“Ideals are fantastic, but we have to be realistic. When there are hordes of young dancers waiting to take the place of anyone who complains or cracks under the pressure, will public shaming be enough to inspire real change? If the bad PR scares away ticket buyers or donors, it just might. Aside from sheer decency – and living up to 21st-century HR standards – there are many reasons why treating dancers fairly is actually in companies’ best interest, both artistically and financially.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
‘Mostly He Gave Off Light, So It Was Like Being In This Incredibly Powerful Beam’: Alexander Bernstein Remembers Lenny
Jamie is the Bernstein child we usually hear from, but in this interview, Alexander talks about life with his father (and his mother) as well as Lenny’s music-making, social activism, and dealing with the demands of his work. “[As] he started conducting more abroad, the entourage around him grew larger and larger, and he became more and more of an industry. That was hard for him to handle. One day I remember him shouting, ‘I hate Leonard Bernstein!'”
DC’s Woolly Mammoth Theatre Names Its Second-Ever Artistic Director
Succeeding company co-founder Howard Shalwitz is Maria Manuela Goyanes, 38, who is currently director of producing and artistic planning at the Public Theater in New York City. (Public artistic director Osklar Eustis describes Goyanes as his “his producing right hand.”)
‘We’re All Different Colors On His Palette’: Five Paul Taylor Dancers Talk About Working With Him
“Mr. Taylor turns 88 this year. What is it like to be in this company with a modern master in the twilight of his life?” Michael Trusnovec, Laura Halzack, Alex Clayton, Parisa Khobdeh, and Michael Novak answer the question.
New York DA Has A New Antiquities Trafficking Unit, And The City’s Antiquities Dealers Are Spooked
“Over the past year, the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance has stepped up seizures of allegedly looted artefacts, some worth millions of dollars, with highly publicised raids targeting the billionaire collector Michael Steinhardt, Phoenix Ancient Art gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. … One effect of the DA’s actions is clear: an increasingly jittery antiquities market.”
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Has A New Publisher
“Later this year, Mitzi Angel, 43, the publisher of Faber & Faber in London, will join FSG as its new publisher and senior vice president,” replacing Jonathan Galassi, who spent 20 years in the job. “Ms. Angel is in many ways a natural choice for the role. She worked at FSG for seven years before she became the publisher of Faber in 2015.”
Kalman Aron, Whose Art Helped Him Survive The Holocaust, Dead At 93
Thanks to the skillful portraits and drawings he made for guards, officers, and commandants, he survived seven different concentration camps, and ultimately received a scholarship to study at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts – after which he emigrated to Los Angeles and went on to a very successful career as a painter and portraitist.
Conductor Seiji Ozawa Hospitalized With Cardiac Trouble
“The 82-year-old Ozawa, a former [chief] conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Vienna State Opera, had suffered from esophageal cancer, multiple bouts of pneumonia and back problems severe enough to require surgery in the past eight years, but recovered and went back to conducting. Ozawa was diagnosed with aortic valve stenosis and will undergo treatment and rehabilitation for about a month at a Tokyo hospital, his office said.”
How Puerto Rico’s Museums Are Recovering From Last Year’s Hurricanes
“Nearly six months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, museums on the US island are resuming their everyday pace and pushing forward with new initiatives.”
In War-Torn Central African Republic, National Dance Company Provides Rare Example Of Unity
“In a country bloodily divided by ethnic and religious strife, the National Central African Ballet is a rare unifying factor – a melting pot, professing no favouritism or allegiance to any group or sect. For at least two days a week, the conflicts that ravage most of the country seem far away in downtown Bangui, where 30 or so professional artists come together. … The trials of everyday life are forgotten for a while – and so are the armed militias patrolling a few kilometres from the capital.”