“Even though Lyric CFO Roberta Lane is calling it a break-even year, the grim numbers on the auditor’s statement of activities indicate otherwise.” And the company’s answers to a reporter don’t exactly clarify things.
Author: Matthew Westphal
Cape Town City Ballet Evicted From Its HQ Because It’s ‘Eurocentric And Colonial’
“After 82 years of partnership, Cape Town City Ballet has been booted out of its University of Cape Town premises because ballet is ‘Eurocentric and colonial’. Company members said they had to rush in to clear out their lockers after they were told it was ‘unsafe’ for them to be at the university.”
Pennsylvania Ballet Is About To Premiere A Dance Called ‘Chicken Bone Brain’
And it’s by one of the least likely choreographers for such a traditional company: Brian Sanders, whose own aerial dance company is called JUNK. When artistic director Ángel Corella asked him to collaborate, says Sanders, “I was flabbergasted.”
Chief Of Moscow’s Ukrainian Library On Trial For Distributing ‘Extremist’ Literature
Natalia Sharina, “the director of Moscow’s Library of Ukrainian Literature has gone on trial charged with inciting ethnic hatred against Russians. … Her lawyer says witness statements describe seeing officers planting banned books at the library when they arrived to search the premises in October 2015.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.08.16
Who Benefits?
Definitions are important to me. That’s probably a reflection of my former life as an academic. (Or, I suppose, it could be why I was an academic.) They’ve also become critical to my work as an advocate for community engagement. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-11-08
Comes the Revolution!
Don’t let that word “revolution” scare you this tense Election Day. I’m not talking about the USA. I’m referring to the wonderful exhibition now on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, … read more
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts Published 2016-11-08
India in New York
Mark Morris curates “Sounds of India” for Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-11-08
“Tears of St. Peter” and the Master Chorale
Here is a piece I had not even heard of: … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrash Published 2016-11-08
Where Black Lives Did Not Matter
In the many years I spent on Grub Street writing about the theater, Athol Fugard and the plays I saw of his stand out in memory for their searing eloquence and humanity. Master Harold … And the Boys was one of them. … read more
AJBlog: Straight|Up Published 2016-11-08
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Pianist And Conductor Zoltán Kocsis Dead At 64
He began his solo piano career at age 18 and went on to tour the world and make award-winning recordings, most notably of Bartók and Debussy. Turning to conducting, he co-founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer and brought the Hungarian National Philharmonic to an international standard.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Unless It’s In A Commercial
Lewis Lapham: “For the last several years the word ‘revolution’ has been hanging around backstage on the national television talk-show circuit waiting for somebody, anybody – visionary poet, unemployed automobile worker, late-night comedian – to cue its appearance on camera. … Why then does nobody have any use for it except in the form of the adjective, revolutionary, unveiling a new cell phone app or a new shade of lipstick?”
Explaining Consciousness With Quantum Physics? Really? (Yeah)
“The mere mention of ‘quantum consciousness’ makes most physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague, insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play some role in human cognition.”
When Ballet And Modern Dance Meet – Just To Mess Around, With No Performance Pressure
“All too often, when ballet and modern dance meet, compromises are made: Dancers – and dances – turn to mush. That was exactly what Sara Mearns, the New York City Ballet principal, was trying to avoid when she asked the contemporary choreographer and dancer Jodi Melnick to work with her as part of a residency at Jacob’s Pillow last fall.”
Thomas More’s ‘Utopia’ At 500
China Miéville: “Was More’s utopia blueprint, or satire, or something else? As if these are exclusive. As if all utopias are not always all of the above, in degrees that vary as much in the context of their reception as of their creation. … But the fact that the utopian impulse is always stained doesn’t mean it can or should be denied or battened down. It is as inevitable as hate and anger and joy, and as necessary.”