“Today, the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements have upended the public conversation about women’s issues around the world … Have these women’s empowerment movements extinguished the sexism and male patriarchy that women in tap have had to endure? [We] spoke to three stellar women in tap to get their take on the issue.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Fired CEO Sues Barnes And Noble For Defamation, Breach Of Contract
Just hours before the July 4 holiday, the troubled bookstore chain terminated CEO Demos Parneros for cause, though the precise offense was not revealed publicly. In his complaint, Parneros charges that the company fired him baselessly after his relationship with chairman Len Riggio deteriorated – and let the public assume that Parneros was dismissed for sexual harassment. In response, B&N said that the suit is “nothing but an attempt to extort money from the Company by a CEO who was terminated for sexual harassment, bullying behavior and other violations of company policies.”
Two Major Dutch Museums End Partnerships With Shell Oil
“At a time of mounting protests over sponsorship by fossil fuel companies, Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum and the Mauritshuis in The Hague both terminated arrangements with the country’s largest oil and gas firm this summer.”
When This Israeli Arab Choreographer Stopped Focusing On His Ethnicity In His Work, Here’s What Happened
Adi Boutros: “In my previous works, there was a text. But at some point I understood that I didn’t need to talk about it, but to experience and investigate it with the body. The body is a tool that has knowledge, and it also knows how to reflect this. All I had to do was investigate the body, and when I investigated it, my real identity got expressed.”
New Club In London Specifically For Black Theatre Audience
Says Black Theatre Club founder Steven Kavuma, “It’s a safe space environment where black people can freely talk about a play that is either about the black experience or is a classical play that has black bodies in it. We don’t have safe spaces where black people can freely talk about a play. Black people don’t feel comfortable being at theatres, because theatres are white spaces.”
The Hidden Queer History Of Paper Dolls
Sure, paper dolls were manufactured and marketed – to the parents who held the purse strings – as tools for teaching little girls obedience and conformity. (Well, until the ’70s – more on that later.) Yet, as Benjamin Frisch and Willa Paskin point out, “the conformity represented by paper dolls was easy to subvert, because it was so easy to ignore. The virtue of simple toys is that it’s simple to use them any way you please.” And that’s exactly what gay men did. (article and podcast)
Lots of Coffee
Recently, in a conversation about beginning relationships with new communities, one of our new ArtsEngaged trainers, Anne Cushing-Reid, commented that, especially where there is negative history to be overcome, “There’s a lot of coffee in our future.”
Guest Columnist: Empty Room at the Top
Here is the latest piece by CultureCrash’s regular guest columnist, Lawrence Christon. Christopher O’Riley, of course, is best known to some of us for his classical-piano interpretations of Radiohead, Nick Drake and Elliott Smith.
On Rescuing a “Dead Art Form” — Take Two
It seems to me pretty obvious that nowadays it’s far easier to stage a successful Hamlet or Three Sisters than a successful Aida or Siegfried. And one reason is equally obvious: finding an actor to play Hamlet or Masha is no problem; finding a dramatic soprano for Aida or a Heldentenor for Siegfried is difficult to impossible
Is The Whole ‘Rite Of Spring’ Riot Story A Myth?
Evidently, yes, it is a myth, even if it’s not 100% unfounded. Yes, there was some disapproval of the premiere from the upper balcony (which may have had more to do with social politics than with the work itself), but little more – and crucial evidence to that effect has been lying in plain sight the whole time since. The caused-riots-in-Paris!! bit seems to have come from an American effort to drum up excitement and sell tickets.