This Is How You Do ‘Crazy Legs’ On Roller Skates

Every Thursday Night at a Rink in Glendale, We Groove to El DeBarge

Every Thursday night, my friend Amy and I arrive at Moonlight Rollerway on a lonely industrial strip in Glendale in the blouses and pants we wore to work and throw on leggings and baggy shirts in the bathroom. We’ve got a few pairs of matching, patterned leggings—our favorite space-themed set (think swirling nebulas and stars), one with neon tiger stripes, and a new, racier pair with netted stripes up the sides. I shove on worn beige skates with purple laces while Amy puts on white skates with orange laces. And …

by Whitney Clavin | April 10, 2014

The L.A. TV Show That Taught America How to Groove

Nelson George Dissects the SoCal Style That Made ‘Soul Train’ a National Phenomenon

April 8, 2014

In Squaring Off, Zócalo invites authors into the public square to answer five questions about the essence of their books. For this round, we pose questions to music historian Nelson …

It’s Monday Night in Hollywood. That Means Salsa.

Whirling and Wondering at El Floridita, Where the Food Is Cuban, the Dancing Is Pan-American, and the Setting Is This Strange Place Called Los Angeles

by Tania Flores | February 4, 2014

“¿De dónde eres?” asks the young man who offered me his hand and guided me onto the dance floor moments ago. He’s an intuitive leader, and, wedged as we are …

Why I Boogied With a Black Hole

Dance Your Ph.D. Allowed Me to Turn My Doctoral Research Into Performance, and to Combine My Love of Art and Science

by Kari Alison Hodge | November 20, 2013

I’m dancing over and around four people lying face-up in a giant L-formation on the grass of Caltech’s Beckman Lawn, a place usually devoted to Frisbee gatherings. I’m wearing a …

Dance Legend Debbie Allen

She Loves the People of L.A., and They Never Fail to Quote Her Back to Herself

August 7, 2013

Debbie Allen is a legendary choreographer, director, producer, actress, and dancer, and the founder and artistic director of L.A.’s Debbie Allen Dance Academy. Before talking about what it takes to …

Writer Erika Hayasaki

My Obituary, My Near-Death Experience, and the Future of Jobs in Journalism

July 9, 2013

Writer Erika Hayasaki teaches literary journalism at UC Irvine and is the author of the forthcoming book The Death Class; previously, she worked as a Los Angeles Times reporter. Before …

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