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Entertainment & Arts

PST: Eleanor Antin’s ‘Before the Revolution’ stages new uprising

Thirty-three years after Eleanor Antin first performed "Before the Revolution," the artist is revisiting the work that features signature character Eleanora Antinova and nearly life-size cut-outs at Hammer Museum.

Thirty-three years after Eleanor Antin first performed “Before the Revolution,” the artist is revisiting the work that features signature character Eleanora Antinova and nearly life-size cut-outs at Hammer Museum.  (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

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The re-imagining of black ballerina Eleanora Antinova, a signature Antin creation, at the Hammer Museum shows an artist still in revolutionary mode.

'Before the Revolution'

Jacob Bruce (Igor Stravinsky) rehearses a scene from “Before the Revolution” with Maria Tomas, who portrays Suzanna. The work follows the life of a black prima ballerina in Sergei Diaghilev¿s Ballets Russes and upends conventional ideas about race, class and gender.   (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

'Before the Revolution'

Maria Tomas (Suzana) rehearses a scene with Daniele Watts (Eleanora Antinova).  (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

'Before the Revolution'

Jacob Bruce steps into the role of Igor Stravinsky in “Before the Revolution,” manipulating the nearly life-size cut-out of the composer on the Hammer stage.  (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

'Before the Revolution'

Co-director Robert Castro works with Daniele Watts during rehearsals. He says the work still seems revolutionary: “We’re totally in the Occupy [movement] landscape, so that idea of people coming together, that kind of spirit is right there.”  (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

'Before the Revolution'

Eleanor Antin, right, shown with the show’s choreographer Yolande Snaith, will be mostly off-stage as co-director this time around in the re-imagining of her one-woman show “Before the Revolution” at the Hammer Museum.   (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

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