Author
A former modern dancer, Debra Levine first published dance criticism and feature articles in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post starting in 1984. Moving to California in 1989, she contributed consecutively to the Long Beach Press Telegram, La Opinion, and Los Angeles Times before establishing artsmeme in 2008.
Discovering Jack Cole rocked my aesthetic universe.
—DEBRA LEVINE
Public Speaker & Event Producer/Host
Debra has produced and hosted events at The Museum of Modern Art, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, UCLA Film & Television Archive, Dance Camera West, and more. Grants and support have included a Fellowship from The Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU, a Thayer research grant at UCLA, Levitt Family Foundation, and the Cecil B. DeMille Foundation. She is the founder of arts˕meme, a fine arts blog.
JAZZED, published by University Press of Kentucky, is Debra’s first book.
artsmeme
Debra’s blog about dance, arts, and culture since 2008. Eighteen years later you can still visit artsmeme!
Tarantino’s ‘Goddess of Go Go‘
An interview with Toni Basil, choreographer of “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood” for the New York Times.
Martha Graham’s Masterly ‘Night Journey’
For The Soraya, an advance piece on the restagings by Martha Grahama Dance Company.
On Ashton’s ‘Cinderella’
A Los Angeles Times advance piece about the Joffrey Ballet production of Sir Frederick Ashton’s ‘Cinderella.’
Gia Kourlas on Debra’s MoMA programing
An interview with Time Out’s Gia Kourlas depicts Debra’s special programming at The Museum of Modern Art in 2014.
Theodore Kosloff & Madam Satan
On KPCC radio, Debra describes the bromance of the Russian ballet dancer Kosloff with director Cecil B. DeMille.
George Chakiris interview
At the ‘Last Remaining Seats’ Debra interviews West Side Story dance icon George Chakiris.
Alice Coltrane Meets Alonzo King
In an early piece about the then-burgeoning choreographer Kyle Abraham’s first major work.