“If the field is not investing in the artistic and cultural traditions of every aspect of their community, then we are not fulfilling our purpose. … The historically inequitable distribution of resources and the values systems, biases, and systemic barriers associated with that distribution hold within them insidious checks and balances that make achieving the goal of cultural equity something that requires deep and specific engagement, self-reflection, and transformative effort.” – Americans for the Arts
Still Teaching Ballet At Age 100
Henry Danton danced in London and Paris (including for Roland Petit’s company); toured in Europe, Australia, and South America; and taught in Colombia, Venezuela, New York, and Miami before settling in Mississippi. He still teaches in five different cities in the state, and he drives himself to most of his classes. – Hattiesburg (MS) American
Would England’s Morris Dancing Clubs Rather Die Out Than Go Co-Ed?
Yes, it’s apparently a real question: as clubs gradually disappear and the membership of the remaining groups ages, admitting women would seem to be an obvious way to keep things going. But whether or not to do so is an argument raging on within the (shrinking) Morris community. – The Guardian
Rise Of The Women Choreographers?
By some estimates, about 90 percent of choreographers at major companies are male. Even though ballerinas have been the focal point of dance. Now though, there seems to be a new generation of women choreographers getting attention. – BBC
The Higher Education Scandal: Exploitation Of Adjuncts
Tuitions have soared. Student debt is unsustainable. Meanwhile, more and more of the actual teaching is delivered by adjunct faculty who are woefully underpaid, have little or no job security and whose employment can end on a whim. Here’s a collection of first-hand stories. – Chronicle of Higher Education
Are Arts Orgs’ Diversity Initiatives Just A New Form Of Paternalism?
That’s the charge made by a few leading arts figures, among them Madani Younis, creative director of London’s Southbank Centre: “This paternalism on the one hand allows institutions to co-opt the concerns of diversity, of gender, of class and so on. On the one hand, you say: ‘That’s super good. These guys are on it, they hear the cry and they are looking to change something’. But on the flip side of that new paternalism, those very institutions then get to decide what the pace of change is. And for me that is perverse.” – Arts Professional
Oppress This, Jair! Brazilian Theatermakers Resist Bolsonaro By Getting Naked
At least that’s what they’ve been doing at the International Theater Exposition of São Paulo, which is “squaring up to an era of right-wing populism with a celebration of otherness, difference and resistance. More often than not, this resistance manifests itself in the naked body. In show after show, nudity takes on a political role.” – The Guardian
Richest Man In Hong Kong Spent Nearly $400M To Build City’s First Museum Of Buddhist Art
Li Ka-shing, 90, renovated an old hilltop monastery to house the collection of 100 devotional sculptures and 43 handwritten scriptures. While construction was completed in 2015, the museum’s inauguration was held on March 27, and it will begin welcoming the public free of charge on May 1. – Artnet
Study: Canadian Artists Make Less Than Average Workers – Way Less
The median individual income of Canada’s artists is $23,100, or 45 per cent less than all Canadian workers ($41,900). A typical artist has employment income of just $15,000, a figure that is 59 per cent lower than the median of all workers ($36,700). That’s from a workforce of almost 800,000 people in Canada who work in cultural industries, which would also include librarians and archivists, graphic designers, editors and architects. – Toronto Star
How Accurate Is The Ballet Plot In The TV Show ‘This Is Us’?
Yes, this is a minute-by-minute fact check of the ballet scenes (and the overarching sudden ballet plot) in the show’s third season. – Dance Magazine
What Drives Actor Dev Patel
Patel, star of Slumdog Millionaire, Lion, and now Hotel Mumbai, says that when he finds a new project, “after that initial excitement, you’re just drenched with fear of, now I have to actually do this. That’s kind of what happens with everything. It’s eagerness, curiosity and excitement, followed by fear and how the hell am I going to get through this?” – The New York Times
Guess Who Probably Didn’t Make ‘The Fountain’ Out Of A Urinal?
Siri Hustvedt: “Masculinity has a purifying effect, femininity a polluting one. The chain of associations that infect our thought dates back to the Greeks in the west: male, mind-intellect, high, hard, spirit, culture as opposed to female, body, emotion, soft, low, flesh, nature. The chains are hierarchical, man on top and woman on bottom. They are often subliminal, and they are emotionally charged. Ironically, these enduring associations become all the more important when the artwork in question is a urinal – a pee pot for men.” – The Guardian (UK)
Genevieve Oswald, The Soul Of The New York Public Library Dance Collection, Has Died At 97
Oswald started curating the collection when it had about 350 items in 1947, and built it into this: “You can walk into the dance division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and request to see the ballet slippers of the early-20th-century ballerina Anna Pavlova, or a silk flower garland that adorned the modern-dance pioneer Isadora Duncan, or countless other items in a vast repository of materials on dance.” – The New York Times
Shaking my head
A press release that touts a a composer who became famous nearly 100 years ago as “contemporary” has us smiling. – Greg Sandow
The Music Stars Of Social Media
How are these young people, in their teens and young twenties, getting so much streaming play on Spotify? “These artists have virtually no media profile, no radio play, most don’t seem to have a record deal and they barely give interviews.” YouTube. YouTube. You. Tube. – The Guardian (UK)
France Is Becoming A Refuge For American Noir Novels – And Novelists – Who Can’t Hit It Big On Amazon
Le Monde isn’t mincing words here. While the U.S., at least one novelist claims, has a blockbuster mentality, France is much more welcoming, a place where “several of these authors, who no longer have a publisher in the United States, see their talent justly distinguished.” – Le Monde (France)
The Latest Dust-Up In The Uneven Battle Between Talent Agencies And Writers
At a time when the Writers Guild of America is trying desperately to get its members better positioned in the industry, suffice it to say that the union is not impressed with the Endeavor agency’s plan to enter the stock market with an initial public offering. The WGA: “It is impossible to reconcile the fundamental purpose of an agency — to serve the best interests of its clients — with the business of maximizing returns for Wall Street.” – Los Angeles Times
Contemporary Cancer Books Force Us To Address Grief In All Of Its Forms
There are a lot – a lot – of new cancer memoirs out right now. “As these memoirs suggest, individually and together, there’s no way to eliminate the risk of cancer and or be spared from grief. In addition, they call into question the popular notions that grief proceeds in simple, sequential stages.” – LitHub
LeBron May Not Be Playing Much Basketball, But He Is Starting To Be A Big Player In Hollywood
Possibly the most Company Town thing in this story: “Studios, networks and production companies all over town want to be in the LeBron James business. And not only for his screen presence — even though his performance in Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck was considered a revelation. He and his SpringHill team are very good for business (also, many Hollywood executives are LeBron fans).” – Los Angeles Times
A Newly Discovered Photo Of Harriet Tubman Goes On Display
This is a great discovery because it’s of a young, casually seated Tubman, wearing elegant clothing. Obviously, there’s wrong with a freedom fighter looking older and more pensive when she’s older, but it’s good to have new information about her. – The New York Times
Britain’s National Theatre Changes Structure At The Top
Rufus Norris, who was the National Theatre’s director, and Lisa Burger, who was the theatre’s executive director, will now be sharing power as co-directors. OK, but what does that actually mean? “We have a clear and shared vision for the theatre, which will see it being more national, more representative and more resonant than ever.” (Ahem, so, only male playwrights?) – The Stage (UK)
Eleven Movies That Influenced The Look And Feel Of ‘Us’
You know, The Nutcracker is an obvious one. (And, of course, Dead Again – you probably knew that from the scissors.) – Los Angeles Times
How The Heck Does An Art Detective Find A Stolen Picasso?
Basically, you gain the trust of, to put it politely, some shady folks. “There comes a point, you know, when a stolen artwork that’s circulating in the criminal community – security in a drugs deal here, part-payment in an arms deal there – just becomes a burden. Something to be got rid of. ” – The Guardian (UK)
Anne Midgette Explains Bel Canto
“I could tell you that bel canto operas tend to have dated plots, filled with romance-novel-ish retellings of history, and heroines who keep going mad at inopportune moments. Or I could tell you that bel canto can be intoxicating, and that just trying to find examples to play for you led me to hours of bingeing on old YouTube videos, grinning like an idiot. But I’m not sure that will help you, either. Bel canto, I realize, is a little bit like a drug: Descriptions tend to sound either clinical or loopily subjective.” – The Washington Post
Now That Sackler Money Has Become Radioactive, Campaigners Are Looking At Cultural Donations By Big Tobacco
One of the biggest corporate donors to the arts in the US is the tobacco conglomerate Altria (formerly Philip Morris): among the major recipients of Altria support in 2018 alone were Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Smithsonian museums, the Newseum, and the Kennedy Center. – The Guardian