“Lavani is a folk dance, traditionally performed by women for men. The popularity of Bin Baykancha Tamasha (or Performance Without Women) and other female-impersonation groups in Mumbai suggests that the city may slowly be getting comfortable with flamboyant expressions of male sexuality.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Meet The Echt-Bohemian Of Fin-De-Siècle Vienna
Peter Altenburg (né Richard Engländer) “walked out of courses in law, botany, and medicine before, in his thirties, giving himself over to a life of thorough and eccentric bohemianism. He is reputed to have spent most of his adult waking hours in coffeehouses, and the sleeping ones in a hotel that was little more than a brothel.”
Corgi Fired For Ignoring Helen Mirren As Elizabeth II
The great Dame is once again incarnating the Queen, this time on the West End in Peter Morgan’s The Audience. Her canine colleague was sacked after failing to cross the stage upon royal command at 16 consecutive preview performances.
Newcastle Eliminates Culture Funding After All
Despite an intervention by the UK national Labour party, “Newcastle city council has approved a plan to cut completely its £2.5m culture budget despite concerted opposition from local residents and a host of artists connected to north-east England.”
Dancer Behind Bolshoi Acid Attack Speaks
Bolshoi Ballet principal Pavel Dmitrichenko: “Yuri Zarutsky, he was constantly saying, ‘Come on, I’ll go over there, I’ll solve your problem, I’ll knock him around … I admit that, absolutely. When I learned what had happened, I was just in shock, and I didn’t believe that this person who suggested beating him up just went and poured acid on him.”
Is This The Woman Who Inspired The Bolshoi Acid Attack?
Angelina Vorontsova, 21, variously described as the girlfriend or common-law wife of attack mastermind Pavel Dmitrichenko, airs her frustrations and grievances with Bolshoi Ballet director/attack victim Sergei Filin in a rehearsal and interview conducted in February.
San Francisco Symphony Musicians Vote To Authorize Strike
“A strike looms at the San Francisco Symphony, with its musicians authorizing the job action if an agreement cannot be reached on salary and benefit issues. … The musicians have been performing without a contract since an extension of its existing one expired Feb. 15. … The strike, if it occurs, would force cancellation of the orchestra’s upcoming East Coast tour,”
Lawmakers Demand Audit Of Minnesota Orchestra
“A group of almost 100 DFL legislators wants the state to audit the books of the Minnesota Orchestra – although it is unclear exactly what the scope of that request includes.” The group “cited the public investment of $14 million in bonding and more than $1 million in Legacy Fund money in the orchestra, which has locked out its musicians in a labor dispute.”
Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies Picks Up Third Major Prize
“Fresh from winning the Costa prize and completing a Booker double, Hilary Mantel this evening added the award described as the ‘British Nobel’ – the £40,000 David Cohen – to her haul of prizes.”
What Could August Strindberg Have To Say About South African Race Relations? Plenty
A look at Mies Julie, Cape Town director Yael Farber’s extraordinary translation of the Swedish playwright’s tale of a 19th-century battle between mistress and servant to a present-day farmstead on the veld.