“Benoit-Swan Pouffer has resigned as the artistic director of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet … Mr. Pouffer, who served as the artistic director since 2005, resigned roughly two weeks ago and left to pursue other opportunities, according to a statement released by the company.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Distinguishing The Brain From The Mind
“In coming years, neuroscience will answer questions we don’t even yet know to ask. Sometimes, though, focus on the brain is misleading.”
Werner Herzog Directs A PSA
“The eminent German film director … has delivered a public-safety advertisement in the US about the dangers of texting and driving.” (If only Klaus Kinski had lived to take part …)
Why Did The Rite Of Spring Inspire Only One Riot?
“Where was the next riot? Trumpeted by the media, The Rite Of Spring should have incited copycat brawls in dozens of theatres, howls of urban outrage, hyperactive manifestos. And nothing happened. Aside from two disturbances in Vienna at the outbreak of Arnold Schoenberg’s atonalities … the public sat back in their seats and let radical novelties wash over their nodding heads.”
Viggo Mortensen’s Favorite Thing About Acting
“Each time I make a movie, it’s like a paid scholarship to a different university course. … Playing Sigmund Freud for David Cronenberg meant I read work by Jung, by Freud, remembrances, contemporary accounts. Right now I’m shooting a movie set in 1962 in Greece and Turkey.”
Are Today’s Theatre Critics Too Soft?
Recently The Spectator‘s Lloyd Evans wrote of his colleagues, “Critics who go into raptures over near-flops risk turning their columns into the sort of perfumed screeds recited at the funerals of Asian dictators.” Does he have a point?
Ballet? I’m Only In It For The Money, Says Sergei Polunin
“It’s a job that makes a good amount of money. It’s almost impossible to find in business a job where you can make that amount of money. So you get involved in that and it becomes an addiction, making money. It becomes a body addiction too. It’s definitely not a passion.”
Dance New Amsterdam Files For Bankruptcy
“After years of struggle, including possible eviction because of unpaid rent, cash flow problems, trouble getting foundation support and the loss of a major rental partnership, Dance New Amsterdam, a dance space in Lower Manhattan, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.”
Mali’s Underground Railroad: How Timbuktu’s Ancient Manuscripts Were Smuggled To Safety
“It was 7 o’clock on a hot night in August, and Hassine Traore was nervous. Behind him were 10 donkeys, each strapped with two large rice bags filled with ancient manuscripts. The bags were covered in plastic to shield them from a light rain. Radical Islamists had entered Timbuktu four months earlier, and they had set about destroying everything they deemed a sin.”
Central London Borough Says It Will Proceed With Eliminating Arts Funding
“Westminster City Council has confirmed it will go ahead with its 100% cut to arts funding despite a petition in opposition to the proposal. The petition called on the local authority to reject the proposal that would see £350,000 currently allocated to arts organisations phased out by 2014/15.”