Arts

ALONZO KING

• By CYNTHIA LUM

Renowned Dance Company Alonzo King LINES Ballet returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with Deep River by company co-founder, artistic director, and visionary choreographer Alonzo King, on Friday, June 9, and Saturday, June 10, 2023, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis’ Bram Goldsmith Theater. Noted for blending classical and contemporary ballet, the full-length work is set to a score by jazz pianist, composer, and MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran featuring Grammy Award-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer. This is King’s second collaboration with Fischer and his ninth collaboration with Moran, which he created as a part of LINES Ballet’s recent 40th anniversary season. 

Hailed for its evocative work and unique artistic vision, King draws on the strengths of his extraordinary dancers altering the way we look at ballet today. LINES Ballet adheres to the classical form—the linear, mathematical and geometrical principles deeply rooted in the East-West continuum. An artist talk back will immediately follow the performance on June 9.

Deep River is a call to keep hope and to look at each other as a family of souls. The moving work melds dance with Black spirituals and invites audiences to look at human beings as the pinnacle of creation. King says that on the highest level the work is a reminder that “love is the ocean that we rose from, swim in, and will one day return to — and that love can set us free.”

For tickets, click here.

KEITH HARING

• By CYNTHIA LUM
• Photo By THE BROAD MUSEUM

Keith Haring: Art is for everybody at the Broad Museum is indeed for everybody. Accompanied by music from his old mixtapes the exhibition will feature over 120 artworks and archival materials. 

In a video clip from CBS News Haring explains, “You don’t have to know anything about art to appreciate it, there aren’t any hidden secrets or things that you’re supposed to understand”, hence the title of the show Keith Haring: Art is for everybody.  

Known for his use of vibrant color, and iconic cartoon like characters of the barking dog and radiant baby, Haring’s imagery is fun and joyous even though it takes on complex issues that remain crucial today from environmentalism, capitalism, and the proliferation of new technologies to religion, sexuality, and race.

Gil Vazquez, who heads The Keith Haring Foundation, says his work remains relevant. “A lot of the things that Keith spoke up for — LGBT issues, or spoke up against — racial disparities, police brutality: These are things that persistent. You know, his art still really resonates.”

Divided into ten galleries in total, the expansive exhibition will feature the breadth of mediums Haring worked within, including video, sculpture, drawing, painting, and graphic works, as well as representations from the artist’s enormous output of public projects, from the subway drawings to his public murals.

Haring died of complications from AIDS in 1990, when he was just 31 years old.

For more, click here.

GMCLA DISNEY

• By J. Cook

Mark your calendars, ladies and gents, for a spectacle of unprecedented grandeur is poised to descend upon the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, a symphonic force of 200 harmonious voices, will be melding their voices with the sonorous sounds of a 25-piece orchestra, and filling the hall with auditory delights from the all the annals of Disney – from the aquatic allure of ‘The Little Mermaid’ to the regal rhythms of ‘The Lion King,’ all the back to effervescent energy of ‘Mary Poppins’, as well as the contemporary cadences of ‘Coco,’ ‘Zootopia,’ and ‘Wreck-It Ralph.’

Accompanying all of that will, of course, be a video projection of the classics. But folks, that’s not all! The magical melodies of Disney Parks will also be woven into the evening, along with heartfelt solos and personal stories that breathe life into these timeless, universal tales. 

Invitations have been sent to all your favorite politicians as well. Not only has Mayor Karen Bass confirmed she will be attending, but she will also be receiving the GMCLA’s Civic Voice Award. Strangely, no Floridian politicians are expected to attend, which is a shame because of the fun layer it could add to the enchantment.

Lend an ear, lend an eye, and… oh yeah… be a part of this magical spectacle, and dress in your finest Disney gear and costume! Be there, don’t be square, and have a blast with the music and magic that is Disney, lovingly performed by GMCLA! 

For tickets, click here.

GISELLE

• By CYNTHIA LUM
• Photo By Altin Kaftira

Following historic performances at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and the London Coliseum, The United Ukrainian Ballet will make its West Coast debut June 29 – July2 at Segerstrom Center for the Arts with Alexei Ratmansky’s Giselle. This new interpretation of one of the greatest romantic ballets in the classical repertoire was created specifically for the company by Ratmansky, who himself is a Ukrainian citizen.

These performances will be presented in collaboration with Liev Schreiber and his non-profit organization, Blue Check Ukraine. Thanks to the underwriting support of Elizabeth Segerstrom and the Henry T. and Elizabeth Segerstrom Foundation, proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Blue Check which was created to vet, verify, and fund Ukrainian-led local and grassroots frontline organizations providing lifesaving humanitarian aid to victims of the Russian invasion. 

Sixty dancers who fled the war in Ukraine make up the company which is based in The Hague. Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova told members of the Washington establishment that she and others at the embassy have had “very difficult discussions” about whether, “during a full-fledged war, to continue our events … with art, with songs, with art exhibitions.” She said they decided that not to continue would be “exactly what Russians wanted us to do. They wanted us to be destroyed, cry and die. And we will not do that, we will not give up. We will not surrender. We will fight bravely on the battlefield. But we will also celebrate our culture.”

For tickets, click here.