy of Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum)
Here is a sampling of things to do in the San Fernando Valley and the greater Los Angeles area.
EVENTS
Wizard of Oz – 85th anniversary celebration: The Museum of the San Fernando Valley presents an outdoor screening of the 1939 movie, 8:15 p.m. July 11. The museum’s event begins with a program by Elaine Horn, a Judy Garland-as Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz” impersonator, 6:15 p.m., plus a raffle and silent auction of “Wizard of Oz” movie memorabilia. Prepaid tickets $10 ages 12 and older; free for ages 11 and younger. Bring a blanket for lawn seating. The event is a fundraiser for the museum. Rancho Cordillera del Norte, 9015 Wilbur Ave. (at the corner of Nordhoff Street), Northridge. 818-754-4400. Email: themuseumsfv@gamil.com. Details and to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/5ewtctbf
Music Center’s Dance DTLA: Have fun learning new dance steps when expert dance instructors provide dance lessons and DJs spin the tunes, 7-11 p.m. on Fridays through Aug. 16. Schedule: Reggaeton, July 12; Colombian Cumbia, July 19; Line Dance, July 26; Samba, Aug. 2; Hip-Hop, Aug. 9; Disco, Aug. 16. Lessons are free. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Check the website for instructors and DJs. Dances are subject to change. Check the website for parking or taking the Metro. Jerry Moss Plaza at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. www.musiccenter.org/dancedtla
Lotus Festival in Echo Park – People and Culture of the Philippines: The 43rd festival, celebrating the cultures of Asia and the Pacific Islands, focuses this year on the Philippines, noon-9 p.m. July 13 and noon-8 p.m. July 14. Event includes artisan and boutique booths, art demonstrations, community booths, the host country’s pavilion, dragon boat races and food. Free admission. The “Lights of Dreams Water Lantern Festival” requires a ticket in advance; information and cost on Eventbrite here: tinyurl.com/38xjvenw. Echo Park Lake, 751 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles. 213-485-5027. https://culture.lacity.gov/event/43rd-lotus-festival/2024-07-13/. www.laparks.org/lotusfestival
Valley Vibes Market – Autry Museum of the American West: The outdoor event includes handcrafted items marketplace, music, a bar and food trucks, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. July 14. Free admission and parking. Location: Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles. https://theautry.org/events/family-activities/valley-vibes-market
The Gentle Barn: Visit rescued farm animals while supporting the organization’s ongoing mission to care for these animals, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 14 (and other Sundays). Reservations, by a timed-entry, are required in advance. Also, check the website’s calendar for special tour options and programs. Admission $26.50 ages 13 and older; $16 ages 2-12. Location, 15825 Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita. https://www.gentlebarn.org/california/
Oxnard Salsa Festival: A celebration of the condiment, the music and the dance — the festival returns after 5 years — plus a marketplace of beverage, food and retail vendors, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. July 27-28. See the website for bands and their schedule. Admission $9.98 ages 13 and older; free admission for ages 12 and younger. General admission price includes live entertainment, access to beverage, food and vendor market (does not include salsa tasting). The “Salsa Tasting Lounge” ($28.98, includes festival entry, salsa tasting and additional perks). See the website for a VIP admission option. Plaza Park, 500 S. C St., Oxnard. oxnardsalsafestival.com
ART
Brand 52 – Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper: The 52nd annual show includes 102 artworks — 1,574 artworks were entered for this year’s show, the largest number submitted, and also the largest number to be chosen to be exhibited. The art was submitted by artists from across the United States and curated by art critic and curator Shana Nys Dambrot. Gallery hours: 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Exhibit runs through Aug. 9. Exhibit catalogs for sale: www.associatesofbrand.org. Brand Library and Art Center, 1601 W. Mountain St., Glendale. 818-548-2051. www.brandlibrary.org
Visual Journey – Artist Co-Op 7: A virtual exhibit from 12 members of the group, through Sept. 30. The exhibit is held in conjunction with the San Fernando Valley Arts & Cultural Center. https://www.co-op7.org. View the exhibit here: www.sfvacc.org/
ReflectSpace Gallery: “(Be)Longing: Asian Diasporic Crossing.” Opening reception, 6:30 p.m. July 27. Gallery hours: 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 1-6 p.m. Sunday. Exhibit runs through Sept. 22. The gallery is inside the Glendale Central Library, 222 E. Harvard St. 818-548-2021. reflectspace.org. www.reflectspace.org/post/be-longing
Babst Gallery: “Athena LaTocha” and “Sarah M. Rodriguez.” Gallery hours: noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; and by appointment. Exhibits run through Aug. 3. Location, 413 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. 424-600-2544. babstgallery.com/
Michael Kohn Gallery: “Chiffon Thomas: Progeny.” Gallery hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Exhibit runs through Aug. 17. Location, 1227 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles. 323-461-3311. www.kohngallery.com
Artist Co-Op 7: “Touch of H’art,” interpretations of the natural world by local artists — Susan Ahdoot, Selina Cheng, Beverly Engelberg, Cheryl Mann, Debbi Saunders, Joi T. Wilson. Show is curated by artist Helen Kim. Gallery Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday; closed on Sunday and holidays. Exhibit runs through Sept. 27. Encino Terrace, lobby gallery, 15821 Ventura Blvd. (between Densmore and Gloria avenues), Encino. Artist Co-op 7 contact, Jeanne Hahn, 818-885-8306 or jeannehahn@aol.com. www.co-op7.org
BOOKS
Book Soup: Carol Mitchell discusses “What Start Bad a Mornin,’” 7 p.m. July 11. Mateo Askaripour discusses his novel “This Great Hemisphere,” 7 p.m. July 12. Carol Conners, with Steve Bergsman, discuss and sign “Elvis, Rocky & Me,” 7 p.m. July 15. Adam Sass discusses “Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts,” 7 p.m. July 16. Ruth Madievsky discusses “All-Night Pharmacy,” 7 p.m. July 17. Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. 310-659-3110. www.booksoup.com
Diesel, A Bookstore: Deborah Stoll discusses and signs “Drop in: The Gender Rebels Who Changed the Face of Skateboarding,” 6:30 p.m. July 18. Sarah Manguso discusses and signs “Liars,” 6:30 p.m. July 23. Andrea Freeman discusses and signs “Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch,” 6:30 p.m. July 24. Free seating is limited at the outdoor events. Purchase a book in advance to reserve a seat (click on the website’s tab for the author’s date). Location, 225 26th St., Santa Monica. 310-576-9960. www.dieselbookstore.com
Markar Melkonian: Discusses and signs “The Wrong Train: Notes on Armenia Since the Counterrevolution,” 7 p.m. July 19. Presented by Abril Bookstore. Location, Center for Armenian Arts, 250 N. Orange St., Glendale. 818-243-4112. www.abrilbooks.com
Autobooks-Aerobooks: Dave Wolin discusses and signs Ascot Chronicles — The People Who Made it Happen,” 11 a.m.-3 p.m. July 20. Location, 2900 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. 818-845-0707. www.autobooks-aerobooks.com
Friends of the North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Branch Library used book sale: The group holds the sale, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. July 20. Members of the Friends of the North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Library get a members-only preview sale, 9:30 a.m.-11 p.m. (join at the door to become a member; yearly membership $10; $5 seniors). Cash or check only. Location, 5211 Tujunga Ave. 818-766-7185. www.lapl.org/branches/north-hollywood
Ken Khachigian: California attorney, political consultant and speechwriter discusses his book “Behind Closed Doors – In the Room with Reagan & Nixon,” 6 p.m., followed by a booksigning, 7 p.m. July 30. Register in advance to attend and pre-purchase the book online (only books bought at the Ronald Reagan Library Museum store will be eligible for the booksigning). Location, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley. www.reaganfoundation.org. Details, register and pre-purchase the book: tinyurl.com/bd6jm65n
COMEDY
Fritz Coleman: The “Unassisted Residency” show, 3 p.m. July 21. Tickets $35; $45 for cocktail table seating (must purchase two tickets for this option). Upcoming show: Aug. 18. El Portal Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. 818-508-4200. www.fritzcolemancomedy.com. elportaltheatre.com/fritzcoleman.html
Dance at the Odyssey: A dance mini-fest by choreographers whose dances confront personal and social concerns and issues. “You Live in My Spine” by choreographer Leah Zeiger, 8 p.m. July 11. “Bounded By Intervals” by Kaia Makihara and hasten dance, 8 p.m. July 12. “Rupture” by TORRENT and Caitlin Javech, and “As If Everything Was Perfect” by Gianna Burright, 2 and 8 p.m. July 13. “Degagez, il n’y a riena voir” by Hélène Bouboulis, and “Calling from the Void” by Genna Moroni and G.U.M., 2 p.m. July 14. Tickets $25. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 310-477-2055, Ext. 2. odysseytheatre.com. Details: tinyurl.com/2b6u2h7u
Louise Reichlin & Dancers: Performances of “Heart, Part I,” Metro Transformation, Gotta Get Up!” and “Reboot! Reboot!” and “Urban and Tribal Dances” (all six dances in the latter set — Batida, Wedding, Alone, War, Remembrance, Together — have been re-imagined), preview 7 p.m. July 12; 2 p.m. July 13-14. Tickets $25. Location, The Ivy Substation, 9070 Venice Blvd., Culver City. 213-458-3066. lachoreographersanddancers.org/news
Joan Jonas, Mirror Piece I and II (1969/2024) – The Getty: Fifteen dancers use synchronized choreography while holding mirrors, 4 p.m. July 13-14. The dance is part of the Getty’s “Ever Present” performance series. The dance is free, but a timed-entry reservation to the Getty Center is required. The dance is staged outdoors at the Getty Center’s Arrival Plaza. Parking $25 (www.getty.edu/visit/center/parking-and-transportation). Location, 1200 Getty Center Drive (at North Sepulveda Boulevard), Los Angeles. 310-440-7300. www.getty.edu. Details: tinyurl.com/5rn4pwhk
DINING
DineLA Restaurant Week Summer 2024: Participating restaurants offer a special lunch/dinner menu, July 12-26. Reservations are recommended. Meal times and prices vary by restaurant (restaurants offer set prices for lunch/dinner; $15, $25, $35, $45, $55, $65+). Beverages, tax and tip are extra charge. Facts: www.discoverlosangeles.com/dinela/FAQ. Find list of restaurants by cuisine, neighborhood, price and dining option (indoor or outdoor): www.discoverlosangeles.com/dinela
Canoga Park Farmers Market: A certified market, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Saturdays. Rain or shine. Location, 7248 Owensmouth Avenue, between Sherman Way and Wyandotte Avenue. www.instagram.com/mainst.canogaparkfarmersmarket
El Nido Farmers Market – Pacoima: El Nido Family Centers and the City of Los Angeles present the market, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. Location, Pacoima Family Source Center, 11243 Glenoaks Blvd. www.elnidofamilycenters.org/farmers-market
Encino Farmers Market: ONEgeneration presents the market, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays. Location, 17400 Victory Blvd. (between Balboa Boulevard and White Oak Avenue). Farmers market manager, 818-708-6611 or email: farmersmarket@onegeneration.org. www.onegeneration.org/farmers-market/
Good Times Farmers Market: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays. Los Angeles Valley College, parking lot A, 5800 Fulton Ave. (at Burbank Boulevard), Valley Glen. Email: goodtimesfarmersmarket@gmail.com. Instagram: tinyurl.com/mrxcaxrn
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures: Ongoing special exhibits: “Outside the Mainstream,” through Aug. 4. “Shifting Perspectives: Vertical Cinema,” through Aug. 4. “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” through Aug. 4. “Significant Movies and Movie Makers,” three exhibits through Jan. 4, 2026: “Casablanca,” “Boyz n the Hood,” and Lourdes Portillo.” Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday and Monday. Admission $25; $19 ages 62 and older; $15 students, age 18 and older with ID; free for ages 17 and younger. Location, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. (corner of Fairfax Avenue), Los Angeles. 323-930-3000. academymuseum.org
African American Firefighter Museum: Artifacts, fire apparatus, pictures and stories about African American Los Angeles firefighters. Hours: timed entry admission, 1, 2 and 4 p.m. on Sunday (make a reservation on Eventbrite here: tinyurl.com/4dx5xxhk). Donation. Location, 1401 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles. 213-744-1730. https://www.aaffmuseum.org/
Autry Museum of the American West: Museum hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Admission $18; $14 ages 62 and older, and ages 13-18 and also students older than 18 with ID; $8 ages 3-12 (theautry.org/visit). Location, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles. theautry.org
Bolton Hall Museum: Hours: 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Free admission; $5 donation is appreciated. Bolton Hall Museum, 10110 Commerce Ave., Tujunga. 818-352-3420. Email: llhs@boltonhall.org. www.facebook.com/boltonhallmuseum and www.boltonhall.org
California African American Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: Speaking to Falling Seeds,” through Aug. 3. “Paula Wilson: Toward the Sky’s Back Door,” through Aug. 18 (caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2024/paula-wilson-toward-the-sky-s-back-door). Also, “Simone Leigh,” a traveling exhibit, co-presented with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (artwork to be presented at both museums), through Jan. 20, 2025 (caamuseum.org/exhibitions/2024/simone-leigh). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Free admission. Parking $20 before 5 p.m.; $24 after 5 p.m. (in Exposition Park). Location, 600 State Drive, Los Angeles (in Exposition Park). 213-744-7432. www.caamuseum.org and www.facebook.com/CAAMinLA/
California Science Center: Ongoing special exhibit: “Leonardo Da Vinci: Inventor. Artist. Dreamer.,” through Sept. 2 (californiasciencecenter.org/exhibits/leonardo-da-vinci-inventor-artist-dreamer). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission is free to the center’s permanent galleries, but there is a charge for special exhibits. Admission to the “Leonardo Da Vinci” exhibit: $22.95 ages 18-64; $20.95 ages 65 and older and students ages 13-17 with ID; $15.95 ages 3-12; (timed tickets are required for special exhibits, and also the Imax Theater; californiasciencecenter.org/visit). Location, 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles. californiasciencecenter.org
Craft Contemporary: Ongoing special exhibits: “Kyungmi Shin: Origin Stories” (www.craftcontemporary.org/exhibitions/kyungmi-shin-origin-stories) and “3B Collective: Highway Hypnosis,” with artwork from members of the Los Angeles-based 3B Collective — Adrian Alfaro, Aaron Douglas Estrada, Alfredo D. Diaz, Alexa Ramírez Posada, Oscar Magallanes, Rubén Ortiz-Torres — (www.craftcontemporary.org/exhibitions/highway-hypnosis). Both exhibits run through Sept. 8. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Admission $9; $7 ages 65 and older and students; free for ages 12 and younger. Location, 5814 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. www.craftcontemporary.org
Discovery Cube Los Angeles – Sylmar: Ongoing special exhibit: “Expedition: Dinosaur!” through Sept. 2. The Discovery Cube has ongoing exhibits that aim to make science fun for children. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission $18 ages 15-61; $17 ages 62 and older; $16 ages 3-14. Location, 11800 Foothill Blvd., Sylmar. www.facebook.com/TheDiscoveryCube and www.discoverycube.org
The Getty Villa: Ongoing special exhibits: “Picture Worlds: Greek, Maya, and Moche Pottery,” through July 29 (www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/picture_worlds). “Sculpted Portraits from Ancient Egypt,” through Jan. 25, 2027. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Monday. Free admission, but a timed-entry reservation is required. Parking $25. Location, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. www.getty.edu/visit/villa/
Grammy Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Roxy: 50 and Still Rockin’,” through summer 2024 (grammymuseum.org/event/50andstillrockin).”Shakira, Shakira: The Grammy Museum Experience,” through summer 2024. “Hip-Hop America: The Mix Tape Exhibit,” through Sept. 4. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Friday and Sunday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Admission $18; $15 ages 65 and older; $12 ages 5-17 and college students with ID. Location, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-725-5700. grammymuseum.org
Italian American Museum Los Angeles: Ongoing special exhibit: “Louis Prima: Rediscovering a Musical Icon,” through Oct. 13 (tinyurl.com/mrrb4pbh). Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Admission free; donations requested. Location, 644 N. Main St., Los Angeles. 213-485-8432. www.iamla.org
Japanese American National Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Giant Robot Biennale 5,” an exhibit of art by Sean Chao, Felicia Chiao, Luke Chueh, Giorgiko, James Jean, Taylor Lee, Mike Shinoda, Rain Szeto, Yoskay Yamamoto (co-presented by Eric Nakamura, founder of Giant Robot), through Sept. 1. “J.T. Sata: Immigrant Modernist,” photography exhibit by the late James Tadanao Sata (1896-1975), through Sept. 1. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday-Sunday; noon-8 p.m. Thursday; closed on national holidays (www.janm.org/visit). Admission: $16; $9 ages 62 and older and children; free for ages 5 and younger (timed advance tickets are recommended). Location, 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles. 213-625-0414. Facebook: www.facebook.com/jamuseum and janm.org
La Brea Tar Pits and Museum: Museum hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, except closed on the first Tuesday of the month and national holidays. Admission $15; $12 ages 62 and older and students ages 13-17; $7 ages 3-12; free for ages 2 and younger, but a ticket is required (tarpits.org/plan-your-visit/la-brea-tar-pits-buy-tickets). Parking $18. Location, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 213-763-3499. tarpits.org/
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes: Permanent exhibits: “LA Starts Here!” “Calle Principal: Mi México en Los Ángeles.” Hours: noon-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Free admission. Location, 501 N. Main St., Los Angeles. www.lapca.org
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Ongoing special exhibits: “Painting in the River of Angels: Judy Baca,” through July 21. “Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting,” through Aug. 4. “Vincent Valdez and Ry Cooder: El Chavez Ravine,” through Aug. 11. “Ed Ruscha/Now Then,” through Oct. 6. Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Tuesday and Thursday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Plan your visit information here: bit.ly/2P3c7iR. Admission $23; $19 ages 65 and older and students ages 18 and older with a valid ID; free for ages 17 and younger (reserving/purchasing an advance, timed-entry online is recommended; these prices are for residents of Los Angeles County with an ID). Location, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-857-6010. www.lacma.org
Martial Arts History Museum: Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday. Admission $12; $5 ages 6-17. Location, 201 N. Brand Blvd. (corner of North Brand and Wilson Street; use entrance at 111 Wilson St.), Glendale. 818-245-6051. www.facebook.com/martialartshistorymuseum. martialartsmuseum.com/
Museum of Contemporary Art: Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday and Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Admission is free but an advance online timed-entry ticket is required. Special exhibits are $18; $10 seniors and students; free for ages 11 and younger. Locations: the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles; MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. 213-633-5351. www.moca.org/visit
Museum of the San Fernando Valley: Hours: 1-5 p.m. Tuesday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Free admission; donations appreciated. Rancho Cordillera del Norte, 18904 Nordhoff St. (southwest corner of Nordhoff and Wilbur Avenue), Northridge. 818-347-9665. themuseumsfvnow.org/
Natural History Museum Los Angeles County: Ongoing special exhibit: “Butterfly Pavilion,” through Aug. 25. Admission to this special exhibit is $8 by a timed ticket (30-minute time slot) and also, a general museum admission is required (nhm.org/plan-your-visit/nhm-buy-tickets). Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Monday (closed on Tuesday). Admission $18; $14 ages 62 and older and ages 13-17; $7 ages 3-12; free for ages 2 and younger, but a ticket is required. Location, 900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles. nhmlac.org
Petersen Automotive Museum: Ongoing special exhibits: “Eyes on the Road: Art of the Automotive Landscape,” through Nov. 2024. “Best in Low: Lowrider Icons of the Street and Show,” through April 2025, see details on the exhibit (www.petersen.org/best-in-low-exhibit). “GM’s Marvelous Motorama: Dream Cars from the Joe Bortz Collection,” 6 concept cars from the 1950s, through March 2026 (www.petersen.org/gms-marvelous-motorama-exhibit). Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. Admission $21; $19 ages 62 and older; $13 ages 12-17; $12 ages 4-11. Location, 6060 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. 323-930-2277. www.petersen.org
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum: Ongoing special exhibit: “Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy,” through Sept. 8. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily (except Thanksgiving Day, Christmas and Jan. 1). Admission: $25; $22 ages 62 and older; $18 ages 11-17; $15 ages 3-10 (purchase online here: tinyurl.com/mry5ne9h). Location, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley. www.reaganfoundation.org
Skirball Cultural Center: Ongoing special exhibit: “Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak,” through Sept. 1 (www.skirball.org/museum/wild-things-are-happening-art-maurice-sendak). Hours: noon-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Closed for Jewish and national holidays (www.skirball.org/visit). Admission $18; $13 seniors, full time students with ID and ages 2-17 www.skirball.org/visit). Admission for the “Noah’s Ark at the Skirball” is an extra charge and by a timed-entry (purchase online). Location, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 310-440-4500. skirball.org
Valley Relics Museum: Take a trip down San Fernando Valley memory lane, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. July 13-14 (see website for other dates). Admission $15 and up. The museum is located at 7900 Balboa Blvd., Hangar C3 and C4, entrance is on Stagg Street, Van Nuys. Purchase tickets at the door or online. www.facebook.com/valleyrelics and valleyrelicsmuseum.org
Wende Museum of the Cold War: Ongoing special exhibit: “Undercurrents I: Stories, Symbols and Sounds,” through Sept. 15. (wendemuseum.org/exhibition/undercurrents-i/) Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday (wendemuseum.org/about-us/visit). Free admission. Location, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City. 310-216-1600. 310-216-1600. Email: visit@wendemuseum.org. wendemuseum.org
MUSIC
The American Music of Joplin and Copland: Violinist Paul Stein discusses the musicians and performs, 3:30 p.m. July 13. Granada Hills Branch Library, 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills. 818-368-5687. www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/american-music-joplin-and-copland
Concerts at Warner Park – Valley Cultural Foundation: Foreigner Unauthorized, a tribute to the band Foreigner, with emerging artist Abby Berman, July 14 (valleycultural.org/event/2024-foreigner-unauthorized). Emerging artists perform, 5:30 p.m., followed by the headliner (concerts end at 8:30 p.m.). Upcoming: Twisted Gypsy – Fleetwood Mac Reimagined, with emerging artist Paper Citizen, July 21 (valleycultural.org/event/2024-twisted-gypsy-fleetwood-mac); Red Corvette, a tribute to Prince, with emerging artist Timothy J. Wilson; Wanted, a tribute to the band Bon Jovi, with emerging artist Saticöy, Aug. 4. Free admission (bring your own blanket or low-back chair for seating). Or: $20 VIP seat; $35 VIP seat and paid parking (purchase in advance). Parking: event parking begins at 4 p.m. (see the website for address and more information). See more concerts at Warner Park on the website. Warner Park, 5800 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills. 818-888-0822. www.valleycultural.org
El Laberinto del Coco – Sunset Concerts at Skirball Cultural Center: The group, founded in 2017 by percussionist Hector “Coco” Barez, brings the sound of bomba from Puerto Rico, 8 p.m. July 18. Doors open, 6:30 p.m., for exploring museum exhibits, and for purchasing food and beverages. Free walk-up tickets; first-come, first-served. Parking $20 (no street parking). Upcoming: Bab L’ Bluz, July 25; Waahli, Aug. 1; entertainer to be announced, Aug. 8. Location, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles. 310-440-4500. skirball.org. www.skirball.org/programs/sunset-concerts-el-laberinto-del-coco
NoHo Summer Nights – Valley Cultural Foundation: The Roaries, the band’s repertoire of 7 decades of music, and emerging artist, the band Smitten, 7-9:30 p.m. July 20 (valleycultural.org/event/2024-noho-concert-the-roaries). Upcoming: Element Band, Aug. 3; Blank Space, Aug. 17. Free admission. Bring a blanket of low-back lawn chair for seating. North Hollywood Recreation Center, 11455 Magnolia Blvd. (behind the North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Branch Library). valleycultural.org. valleycultural.org/concerts-events/noho-summer-nights/
THEATER
Tartuffe – Born Again: The play by Molière, translated from the original French and adapted by Freyda Thomas, opens 7:30 p.m. July 13. Show runs 7:30 p.m. July 20 and 27; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 4 and 11; and other dates through Oct. 13. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/tartuffe-born-again/. www.theatricum.com
Wendy’s Peter Pan: A retelling of J.M. Barrie’s play “Peter Pan,” by Ellen Geer, 7:30 p.m. July 14. Show runs 7:30 p.m. July 21 and 26; and other dates through Oct. 4. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/wendys-peter-pan/. www.theatricum.com
ONGOING THEATER
The Ghee Ghee Pik: The Group Rep presents the world premiere of a play by Suzy London about what may happen when artificial technology is implanted in a human’s brain, 7 p.m. July 11; 4 p.m. July 13; 7 p.m. July 14. Tickets $30; $25 seniors and students. The play is performed on the second floor stage (not wheelchair accessible due to no elevator). Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Hollywood. 818-763-5990. www.thegrouprep.com
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The play by William Shakespeare, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1. Show runs 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8, 15 and 29; 7 p.m. Sept. 2; 3:30 p.m. Sept. 8; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. theatricum.com/a-midsummer-nights-dream/. www.theatricum.com
The Winter’s Tale: The play by William Shakespeare, 3:30 p.m. July 13. Show runs ////// other dates through Sept. 30. Tickets: upper tier (general seating), $32; $20 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; lower tier, assigned seats $48; $35 ages 62 and older and students; $15 ages 5-15; also, $60 premium seating. Parking $10 in the lot; or, for free along Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. 310-455-3723. www.facebook.com/Theatricum. www.theatricum.com
Submit calendar listings at least two weeks in advance to holly.andres@dailynews.com. 818-713-3708.
Dancers perform in front of the Moulin Rouge cabaret during the inauguration of the theatre’s windmill in Paris, Friday, July 5, 2024. The mill’s huge sails inexplicably collapsed after a show last month at the iconic venue, an emblem of the surrounding Montmartre neighborhood and bohemian Paris lifestyle. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
We’re officially into June, and the month of June – if you didn’t know – is National Outdoors Month. There’s been very little reason to want to be outdoors so far this month, so rest assured that most of this week’s best bets will keep you in a nice, air-conditioned, rain-free building. Keep reading for our picks, which include jazzy films, glow-in-the-dark art, and a “scandal” at the Symphony.
Did you know that Vaseline and ripe bananas glow blue under a black light? A black light emits ultraviolet light and those things that glow under it are called phosphors, and phosphors will be all over Hardy & Nance Studios on Friday, June 7, at 7 p.m. when Insomnia Gallery presents Near Dark: A Black Light Art Show. The all-ages-welcome, free show is returning for the fifth time, so get ready to enjoy work – all fluorescent – from local artists. Get in on the fun and deck yourself out in neon colors or be ready to glow yourself up with highlighters that will be provided on-site. Food trucks will also be present, and Eureka Heights Brewing Company, Bad Astronaut Brewing Co., Equal Parts Brewing and City Orchard will be pouring the (free) drinks.
Kaiser Wilhelm II famously lamented Richard Strauss’s “scandalous” Salome, an opera based on Oscar Wilde’s equally “scandalous” play, fearing it would do Strauss “a lot of damage.” Instead, “Salome played to sold out opera houses around the world,” and on Friday, June 7, at 8 p.m. the Houston Symphony will produce the opera with costumes, projections, lighting and more during the Strauss Festival: Salome in Concert at Jones Hall. Soprano Jennifer Holloway will sing the title role in the opera, which includes the (in)famous “Dance of the Seven Veils,” which Salome performs in exchange for anything she wants – and what she wants is the head of John the Baptist. Salome will be performed a second time on Sunday, June 9, at 7 p.m. Tickets for either can be purchased here for $34 to $125.
Get a taste of Caribbean and Latin American culture, including the music of Argentina’s most iconic dance and Venezuela’s most traditional (and national) dance, without blowing your savings on a roundtrip plane ticket at Miller Outdoor Theatre on Saturday, June 8, at 8:30 p.m. during Tango, Joropo, Danzas y Mas! produced by Aperio, Music of the Americas. Conductor Marlon Chen of the Manila Symphony Orchestra will lead Aperio’s ensemble, which will be joined by clarinetist Ernesto Vega, Venezuelan violinist Eddy Marcano and tango pianist Pablo Estigarribia. As with all shows at Miller, the program is free, and you can reserve tickets here starting at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 7, or you can take a seat on the no-ticket-required Hill.
Experience the summer of 1969 and the days leading up to the moon landing through the eyes of a Houston fourth grader named Stan in Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood, an animated coming-of-age film that will screen on the lawn outside The Menil Collection’s main building on Saturday, June 8, at 8:30 p.m. The film, co-presented with Friends of River Oaks Theatre, is “a lively and charming stroll down memory lane,” one loosely based on Linklater’s own childhood with a “meticulous sense of detail” and “tolerant, easygoing spirit.” The event is free, and before the film at 8:30 p.m., you can enjoy music by DJ Vincent Priceless at 7:30 p.m. and remarks by the film’s co-producer, Craig Staggs, at 8:15 p.m. (and don’t forget to bring a picnic blanket).
A lifetime of scarfing down sci-fi, video games, and comic books brought director Brad Peyton to the job of said lifetime: directing Jennifer Lopez in a frickin’ mech-suit movie. Signing on for Atlas, now streaming on Netflix, was an easy yes: With two big-budget Dwayne Johnson vehicles under his belt, Rampage and San Andreas, Peyton was no stranger to A-list-driven spectacle. Still, the film was an intimidating prospect for someone with a deep appreciation for mech suits, mech tanks, oversized mecha, and all the made-up classifications in between.
“I was very aware of what had come out ahead of me,” Peyton tells Polygon. The director cites James Cameron’s Aliens and Avatar as obvious but undeniable milestones in the art of on-screen mechs. He knew that the Titanfall games put pressure on any new live-action attempt, having created full immersion into the experience of mech fighting. But when he started imagining how to rethink mechs, he returned to the first piece of mecha media that really blew him away: Stuart Gordon’s Robot Jox.
Peyton can’t quite explain why Robot Jox was his holy grail, but in talking to him, it’s obvious: Like Gordon’s whiz-bang vision of the future, where Earth’s conflicts are settled by colorful mech duels, Atlas needed clear, well-defined logic that would ground the world-building, but also let him rip in the action department in a way that would delight his inner child. And at the end of the day, he needed to be original.
“My biggest thing was: I knew I had to separate from everything,” Peyton says. “I had no interest in repeating. I said, Pac Rim’s [mechs] are this big. In Avatar, they’re this big. In Titanfall, they’re this big. So mine is gonna be this big. This one might be square and blocky, so mine is gonna be circular. I come from animation. So a lot of it started with me sketching the silhouette and figuring how to make it unique and different.”
Atlas takes place in a relatively sunny future that still exists in the shadow of an impending apocalypse. Decades earlier, a rogue artificial intelligence named Harlan (Shang-Chi’s Simu Liu) fled Earth for an alien planet with the intent of one day returning to lay waste to humanity. When scientists discover Harlan’s whereabouts, Terran forces launch a mission to take the fight to the robot army’s doorstep. Leading the charge: Atlas Shepherd (Lopez), a data analyst recruited to go full Jack Ryan on Harlan’s ass. Of course, the attack doesn’t go as smoothly as the Earthlings would hope, and Atlas has to begrudgingly click into an AI-powered mech suit in order to survive an alien planet populated with androids who want her dead.
The grounded futurism of Atlas’ Earth led Peyton and his creative team to extrapolate from current military tech for the mech design. Rounded edges and exhaust pipes are lifted from F-18 planes. The interior control panels were built for theoretical functionality.
“I had to understand all the tech from the inside out,” Peyton says. “Because of my experience on San Andreas, where I had to understand how a helicopter worked intimately to tell Dwayne what buttons to press and not to press — at least when he would listen to me! — I took that experience and wanted to make a similar experience for [Lopez]. I laid it out with the art department of why there are screens in certain places, why there are holograms in other places. And then on the day, I’m giving her little wires to be like, ‘That’s what this screen is. That’s where the screen is.’ So after going through the blocking, I pulled those away, and she had to memorize where they were.”
Image: Netflix
Drawings and schematics were only half of the equation. After drafting a design, Peyton set out to make his vision come to life. Coming at it from an animation background, that meant animating various walk cycles to see if the bipedal machine could move the right way.
“The first couple of designs we had when we animated them to see how they would work — very basic animation, walk, run, walk, jog, run cycles — looked so clunky and terrible,” Peyton says. The animation team found a groove when they clarified the dynamic between man and machine. “[The mechs] are intuitive devices. The concept that I came up with was, the soldier is the brain. He doesn’t have to be super strong. He’s not like a grunt — the machine is the grunt. He is the emotional cognitive device that syncs with this thing. So it has to be able to be as fluid as a person who’s been trained in it.”
As Atlas traverses the biomes of Harlan’s base planet — from snowy tundras to swamps inspired by Peyton’s love for Return of the Jedi — the film’s hero loosens up on her “no AI” stance and forms a cognitive link with her mech’s digital interface. Like a twist on the buddy-cop movie, the two bond for survival, which presents itself as more fluid mech motions. Early on, Atlas might be bumbling around a rocky cliff. By the end, she’s running, rolling, and slapping the hell out of robot assailants with mech-fu. The early walk cycle tests came in handy for the dramatic evolution, which Peyton was able to program into an enormous soundstage gimbal rig that stood in for the mech suit. Lopez was surprisingly well suited for the demands of the mech choreography.
“Her background as a dancer is what allowed her to really gauge that quickly,” Peyton says. “As much as she looks like she’s walking, [the mech] is walking her, and she has to react like she’s walking. So that training as a dancer allowed her to step right into it.”
Image: Netflix
It also helps that Lopez routinely performs for thousands all by her lonesome on a stadium stage. Peyton says Atlas turned out to be one of the most demanding shoots of his career, simply because for six to seven weeks, it was just Lopez performing solo on a gimbal rig that would be completely painted over with plate shots, VFX environments, and bursts of other action sequences shot elsewhere. Occasionally, voice actor Gregory James Cohan would dial in to perform the dialogue of Smith, her AI companion.
All the prep work required to realize a mech with the capacity for real action, and clicking in a star who was up to control it, was in service of jolting the audience, says Peyton. The first time we see the mechs in action isn’t in an act of valor; they’re caught in an ambush, mid-flight. The carrier ship goes down — and so does Atlas, in her rig. Peyton’s imagination swirled at the possibilities, as evidenced in the finished sequence. “[The mech] would be tumbling, it would be spinning, it would be hit by debris. What would it be like to be trapped in that tin can? What would it sound like? What would it feel like? And once I get through that experience, well then, how can I up the ante? Well, what if I fall through black clouds, and I’m falling into basically a World War II dogfight, but with mechs and drones? […] That’s just the first, I don’t know, 20 seconds of a two-minute sequence.
“That’s how I design,” he says. “I want to surprise you. I want to give you something you can’t see anywhere else.”
History should always look as good as it does in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling, a beautifully grim take on a scandalous chapter from 19th-century Hapsburg history now playing on the Houston Ballet stage.
The scandalous chapter refers to the 1889 murder-suicide committed by Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria. His victim? His 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera, who he shot before taking his own life. The crime occurred at a hunting lodge in Mayerling, which lends its name to both the ballet and the so-called “incident” as it’s commonly referred.
Fun (and by fun, I mean ghoulish) fact: Rudolf was the only son of the emperor, making him the only heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Following his death, the heir became Franz Ferdinand who you may remember from history class as the archduke whose assassination kicked off World War I, a war that ended with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So, yeah.
MacMillan’s Mayerling, which originally premiered in 1978, dramatizes the life of Crown Prince Rudolf, from his arranged marriage to Princess Stéphanie to his infamous end. In between, we get peeks into the prince’s psyche, primarily through his relationships with the women in his life, including his mother, Empress Elisabeth; his wife, Princess Stéphanie; his former mistress/current friend(?) Marie Larisch; former lover and prostitute Mitzi Caspar; and, of course, Mary Vetsera.
Interestingly, MacMillan teamed up with writer Gillian Freeman, who he tasked with crafting a scenario (which I’d liken to writing a libretto) for the show. It was an inspired decision that results in a deeply layered and compelling ballet, one that is even more special in its focus on a male character. The last time such a richly drawn, complex male character graced the Houston Ballet stage was, well, the last production of Mayerling back in 2017. Taking on the challenging role of Rudolf is, once again, Connor Walsh.
Houston Ballet Principal Connor Walsh as Crown Prince Rudolf in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar, Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
Walsh’s evolution from seemingly discontent to degenerate prince – violent-prone, gonorrhea-infected, drug-addicted, and death-obsessed – is played with wild-eyed intensity. Incredibly well-acted and superbly nuanced, Walsh’s performance also wows for his ability to utilize his impressive athleticism and strength (put to use, for example, in a serious of increasingly dramatic lifts during Rudolf’s final pas de deux with Mary), without ever distracting from the prince’s weakened, deteriorated state.
Though Rudolf’s psyche is best expressed through his relationships with the women in his life, let’s first speak to his interactions with the other men in his life; specifically, the four Hungarian officers played Ryo Kato, Riley McMurray, Naazir Muhammad and Ryan Williams. He engages in several spirited dance-cussions with the officers, who quite literally badger and push him around regarding his support for the separatist cause. Kato, in particular, was a standout among the officers due to an applause-earning (and applause-deserving) solo.
Aaron Daniel Sharratt’s Emperor Franz Josef is as impenetrable a figure as Rudolf’s father, as Yuriko Kajiya, as Rudolf’s mother the Empress Elisabeth, is cold. The empress is, at best, uninterested in her son, but also at times seemingly disgusted and scared of him. Their complicated relationship is well established in the first act during a heart-aching pas de deux, much of which is spent back to back, emphasizing the disconnect between the two.
Countess Marie Larisch is the most inscrutable character in terms of motive. (Why exactly is she playing matchmaker? Because we know it’s not altruism.) And Jessica Collado maintains that intrigue while also showing flashes of true concern for the prince, with whom her relationship is marked by familiarity.
Houston Ballet Principal Connor Walsh as Crown Prince Rudolf in Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar, Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
On the flip side is Mónica Gómez’s Princess Stéphanie, who we witness being dominated, scandalized and humiliated at the hands of Rudolf. It’s completely understandable that even Simone Acri’s Bratfisch – who delivered short bursts of joyful energy during two sure-to-put-a-smile-on-your-face solos – couldn’t cheer her up.
Karina González receives a light and airy introduction as Mary, and as we glimpse her throughout the first two acts, she is every bit the infatuated school girl. But the tragedy of her relationship with Rudolf is never lost, so by the time they dance their last dance, it’s nothing short of chill-inducing.
Finally, Rudolf’s second-act sojourn to a tavern – beautifully lit to red-hued seediness by lighting designer Lisa J. Pinkham – is electric, and that’s in no small part due to Danbi Kim’s attention-commanding turn as Mitzi Caspar. Astounding is Kim’s ability to always look like the one in complete control of the situation, even as she’s being effortlessly spun, tossed and traded between the male dancers.
The ballet’s score, a cleverly patchworked collection of Franz Liszt works arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery, is deftly performed by the Houston Ballet Orchestra under Ermanno Florio. The orchestra travels the soundscape, from gloomy, ominous strings and rhythmic pulses to boisterous jaunts and climatic swells. Also, worth noting, a second-act aria sung by mezzo-soprano Ani Kushyan, accompanied by Richard Bado, is an unexpected musical treat.
Pablo Núñez’s towering sets, ornate gowns and crisp uniforms lend an air of grandeur to the proceedings that enhance while never distracting from the toxicity of what we’re witnessing.
Performances are scheduled through June 2 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$220.
NEW YORK — Alice McDermott settled into her seat at New York City Ballet on a recent Friday night, excited to see her first-ever ballet performance. The 31-year-old Manhattanite, who works in recruiting, was on a fun girls’ night out with three friends she’d met through work, starting with dinner.
“They told me I’d love the ballet,” says McDermott, who was also excited to realize she was already familiar with one of the evening’s performers, Tiler Peck, via the dancer’s popular Instagram feed. “They said you can put on a nice dress and just immerse yourself in another world, whilst marveling at what the human body can achieve.”
Seems they were right: At the end of the evening, McDermott, a new fan, went home and watched a ballet documentary.
Perhaps you could call it “Ballet and the City”? Whatever the term for McDermott’s ballet evening with pals, the scenario would surely be music to the ears of the company — which has been celebrating its 75th birthday with fanfare this year — and especially its artistic leaders of the past five years, Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan.
The two, both former dancers at the storied troupe founded by George Balanchine, have made it a key goal to bring in a younger audience to ensure the company’s long-term health — and more broadly, to guard the vitality of a centuries-old art form.
It seems to be working. Though some initiatives have been in place for longer, the last five years have seen a marked shift, according to numbers provided to the Associated Press: In 2023, 53% of ticket buyers were under age 50, and people in their 30s made up the largest age segment by decade. Five years earlier, in 2018, 41% of ticket buyers were under 50, and people in their 60s made up the largest age segment.
Now, longtime ballet followers note that on a bustling Friday evening you can look down from the first ring of the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center and not simply see, well, a sea of gray.
A major factor in attracting younger people, especially those under 30, has been affordable pricing. There are also evenings targeting young professionals, including post-show receptions. And there have been collaborations with visual or musical artists with youthful followings — like the musician Solange, who in 2022 was commissioned to score a ballet by 23-year old choreographer Gianna Reisen.
The Solange collaboration was a significant moment, Whelan and Stafford said in a recent interview, surveying the past five years as the thumping of leaping dancers’ feet echoed through the ceiling above Stafford’s office.
“We sold out every show,” Whelan noted. “It was a little nugget, but it was memorable.”
Perhaps even more important was the fact, says Stafford, that about 70% of those ticket buyers were new to the company — contributing to “a generation of young professionals in the city that are at our theater every night now.”
Katherine Brown, the ballet’s executive director, said the company had taken a look at the theater and vastly reduced the price of certain seats — and saw them fill up. She also noted the 30-for-30 program, where members under 30 can buy any seat in the house for $30. “That thing has just exploded,” Brown says, from some 1,800 members in the last full season before the pandemic-forced shutdown, to some 14,000 now.
One can’t discount the “pure economics” of an evening at the ballet, especially for young people, says Wendy Perron, longtime dance writer and former editor of Dance Magazine. “When I was in New York in the ’70s and ‘80s, I just couldn’t afford to go to the ballet,” she says.
Also not to be discounted: the effect of social media in promoting dancers as people with personalities.
“We’ve got this crop of really exciting but also relatable, approachable dancers, and through social media, audiences can connect to them in a way they couldn’t back when we were dancing,” says Stafford, who retired as a dancer in 2014.
Consider Peck, one of the company’s most popular ballerinas (and a rising choreographer), whose Instagram feed had reached McDermott before she ever saw her dance. Peck supplies her half-million followers with short, punchy videos about everything from her 10 favorite dance roles to how she applies stage makeup. Her videos often feature her partner onstage and off, rising principal dancer Roman Mejia.
It’s all very different from a time when — like Odette in “Swan Lake” — ballerinas used to be mysterious and, above all, silent.
Social media — whether used by the company or via the dancers’ own feeds — can also answer questions. If you attended a performance of “The Nutcracker” a few seasons ago, you might have wondered why dancer Mira Nadon, as Sugarplum Fairy, suddenly disappeared from the stage at a key moment. The answer was on her Instagram later: Her pointe shoe had slipped off.
“See, you can get all your answers from Instagram now,” quips Whelan, who herself has an active feed.
A few months ago, Whelan, a much-loved former NYCB principal who also retired in 2014, got a congratulatory text from Stafford in the morning — it had been exactly five years since the two had taken the helm after a turbulent period when #MeToo accusations caused scandal.
Historically, the company had been led by one man — Balanchine until 1983, then Peter Martins. This time, the board tried something new: a duet. Stafford was already interim head, and Whelan had applied for the job.
“They put us in a room and closed the door, and we were like – ‘Hi?’” Whelan says. “They were like, figure it out! And we did.” Stafford, the artistic director, serves as a bridge between the creative and business sides. Whelan, associate artistic director, focuses on the delicate task of programming.
Company insiders describe a mood different from the days when one outsized, all-powerful personality ruled from above. For one thing, the pair says they’ve instituted annual taking-stock conversations with each dancer.
Diversity — ballet is slowly changing but still overwhelmingly white — is also a priority, they say, and that includes diversifying “the pipeline,” meaning students at the affiliated School of American Ballet.
Recently, the company heralded its first two Black dancers to dance Dewdrop, the second most important female “Nutcracker” role: India Bradley and guest artist Alexandra Hutchinson of the Dance Theater of Harlem. Yet to come is a Black Sugarplum Fairy. The company says 26% of of its dancers identify as people of color, whereas 10 years ago that figure was 13%. Stafford and Whelan have commissioned 12 ballets by choreographers of color in the last six years, it says.
“We know where the gaps are, and we take it seriously,” Whelan says.
She and Stafford say they’re also paying more attention to wellness, be it physical training to avoid injury, healthy diets, or a more frank discussion of mental health.
As for the company’s financial health, it is strong, Brown says, four years after the pandemic cost tens of millions in losses The 2024 budget is roughly $102 million, compared to $88 million in 2019. Audience capacity has exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
As for new fan McDermott, she’s planning more visits, along with her friends.
“I think we have a new tradition between the four of us,” she says. “We’ll definitely be making it a bit of a thing.”
When it came to handling business, Reginald Walker always put family first.
The owner and operator of Walker’s Gymnastics & Dance in Lowell passed away on May 11 at his Lowell home, surrounded by his family. He was 86.
A loving husband, father and grandfather who was known to most as Reggie, Walker always greeted those who entered his Plain Street studio with a warm, engaging grin. To him, they were more than students and clients, they were family and friends.
“They all remember his welcoming smile and his generosity,” said Denise Walker, his daughter.
Born in St. Albans, N.Y., in 1937, Reginald Walker was a longtime resident of Lowell and a communicant of St. Margaret Church. In his early years, he attended Lowell Tech and graduated from Keith Academy. He went on to proudly serve in the U.S. Navy on the USS Guardian as a radio man.
Walker fielded the SOS call from the Italian luxury ocean liner Andrea Doria, which was sinking off the coast of Nantucket, after a collision with the MS Stockholm on July 26, 1956. He was the first to relay the distress call, helping rescue 1,660 passengers and crew.
Shifting into the gymnastics and dance field two decades later may have seemed puzzling to some at first glance. But in the end, it was all relative.
Walker forged the family business with Denise in 1978, building a successful operation from the ground up. It all began when she caught the gymnastics bug at an early age.
“Ever since I was a child, I had an itch,” said Denise Walker. “I wanted to go to the Olympics, and I fell in love with gymnastics, so I took that route. I had so much support from my family.”
Walker’s talents took her to the national stage, competing in the Olympic Trials in 1976, earning a spot on the team as an alternate. Her father was there following her every move, from countless road trips to Connecticut and beyond.
Gymnastics also allowed her to do extensive traveling competing with other teams overseas.
“At one point my sister was one of the top 10 gymnasts in the United States competing for Team USA,” said Rick Walker, her younger brother.
A seventh-grader at St. Margaret’s, Denise attended Catholic school in Connecticut at age 12. Following the Olympic Trials, she returned home her senior year, graduating from Lowell High in 1977. But after attending the University of New Hampshire for a year, Walker opted to return to the Mill City for an intriguing new opportunity.
“Dad always wanted to have a business,” said Denise. “I said, ‘You run the business, I’ll run the floor.’ And it went on from there.”
“That’s where the whole thing started,” said Reginald, Walker’s oldest son. “His dream, her talent. I got pulled in a couple years later.”
Daughter Janine Walsh was recruited to run the business side of the operations, while the older brother was brought in to help in the coaching department.
“As a family, we always made it work,” said Reginald. “We each had our jobs and complemented each other well, and when business was done, it was time for family.”
Now 45 years after first opening its doors, Walker’s Gymnastics & Dance continues to thrive.
“We’ve been a staple of Lowell,” said Reginald, 60. “We’ve trained thousands of kids. I’m at least third generation now. I have grandmother’s that say, ‘You coached me.’ ”
The father and son also helped make gymnastics history, creating the Bay State Classic. The tournament became only the second event to be held at the Tsongas Center when it first opened in 1998.
“It was cool,” said Reginald. “We hosted over 500 kids. It was a great event. It brought a lot of business into the city and was another dreamchild of my father. We brought it together to make it happen.”
Gymnastics remains the family business, and business is quite good.
“My father was a dreamer and an entrepreneur,” said Reginald. “Walker’s Gymnastics is probably one of the top six gymnastics schools in Massachusetts. There is a legacy there. It’s a very family-friendly operated business. We all did our part. There was the big guy, who we miss, his wife Ruby, myself and my sister Janine. We all did our roles. We complemented each other. Family business is family business, but we made it happen.”
The eldest statesmen, their father could often be found sitting prominently at the front entrance, which led directly into the spacious gym. In a fitting tribute, his funeral procession took a special detour taking the late owner past the gym one last time on the way to St. Joseph’s Cemetery.
Although he is no longer at his post, his memory remains. His son recently hung a framed picture of his father on the entrance wall, which reads “Welcome, Reginald Walker founder, 1978.”
“Now when I go to work, I kiss my palm, slap the wall and try to remember why I’m there,” said Reginald. “He had a good sendoff.”
“The business is still going, even though he’s passed,” said Denise. “And we have many, many memories.”
Reg Walker, left, and Janine Walsh stand before a framed picture of their father, Reggie Walker, the owner of Walker’s Gymnastics & Dance in Lowell. (Courtesy photo)Reggie Walker, the owner of Walker’s Gymnastics & Dance in Lowell, recently passed away at age 86. He started the well-known business in 1978. (Courtesy photo)
Do you want to do something good for your neighbor? Of course, you do – it’s National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day. Our suggestion is to kindly invite your neighbor to one of this week’s best bets. Below, you can find our picks, which include film festivals, an opera outdoors, a botanical art show and more.
The 17th Annual Palestine Film Festival will open on Friday, May 17, at 7 p.m. with a screening of Lina Soualem’s “festival favorite,” Bye Bye Tiberias, at Rice Cinema. In the film, the filmmaker tells the story of “her maternal relatives,” including her mother, the Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass, in hope of answering “the question ‘How does a woman find her place when caught between worlds?’” Each of the six features spotlighted throughout the three-day festival, which runs through May 19, will be preceded by a short film, and Bye Bye Tiberias will follow a reception beginning at 6:30 p.m. You may view the full lineup here and tickets to any of the screenings can also be purchased here for $10.
A couple unable to conceive is diagnosed with a rather unique, newly identified syndrome, one which can only be cured by locating everyone the two have ever had sex with and having sex with them again. This is “the quirky premise” of The (Ex)perience of Love (Le syndrome des amours passées), which will open Five Funny French Films at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Friday, May 17, at 7 p.m. The film, directed by Raphaël Balboni and Ann Sirot, is the first of five curated comedies from France that make up the twelfth annual edition of the festival, which runs all weekend through Sunday, May 19. Tickets to any of the screenings can be found here for $8 to $10, as can the full lineup.
This weekend it’s the Houston Grand Opera’s turn to take the stage at Miller Outdoor Theatre when HGO brings their production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly to Miller on Friday, May 17, at 8 p.m. The production of the classic opera, which was previously performed at the Wortham Theater Center earlier this year, became one of the company’s top-selling shows of that last ten years. As always, shows at Miller are free, and you can get reserve a ticket here starting at 10 a.m. today, Thursday, May 16, or you can head for the seating on the no-ticket-required Hill. Madame Butterfly will be performed a second time on Saturday, May 18, at 8 p.m. You can reserve a seat for Saturday beginning on Friday, May 17, at 10 a.m. here.
A galaxy far, far away comes to Jones Hall on Friday, May 17, at 8 p.m. when the Houston Symphony presents The Music of Star Wars. Conductor Steven Reineke will lead the Symphony through music from all nine films (the trilogy of trilogies which all feature works from noted composer John Williams) – in chronological order – along with selections from the standalone “Star Wars Story” films, Rogue One and Solo. The concert will also be performed in-hall at 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday, May 18, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 19. In-hall tickets are available here for $48.88 to $170. The Saturday evening performance will also be livestreamed, and access to the livestream can be purchased here for $20.
Did you know that we get 60 percent of “our energy intake from just three plant species”? Those would be rice, wheat and maize, if you’re wondering. The point is, there’s a lot to appreciate about not only plants, but flowers, fungi and more, and you can celebrate these and the beauty of the botanical world on Saturday, May 18, from 5 to 9 p.m. when Hardy & Nance Studios presents Plantasia: A Botanical Art Show. The curated show will feature work in various mediums in 2D and 3D formats from artists all around Houston (and the surrounding area). Also, on hand for the third annual botany-appreciating art show will be Eden Plant Co. as well as food from Chicano BBQ. You can attend the art show for free.
A short time after Cleo Parker Robinson was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2021 — along with the four other founders of the International Association of Blacks in Dance — she did a little dance in the White House. No surprise, really: Even at 75, the Denver-based choreographer and cultural doyen is so often in motion.
One afternoon last week, Robinson was sitting a few rows up in the theater at the historic Shorter AME Church in Five Points — the home of her titular dance company — watching the Cleo II dancers rehearse “Roll Me Through the Rushes.” She didn’t fidget but she did lean in several times, making appreciative sounds, emitting thoughtful hmms, articulating beats to herself and very occasionally offering suggestions to the dancers.
“Rushes” is one of three pieces that Robinson choreographed for her momentous Spiritual Suite, created early in the life of the dance company and dance academy, now in their 54th year. “Rushes,” “Mary Don’t You Weep and “To My Father’s House” are set to be performed at the upcoming Mother’s Day concert. Also on the program: associate artistic director Winifred Harris’ “When Wet Came to Paper,” which celebrates even as it mourns the life of early ensemble member Charles Fraser (“the engineer who became a dancer,” Robinson likes to boast); and David Roussève’s “One Nation Under a Groove,” a response to the racially motivated bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., that killed four girls in 1963.
The weekend’s program is called “Legacy: Opening the Way.” And the timing could not be more apt, as Robinson continues to champion the works of Black choreographers and dancers, honor the history of dance in the African Diaspora, and build on the culture of the city where she grew up. And, in the neighborhood that forged her love of the arts, no less: Five Points.
On May 15, Robinson will break ground on the Cleo Parker Robinson Center for Healing Arts. Set to open in September 2025, the 25,000-square-foot building will be adjacent to the historic stone church that sits at the corner of Park Avenue West and 19th Street. Imagined by Fentress Architects (designers of Denver’s snowy-peaked airport terminal and, more recently, the Denver Arts Museum’s welcome center), the new building includes a theater, reception area, rehearsal space, offices and classrooms.
Where the past and future meet: The Cleo Parker Center for the Healing Arts and Shorter AME Church. (Provided by Fentress Architects)
Passersby will see the high-glass atrium of Studio A. And, in a gesture that reaches for the visually eloquent and historically beguiling, the solar panels on the building’s east side wall will contain the labanotation of parts of “Mary Don’t You Weep,” a piece Robinson created in response to the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and her younger brother. Labanotation is a method of marking dance movements on paper. It resembles a musical score, but its patterns may also evoke the graphic richness of kente cloth.
Inspired by the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and ’70s, Robinson’s lineage runs deep. She studied and danced with iconic choreographer Katherine Dunham. CPRD owns the rights to more than 30 of the works of choreographer Donald McKayle, the singular sensation who directed and choreographed the Tony Award-winning musicals “Raisin” and “Sophisticated Ladies.” Some of the dancers and choreographers who are forging or have forged their own paths, having come through Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, include: Gary Abbott, co-founder of Chicago’s Deeply Rooted Dance Theater; choreographer Nejla Y. Yatkin; much-celebrated choreographer Leni Wylliams (who was killed in 1996); and, locally, Terrell Davis, founder of Davis Contemporary Dance and Jacob Mora of Moraporvida Dance.
Robinson doesn’t much dwell on tales of her own artistic process — at least not in ways that emphasize the nuts and bolts of her craft. Instead, she’s more likely to sing the praises of collaboration and of her collaborators, among them Denver Symphony maverick Marin Alsop, Gordon Parks, Maya Angelou and Julie Belafonte (wife of Harry Belafonte and a dancer in Katherine Dunham’s company).
Robinson chose to celebrate CPRD’s 50th anniversary (made bumpier but not upended by the pandemic) with a virtual performance of two works that leaned into poetry — “Lush Life” (Angelou) and “Run Sister Run” (Nikki Giovanni) — a nod to the poetic roots of the Black Arts Movement and a tradition hardwired into the company from its start. Poet and cultural maven Schyleen Qualls, who co-founded the company with Cleo Parker Robinson and Tom Robinson, the choreographer’s late husband, returns next weekend to read her poems as well as Giovanni’s “The Women Gather.”
It’s a signature of Robinson’s approach that her art and her trust in collaboration cannot be teased apart. “I don’t know what it is to do anything alone. I don’t know what that is. But I do think … that unity is an underlining necessity for my survival,” she told The Denver Post last summer. “I [do] know that what I’m creating is an opportunity for people to sort of commune in the highest ways.” At the time, she was in rehearsals for a dual show of hers and the young Norwegian choreographer Thomas Tawala Presto at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
Cleo Parker Robinson, center, chats with Norwegian choreographer Thomas Talawa Prestø, right, after working with her dancers during a training session at the dance company’s studios on July 19, 2023 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
“I marvel at how collaborative Cleo is during the choreographic process. Everyone has ego, and I’ve seen her both remain fiercely true to her vision and experience while making space for other creative collaborators to shine,” CPRD’s president and CEO Malik Robinson (the choreographer’s son) wrote in an email. The response was to a question about his mother for an extended oral history interview that will be part of the New York Public Library’s Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s Oral History Project.
“I think Cleo is a critical component of the history of Black Dance in America, something that not enough people in Denver really appreciate,” Gary Steuer, president and CEO of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, an arts funding powerhouse, wrote in an email. “It is a legacy that stretches from Katherine Dunham to Alvin Ailey to Cleo and a handful of others who are connected to those origins, like PHILADANCO.”
For all that heft, there can be, at times, a prophets-without-honor quality to a city’s understanding and appreciation of luminaries, even ones who shine brightly like Robinson. (Broncos, Avs and Nuggets stars prove the exceptions.) The new building should go a long way in correcting that myopia.
Last spring, a group of supporters, including then-mayor Michael Hancock, gathered on a parcel of grass on the east side of the church to partake in a kind of festive, spiritual “ground blessing” that felt pure Robinson. Guests could not get out of dancing.
According to CPRD, 91 percent of the fundraising goal of its more than $20 million capital campaign has been met as of April 30. The funds reflect a mix of government, foundation and individual giving. Even the builder, Mortensen construction, contributed $200,000 to the new center, which will meet ADA guidelines. And Fentress Architects provided its predesign services pro bono.
Folks are showing up. But then, the seemingly tireless Robinson is always showing up. A few weeks ago, she attended a show of the Brooklyn-based ensemble Urban Bush Woman at the Newman Center, itself a local bastion for national and international dance performance. The next day, she flew to Kansas City, Mo., to honor Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the founder of that vibrant group, and to visit the unique organization Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey.
Cleo Parker Robinson watches the rehearsal of “When Wet Came to Paper,” a quintet dedicated to the artistic brilliance of former Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble member Curtis Frasier, who performed with the Ensemble for more than 19 seasons, at the studio of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance in Denver on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Earlier this week, Robinson slipped into the final dress rehearsal and media night for local choreographer Garrett Ammon’s captivating Wonderbound show “Sam and Delilah.” Before the lights dimmed, she gushed some at the dance company’s beautifully renovated digs in an industrial section of north Park Hill. “Look at those curtains … I think these seats retract,” she said like a woman about to embark on her own building.
Then after the show, she took a moment to talk with Ammon and Wonderbound president Dawn Fay. But not before making sure that lighting designer Karalyn “Star” Pytel, who’d been sitting nearby, knew what great work she’d done.
Robinson is always talking the talk, walking the walk and, yes, dancing the dance.
Lisa Kennedy is a Denver-based freelance writer specializing in film and theater.
In honor of Earth Day, which is coming up on April 22, as well as National Exercise Day, we encourage you to walk to whenever you can to reach out best bets, or at least take public transport. It will be worth it, as this week we’ve got a musical inspired by a cult classic, a spring festival, and a classic ballet. Keep reading for these and much more.
February marked the 60th anniversary of the start of Beatlemania – specifically, February 1964 was when four lads from Liverpool appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, playing along to “She Loves You,” for “a whopping 73 million viewers and an in-studio audience of 700.” Sixty years may have passed, but on Thursday, April 18, at 7:30 p.m. you can join the Houston Symphony as they welcome a band of Beatles lookalikes and soundalikes for Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to The Beatles at Jones Hall. The concert will feature more than two dozen of The Beatles’ classic songs – “Yesterday,” “Hey Jude,” and “Penny Lane” to name a few – all played as they were originally recorded. The show will be performed a second time on Friday, April 19, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to either in-hall performance can be purchased here for $63 to $195.
The first Earth Day dates back to April 22, 1970 – a time before the existence of the Environmental Protection Agency or legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Across the nation, 20 million people turned out, making the day a “the precursor of the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history.” On Saturday, April 20, from noon to 5 p.m. you can celebrate Earth Day at Discovery Green. The afternoon will feature performances from Calmecac Indigenous Arts Dancers and Lee’s Golden Dragons; music from Jukebox Trainwreck, a band that “recycles” songs you know into something new; art demonstrations, live painting, and a “battle” of chalk artists; art installations, such as art cars and solar and wind power sculptures; documentary shorts; crafts; lots of opportunities to find ways to get involved and more much. All are welcome to the free event.
Witness the world premiere of Music for New Bodies, the first collaboration from composer Matthew Aucoin and director Peter Sellars, on Saturday, April 20, at 8 p.m. at Brockman Hall for Opera in The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. DACAMERA and The Shepherd School of Music will present the piece, inspired by the poetry of Jorie Graham, and performed by five vocalists and an 18-instrument ensemble comprised of Shepherd School of Music students and DACAMERA Young Artists. The concert will be followed by a conversation with Aucoin, Sellars and Joseph Campana, poet and director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Rice, moderated by DACAMERA’s Artistic Director Sarah Rothenberg. Tickets can be purchased here for $41 to $81.
If you’re not aware, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, opened in 1924, which means this year we’re celebrating the museum’s 100th anniversary. The perfect way to start the celebration is during the museum’s Spring Festival – New Beginnings on Sunday, April 21, from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza and the Cullen Sculpture Garden. The family-friendly event will include musical and dance performances, international food vendors, artmaking stations and activity tables, such as a table to see an Arabic calligraphy demonstration (with the Islamic Arts Society) and story time (with the Houston Public Library), and much more. Admission is free all day to both the museum’s permanent-collection galleries and the Spring Festival. No tickets needed for the outdoor activities, and you can reserve a free ticket to enter the museum here.
Anne Souder in Martha Graham’s ‘Maple Leaf Rag.’ Hibbard Nash Photography
Martha Graham Dance Company is turning 100! Soon. In two years, to be exact. But it’s never too early to start the party, and the Company will perform American Legacies at New York City Center as part of a three-year-long centennial celebration, starting tomorrow (April 17). The program focuses on the Company’s exploration of American themes and will feature Graham classics as well as a new production of a midcentury ballet and a powerful new work by a contemporary choreographer.
Martha Graham (1894-1991) probably needs no introduction, but here’s a quick one: She was born in Pennsylvania to strict Irish-American Presbyterians. Eventually, her family moved to California, where she discovered concert dance and studied with modern dance pioneers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. After performing with Denishawn and The Greenwich Village Follies, she went off on her own to create a more serious and “human” dance technique, one that was rooted in the American experience and the most basic of movements—breathing. “Contraction and release,” with its radical instance on a flexible torso, revolutionized the way dancers moved on stage.
Graham founded her company in 1926, making it both the oldest dance company in the United States and the oldest integrated dance company in the country. She went on to create 181 ballets over nearly 70 years. Now the Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Janet Eilber (a former principal dancer who worked with Graham for almost a decade), continues to perform the Graham works but also regularly commissions new pieces by contemporary artists. “The range of our dancers has become mind-blowingly fabulous,” Eilber told Observer. “And at the same time, these new works have brought fresh eyes to the Graham classics that are on stage with them. Because the conversation is evident… when her work is put on stage next to the top voices of today’s dance world, there’s just—it’s hard to explain, but the Graham Company is being rediscovered and appreciated in a completely new light, I think.”
Here’s what’s on in the American Legacies program:
Rodeo (4/17 & 4/20)
Martha Graham Dance Company in Agnes de Mille’s ‘Rodeo.’ Photo by Carla Lopez, Luque Photography
The oldest piece on the program is also one of the newest. Rodeo was created in 1942 for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, but the Graham Company will be performing the New York premiere of a brand-new production of the classic ballet. Rodeo was not choreographed by Graham but by her contemporary Agnes de Mille. The De Mille Working Group approached Eilber with the idea to perform the ballet with the score reorchestrated for bluegrass, and she felt this would fit right in with their plan to reexamine mid-century Americana. “We wanted to find a way to talk about the roots of American music being in the immigrant and enslaved communities,” she said. “And Rodeo is the first dance for the stage that incorporated tap dance, also coming out of the immigrant and enslaved communities.”
When I asked what is new about this new production, Eilber said, “Everything except the choreography.” Aaron Copland’s original score, which wove in old cowboy melodies, has been reorchestrated for a six-piece bluegrass ensemble by multi-instrumentalist and composer/arranger Gabe Witcher, returning the music back to its roots. The new jewel-toned costumes designed by Oana Botez are, according to Eilber, “taken to a heightened reality” and “are more like a dream. A rose-colored glasses memory of the era.” And the original theatrical sets have been swapped out for projections by designer extraordinaire Beowulf Boritt. All these changes were made to expand the conversation about this iconic work while staying true to de Mille’s “humorous and heartfelt story about a young, independent misfit searching for love.”
We the People (4/17, 4/19, & 4/20)
The other New York premiere on the program is Jamar Roberts’ We the People (2024), commissioned as a companion piece to the new production of Rodeo. A 21st-century work of Americana, if you will. Roberts danced with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for many years and was the Resident Choreographer there from 2019 to 2022. His style is fast and hard-hitting, and the Company is clearly thrilled to take it on. (I saw an excerpt of the piece at the 92NY in March, and can’t wait to see the rest.) The music is by Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Rhiannon Giddens, inspired by songs from her latest album, You’re the One.
We the People, like its 20th-century companion piece, is rooted in the social-political atmosphere of the day. While Rodeo is optimistic and romantic—an idealized view of the country made with an international cast during a World War—Roberts’ piece is about protest and power. “You take a risk when you commission something and don’t know what you’re going to get,” Eilber told me. “But it is exactly, and beyond, what I had hoped when we started talking about a companion piece.”
Maple Leaf Rag (4/17 & 4/18)
Xin Ying and Lloyd Knight in ‘Maple Leaf Rag.’ Hibbard Nash Photography
Maple Leaf Rag (1990) was Graham’s last complete work, made when she was 96. If that’s not reason enough to see it, get this: it’s funny! “In it, she makes fun of her own serious, angsty reputation,” Eilber explained, “which is, I think, wonderful for your last ballet to look back and make a joke.” A tribute to the choreographic muse, it harkens back to the days when the strain of creating in the early ‘30s was just too much for her, so she would ask her pianist (and mentor and lover Louis Horst) to play something to break the mood. The story goes, she would always ask for Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag.”
The score is a delight, the original costumes by fashion designer Calvin Klein are lovely, and the piece is always an audience favorite.
The Rite of Spring (4/18 & 4/19)
Xin Ying and Lorenzo Pagano in Martha Graham’s ‘The Right of Spring.’ Hubbard Nash Photography
I’ve written before about how much I love The Rite of Spring in all its iterations, and Graham’s 1984 version is no exception. Graham danced as the Chosen One in the first American production of the work choreographed by Léonide Massine and conducted by Leopold Stokowski in 1930. She knew the work inside and out. But it wasn’t until 50 years later that she took on the story of ritual and rebirth as a choreographer.
Edward T. Morris’ set is a minimalist version of its original (which was lost), and Pilar Limosner’s costumes are also updated. The Shaman, for instance, no longer wears a bright green unitard.
The Rite of Spring is always worth seeing, especially when Igor Stravinsky’s music is played live (which it will be, as will the music for all the Graham classics, by The New School’s Mannes Orchestra under the direction of David Hayes).
Appalachian Spring (4/19)
It would be impossible to create a Graham program about Americana without including her celebrated masterwork Appalachian Spring (1944). Like Rodeo, the narrative ballet shines a patriotic light on American culture and the great frontier. Like Rodeo, it is romantic and hopeful. And like Rodeo, the score was written by Aaron Copland. This score later won the Pulitzer Prize for music and includes the now-unmistakable Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts.” The original set is by the sculptor, and Graham’s longtime collaborator, Isamu Noguchi.
CAVE (4/20)
Closing out the program is another commissioned work: Israeli-born and UK-based choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s CAVE (2022), presented in association with Hofesh Shechter Company, with an electronic score by Shechter and the German duo Âme.
The piece grew from a desire to bring the techno club scene to the proscenium stage to create a sort of Rave-style event. “It’s inspired by the basic human urge to move to the beat,” Eilber said. “Just infectious primal moves. It’s like a big dance party. And because it was invented towards the end of the pandemic, and people had not been able to dance together… not been able to sweat and breathe on each other in a dance club, so it’s very cathartic. Audiences get very involved vocally, if not physically. It’s a great closer for our last night.”
When I asked Eilber what she thought Graham would think of the program, of her classic works in conversation with those of de Mille, Roberts and Shechter, she smiled up at the ceiling. “Martha really was all about change, right? She loved to change. She looked for change. She tried to figure out what was going to happen next so she could do it first. I think she’d be thrilled that all of this was blossoming out of the essential human truths she was after back in the day.”
Performances of American Legacies will take place Wednesday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 18 at 7 p.m. (Gala), and Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, at 7:30 p.m. at New York City Center.
Interestingly, today is National Barbershop Quartet Day. We don’t have any barbershop quartets on this week’s list of best bets, but we do have plenty of musical performances, from a Tony Award-winning musical about an American icon to Bollywood in the Bayou City, as well as films, dance, and theater shows. Keep reading for these and more events on our list of best bets.
The 1950s-style American sitcom meets William Shakespeare in Classical Theatre Company’s upcoming production of The Bard’s The Taming of the Shrew, which opens at The DeLuxe Theater on Friday, April 12, at 7:30 p.m. Director Dana Bowman has noted that the classic is “definitely a sexist play,” and their approach is to “look back at the 1950s and sort of see what parallels we can draw” while staging it as sitcom – like Father Knows Best or The Dick Van Dyke Show – so “it can still be fun.” The production, which will conclude the company’s season-long celebration of iconic women, will run through April 20 with performances scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and April 15; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets can be purchased here for $10 to $30.
There’s a new dance collective in town, and you can get your first look at the Skylar Campbell Dance Collective when they present their debut showcase, titled Rebirth, at 7 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, at the MATCH. Campbell, a principal dancer with Houston Ballet, curates the evening, which features works from Guillaume Cote, Kristina Paulin and Alexei Ratmansky, along with world premiere commissions from Julia Adam, Robert Binet, Connor Walsh and Jack Wolff. Completing the program will be the talents of dancers from Houston Ballet and National Ballet of Canada, as well as live music provided by Tonya Burton and Yvonne Chen of the Monarch Chamber Players. Tickets to the performance, which is expected to run about 60 minutes, can be purchased here for $45.
Jason Hehir joins to discuss the medium of sports documentaries, as well as his films, like ‘The Fab Five,’ the lost Sacramento Kings documentary, ‘Down in the Valley,’ ‘Andre the Giant,’ and ‘The Last Dance’
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For the commitment-phobic amongst us, there’s nothing better than a mixed repertory program. It’s much needed variety in comfortable, bite-size pieces. Over at the Wortham Theater Center, Houston Ballet is teasing us once again with a mix of classical (neoclassical) and modern works in their latest mixed rep, Bespoke, which aptly opens with the Houston premiere of Stanton Welch’s Bespoke, originally created for the San Francisco Ballet in 2018.
Bespoke is a tender contemplation, a thoughtfully abstract peek into what it is to love something with an expiration date attached to it. In this case, that something is dance itself. Set across two Johann Sebastian Bach violin concertos, masterfully brought to vivid life by violinist Denise Tarrant, it is five movements of fond, lovingly crafted movement for 12 dancers.
In silence and solo, Eric Best opens the piece with charm, both easing the audience in and holding court. It’s easy to imagine Best preening before a mirror in a dance studio, just a dancer and technique on display to no one and everyone. Soon, however, dancers run in from the wings, filling and traveling across a set that feels unfathomably deep. Time is a clear motif introduced early, with port de bras stiffly leaning into and lending themselves to the implied tick of a clock’s hand inexorably moving forward.
The piece feels stripped down – figuratively and literally, considering Holly Hynes underwear-y, pajama-like costumes, which brighten the proceedings with simple pops of color. It’s a bit like a curtain pulled back, letting the audience in on something quite intimate and particularly well-articulated during the second movement’s pas de deux.
Houston Ballet Soloist Danbi Kim and Principal Chase O’Connell in Stanton Welch’s Bespoke.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar (2024). Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
Ominous red, courtesy of James F. Ingalls exacting lighting designs, opens the section, which features a serious, straight-faced Chase O’Connell partnering with Danbi Kim. It’s heartrending, poignant and at times fraught, with gorgeous lifts, careful extensions and weighty holds. Scrawled in my notes is a “this feels like a break up,” but more accurately it’s like watching something come to an unwanted end. Time, of course, is never far away either, with Kim briefly resembling a metronome.
Though Bespoke has a wistful undercurrent, Bach’s lively music allows plenty of welcome room for spates of pairs, trios and groups, showing off an impressive amount of control in spacing and formations, not to mention clever footwork and flair (like Simone Acri’s stunning series of turns). Though the piece, overall, feels light, that feeling’s deceptive, particularly when we come to an ending that is unexpectedly powerful.
Going into the first intermission, Bespoke filled the Wortham with good vibes and satisfied patrons, which the next work – the Houston premiere of Jiří Kylián’s Overgrown Path – couldn’t quite capitalize on.
Originally created back in 1980 for the Nederlands Dans Theater and set to the music of Leoš Janáček, Overgrown Path is…
Artists of Houston Ballet in Jiří Kylián’s Overgrown Path.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar (2024). Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
Well, there’s not much to say about Overgrown Path other than it misses the mark, causing an unfortunate dip in the program. It’s drawn from a Janáček piano cycle that is most definitely about life and death, grief and loss, time passing. And yet, between the piece’s repetitiveness and restlessness, it didn’t leave much of a mark emotionally. And, not to sound like too much of a homer about this, but this city is blessed with a company that not only dances ridiculously well, but acts just as well so…I suspect talent isn’t the problem.
The sense of fighting something that can’t be fought comes through in an affecting way, but it’s fleeting. Turns out that affecting quality is difficult to sustain throughout the 32-minute piece – though the dancers tried valiantly. If there’s one blindingly bright spot in this piece, it’s the pairing of Harper Watters and Bridget Allinson-Kuhns, who turn in a pas de deux that will get you sitting up straighter and leaning forward in your seat to take it all in.
Luckily, it’s still a merciful 30 minutes, and after another intermission, we get to the true star of the show.
If you were lucky – and I can’t emphasize the word lucky enough – you got to see the Houston premiere of Harbour’s Filigree and Shadow back in 2018, when the Wortham was a post-Hurricane Harvey no-go and the company took up temporary residence in George R. Brown Convention Center’s Resilience Theater.
Filigree and Shadow is a wild, 21-minute ride. Harbour dropped a metaphorical lead foot on the gas, thrusting 14 dancers and the audience into a breathless frenzy against the dense, unforgiving electronic soundscape provided by 48nord, the moniker of Munich-based duo Siegfried Rössert and Ulrich Müller. Harbour is relentless. Every sharp move, every crisp gesture – up, down, left, right – appears programmed but primal, filling Kelvin Ho’s imposing, cold-blooded set with intense, rhythmic, pulsating life and otherworldly elegance.
Houston Ballet First Soloist Mónica Gómez and Principal Connor Walsh in Tim Harbour’s Filigree and Shadow.
Photo by Amitava Sarkar (2024). Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
Nowhere is that life more apparent than in the captivating, sensual partnering of Connor Walsh and Mónica Gómez. It’s impossible to take your eyes off the pair, and it’s not just because of lighting designer Benjamin Cisterne’s uber-dramatic choices, perfect as they are, too.
Either in spite of, or maybe even because of, the stark, science fiction-like setting of Filigree and Shadow, the aggressive and ritualistic moves given to the dancers feel all the more recognizable to our, if I may, lizard brains. It’s also worth noting that not every work that opens on an awe-inducing tableau delivers on that promise, but Filigree and Shadow does with ease.
The truth of the matter is, Filigree and Shadow being on the program is reason enough to make your way over to the Wortham. It’s a must-see on its own. Combine it with Bespoke and forget it – you should already have ticket in hand. Despite the, well, let’s call it a hiccup in the middle of the show, all the pieces selected for this mixed repertory program are worth seeing. And anyway, doesn’t that saying go, two out of three ain’t bad?
Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. on March 9, 15 and 16, and 2 p.m. on March 10 and 17 at the Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$45.
Is Stanton Welch’s Cinderella as magical as its forebearers?
That’s the question going in to the Wortham Theater Center for the Houston Ballet’s latest mounting of Welch’s more modern take on the age-old fairy tale, which he first premiered in 1997 with the Australian Ballet.
You know the story, but a very abridged version goes like this: Once upon a time, lived a young woman named Cinderella, who was treated like little more than a servant by her stepmother and two stepsisters. One day, with a little magical intervention, Cinderella gets the chance to attend a ball where she meets a prince. But like all good things, the evening must come to an end at midnight (so say the magic), and in her haste to leave, Cinderella leaves behind a single slipper. The prince uses the slipper to track her down and save her from her wretched life. They live happily ever after. The end.
Welch’s Cinderella retains the wicked stepmother and stepsisters, as well as a ball, a midnight deadline and a slipper that just won’t stay on. But instead instead of a doormat waiting for a prince to save her, his Cinderella is a fighter, and instead of any “bibbidi-bobbidi-boo” spouting fairy godmother, it’s Cinderella’s deceased mother and a graveyard full of ghoulish minions that get Cinderella ready for the ball. If that sounds a bit macabre, that’s because it is. But it’s also representative of what Welch has done so masterfully with this ballet: riding the tonal shifts of Sergei Prokofiev’s lyrical score.
Prokofiev’s score can go from ominous to optimistic in seconds – just take a look at that graveyard scene. It has notes of darkness as well as whimsy, all of which the Houston Ballet Orchestra, under the hand of Ermanno Florio, approach with superb skill. Welch embraces the theatricality of Prokofiev’s music, and mines every bit of humor, with a fun and varied approach to movement. From the sweeping romance of the work’s pas de deux to the herky-jerk style of the undead, and the all-too brief shuffling and pulsating dances from the Spanish Princesses (Adelaide Clauss and Natalie Varnum) and the Arabian Princess (Yuriko Kajiya) – not to mention every head bobble and chicken neck – Welch leaves nothing to be desired. Not only is this true for the dance, it’s true for the characterization.
Houston Ballet First Soloist Mónica Gómez as Cinderella and Principal Connor Walsh as Dandini with Artists of Houston Ballet in Stanton Welch’s Cinderella.
Photo by Lawrence Elizabeth Knox (2024). Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
In patchworked overalls and short hair – think Natalie Portman’s post-V for Vendetta-pixie-crop short – with her arms crossed, feet planted and chin up, Mónica Gómez is a scrappy Cinderella. She’s not one to be pushed around without pushing back (literally at times) or let her stepsisters show her up, like when she puts them to shame with a series of fouetté turns. But Gómez also imbues her Cinderella with wistfulness; it’s in the longing in her face as she gazes at her deceased mother (an exquisitely elegant Karina González), or the sadness when she looks upon her father (an absolutely defeated Aaron Daniel Sharratt).
Gómez is also exuberant, and particularly charming when paired with Connor Walsh’s Dandini. Walsh looks enchanted as Dandini, and the pairs interactions culminate in a pas de deux straight out of, well, a fairy tale. Tender and joyous, and topped only by a second pas de deux in the third act.
Harper Watters, with a dramatic red lip and perfectly arched eyebrow, owns this show as Cinderella’s stepmother. Easily the most enjoyable character to watch on stage. Watters cuts an imposing, intimidating figure, backed up often by the over-the-top antics of Nikita Baryshnikov and Elivelton Tomazi, who play stepsisters Grizabella and Florinda. And yes, they’re on pointe and it’s a lot of fun to see.
Jack Wolff only has eyes for himself as the Prince (though Cinderella does briefly catch his attention). Wolff’s Prince is a perfectly preening, pouty, finger-gun shooting, winking dolt, and Steven Woodgate is his relatively benevolent father, the King, who is constantly pushing the marriage agenda. Simone Acri puts in an admirable effort as Buttons (and makes an exciting exit at one point in first act) but the character itself is a bit of a hard sell. And, out of nowhere, props to Saul Newport for earning much deserved laughs from the crowd as the dance instructor.
Houston Ballet Principal Karina González as Mother and Artists of Houston Ballet in Stanton Welch’s Cinderella.
Photo by Lawrence Elizabeth Knox (2024). Courtesy of Houston Ballet.
The world of Welch’s “once upon a time,” designed by Kristian Fredrikson, looks a bit like the late 19th- or early 20th-century and is full of both the beautiful and the grotesque. There are nightmarish mannequins come to life, a carnival that Pennywise would fit right into and skeletal masks for the undead army, aside the stained-glass glow of Cinderella’s home, a peacock-adorned ballroom, and the most dramatic of choices – stark black staging in the third act, which eventually gives way to a gorgeous night sky. Lisa J. Pinkham provided the lighting concepts for the show, which makes good use of spotlights to draw the eye.
Now, there is one other thing I feel strongly about in a much less positive way: Two boob grabs, by two different characters, in one show is one too many. There’s only one dickish character who should be inappropriately copping a feel.
Other than that, the conclusion is pretty simple: Stanton Welch’s Cinderella isn’t just as magical as its forebearers, it’s even more memorable because of its scrappy heroine, excellent cast of supporting characters, and some tweaks that make the story just a bit more real.
Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Friday, 1:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 3 at the Wortham Center, 501 Texas. For more information, call 713-227-2787 or visit houstonballet.org. $25-$220.
Inevitability, though, isnât the whole reason âTexas Hold âEmâ is currently the backing track to nearly 134,000 videos with millions of collective views. The song is boot-scootinâ its way onto TikTok at a time when a lot of music has been muted on the platform following a dustup between TikTok and Universal Music Group.
Taylor Swift is proving she’s a pro when it comes to unexpected mishaps — and that she’s INSANELY fit!
The Anti Hero songstress has brought her Eras Tour to Tokyo, Japan this week for another three-show run of sold out performances. We’ve seen the superstar get past a few different mistakes with her “the show must go on” attitude ever since the tour started last year — and she continues to prove time and time again nothing will stop her from delivering the very best for her fans!
On Wednesday, a short clip started circulating on X (Twitter) showcasing Tay Tay’s latest Vigilante S**t performance in Japan during the Midnights portion of her concert. If you’ve seen the show, you know this set is HAWT! The 34-year-old and her dancers shake their butts and spin around on chairs as she sings the ballad. It’s SPICY as hell — but not as easy as it looks!
In the clip, Taylor is supposed to squat down, legs wide, onto her chair — eyes never leaving the audience as she sings. But either the chair wasn’t in quite the right spot or she wasn’t. She apparently just missed the chair and nearly fell to the ground! We said “nearly” though. The amazing part was, she was able to hold the squat without breaking a sweat despite there being no chair beneath her to keep her leverage! OMG!
Ch-ch-check out the clip (below) to see the moment she has to reach behind her to pull the chair under her butt:
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