Author: Matthew Westphal

Akram Khan Completely Overhauls ‘Giselle’

No more sweet village maiden, caddish duke, or white-clad dancing spirits. “Khan’s Giselle has a new score, new décor and costumes, a contemporary setting — migrant laborers in ghostly abandoned factories — and above all a new kind of dancing, which draws on kathak and ballet, on contemporary dance and everyday gesture, on animals and machines.” – The New Yorker

Ugly Spending Battle And Insubordination Mean Another State Public TV Network May Split With Its Supporting Nonprofit

A legal dispute between Oklahoma’s network of PBS affiliates and the foundation through which viewers support it just ended (and so did the foundation). Similar discord in Arkansas is even worse: the CEO of both the network and the foundation spent foundation money on a payment the board explicitly forbid her to make, she fired the COO/development director when the latter told the board about it, so the foundation board fired the CEO (who remains in place at the network). – Current

Italian Futurism Led Straight To Fascism (And The Same Could Happen Again Elsewhere)

“There are lessons to be learned for today’s technologists and futurists in Marinetti’s [Futurist Manifesto], and it would be foolish to ignore them. Let’s first take a look at the words often used to describe the Italian Futurist movement: invention, modernity, speed, industry, disruption, brash, energetic. … Does any of this sound familiar?” – Wired

When Actors Smash The Scenery, These Are The Folks Who Clean It Up

Take, for instance, the recent Broadway production of Sam Shepard’s True West and the wreckage Ethan Hawke left behind every show. “How would anyone, save for a skilled team of crime scene cleaners, be able to return this stage to a state of order, especially given the narrow time frame on two-show days? It turns out, as is the case with many things in the theater, the task is more than doable — you just have to rehearse it. A lot.” – The Concourse

Turns Out Walt Whitman Was Pretty Racist — Should He Be #Cancelled? (No, Here’s A Better Idea)

“Like many white intellectuals, Whitman seems to have been seduced by the proliferation of racist pseudo-science in the post-Civil War era, … [and his] racism was not limited to black people, but also extended to Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.” So should we put Whitman’s writing back on the shelf? Lavelle Porter argues that “there is no better place to look for nuanced critical engagement with Whitman’s complicated legacy than in the work of black intellectuals who have talked back to Whitman.” – JSTOR Daily

Using Ballet Classes To Help Break Through Peru’s Class Barriers

“The class led by Maria del Carmen Silva, a former professional dancer, is bringing classical ballet dancing to children from impoverished communities where leotards and shiny pink pointe shoes are seldom, if ever, seen. The 52-year-old teacher says her mission isn’t just to teach girls how to plié, but to prepare them for a future outside the boundaries of their poor neighborhood.” – Yahoo! (AP)