Matthew Westphal – Page 844 – ArtsJournal Wayback

Watching Stephen Petronio’s Dancers Learn Merce Cunningham’s Steps

“The F-word isn’t usually used to describe a dance by Merce Cunningham. But after Rashaun Mitchell watched members of the Stephen Petronio Company rehearse the sextet from Signals, a rarely performed Cunningham dance from 1970, he went there.”

2,000-Year-Old Mosaics Turn Up Under Lawn Of Florida Museum

No, they’re not previously unknown Native American art, we’re afraid. They’re first- and second-century Greco-Roman works from Antioch, and five of them were among the first pieces acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg. “One was embedded in a fountain in the sculpture garden. One went on display in the Membership Garden. One was stowed under the stage of the Marly Room. Someone – it’s unclear who – buried the remaining two in the lawn outside the gates of the sculpture garden sometime in 1989.” It seems no one knows why.

Five Veteran Theater Critics Form Their Own Review Website

“Launching March 20, just in time to catch the spring wave of big Broadway openings that began last week with Escape to Margaritaville and continues this week with Frozen and Angels in America, New York Stage Review comes online with some 20 pieces of criticism about recent spring openings. … For most productions, New York Stage Review will have more than one critic weigh in. That’s taken from the playbook of The New York Times” – way back when, in the days of Walter Kerr.

Picasso’s Largest-Ever Work, Never Completed, To Be Realized Via Virtual Reality

“For almost 50 years, the artist Pablo Picasso’s wild vision for a massive 102ft high public monument” – titles Bust of a Woman – “which was to have been the world’s tallest concrete sculpture, has remained unrealised. Now, however, scholars at the University of South Florida, Tampa, are venturing to make it a reality – that is to say, a virtual reality.”

Beirut’s Male Belly Dancer

“Alexandre Paulikevitch is one of the few male baladi dancers in the Middle East. He learned how to dance from watching Egypt’s black and white movies and now performs as a soloist, challenging his audiences to think differently about baladi – not only as a post-colonial dance that’s distant from ‘belly-dancing’ or ‘danse orientale’ but as a dance that men and women alike can perform. … We went to his class in Beirut to find out what he’s doing to revolutionise this Eastern dance.” (video)”

Saudi Arabia Starts Building An Entertainment Industry From Scratch

“Saudi Arabia has long been known as one of the world’s most conservative places … Concerts and theater were largely banned, and even the notion of fun was often frowned upon as un-Islamic. Now the kingdom is lightening up with comic book festivals, dance performances, concerts and monster truck rallies. … [The kingdom] needs to build an ‘entire ecosystem’ for arts, tourism and entertainment, [and] has budgeted $64 billion for it over the next decade.”

Katherine Westphal, Pioneer Of Wearable Art, Dead At 99

“Ms. Westphal’s canvases – which included quilts, kimonos, dresses and baskets – reflected her life and her world travels, and were distinguished by her pioneering use of heat-dying processes to transfer photocopied images onto fabrics.”

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary Has Now Admitted ‘Dumpster Fire’

America’s (and Twitter’s) favorite dictionary defines dumpster fire as “an utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence.” Abby Ohlheiser investigates the history of the term and its spread via (of course) social media and into the mainstream.

Royal Shakespeare Co. Revives Forgotten Female Playwright From 300 Years Ago

Mary Pix was born in 1666 (the year of the Great Fire of London), had her first big London successes in 1696, and went on to write an estimated 13 plays (both tragedies and comedies) and one novel, despite the opposition of what we might as well call the patriarchy. A retitled production of her 1700 script The Beau Defeated opens this month at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Author: Matthew Westphal