Considered one of America\’s leading and most distinctive contemporary dance companies, Hubbard Street will display its trademark eclecticism when it debuts at the Hollywood Bowl on July 25.
Choreographer Keith Glassman always wanted to learn more about his grandfathers and why they both pursued boxing careers in their youth. Known for dances that blend natural, athletic movement with sociological commentary, Glassman decided to make a piece that would allow him to explore whether other Jewish men in his grandfathers\’ generation also boxed \”to make money. I was surprised to find out that there were a lot of Jewish boxers,\” he says. \”It was an immigrant\’s way of trying to make it in America.\”
Jewish Tango Cabaret — a performance at the New JCC at Milken in West Hills on Saturday, May 13.
For 2,000 years, Jewish music has been a hybrid compounded of elements picked up from our neighbors. Salamone Rossi created Italian Baroque settings of Hebrew texts. Chasidic niggunim drew on Viennese waltz music and Eastern European military marches. Sulzer and Lewandowski wrote like German Protestants. In the Diaspora, Jewish music has always been a hyphenate.
It is not only illegal immigrants for whom the Passover tale holds appeal. The story of the Exodus can be easily updated for any of the numerous people in the Third World seeking freedom from oppression.
When they first started dancing together, Noam Gagnon and Dana Gingras used to lock themselves in a studio for somewhere between five and seven hours a day. Together, they tried to make their bodies react in \”authentic ways,\” irrespective of how high they could jump, how fast they could turn or any other techniques their dance training had already taught them.
Saturday, February 4
It’s the year of the gay cowboy, so why not the privileged lesbian? Head to the Geffen Playhouse for the Los Angeles premiere of David Mamet’s, “Boston Marriage,” titled after the Victorian euphemism used to describe a long-term, intimate relationship between two unmarried women. The play about two upper-class women involved thusly is also directed by Mamet and stars Rebecca Pidgeon, Alicia Silverstone and Mary Steenburgen.
Through March 12. $35-$69. 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. (310) 208-5454.
Sunday, February 5
Israeli musician Ehud Banai comes to the Avalon Hollywood. Hear songs from the folk/rock/traditional songwriter’s album, “Answer Me,” which won Best Album of the Year at the 2004 Israeli Music Awards, and other favorites tonight only.
9 p.m. $45. 1735 Vine St., Hollywood. (323) 462-8900. www.groovetickets.com.
There were always Jews in punk, even before there was punk.
\”It really begins with Lenny Bruce,\” says Steven Beeber, whose new book \”The Heebie Jeebies at CBGBs: A Secret History of Jewish Punk,\” will be published next year by A Capella Books. \”Bruce sort of epitomizes the attitude, the whole smart-ass, clever truth-telling.\”
In fact, the punk attitude is also a Jewish attitude that begins with the midrash, in which Abram smashes all but one of his father\’s household idols and blames the sole survivor for the wreckage.
The dance, called \”Missa Brevis,\” premiered the following year in a bombed-out church in Budapest and would become a masterpiece of the Limon canon. The June 1958 issue of Dance Magazine declared \”it has been a long time since modern dance has produced a work so profoundly stirring and exalting.\” Carla Maxwell, artistic director of the Jose Limon Dance Company since 1978, called it \”one of those rare, perfect dances. Poland moved Limon profoundly, and from it, he created some of the most glorious choreography.\”
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