“Colin Peasley danced in the Australian Ballet’s first staging of The Merry Widow in 1975 and has been in at least 10 productions of it since.” The 77-year-old, who has served AB as principal dancer, ballet master and education director, “says that after 49 years in the country’s premiere ballet company, of which he was a founding member in 1962, he will finish next year.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Annals Of Entrepreneurship: The Ed-Wood-Slash-Pied-Piper Of The Pampas
“As script-writer, director, producer, cameraman and projectionist, the grandfatherly 70-year-old [Daniel] Burmeister has carved out a unique niche … He shows up in small towns on this vast, lonely [Argentine] plain offering local leaders a deal: if they’ll give him a month’s room and board, he’ll make a picture that will offer townsfolk a taste of big-screen stardom.”
The Tranny State: Eddie Izzard Plans To Enter British Politics
The veteran comic, known for performing in a frumpy dress and pumps, “has plans to become the first transvestite member of British parliament. ‘Or the Mayor of London,’ he adds. ‘By 2020. I feel I have to do it. I don’t like the right wing’.”
New York City Opera Unions Offer To Work For Free
“New York City Opera choristers and orchestra members have offered to perform for free this season in exchange for health care and power over future venues, in a bid to stop the opera from eliminating their guaranteed employment.”
The Devil Really Is In The Details Of This Giotto
“Art restorers have discovered the figure of a devil hidden in the clouds of one of the most famous frescos by Giotto in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, church officials said on Saturday.”
New Headache For Spider-Man As Investor Sues
“The cost of using a Broadway theater became more expensive after the production experienced delays and one woman who put up collateral for the show is still waiting for her money.”
Trisha Brown As Choreographic Mentor
“[Stephen] Petronio’s dances may be as brash and dark as Brown’s are soft and sunny; [Vicky] Shick may take her cues from persona and behaviour as much as from the gravity and momentum that inform Brown’s aesthetic – but Brown’s working method has influenced them deeply.”
On The Web, China’s Authors Push Back Against Censors’ Limits
When author Murong Xuecun received his first literary award, he was forbidden to deliver his (quite provocative) speech. “On stage, Mr. Murong made a zipping motion across his mouth and left without a word. He then did with the speech what he had done with three of his best-selling novels … He posted the unexpurgated text on the Internet. Fans flocked to it.”
Saul Bass, The Designer Who Made Title Sequences Into Art
“It is very rare for a designer to be as revered in his field as Bass is in film graphics. The titles he devised for directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Otto Preminger, Martin Scorsese, Billy Wilder and [Alfred] Hitchcock transformed what were once cursory lists of the cast and crew into thrilling complements to the movies.”
Question Time For Dance: Eminent Panelists Debate British Dance’s Future
“What lies ahead for dance as arts spending cuts bite? Can it survive the withdrawal of public funds that support dancers’ training, choreographers’ creativity, employment costs and health care? Is protest necessary? A panel of the British dance world’s leading figures was brought together by theartsdesk for a major debate last Friday in central London.”