Dance

I have mixed feelings about Rent.

On one hand, the wildly popular, Tony Award-winning musical turned major motion picture seems to have climaxed to the level of bubbly pop non-sense—Joey Fatone playing no small role in this symbolic transformation. (Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Team America: World Police decidedly contains the best satirical take on Rent to date: a group of overjoyed actors on a Broadway stage, clapping their hands to the lyrics, “We’ve all got AIDS!”—the bourgeois audience happily joining in).

On the other hand, Rent is a great show. It reinvented the musical genre and operatic concept for a younger audience, told a worthwhile and relevent story, had some excellent numbers that I still find myself singing in the shower, and originated from the genuine heart and soul of a true artist: Jonathan Larson.

In a weird way, the on-going legacy of Rent has begun to reflect its central theme, which, to me, is the struggle between the intentions of romantic integrity and the compromises of life’s daily realities. Where Larson once insisted on casting actors with little or no experience, the role of Mimi in the film adaptation was handed over to Rosario Dawson. Where the production was once a simple staged reading at the New York Theatre Workshop, the latest tours have ventured as far as Slovakia and Guam. And where the first two rows of every Broadway show were once reserved for the homeless (or at least whoever stood in line the whole day), tickets now sell upwards of $200 a pop.

Late July and we’re knee-deep in festival season. You’ve likely hit a few events from the Slamdance, the LA Film Fest, the Fringe Fest, Outfest, Comic-Con, the Middle Eastern Comedy Fest, Lilith Fair…the list goes on and on. The urge to see it all keeps us coming back, but I know, festival fatigue is strong. Hang in there, though—we’re at the home stretch. The REDCAT’s NOW Festival, which kicked off this weekend, should bring festival season to a spectacular end.

The New Original Works Festival features new dance, theater, music, and multimedia performance works by artists who are known for their often radical and unconventional approaches. While Week One (with work from Maureen Huskey and Killsonic) may have past us by, there’s still time to catch Weeks Two and Three, beginning this Thursday, July 29th.

Three artists make up Week Two of NOW: Christine Marie & Ensemble, in the expressionist theater piece “Ground to Cloud,” uses projections, electric light and shadowplay to unfold a multidimensional mythology of nature and human intervention. Systems of Us, from choreographer Rae Shao-Lan Blum & composer Tashi Wada, explores the disruption and transformation of relationships in a dance collaboration that may call to mind those early experiments of Cage and Cunningham. Finally, master of Breaking and hip-hop dance innovater Raphael Xavier’s “Black Canvas” explores the body of the Breaker in relation to the stage and life.

Week Three, beginning August 5th, features theater, dance, and animation. Alexandro Segade’s “Replicant vs. Separatist” depicts Segade himself calling the shots on a live sci-fi film shoot in which two male couples navigate the murky waters of state-mandated marriage. Hana van der Kolk’s “Once More, Again, One (Solo)” uses familiar pop music as the background for her solo dance adaptation of a work originally conceived for four dancers. To close, animator Miwa Matreyek (of Cloud Eye Control) uses animation with live projection to explore fantastical worlds in “Myth and Infrastructure.”

- By Helen Kearns

Each “week” of NOW is really only a Thurs/Fri/Sat, so budget your time accordingly. If you only attend one more festival this summer, consider the power of NOW. For more information, please visit www.redcat.org, or call 213-237-2800.

Jazz remains one of the few indigenous, American art forms, in that nothing quite like it ever existed before Buddy Bolden and Jelly Roll Morton started mixing up ragtime with the blues in an early 1900’s city called New Orleans. And to understand the history of jazz, as well as its incredible influence on our culture, is to understand the history of America and American music from slavery on up. Simply put, no artist you listen to today could exist without jazz. Which is why the genre makes its sudden flares of resurgence from time to time, and why you can still walk into most hip coffee shops around the city—notably, the Downbeat Café on Alvarado—and find a slick laptop-er or two subconsciously tapping their heels to the likes of Duke Ellington or Count Basie.

This Wednesday, July 28^th at 8:00 PM at the Hollywood Bowl, jazz proves its not dead with the internationally renowned Count Basie Orchestra—still going after eighty years. Known for popularizing the Kansas City-style of big band jazz, as well as initiating some of the greatest artists in history (including Billy Holiday, Jo Jones, and Charlie Parker), Basie, himself, passed away in 1984, but his band plays on under different direction and with a regenerating cast of musicians. The current Orchestra doesn’t strictly adhere to its Kansas City roots (i.e. rhythmic riffs under improvised solos), but instead incoporates more of the East coast, neo-classisist style of big band jazz, with complex arrangements by director Bill Hughes.

That’s not to say, however, that such Count classics as “One O’Clock Jump” or “April in Paris” won’t be bouncing through the Bowl on Wednesday—along with the Dave Holland Big Band, the Dave Douglas Big Band, and yes, maybe you. Due to the overwhelming response of our last giveaways, FineArtsLA.com is once again raffling off two tickets to the Hollywood Bowl to see the Count Basie Orchestra live at 8:00 PM. Just enter your first and last name into the form below, as well as your e-mail address, and you are automatically entered into the running to win not just Wednesday night’s tickets, but also the next three FineArtsLA.com giveaways. So brush up on your two-step, and dust off those dancing shoes; even if you don’t win our contest, you can still buy tickets here.

The best thing about A Chorus Line—and there’s a lot of good things—is that there’s a moment every ten minutes or so when chills run up your spine. You know these chills, too. They are the chills of recognition, chills of connection. They are the cells inside your body racing alongside your bones, like an excited dog, at the mere thought of meeting something or someone like them.

A Chorus Line—which opened at the Pantages Theatre this past Tuesday, and runs for two weeks only until June 13^th—comes loaded with history. Michael Bennett’s visionary piece, since 1975, has been a staple of Broadway, off-Broadway, and high-school productions alike. It has won numerous prizes, including the Tony and Pulitzer Prize for Best Musical. It spawned an awful film adaptation, and a wonderful documentary. In 2006, the show was revived on Broadway by the original co-choreographer, Bob Avian. It broke all sorts of box office records. And the cousin of Avian’s revival still tours today, occasionally to Los Angeles for brief, two-week runs.

But for all the bombast, A Chorus Line is best when it sticks to its roots—the loose grouping of Broadway dancers that Michael Bennett brought together in 1974 at the Nickolaus Exercise Center to tell their stories on tape. The show often veers from this core focus, unable to restrain from bits of bravado, much like the character Cassie (Rebecca Riker) does when told by her ex-boyfriend/director Zach (Derek Hanson) to stick to the choreography. These hardly un-enjoyable departures, however, only allow for the true moments—when Paul (Nicky Venditti) has his monologue, when Sheila (Ashley Yeater) starts to sing “At the Ballet,” and of course when Diana (Selina Verastegui) leads the cast in “What I Did For Love”—to shine all the brighter.

As far as this particular production goes, it’s pretty much what you would expect, which, when talking about A Chorus Line, is a good thing. Because you expect to be thrilled, and to be sad, and be privy to that oh-so rare sight in musical theatre: honesty on stage. Without a doubt, actor Andy Mills, who plays the show-stealing character of Mike, steals the show. Mills is so good-looking he stands out from the mezzanine, and his dancing is so flawless you find yourself using him as the bar for other dancers. I also enjoyed Derek Hanson, who’s interpretation of Zach—the fictional director that remains in the shadows for most of the show—was complex enough to support the facets of the for-sure Michael Bennett stand-in character. Other notables include Rebecca Riker, Ashley Yeater, Donald C. Shorter, and Nathan Lucrezio.

A Chorus Line is a musical that kind of begs to be updated or adapted. I’d love to hear one of the dancers talk about bulimia, for instance. Or have a character make a comment on gay marriage, or the economy. But seeing the show live, and with such an excellent cast makes me realize this is not the way to go. Every line and every step of Bennett’s masterwork holds up, and though it wouldn’t exactly be sacrilege to change a few things to make it more topical, there’s really no need to change what still gives me those chills up my spine. 

A Chorus Line runs until June 13^th at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. For more information, please call 323-468-1770, or visit www.broadwayla.org.

http://www.vimeo.com/10734020

New Wave LA marks the 4th time I have seen the Los Angeles Ballet (LAB) perform. I was lucky enough to see their debut performance four years ago when they performed The Nutcracker. They were so new on the scene they had guest dancers perform most of the important roles. This past December, I saw LAB perform The Nutcracker once again and I’m happy to report that their formative years are almost behind them. So when I saw that choreographers from the show So You Think You Can Dance—of which I am a huge fan—were also choreographing for a live show to be performed by LAB, I was delightfully surprised, and bought tickets right away.

The first number, choreographed by SYTYCD favorite Mandy Moore, was entitled “Wink.” Okay, internet dating has now infiltrated all art forms, even dance. It was very clever and sweet and did not remind me at all of the few internet dates I myself have been on. Too bad, maybe they know something I don’t. The piece opened with the dancers in a line on the lip of the stage, and each was spotted with a voiceover of their dating profile: their astrological sign, a few facts about them, etc. (to which we all got a good laugh). We then followed the different couples as they met, got to know each other, got to like or hate each other, became intimate (which is always just so pretty when interpreted by dancers as opposed to real life…), and found true love. It really was very enjoyable to watch.

The second piece was choreographed by the only non SYTYCD choreographer, Josie Walsh. Hers was entitled “Transmutation” and she described it as “the male and female energies as they provocatively interact until total integration occurs manifesting into a heightened state of balance and harmony.” Okay I’ll just say it. This piece was  phenomenal. From the moment it started, the music (Paul Rivera Jr.) completely captured me and Walsh’s brilliant choreography made me want this dance to never end. It was very tribal and caveman/woman-like, but with a splash of gothic. Six dancers—three women on pointe in skin-tight red short body-suits and three men in gray matching outfits—they alternated between dancing by gender and by couple. Fast jumps and turns paired with slow and languid movements; I was at the edge of my seat. Right before it ended, the women balanced their backs on the men’s and held their legs in splits while both sets of arms moved up and down Swan Lake-style. The lighting was such (designed by Ben Pilat) that it looked ethereal. As soon as the music stopped, I immediately wanted to see it again. It was so strong and solid, and so powerful and impressive that even the old man in front of me (who was sighing loudly for the first dance) gave it a standing ovation.

The third piece was choreographed by SYTYCD former contestant, Travis Wall. When he was on the show’s second season—which he should have won but placed runner up—he was known for his contemporary dances, which were always rich with emotion (as were the ones he choreographed for the new dancers in his return in 2008). But what he does that most of the choreographers on the hit show do not do, is invent new ways of getting from point A to point B. Sometimes they are awkward and sometimes they flow, but they are always interesting. His piece in this show was entitled “Reflect. Affect. Carry On…” Eight Dancers remained on stage the entire time, all at a party, and each had a label. “The Oblivious” “The Greedy” “The Heartbreaker” “The Invisible” and so on. It was innovative but maybe had too much going on at once for me. I definitely felt the emotion there, and what each was going through. It was very interesting to watch, but I was distracted by the constant movement and wanted a focus for myself. When the piece ended I turned to my friend and said “That was so Travis.” Then I heard that sentence repeated back to me in my head. Are there such things as SYTYCD nerds?

Finally, “The Back and Forth” by SYTYCD eccentric, Sonya Tayeh. I usually like her dances on the show because they are so different, but this particular effort more traditional. Again, like in Walsh’s, it was three couples with the women on pointe. The dancers were great and the dance teetered on tango at times, but the emotion wasn’t there. It was enjoyable to watch and if it had been the second dance, I would have liked it better. But the set-up was too similar and the execution was not as powerful. It was, I suppose, not the “Sonya” I thought I knew.

As far as the talent of the dancers was concerned, LAB has an impressive company, no doubt. But unlike most ballet companies of their stature, they have not been around for decades and are not world renowned. So the crème de la crème don’t necessarily flock to LAB in the “ballet draft.” Not yet anyway. I was trying to explain this to my non-dancer friends after The Nutcracker and again tonight. In numbers where there are three sets of couples doing the same thing, almost always one couple is just a beat behind. And usually one dancer stands out as being the best instead of all being equally good. Also, sometimes their balances are shaky and they adjust the foot they are balancing on. In the opening number I even saw an arabesque held for about five seconds and the dancer didn’t bother to point her foot. It’s just these little things that make me feel like I shouldn’t be paying the same price for a ticket as I would for ABT, SF Ballet, or The Joffrey.

In its entirety, New Wave LA was a great night for dance. It’s exciting that LA finally has their own dance company and I look forward to seeing many more LAB performances. But something about their shows is just not top notch yet.

- By Deidre Moore

New Wave LA runs next weekend as well at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. For more information, please call 310.477.7411, or visit www.losangelesballet.org.

Generally, creative innovation in any field is thought to have a kind of narrative. When young, the pull toward radical exploration and experiment is bright, vigorous, and hardly noticed by the establishment; that is until a little bit later when these once controversial methods start to become accepted by the mainstream, tauted as revolutionary, and before you know it, the avant-garde becomes the old guard—wisdom and tradition taking precedence over innovation.

But what if this narrative is in itself a kind of trap? What if the possibility for newness, for regeneration never peters out, even in death?

For the late master, avant-garde choreographer and dancer Merce Cunningham, this was essential. From his early 1950’s collaborations with such ground-breaking artists as Robert Rauschenberg and John Cage, up until his death at age 90, Cunningham was constantly striving for the future. As late as last year, he could be found hosting a weekly webcast series called “Mondays with Merce,” where he invited the world to see the inner-workings of his 57-year-old, world-renowned company, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC).

And after his death in July of 2009, his innovation lives on. He, himself, arranged for a post-humous outline for his company called the “Legacy Plan”—a way for his work to continue to grow for future generations. As a part of it, the MCDC has embarked on its final, two-year-long international tour, where they will premiere brand new pieces by Cunningham for the very last time.

This is where FineArtsLA comes in. We have managed to score two tickets to see the Saturday, June 5^th performance of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where they will be premiering to the world the reconstructed Roaratorio, featuring music by John Cage. And yes, we’re giving them away to you, our loyal followers. This is literally beyond a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: all you have to do is enter your first name, last name, and e-mail address into the form below, and you will be eligible to receive two free tickets to see the 7:30 PM world-premiere performance of Merce Cunningham’s Roaratorio, as performed at the Walt Disney Concert Hall by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company on Saturday, June 5^th. Not only that, but you will be automatically entered into the running for our next three ticket giveaways.

Cunningham liked to leave his work up to chance, but if you just want guaranteed tickets, you can buy them here.

From May 15 to May 30, the Los Angeles Ballet finishes its fourth season with the unveiling of four contemporary world premieres by acclaimed guest choreographers Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, and Sonya Tayeh of the FOX hit, So You Think You Can Dance, and LA’s Josie Walsh. Titled “New Wave LA,” the program presents cutting edge, innovative movement from some of the brightest beacons on the choreographic horizon.

LAB Artistic Directors Thordal Christensen and Colleen Neary have commissioned new works each season – but presenting four world premiere dances on a single program is all but unheard-of for a classical ballet company. That three of the four young choreographers featured in LAB’s production come from the hit TV show, So You Think You Can Dance is no accident. In 2008, dancers from Los Angeles Ballet made an impressive appearance on the series, and last July, Thordal Christensen choreographed the first-ever classical ballet piece for the show. That some of the show’s resident choreographers return the favor seemed natural.

Mandy Moore’s caffeine-infused, witty “Wink” opens the show. Moore was inspired by “the world of Internet dating – profiles, coffee dates, second dates,” she writes in her program notes,”and all the awkwardly beautiful moments along the path to finding true love.”

In an early rehearsal at the company’s vast West Side studios,  two dancers catch each other’s eyes in passing and chuckle, and Moore hollers, “Keep it!”  Her rehearsal is focused and disciplined, yet full of humor. “Dance is so silly to me when people don’t react to each other,” she tells her dancers. “Don’t just ignore them – especially if they’re cute!” One of the choreographers for Celine Dion’s “Taking Chances” World Tour, Moore’s eclectic style has delighted viewers regularly on So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

Down the hall in another studio, Los Angeles native Josie Walsh is working with another group of dancers. Walsh danced with the Joffrey Ballet, Zurich Ballet, and Oregon Ballet Theatre, before returning to LA to found MYOKYO Renegade Rock Ballets in 2000. Her ballet, “Transmutation,” was developed from a piece originally commissioned for LAB’s first choreographic workshop last summer. It evokes the visceral interplay between “the male and female archetypal energies,” she explains, “the friction of opposition creating balance. If we didn’t have opposition, we’d be looking for it, for the wisdom of the middle road.”

Walsh creates movement organically, empathically on the dancers, making changes as she works to achieve integration of body, mind, and spirit. “I don’t like to dictate,” she says. “I use what IS, in the moment. My intention is to cultivate the Presence of each individual dancer.” The music – specially created for this ballet by Walsh’s husband Paul Rivera, Jr – inexorably throbs and pounds, ultimately leading to transcendent stillness. Award-winning contemporary choreographer Travis Wall left home at 12 to appear in The Music Man on Broadway. Runner-up on season 2 of So You Think You Can Dance, Wall later returned to the show as a featured choreographer. This year he was assistant choreographer and dancer for the Academy Awards show, and created a piece featuring New York Ballet principal ballerina Tiler Peck for ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.

Wall’s “Reflect. Affect. Carry On…” for LAB is a bittersweet love story inspired by Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” U2’s “With or Without You,” and Sigur Ros’s “Samskeyti.” His unique style is a seamless hybrid, melding elements of classical ballet and contemporary dance. As he shares his very individual dance vocabulary with the dancers, I am struck with the sense that this remarkable 22-year-old may be the Bob Fosse of his generation.

Her stylized movement relying substantially on aggressive one-on-one physical contact, Sonya Tayeh directs “combat jazz” and contemporary dance as a choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance. Her dances incorporate a personal, quirky style with the essence of contemporary technique, producing startlingly original combinations.

In “The Back and Forth,” Tayeh has created a flamboyant, show stopping finale for “New Wave LA.” With huge appreciation for their virtuosity, Tayeh’s shrieks of “Yes!! Yes!!” goad her six dancers into reckless, dangerous flight to Piazzolla’s “Libertango.” She is completely collaborative with the three couples, igniting fire and passion in their dancing. “When the matador meets the bull, the back and forth begins,” she says.

- By Penny Orloff

Performances of “New Wave LA” are on Saturday, May 15 at 7:30 pm at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center; Saturday, May 22 at 7:30 pm at Glendale’s Alex Theatre; and Saturday, May 29 at 7:30 and Sunday, May 30 at 2 pm at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. For more information, please visit www.losangelesballet.org or call 310.998.7782.

When my friends first dragged me to a Cherry Boom Boom show late one night at the Key Club on Sunset, I was more than reluctant.  I’m the type of girl who fights for women to keep their clothes ON in the entertainment industry.  More depictions of powerful women prosecutors, professors and presidents please; not more docile eye candy for the power-bloated male.

But what I discovered at the Key Club that night broke through my ridged outlook of propriety and introduced me to a new era of women’s comedy, creativity, and right to strut their stuff.

Although the leggy ladies of Cherry Boom Boom do embrace some of the imagery of the 1950’s pin-up girl, they are a bevy of powerful 21^st century women whose passion and power will overwhelm you and leave you grasping at your seat.  The group combines nouveau cabaret dance vignettes with the gimmicks and humor of old time burlesque and a healthy dose of ‘don’t mess with me!  I’m proud of my body and who I am’. The Boom Booms’ intelligence, flair for storytelling, skill with a whip, and perceptive comic timing, enliven and enlighten the genre I had labeled as ‘stripping’ and judged so harshly from outside the Key Club doors.

Artistic Director and choreographer Lindsley Allen created the group two years ago and began touring small LA venues with the show.  They got such a buzz that Allen was invited to choreograph and co-direct a piece for Dancing With The Stars, starring Cherry Boom Boom and featuring Carmen Elektra. Allen, one of the original Pussycat Dolls, received her BFA in ballet and has had a successful career as a dancer and choreographer.

Cherry Boom Boom’s new show, “The Rendezvous”, opening at the King King Hollywood in May, also utilizes Allen’s background in Commedia Dell’Arte, the 16^th century Italian clowning style. Allen studies commedia with Tim Robbins’s world-renowned theater company, The Actors’ Gang, and she chose to bring elements of that style to “The Rendezvous” to utilize the unique characters each of her dancers developed over the past year.  Rather than being a typical dance review, “The Rendezvous” brings to life the timeless commedia story of the thwarted LOVERS.“You get to go on a classic journey,” Allen explained, “All the dance numbers support the story.  I’m so excited to bring dance and commedia together. This show is a love affair between my two favorite worlds”.

The King King’s performance space is ideal for the piece. The multi-leveled stage, VIP lounge seating, and bar accentuate Cherry Boom Boom’s fusion between nightclub cabaret and Broadway show. You will definitely see me in line at the King King, this time dragging some new skeptics along with me.

- By Stephanie Carrie

“The Rendezvous” will perform at the King King on the last Thursday of every month, May-October.  Opening night is Thursday, May 27^th.  Doors open at 8pm for a 9pm show. Be sure to stay for the dance party afterwards! For tickets www.kingkinghollywood.com or call (323) 960-9234.

Advance tickets highly recommended.

http://www.cherryboomboom.me/

Until I got to LA, the world of burlesque was somewhat foreign to me. I had a vague notion of 1920’s showgirls doing Bob Fosse numbers for over-excited guys in trench-coats and fedoras, a lot of nasally yammering and two-note whistles. But even this general notion of burlesque was gleaned from Looney Tunes and old movies, not real life.

Then in LA, I realized there was an actual burgeoning scene, filled with human beings, or at least the Hollywood equivalent. It seemed everywhere I went, there was some amateur poster or postcard hanging up, featuring a scantily clad woman in heavy make-up, teasing me to visit the “Saturday Night Follies” or “Beatrice’s Boudoir.” Thus I developed a kind of adverse reaction to the ad saturation. I felt these so-called burlesque girls were simply suburban strippers in disguise, lacking the fortitude to go the whole way. To me, it was post-feminism imploding in on itself.

Still I hadn’t yet seen a burlesque show with my own two eyes, and had very little idea what it entailed. So this past Sunday night, I decided to get up off my hypocritical, ivory-stained tuchus, and check out “Red Snapper’s Sassy, Classy Burlesque Revue” at The Sherry Theatre in North Hollywood.

I held some hesitation over whether to bring a notebook or not. Normally I always bring a notebook to any event I review, whether it be a gallery or a film screening, but the idea of taking notes while a girl is showing off her tasseled breasts seemed somehow creepy to me. In the end, I decided to take notebook, but keep it on the down-low.

Right from the start of “Red Snapper’s Sassy, Classy Burlesque Revue” I realized how ignorant I’d been. There was a giant, inflatable bottle of Absinthe set up on the stage, three guys in sharp suits and slicked-back hair sitting behind me—each toting a bottle of champagne and going by the monikers of Frederick O’Hollywood and Patrick the Bank Robber. Burlesque, it seemed, was a kind of costume party, a carnival, a renaissance fair for those who preferred jazz with their coffee. And everyone was happy.

The first performer, one Mr. Snapper (aka Andrew Moore), the emcee of the night, got things going with a cute ukulele rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Blue Skies,” pitch-perfect trumpet scat-singing and all.  But in burlesque, there’s no such thing as cute—or even perfect—without raunch. So Mr. Snapper told a dirty joke before bringing up the premiere dancer: How does a college man propose? Answer: You’re having a what?

Bebe Firefly, the first lady as it were, was the reason for the inflatable Absinthe bottle. She was dressed as a dolled-up green fairy, the kind that supposedly pops up every once in a while under the influence of the nationally illicit spirit. To the tune of a jazzy, speed-guitar riff, Bebe proceeded to mix a glass of alcohol with sugar on stage, consume it, and promptly shake her hips and bust until all that was left was a thong and some tassels. The crowd, both men and women, all hooting and hollering, loved it.

Next up was Iona Vibrator, donning an elaborate, Asian/New Orleans fusion outfit, which came off in a similarly ritualized fashion to that of Bebe’s. After her: Ms. Jessabelle Thunder, who’s David Lynch-esque number made me realize the hypnotizing effect of such dances. It’s mostly just simple back and forth, some turns and winks thrown in, but for some reason it’s just enough to keep you swaying along with them.

The show’s producer and name-sake, Red Snapper, arrived on stage next, ushering the audience into the second half of the night—the more experienced girls. Snapper was obviously a crowd favorite, more than comfortable strutting around in a pair of garters and stockings, doing a kind of naughty 50’s housewife parody. The supposed female empowerment associated with modern burlesque became more apparent in Snapper’s performance. She possessed a definite control over her own teases, an excited familiarity with her routine that translated into a kind of feminine pride.

Panama Red followed, with Costa Brava not far behind, each showing off their own expertise with unique additions to the basic ritual of the formalized strip-tease. Whether it was Panama Red’s jungle-themed chest-shake, or Costa Brava’s feathered fan dance, these girls clearly knew what they were doing, and found ways to make playful what could become tiresome.

The show-stopper, both literally and figuratively, was Evie Lovelle, the seeming celebrity of the group, appearing in her last performance before a European tour. As she came out from backstage, wearing a tight corset which practically choked her tiny, tiny waist, the audience went nuts. And I could see why. She had long, black hair; gorgeous, pale skin; and a knowing smile that’s typically reserved for starlets of the silent film era. She’ll fit in just perfect in Europe.

Leaving the show, I talked to two female members of the audience, both of whom expressed interest in trying out burlesque themselves. They said they appreciated how the medium applauded real women, and how even conventionally “flawed” body-types could be made beautiful and powerful. As for me, I’m still not quite convinced of the transformative value in burlesque—after all, every number ends with what’s known as the “final reveal”—but I will say that I had a fun time. And as it tuns out, my note-taking didn’t feel that creepy at all. I suppose that’s because nothing seems that creepy about burlesque. It’s a celebration, rather than a perversion, and for that, I’ll hoot and holler with the rest of ‘em.

Photos by Holly Go Darkly

To find out about any and all upcoming burlesque shows in Los Angeles, please visit www.losangeles.Burlesque411.com.

Yoko Ono’s bio on her Twitter accounts reads: “I love dancing. I think it’s better to dance than to march through life.”

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, though not directly affiliated with Ono, abides by the same theory, and since their inception in 1977 as a small, jazz-influenced repertory outfit with a penchant for entertaining the elderly at Chicago-based neighborhood centers, the now world-renowned, genre-blending company has never forgotten its roots. At a performance in New York in 2001, dancers ended the show by randomly bringing up audience members on stage. And to this day, any one of the seventeen dancers in the main ensemble can be found teaching kids in local school districts the healing art of movement.

That is when not on tour to places like the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles from April 9^th – 11^th; a short run to be sure, but Hubbard, in its ever-humble and inviting fashion, has been gracious enough to provide Fine Arts LA with two tickets to see the dazzling, opening-night performance. We thought about hiding this fact, but that wouldn’t be very Hubbard of us, now would it?

So, beginning at 7:30 PM on April 9th, be the lucky winner of two free tickets to see the eclectic mix of some of the world’s most talked-about, modern-dance choreographers—including Jirí Kylián, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe and Daniel Ezralow—instill their visions into the bodies of the most audience-connected dancers you’re apt to see anywhere. Simply enter your first name, last name, and e-mail address into the form below, and not only will you be eligible to receive tickets to see Hubbard Street Dance Chicago on April 9th, but the next three shows in which we give away tickets as well. Who knows? You might be sitting next to Yoko Ono.