Jessica Koslow

Courtesy of Casa Patas

A female Flamenco dancer with black, fitted pants; a violin player with a Mohawk; abstract movements accompanied by silence; a woman playing guitar; mundane acts performed with hairpins and earrings. “The DeMente Territory” was not a traditional evening of Flamenco at Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles’ Theatre Raymond Kabbaz. Partnering with the Consulate General of Spain, the 220-seat, intimate Kabbaz presented a forward-reaching Flamenco ensemble from Madrid’s Fundación Conservatorio Flamenco Casa Patas for a two-night run, beginning Nov. 8.

The first clue of the unconventionality to come was the eclectic musical troupe. Violinist Víctor Guadiana sported a Mohawk; one of the two female singers wore deadlocks. Though her heartfelt singing straddled tradition, her wails and cries screamed defiance. The Norwegian guitarist Bettina Flater stood out for just being female. Apparently, only one other woman makes professional rounds in Spain. It’s not often I can identify a particular Flamenco tune, but I immediately recognized the words of popular Cuban singer Silvio Rodríguez. His inclusion suited the rebelliousness of the evening. Rodríguez leans Left. Revolutionary politics inspire many of his lyrics.

The entire company, including director and choreographer Karen Lugo and her dancing partner José Maldonado, exuded fresh-faced energy. …

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Tiffany Sweat, Julie Lockhart, Melissa Schade and Athena Sterig/Photo by Taso Papadakis

A limber male dancer stands on his hands, his legs split into a triangle; leading actor Brad Culver yells out nonsensical sounds, warming his vocal chords as he stretches his mouth. When the five-minute break ends, Kate Hutter, the artistic director of LA Contemporary Dance Company, huddles with three women, demonstrating how red ribbons flow from their hands to the ground.

Hutter’s collaborator, Aaron Henne, artistic director of theatre dybbuk, watches from the front, his 72-page script in hand. The co-directors (Hutter is also choreographer, and Henne the writer) are holed up at Brockus Project Studios at the Brewery, rehearsing Cave…A Dance for Lilith, their third collaboration, which opens tonight next door at Diavolo Performance Space, running Friday through Sunday until November 18.

The dance theater piece experiments with the collision between text, movement and music. “After our first collaboration Body Mecanique in June 2009, I thought it would be great to continue working together,” says Henne. But for their next joint venture, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a piece that’s more narrative, more like a play, where the dance is as much text as the play itself? We bandied that idea around a lot. Finally, about one and a half years ago when I decided to start theatre dybbuk, I was really interested in the first piece having to do with Lilith folklore and Hebrew Goddess mythology.”

Cave…A Dance for Lilith unearths the humanity behind the myth of Lilith, the Hebrew name for a demon goddess. …

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Gorilla Crew / Photo courtesy of Korean Cultural Center LA

I was just about the only white person in the audience at “2012 Sounds of Friendship” at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on Oct. 9. The night’s lineup offered a glimpse at the “hallyu” (Korean Wave), or the surge and spread in popularity of Korean pop culture, with performances by musicians, singers and dancers representing both traditional and modern art forms. The show was free, but interested parties had to pick up tickets at the Korean Cultural Center. Hence, the majority of Korean faces in the audience.

Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Korean Americans and Korean residents in the United States. Diplomacy is best achieved through song and dance. This year, in particular, marks the 130^th anniversary of friendship between the Republic of Korea and the United States, and the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement took effect in March 2012. “Sounds of Friendship,” the program announces, celebrates the long-standing relationship between the two countries. …

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Photo by: Spencer Davis

It is not common knowledge that Akram Khan was snubbed by NBC this summer during the American telecast of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London. NBC replaced Khan’s five-minute dance sequence to the hymn “Abide With Me,” sung by Emile Sandé, with Ryan Seacrest interviewing swimmer Michael Phelps. Danny Boyle had it right though, in tapping Khan to present his work for the nearly 27 million U.S. television viewers. On Oct. 5, as part of Center for the Art of Performance (CAP) at UCLA’s dance series, Los Angeles was privy to witness Khan’s work up-close. The British Bangladeshi artistic director of Akram Khan Company debuted the West Coast premiere of “Vertical Road” (2010) at Royce Hall, with a repeat performance on Saturday evening.

Not as close, however, as audience members would have been at a show during UCLA’s previous seasons. Before the performance, CAP Executive and Artistic Director Kristy Edmunds explained how a few rows of seats in the front of the house had been removed in order to present each artist’s work as they had intended. In other words, people were just too close before.

“Vertical Road,” at 70 minutes sans intermission, picks up in intensity and never lets go. …

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Photo by: Fiona Cullen

Indonesian choreographer Ery Mefri does not speak English. His company Nan Jombang is in New York City the week before coming to Los Angeles, busily performing at Fall for Dance and at Asia Society. Both circumstances slim my chances of an interview. Fortunately, company manager Suzanne La is happy to answer my questions — and provide me with several of Mefri’s own reflections via email —  about his West Coast premiere of “Rantau Berbisik (Whisperings of Exile)” at REDCAT this Wednesday through Sunday (with the exception of Friday).

Mefri is a part of West Sumatra’s Minangkabau ethnic minority. He is very deliberate in exploring issues facing his society, like the ambivalence toward migration, or merantau, the traditional departure of young men from villages to establish themselves economically elsewhere. The guys often land in major Indonesian cities where Minangkabau cafes are popular. Around 80 percent of the men who leave Minangkabau villages never return. Mefri is an oddball. He was born in Solok and chose to settle in nearby Padang. But the nostalgia, longing, resentment, and loss this outmigration sparks remain on Mefri’s mind, and inspired this work.

“When people don’t come back, it hurts development and our ability to progress in West Sumatra,” Mefri says. …

Full article at Culture Spot LA