Latest news with #Limón
Boston Globe
07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Carla Maxwell, keeper of the José Limón flame, dies at 79
Like Martha Graham, Limón was the star dancer and principal choreographer of his namesake troupe. Appraisals after his death recalled the brooding charisma and moral certitude of his stage presence and ranked him as one of America's greatest choreographers. What was the Limón company without its creator and guiding force? Advertisement 'We not only had to prove that we could survive,' Ms. Maxwell said in the 2001 documentary 'Limón: A Life Beyond Words.' 'We had to prove that José's work was worth maintaining.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Ms. Maxwell, who had joined the company as a dancer in 1965, made her argument through action. Preserving company staples while also regularly reviving neglected or lost Limón works and importing and commissioning works by other choreographers, she attracted dancers, audiences, and funders. This became a model for other companies, including Graham's, after their founders died. Born in Mexico to parents who migrated to Los Angeles, Limón was the protege of choreographer Doris Humphrey, who, alongside Graham, had emerged from the school and company of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Limón became the lead male dancer of the company that Humphrey shared with Charles Weidman, and when he decided to found his own troupe, in 1946, he took the unusual step of asking Humphrey to serve as artistic director. Advertisement The Limón group performed both her works and his. After her death in 1958, Limón took over as director. Ms. Maxwell, at the José Limón Dance Company's studio in New York in 2001. ANDREA MOHIN/NYT Ms. Maxwell first saw Limón perform in the early 1960s, when she was a student at the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College. 'I was thunderstruck,' she said in an episode of the public television program 'Eye on Dance' in 1982. 'These were mature people onstage, not kids doing tricks.' She was attracted to that maturity, and to Limón's humanist ideals. 'I try to compose works that are involved with man's basic tragedy and grandeur of his spirit,' he wrote in a 1966 credo. He believed, he said, that 'the artist's function is perpetually to be the voice and conscience of his time.' Limón's choreographic attention to architectural form and his dance technique, derived from Humphrey's principles of weight, fall, and recovery, also drew her. After Ms. Maxwell's first year at Juilliard, where Limón was on the faculty, he asked her to join his company. She excelled in roles including Emilia in 'The Moor's Pavane,' Limón's signature retelling of 'Othello.' In a review in The New York Times, Don McDonagh noted 'the genuine bite in her acid-etched rendering.' In 'Dances for Isadora,' Limón created the tempestuous solo 'Maenad' for Ms. Maxwell. For his final work, 'Carlota,' about the empress of Mexico, he gave Ms. Maxwell the title role. Clive Barnes, reviewing it in the Times, praised the 'poignant madness' of her portrayal. Advertisement After Limón's death, 'there was the feeling that if we disbanded, these works would disappear,' Ms. Maxwell told 'Eye on Dance.' Because little of his work had been filmed, she said, 'it was only in our bodies.' A State Department-sponsored tour of the Soviet Union, booked before Limón's death, helped keep the group together. Then Ruth Currier, a former member of the company, was asked by the dancers to become artistic director. It was Currier who began importing work by other choreographers such as Kurt Jooss and Murray Louis. When she resigned in the middle of 1977, Ms. Maxwell became acting artistic director; she officially took over in December 1978. Continuing to perform until 2007, she attracted and nurtured several generations of dancers, among them Roxane D'Orléans Juste, Kristen Foote, and Logan Frances Kruger. Under her guidance, the company, which removed 'José' from its name in the mid-1980s, celebrated its 40th-, 50th-, 60th- and 70th-anniversary seasons. When she retired in 2016, she was succeeded by a former company member, Colin Connor. Dante Puleio is the current director. 'There came a point, and it was pretty soon, when I had to say that I was not minding the store for somebody else,' Ms. Maxwell told the Times in 2003. 'Would José like this? I don't know. I hope so. I'm not doing it because I'm trying to please him. I'm trying to honor what I feel is the vision he set and see where it could go.' Carla Lena Maxwell was born Oct. 25, 1945, in Los Angeles. Her father, Robert Maxwell (born Max Rosen), was a classically trained prodigy on the harp whose renditions of his own pop and jazz arrangements made him one of the top supper-club attractions of the 1940s. Carla and her sister, Paula, joined their mother, Victoria, on their father's frequent tours. Advertisement 'I was a kind of trunk baby,' Ms. Maxwell said on 'Eye on Dance.' 'Until I was about 8, I didn't know any other children except my sister.' When she was 8, her family decided to settle down in Larchmont, N.Y. That same year, the Steffi Nossen School of Dance gave a class at her elementary school. 'It was so exciting because we were flying around,' she told the Times in 1990. 'It was something that felt natural. I got hooked.' At the National Music Camp, she studied with Joe Gifford and Martha Whitman, who had worked with Humphrey. She attended Bennington College in Vermont, which had a storied dance department, for one year and then transferred to Juilliard. She finished her studies while a member of the Limón company. In 1969, when the Limón troupe was on a five-month break, Ms. Maxwell and her Limón colleague Clyde Morgan, her husband, made a self-sponsored tour of Africa, performing works by Morgan. After she and Morgan divorced, Ms. Maxwell was briefly married to Frank Barth when he was the Limón company manager in the 1980s. No immediate family members survive. Maxwell was honored with a New York Dance and Performance Award, known as a Bessie, in 1998 for 'finding a creative present in the context of a revered past.' 'Because the path was difficult and nothing was laid out, we had to find it ourselves,' she told the Times of her mission with the Limón company. 'I think we discovered that we were there for much more than José. Of course we loved him and his work, but there's a whole aesthetic, a technique, a philosophy.' Advertisement This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sparkling Rum Brand Casalú Closes Seed Round to Expand Its Latino-focused RTD Across Key Retailers in Florida
MIAMI, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Casalú, a Miami-based beverage startup that has carved a unique niche in the ready-to-drink (RTD) market by introducing the canned Sparkling Rum serving Latinos, is pleased to announce the initial close of their seed funding round. "This latest round marks a pivotal moment for Casalú. In our first chapter, we set out to prove one thing: that a modern, culturally rooted brand could resonate with Latino consumers; especially those moving away from beer," states Gabriel González, Co-CEO of Casalú. "So many new drinks I see feel cynical. Copycats that add nothing to drinking culture. What Gabriel Ricardo, and the team at Casalú have built is the opposite. It's more than a tasty RTD. Casalú is a cultural movement. A brand Latinos can point to and say, 'Yeah, that's for me. These are my people. And I'd like something other than a beer, please'" comments Tom Baker, Founder and CEO of Mr. Black (Acquired by Diageo), who joined the investment round. Casalú has availability in some of the country's key retailers including Total Wine (their first partner), The Fresh Market, Winn-Dixie, Fresco & Más, and Milam's. Priced at retail for $18.99, the brand offers two initial flavors: Traditional "Limón" - An homage to a cuba libre "Maracuyá" – An explosion of tropical notes in a can. "Simply put, go to your nearest Walmart and check out the RTD shelf. There are 50 brands. Yet, how many of those were built by a Latino team to represent their culture authentically? The answer you'll find is zero. That's where we come in", states Gonzalez. To join the movement, follow us on social: Company ContactGabriel and Communications Contact Taylor FoxmanFounder & CEOThe Industry Collective609-432-2237397175@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Casalú Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Politico
11-06-2025
- Business
- Politico
How to win friends and influence climate policy
With help from Josh Siegel MAKING LIMONADE: Senate Democrats elevated one of their most progressive environmental champions when they picked Sen. Monique Limón as their next chamber leader Monday — showing it's still very possible to win friends and influence climate policy even in an era when the zeitgeist seems to have moved on to basic cost-of-living concerns. The Santa Barbara Democrat, elected to the state Assembly in 2016 and state Senate in 2020, will take on her new role in early 2026 before being termed out in 2028. Her path to the top has gone straight through the upper chamber's negotiations on the biggest climate bills of recent years, where she's gained a reputation as a detail-oriented policymaker who seeks wide input while remaining a staunch environmental justice ally. In a brief interview Tuesday, Limón signaled a willingness to follow the larger body's consensus even if it strays from her progressive leanings, bringing up her vote for a bill last year that sought to regulate warehouses despite opposition from community and environmental justice groups who saw it as greenwashing. 'I felt that moving something forward, even if it wasn't to the liking of those that I typically side with, was much more important for the state than waiting another year to be able to do it,' she said. 'There's these big things I've done, but at the end of the day, the leader of the house is really the vehicle to try to get to where the state wants, and that I think is important.' Her balancing of her environmental bona fides with wider political demands will perhaps most be put to the test on housing, which the Senate has remained divided on despite a push by the Assembly to waive environmental rules to spur more building. Limón has declined to support several measures aimed at boosting housing in recent years, in contrast to other lawmakers seen as pro tem contenders, Sens. Lena Gonzalez and Angelique Ashby — leaving YIMBY groups quiet or openly skeptical of her new role Monday. Most immediately, she'll have to exercise her newfound influence in the upper chamber's deliberations on the extension of the state's cap-and-trade program. She's seen as one of the most likely to push for reforms to the program, having been one of the sole Democrat votes against a 2017 deal on cap and trade in line with criticism from environmental justice groups. But her new role supercharges already-delicate negotiations with her counterparts in the Assembly and the governor's office. She has a track record of bringing together broad climate coalitions: Last year, she co-authored Prop 4, last year's $10 billion climate bond, which had the support of dozens of water, agriculture, energy and environment groups. But she's also not afraid of rocking the boat, including by authoring a bill to rein in the voluntary carbon offset market that drew opposition from everyone from the California Air Resources Board to the California Chamber of Commerce. She also has a track record of making enemies of oil and gas groups, including an early-career bill to ban new offshore oil drilling in state waters and pending legislation this year to slow a Texas-based oil company's restart of offshore oil drilling. She co-authored a bill to phase out neighborhood oil drilling in 2022, which became final in 2024 after oil groups agreed to pull a referendum on the bill from the ballot. Limón's new reach came through Tuesday morning, when she presided over her first Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee meeting since the vote. From her position as chair, she got farming and tribal groups to promise to negotiate over a bill to regulate flows on the Scott and Shasta rivers — and got called out by Republican Sen. Shannon Grove, who asked her to use her newfound influence to pressure the State Water Resources Control Board to act more quickly on the rivers. — CvK Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! DAYS NUMBERED: President Donald Trump is about to kill California's electric vehicle rules. Trump plans to sign a trio of resolutions Thursday to revoke the state's zero-emission sales mandates for cars and heavy-duty trucks, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) confirmed. The signings will finalize his administration's months-long effort to thwart California's nation-leading vehicle emissions standards through an unprecedented congressional maneuver that triggered pushback from the Senate parliamentarian. We know what's going to happen next: California Attorney General Rob Bonta has already vowed to sue once Trump signs the resolutions. Daniel Villaseñor, a spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the state is ready. 'If it's a day ending in 'y,' it's another day of Trump's war on California. We're fighting back,' Villaseñor said in a statement. — AN WHAT'S THAT SMELL?: The fight over a purple San Diego congressional seat could come down to raw sewage. Jim Desmond, a San Diego County supervisor, has become a regular on Fox News and other conservative outlets about sewage flowing from Mexico through the Tijuana River and into California — just as he's mounting a campaign to replace Democratic Rep. Mike Levin, Timothy Cama reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Desmond has framed Levin's efforts to raise funds for infrastructure upgrades to a major sewage treatment plant that straddles the border as letting Mexican officials off the hook. 'My opponent is proud of the strategy of throwing more money into the processing of the sewage,' Desmond said. Levin countered that Desmond has only recently started talking about the issue and has proposed a dam along the river that's criticized by air and water experts. 'What he's done since then is talk in the media and point fingers, and frankly, offer a ridiculous, counterproductive idea,' Levin said. — AN CASH PROBLEMS: Pacific Gas & Electric is among the growing chorus of utilities, consumer advocates and environmentalists pleading with the Trump administration to finalize $23 billion in loans for energy infrastructure projects. The funding awarded in the waning days of the Biden administration — much of which would go to Midwest states that voted for Trump — could help finance investments in transmission lines, batteries, renewable energy and natural gas infrastructure, Brian Dabbs and Jason Plautz report for POLITICO's E&E News. But they still need approval from Trump's Department of Energy. A DOE spokesperson said it's 'conducting a department-wide review to ensure all activities follow the law, comply with applicable court orders and align with the Trump administration's priorities.' The stakes are high for PG&E customers. Jennifer Robison, a spokesperson for the utility, said that leveraging a low-cost $15 billion loan guarantee could save ratepayers $1 billion in interest costs over the life of the loan. The utility cited 'uncertainty' around the loan alongside tariffs and wildfires in a recent filing among the reasons it was asking for a slight rate increase. — AN — Opponents of Sen. Josh Becker's SB 540, to set up a Westwide electric grid, are circulating this New York Times story on the unpopularity of the Northeast's grid manager. — Tech giants like Google and Meta are fighting to save renewable energy subsidies in the tax and spending bill winding its way through Congress. — Listen to our editor Debra Kahn discuss why carbon capture could survive the GOP megabill on the POLITICO energy podcast.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats pick first woman of color to be next state Senate president
California's state Democrats are shaking up leadership, with the Senate Democratic Caucus pledging unanimous support to Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who will take over as Senate president pro tem in early 2026. Limón, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate banking committee. The 45-year-old Central Coast native served in the Assembly for four years before her Senate campaign and worked in higher education at UC Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County School Board before entering politics. She highlighted the importance of the moment, noting that the caucus, amid ICE raids led by the Trump administration targeting minorities in Los Angeles and across the state, elected her — the first woman of color to hold the position. The uncertain times, she said, were "a reminder of why leadership today, tomorrow and in the future matters, because leadership thinks about and influences the direction in all moments, but, in particular, in these very challenging moments. And for me, it is unbelievably humbling to be here." Recently, Limón has been vocal on the Sable Offshore Pipeline project, which aims to repair and reopen a pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara County that spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015. This year she wrote a measure, Senate Bill 542, in response to the project that would require more community input on reopening pipelines and better safety guidelines to find weak points that could lead to another spill. "No one has fought harder to make college more affordable than Monique Limón," said current Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who also applauded her work on wildfire recovery. "She is a tireless voice for the Central Coast in rural parts of this great state." McGuire took leadership of the Senate in a unanimous vote by Democrats with former speaker and gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins' blessing in February. He pledged to protect the state's progressive ideals ahead of a problematic state budget that continued to bubble over, with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress supporting cuts in federal aid to the state for heathcare for low-income Californians, education and research and other essential programs. The Sonoma County Democrat's takeover was part of a wider change — both legislative houses were led by lawmakers from Northern California this year, leaving Southern California legislators with limited control. Limón's district covers Santa Barbara County and parts of Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. McGuire terms out of office next year and may be planning a run for insurance commissioner in 2026 but wouldn't confirm his plans despite collecting more than $220,000 in contributions so far this year. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrats pick first woman of color to be next state Senate president
California's state Democrats are shaking up leadership, with the Senate Democratic Caucus pledging unanimous support to Sen. Monique Limón (D-Goleta), who will take over as Senate president pro tem in early 2026. Limón, who was elected to the state Senate in 2020, is chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus and the Senate banking committee. The 45-year-old Central Coast native served in the Assembly for four years before her Senate campaign and worked in higher education at UC Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara County School Board before entering politics. She highlighted the importance of the moment, noting that the caucus, amid ICE raids led by the Trump administration targeting minorities in Los Angeles and across the state, elected her — the first woman of color to hold the position. The uncertain times, she said, were "a reminder of why leadership today, tomorrow and in the future matters, because leadership thinks about and influences the direction in all moments, but, in particular, in these very challenging moments. And for me, it is unbelievably humbling to be here." Recently, Limón has been vocal on the Sable Offshore Pipeline project, which aims to repair and reopen a pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara County that spilled 21,000 gallons of crude oil in 2015. This year she wrote a measure, Senate Bill 542, in response to the project that would require more community input on reopening pipelines and better safety guidelines to find weak points that could lead to another spill. "No one has fought harder to make college more affordable than Monique Limón," said current Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), who also applauded her work on wildfire recovery. "She is a tireless voice for the Central Coast in rural parts of this great state." McGuire took leadership of the Senate in a unanimous vote by Democrats with former speaker and gubernatorial candidate Toni Atkins' blessing in February. He pledged to protect the state's progressive ideals ahead of a problematic state budget that continued to bubble over, with the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress supporting cuts in federal aid to the state for heathcare for low-income Californians, education and research and other essential programs. The Sonoma County Democrat's takeover was part of a wider change — both legislative houses were led by lawmakers from Northern California this year, leaving Southern California legislators with limited control. Limón's district covers Santa Barbara County and parts of Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties. McGuire terms out of office next year and may be planning a run for insurance commissioner in 2026 but wouldn't confirm his plans despite collecting more than $220,000 in contributions so far this year. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
