“A cloud has cleared for the opening on Wednesday of the new concert hall: The MSO and their musicians, who have been playing without a contract for a year, have reached an agreement. The musicians will get a 10.5-percent increase, a notch more than the 10 per cent they originally asked for, but over four years rather than two.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Why It Made Sense For Merce Cunningham To Shut His Company Down
Deborah Jowitt: “It’s not surprising that Merce Cunningham didn’t envision a future for his company without him. As an artist, he appeared to think in the present tense, to live in the moment. Like the philosopher Heraclitus, he clearly believed that you couldn’t step into the same stream twice.”
Moses Pendleton Says Momix Is ‘Not Really A Dance Company’
“We’re musical, we work in visual theater, but we make things more in the way a painter or sculptor does than a choreographer. We go for the image first, then we add props, costumes, lighting and finally music. What you see is a little like walking through a botanical garden.”
UK Equity Asks Gay Performers If It’s Really Safe To Be Out
“Equity devised the survey after members of the union’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Committee raised concerns that, contrary to common assumption, the industry is not one in which it is easy for performers to be open about their sexuality.”
America’s Next Top Sociologist: Insights From The Study Of Modeling
“There’s a long tradition among academics of embedding in an occupation to study it. … Sudhir Venkatesh spent seven years with a gang in the Chicago projects. One academic worked as a cotton picker, another entered prison as an inmate. Ashley Mears embedded as a model.”
Did 9/11 Mark The Death Of The Skyscraper? Not At All
“The decade since the 2001 destruction of the twin towers, an attack that some predicted would spell the end of the tall building, have turned out to be the busiest ever for skyscraper design. More skyscrapers have gone up in the last 10 years than in all of architectural history before the destruction of the World Trade Center – and by a significant margin.”
Iran Blocks Yet Another Of Its Leading Filmmakers From Traveling Abroad
“Iranian authorities have banned documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb – who co-helmed underground movie This Is Not a Film with Jafar Panahi – from traveling outside the country, according to the film’s international distributor.”
Akram Khan Finally Engages With His Ancestral (Bangladeshi) Culture
“But it turns out that kathak, the form of classical Indian dance Khan has so successfully fused with elements of western contemporary dance, originates from the north of India and isn’t particularly connected with Bangladesh after all. And that he himself admits to avoiding engaging with Bangladeshi culture in his work.”
Georgia’s Culture Minister Defends Firing Of National Theater’s Director
Minister Nikoloz Rurua, on the dismissal of the revered Robert Sturua from the Rustaveli Theater following several xenophobic remarks: “It is correct that nothing in Mr Sturua’s work suggests xenophobia, but … [in] multicultural Georgia the remarks are provocative and dangerous … [A] message had to be sent out that xenophobic comments, from a state employee, are unacceptable.”
Strike At La Scala Ruins Vienna State Opera’s Visit To Milan
“Trade unionists at La Scala opera house in Milan on Friday announced a strike that will force the cancellation of next week’s much-awaited performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fidelio by the prestigious Vienna Staatsoper.”