Dancing on the Silver Screen

Today, George Chakiris, who played the original Bernardo in West Side Story, will be at MOMA with the LA-based dance writer Debra Levine to talk about dance on film and introduce a screening of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” choreographed by  Jack Cole. It looks like a lot of fun. See Wendy Perron’s blog post about it here.

Across the East River, BAM Cinématek will be screening “Dancing Dreams,” a film that documents the process of teaching Pina Buasch’s 1978 work “Kontakthof” to a group of German teenagers. Afterwards, I’ll be moderating a conversation with Dominique Mercy and Bénédicte Billiet, both of whom were in the original cast of “Kontakthof.” If you want to see the original dance, it’s playing at BAM through Nov. 2.