“As dancers, we are taught to problem solve in real-time, so it came as no surprise when,” once the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of almost all live dance, “streamed performances and classes began popping up almost immediately. Dance Magazine asked six voices from our national dance community to share their thoughts regarding the swift distribution of online content.” – Dance Magazine
Author: Matthew Westphal
Hay Festival Director Explains How He Moved This Year’s Entire Event Online
Peter Florence: “In the last three weeks we’ve reshaped the programme we’d been planning for the last 18 months into just 80 online events and we’ve been experimenting with tech platforms to keep that conversation going. I doubt we could ever have assembled the cast who’ll launch our Wordsworth 250 celebrations in real life.” – The Guardian
Florian Schneider, Co-Founder Of Kraftwerk, Dead At 73
“Formed in 1970 by Mr. Schneider and Ralf Hütter, Kraftwerk was credited with bringing synthesizers, drum machines, preprogrammed tapes and sequences to the fore, developing a sonic template that was used in genres as varied as rock, pop, hip-hop and disco. Kraftwerk’s music, techno pioneer Juan Atkins once said, ‘sounded like the future.'” – The Washington Post
Tony Awards May Not Happen At All This Year, Even Online
On top of the obvious difficulties of staging a televised ceremony to promote Broadway shows when theaters are closed until god-knows-when, there may be no fair way, at this point, to vote for winners. – Variety
Massive Interpol Stings Recover 19,000 Stolen Antiquities
Two international operations culminated last fall in the arrest of 101 suspects and seizure of trafficked objects in Spain, Argentina, Latvia, and Afghanistan. Among the items were ancient ceramics, coins, and weapons as well as a Roman limestone sculpture, three Roman columns, and hundreds of rare pre-Columbian items, including a gold Tumaco mask. – The Guardian
French President Announces Emergency Rescue Plans For Arts And Culture Workers
Among the key elements of the proposal outlined by President Macron are a full-year extension of unemployment insurance for gig workers in the performing arts (known as “intermittents du spectacle“), allowing authors to receive the monthly support payments available to small business owners and the self-employed, and indemnification and loan guarantees for cancelled film productions and small festivals. – The Local (France)
Martin Lovett, Cellist Of Amadeus String Quartet, Dead Of COVID At 93
“When the playing of his three colleagues – all Austrian exiles – threatened to become too sweet, Lovett could be relied on to bring them back to the right side of good taste with a finely drawn phrase from his Stradivarius instrument.” – The Guardian
What Comes Next?
I fear that the rampaging growth of income (and most other) inequality is going to be a raw wound on the other side of this crisis and that the nonprofit arts industry could be caught up in a widespread reaction against it. This post and others that follow will explain the fear. – Doug Borwick
Viewing from Home
What has interested me right now are online videos in which dancers, sequestered in their homes, keep in shape. Their charm lies in how the dedicated, witty performers interact with their locations. When did you last see a crackerjack dancer toss off a high kick between her refrigerator and her stove? – Deborah Jowitt
Crisis Engagement: Offering a Webinar for Surviving the “Raw Normal”
Difficult times are a form of truth serum. They force clear priorities. For me, that’s meant reaching out nationally to offer, at no charge, a webinar for nonprofit leaders: “CRISIS ENGAGEMENT: 12 Tasks to Sustain Donors in Turbulent Times.” – Matt Lehrman