Two company members talk about what dancing Merce’s work without Merce in the room is like – and how they’re dealing with the impending end of the company’s existence.
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Ugly Caricature At The Heart Of Holland’s Holiday Celebrations
Every year on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, in a televised ceremony, Sinterklaas comes sailing into a Dutch port with a slave servant assistant – or a group of them – called Black Pete and dressed like an escapee from a minstrel show. Complaints about racist caricature are beginning to rise, and some Dutch people are reacting with unusual hostility.
Manager Of Pennsylvania Orchestra Charged With Embezzling $200K
“A woman told police she stole more than $200,000 from the York Symphony Orchestra to support her gambling addiction while she was the orchestra’s office manager, according to charging documents.”
‘No More Chassidic Reggae Superstar’: Matisyahu Loses His Beard
“The world’s most famous Chasidic Jew has shaved his beard.” Matisyahu, né Matthew Paul Miller and an improbable but major pop music star, tweeted to the world yesterday that he is now clean-shaven. He says he remains an observant Jew (though no longer a Chasid), and promises “an amazing year filled with music of rebirth.”
What Ever Happened To Theater Of The Absurd? (It Became Absurd)
Michael Billington: “I would argue that, while absurdism was a fascinating historical phenomenon,” but for about half a dozen masterpieces by Beckett and Ionesco, “it now looks increasingly irrelevant. … [P]erhaps we now demand more from drama than a cry of anguish at the absurdity of the human condition.”
Iraqi Museum Pays Smugglers To Return Looted Objects
“Iraq’s second largest museum in Sulaimaniya is recovering stolen artifacts by paying smugglers to return the treasures. Located in the semi-autonomous northern region of Kurdistan, the Slemani Museum has taken drastic measures to refill display cabinets following looting.”
New York Art Collective Forced To Repatriate Saddam Hussein’s Dinner Plates
The group Creative Time had bought the plates on eBay for a “culinary-political performance piece” by a New York artist with Iraqi-Jewish roots. The china was looted from one of the dictator’s palaces, and the Iraqi government, saying that the dishes belonged to the people, demanded their return.
Flavorwire Picks The World’s Most Beautiful College Libraries
Yes, the Bodleian, the Sorbonne and Trinity College Dublin made the list, as did some gems little-known to anglophones (Coimbra, Salamanca), a surprise or two (UW Seattle), and some modernist landmarks (Yale’s Beinecke, Free University of Berlin).
Tate Galleries May Give Up Sponsorship By BP
“The Tate galleries are reviewing their 20-year partnership with BP, after demonstrations by green campaigners. Tate’s director, Sir Nicholas Serota, has said it will decide whether to renew the contract with BP ‘quite soon’.”
Gustav Leonhardt, Giant Of Baroque Music Revival, Cancels All Future Concerts
The 83-year-old Dutch harpsichordist and conductor was at the very center of period-instrument movement as it took off in the late 1970s and remains an admired éminence grise as well as a beloved solo recitalist. At a Paris concert on Monday night, Leonhardt looked “extremely weak and thin” and completed his encore with visible strain. Afterward, he decided that his health would no longer allow him to perform.