Author: Matthew Westphal

How Spain’s National Dance Company Made It From COVID Lockdown Back To The Stage

Marina Harss: “When the Compañía Nacional de Danza took the stage at the Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada in southern Spain on Wednesday, it was in many ways like any other dance performance. … [Yet] it was the culmination of months of careful planning, involving the development of protocols, testing and a careful, minutely orchestrated return to the studio.” – The New York Times

Think TikTok Is Ultimately Too Silly To Matter? Think Again

“The ubiquitous app built on short video clips seems frivolous at first, with its lip-synching, dance challenges and goofball celebrities. But this is how a rising generation communicates across the globe.” (It is also, writes Daniel Malloy, “the uncut heroin of social media apps.”) “And the app — thanks to its obscenely valuable Chinese parent company — now is at the heart of geopolitical strife between the world’s biggest powers. Today’s [OZY] Sunday magazine explores TikTok’s rise, its addictive joys, its challenges and what will replace it if it crumbles.” – OZY

Opera Philadelphia Cancels O20 Festival, Postpones Main Season, Announces Newly Made Online Offerings

The company’s annual fall festival, much praised ever since its 2017 debut, is off this year; most plans for next season, including Jennifer Higdon’s latest opera and Sondra Radvanovsky’s role debut as Lady Macbeth, are postponed. Instead, there will be “a series of online performances — most created anew — to be shown on a new Opera Philadelphia Channel available [on several] platforms.” Highlights include Lawrence Brownlee in a staged version of Tyshawn Sorey‘s Cycles of My Being, a new version of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs, and the great Willard White in Henze’s El Cimmarón. – The Philadelphia Inquirer

What The Philadelphia Museum Of Art’s Workplace Assessment Found (It Wasn’t Pretty)

The study, conducted by outside consultants at the board’s request after two major scandals broke earlier this year, “found problems and deficiencies at all levels of the hierarchy — from the boardroom on down, museum leaders told staff members at an online meeting Tuesday.” At least, said one staffer, “I was encouraged by how honest [the presentation] felt.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Learning Music Does Not Make Kids Smarter, New Study Finds

“After analysing data from 54 studies conducted on 6,984 participants between 1986 and 2019, [researchers] found music training was ineffective at enhancing cognitive or academic skills, regardless of the skill type, participants’ age and duration of music training.” What was the problem with previous research that found otherwise? Poor study design, say the authors. – The National (Abu Dhabi)

Here’s How The UK’s £1.5 Billion Arts Rescue Package Will Work

“Of the total amount, the government has currently released £880 million ($1.14 billion), which has been split into two funding rounds. The first round of £622 million ($805.3 million) will be distributed immediately, while the remaining £258 million ($334 million) will be reserved for a second round of funding later in the financial year to meet the developing needs of organizations.” – Variety

A Theatre Made Out Of Recycled Pianos

“Inside a cavernous steel hut in the middle of Glasgow’s Springburn Park, the sweeping arc of keyboards, lids and carved panels has been taking shape … Using mainly upright instruments, with a baby grand artfully sliced in half to make a corner balcony, about 40 pianos have been expertly disarticulated to create the tiered seating.” – The Guardian

The 2,300-Year-Old Character Sketches That Have Influenced Western Literature Ever Since

“The ‘Theophrastan character’ is not often mentioned today, perhaps because it is so little known as a genre. Yet for centuries this was what ‘character’ meant in literature. A list of familiar social types compiled in the fourth century B.C. that chronicled human traits and foibles — from bore to boaster, cynic to coward — influenced the development of later fiction and drama, and remains sharply pertinent in psychology, journalism, cartoon art, and popular culture.” – The Paris Review