“I’m a street dance choreographer. I do street dance on street dancers. I’ve never set an hour-long piece on any other company outside my own, and definitely not on a modern dance company.” Nevertheless, Ailey artistic director Robert Battle decided that Harris was the right person to be the company’s first-ever choreographer in residence. – Dance Magazine
Author: Matthew Westphal
The Tart, Testy ‘Vinegar Valentines’ Of The 19th Century
In the Victorian Era, if you wanted to break up with someone around Valentine’s Day, or if you simply wanted to let that special someone know how much you detest them, there were cards available at the stationer’s to suit your purpose. – Atlas Obscura
This Theatre Keeps 180,000 Bees On Its Roof
Sian Alexander, executive director of the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in London, writes about how, as part of the organization’s Green Strategy, three hives were installed on top of the building (with a substantial harvest of honey as a result). – Arts Professional
‘Leonard Bernstein’s Black America’
“[Lenny] marched in Selma with Harry Belafonte, he brought black conductors to Tanglewood in the ’50s and in the ’60s integrated the Philharmonic by hiring violinist Sanford Allen. To raise money for civil rights organizations, he also hosted jazz in the afternoon at his house, and when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he called for André Watts to play Beethoven at the memorial.” Here’s a one-hour audio documentary by WQXR host Terrance McKnight on Bernstein’s activism for racial equaliy. – WQXR (New York City)
The Naked Pharaoh Speaks! Anthony Roth Costanzo On How Playing Philip Glass’s Akhnaten Has Changed Him
“In fact I have the show to thank for discovering electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), which uses electric current to amplify your workout and actually builds muscles much faster than I could on my own. I liked it so much that I gathered investors and started one of the first EMS companies in America (seriously).” – The Guardian
See What The Sydney Opera House Would Have Looked Like If They’d Chosen A Different Architect
The Herald offers visualizations, in situ on the tiny peninsula in Sydney Harbor, of half a dozen of the runners-up in the competition to design what was meant to be Australia’s new national opera house. (Personally, we think the panel made the right choice.) – Sydney Morning Herald
Why Tamara Rojo And Akram Khan Were Brave Enough To Redo ‘Giselle’
Rojo: “I wanted to do a classical ballet from a new point of view, and I wanted the hardest one … I had seen the Björk film Dancer in the Dark, and I kept thinking: This is Giselle, and it is possible to tell this story in a new context.”
Khan: “When Tamara asked me, I did think a bit: Are you mad? I had barely seen a ballet, and knew nothing about Giselle.” – The New York Times
Minnesota Public Radio Opens New Online Portal For Immigrants
“Sahan Journal is the brainchild of Mukhtar Ibrahim, who began his career as MPR’s first Somali-American reporter before joining the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He … said he wants Sahan to be ‘a one-stop shop for all things immigrant in Minnesota.'” – Current
Art Dealer Mary Boone Sentenced To Prison For Tax Fraud
“After pleading guilty in September to filing false tax returns that claimed she had taken in millions of dollars less than was the reality, Mary Boone — an art dealer with roots in New York’s 1970s-era SoHo scene and galleries in the present in Midtown and Chelsea — was sentenced on Thursday to 30 months in prison in New York’s Southern District Court. – ARTnews
Chicago Symphony Musicians Vote To Authorize Strike
“Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians voted on Wednesday evening to authorize a strike that would begin on March 10, if contract negotiations are not resolved. … At issue are pension, health care and salary.” – Chicago Tribune