If Dance Can’t Pay Its Dancers, What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?
A survey of dancers in the UK last summer reported that “more than half of professional dancers earn less than £5,000 a year from their performance work.” That’s professional dancers. … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-19
AfAS Follow Up
“Art for art’s sake” is a concept that always generates discussion and passion. My last post (Art for Art’s Sake Revisited) was no exception. My good friend Andrew Taylor took me to task both for … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-01-19
Listening Tip: Zeitlin Plays Monk Live
Pianist Denny Zeitlin will play a solo concert, “Exploring Thelonious Monk,” this Thursday, January 21, at 9 PM PST. It will be streamed live on Jim Bennett’s “In the Moment” show at kcsm.org … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-19
Leftovers? Again?
Last Thursday when I came home from work, followed by a two-mile run and high intensity circuit workout, I was not in the mood to … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-01-19
[ssba_hide]
Author: Matthew Westphal
Seven Fierce Fistfights From Art History, From Michelangelo To Julian Schnabel
“When we think of creative people getting into fights, writers usually are the first that come to mind – Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Jack London, etc.” Hyperallergic stands up for visual artists, with examples from Caravaggio beating a pimp to death to two of Picasso’s mistresses wrestling to two examples of painters punching out art critics.
The Big New Philosophy In San Francisco Is – Applied Rationality
“It has generated a rare level of interest among data-driven tech people and entrepreneurs who see personal development as just another optimization problem, if a uniquely central one. Yet, while [the] methods are unusual, its aspirational promise – that a better version of ourselves is within reach – is distinctly familiar.”
Where Street Dance Meets Ballet, Literally
When choreographer My-Linh Le saw some turf dancers from Oakland on the BART train, “she wanted to take them off the train and put them on stage, with ballet dancers she recruited from the Alonzo King Lines School.” And she did. “But the creative process turned out to be more difficult than anyone anticipated.” (includes video)
Medieval Britain’s Version Of A Trash-Talking, Shade-Throwing Rap Battle
It was called flyting – “a stylized battle of insults and wits that was practiced most actively between the fifth and 16th centuries in England and Scotland. Participants employed the timeless tools of provocation and perversion as well as satire, rhetoric, and early bathroom humor to publicly trounce opponents.”
Color-Blind Casting In Shakespeare: How Far Have We Really Come?
Lyn Gardner: “The uncomfortable fact [is] that while there is a significant amount of colour-blind casting in Shakespeare, black and Asian actors seldom get a chance to take the significant roles. … In the case of more substantial roles, some particularly appear to be earmarked for minority casting: the nurse in Romeo and Juliet being an obvious one.”
The Birth And Life Of Modern Sculpture: Rodin, Picasso, Calder, Stella
Jed Perl: “We are at a moment in the arts when historical reckonings, involving as they do considerations of precedent, genealogy, and chronology, can too easily be dismissed as reactionary gestures, canonical considerations to be tossed aside. There is all the more reason to press for a reconsideration of the tradition that begins with Rodin.”
The Breakthrough Moment: Performers, Artists, Writers, Chefs, And Even A Poker Champ Explain When They Realized What They Were Meant To Do
“The moment when: George Clooney did Sid & Nancy; Don Rickles discovered heckling; George Saunders transformed a dream and a bottle of Boone’s Farm into a short story; Dan Barber tasted his first soft-scramble; Errol Morris learned to listen; Dita von Teese realized she wasn’t Pamela Anderson; Jon Favreau’s all-nighter paid off; and other creative epiphanies.”
Louvre To Start Restoring Another Leonardo Da Vinci Painting
The restoration, of St. John the Baptist, “is scheduled to begin later this month despite past criticism that earlier makeovers of two other paintings by Leonardo overly brightened them.”
French Movie About Jihadis Won’t Be Released in Theaters After Cinema Chains Balk
“From the start, the subject hit too close to home. Out of security concerns in a country still in shock after the November terrorist attacks, Made in France, a French film about homegrown jihadists plotting strikes on downtown Paris, will head straight to video-on-demand this month and forgo release in cinemas.”