Where does dance end and theater begin? And does it actually matter? John Rockwell has been sampling some of the UK’s wide-ranging dance scene recently, and “from an outsider’s perspective, it was surprising how ubiquitous ‘physical theater’ is in Britain today. The term means, in the most rudimentary terms, theatrical dance, or dance with implied theatrical elements, or theater expressed primarily through movement… But nearly all British choreographers seem to incorporate overt theatricality, sometimes so much so that they try to pretend that they aren’t doing dance anymore at all.”
Month: March 2006
Can Tijuana’s Slums Lure America Back From The Sprawl?
Mexico’s shantytowns might seem an unlikely inspiration for a high-statuts architect, but for one suburban California designer, the low-cost Tijuana communities born of necessity represent a possible antidote to Southern Cal’s plague of gated communities and endless sprawl. “It’s not that he romanticizes poverty: he recognizes the filth and clutter, the lack of light and air, that were the main targets of Modernism nearly a century ago. But by approaching Tijuana’s shantytowns with an open mind, he can extract a viable strategy for development that is rooted in local traditions.”
The Real Mozart
“Mozart has come not just to represent musical beauty but, in a way, to define it.” But what about in the composer’s own time? Certainly, many of the legends about poverty and despair have been overblown, but Mozart was a complicated figure in 18th-century Vienna, and his professional fortunes reflected that. Still, “the people in the streets never abandoned him.”
Levine To Be Out For Months
James Levine’s shoulder injury will require surgery, forcing the maestro to cancel the remainder of this season’s engagements with the Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony. He hopes to be fully recovered in time for the BSO’s summer season at Tanglewood. Both organizations are scrambling to find replacements.
The Great Conductor Bug Of ’06
What is it this year with the conductors? If they’re not falling off the podium (James Levine) or losing their sense of balance (Daniel Barenboim), they’re coming down with shingles (Seiji Ozawa) or bronchitis (Christoph von Dohnanyi). “Have the terrorists (or maybe a cabal of ambitious assistant conductors) launched a stealth attack against Western classical music?”
Philanthropy As Local PR
When arts groups go looking for funding, they traditionally look to local companies and individuals with deep pockets. But some huge global corporations have been getting into the arts funding game in a big way recently, partly as a way of showing their commitment to local communities even as they struggle against the perception of “big box” retailers as generic and lifeless.
It’s Your Museum. Play With It.
“The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is about to take its Web site where no museum has gone before. Where that is isn’t absolutely clear, but it merits getting excited about. The so-called ‘online national design museum’ promises to open the museum and its vast collection to visitors anywhere in the world. What’s more, if development can keep up with vision, the site will turn museumgoers into participants in a bold cultural experiment.” Specifically, visitors to the site will be able to add and manipulate content, Wiki-style. Will it work? No one really knows.
Still Heard, If Not Seen
James Levine’s absence from the touring podium of the Boston Symphony is, of course, eminently noticable as the orchestra works its way down the East Coast under fill-in David Robertson. But Philip Kennicott says that Levine’s most important work has never been what he does in concert, anyway, and as a result, his actual physical presence isn’t required for his influence to be heard.
Canadian Stopgap For Billy?
“Is Billy Elliot, the biggest hit now on the London stage, going to open in Toronto before New York? That depends on whom you talk to.” Promoters are downplaying the idea after it was initially reported in a New York tabloid, but according to sources in Toronto, many performers are being told to “keep their schedules clear” for the show.
Youth In Charge
The job of ballet conductor is far more than a simple stick-waving exercise. Synchronizing music and dance is a tremendously difficult undertaking, and it takes a cool head and a keen eye to adjust an entire orchestra to the sometimes unpredictable whims of the performers on stage. So it was a bit of a surprise when San Francisco Ballet tapped an unusually young man to be its new pit conductor, but 37-year-old Martin West loves a challenge, and initial reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.