“Akram Khan’s much talked-about reworking of Giselle, created for English National Ballet in 2016, will come to the United States next year, the company’s first trip across the Atlantic in 30 years. The Harris Theater in Chicago will present English National Ballet in four performances of Mr. Khan’s work, Feb. 28 to March 2, 2019.”
Author: Matthew Westphal
Looking Into The ‘Toxic’ Backstage Culture At English National Ballet
“Rumours of bad human relations and plummeting morale had been circulating for years, seemingly validated by a staggeringly high turnover of staff year after year. … Fifteen dancers left the company last summer alone. And yet the Times report was the first time allegations of unacceptable managerial conduct in the company came out into the open. … Why have people with compelling stories to tell not spoken out before? Or sought redress in-house? We talked to twelve ENB dancers past and present, as well as support staff, and had sight of relevant documents. And the answer we consistently got was ‘fear.'”
Opera Star Paata Burchuladze Questioned In Embezzlement Investigation
“Paata Burchuladze, a prominent opera singer who challenged Georgia’s ruling coalition in 2016 parliamentary elections, has been questioned by prosecutors [in Tbilisi] investigating allegations of embezzlement and misuse of funds by his charitable foundation.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 02.13.18
Know Your Communities
This is a sneaky post. The emphasis of this series is on the small, simple, inexpensive things that can be done to pursue community engagement in the early days of such efforts. That would be true of what follows if our industry’s marketing were grounded in audience awareness. Unfortunately, it is not. … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2018-02-13
WWJW? (What Would Jesus Wear? Not What You Probably Thought)
Indeed, what did Jesus wear? He almost certainly didn’t dress as he is traditionally depicted, just as he almost certainly didn’t have long, light brown hair and blue eyes. He probably didn’t have a full beard, either. Scholar Joan Taylor gathers together the few clues we have from the New Testament, Roman commentary, and convention of the time and place to make an educated guess about Jesus’s sartorial style. (In a word, shabby.)
The Now-Forgotten Book That Terrified The Antebellum South
“As its title suggested, the book was an ‘Appeal’ to ‘The Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular and Very Expressly to those of the United States of America.’ Yet appeal was a tame word for the prophecy smoldering between its covers, clearly directed towards the nation’s enslaved laborers. The police may have flipped to page 28: ‘It is no more harm for you to kill a man, who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty.’ Page 35 argued that owners denied slaves education because it would reveal their right to ‘cut his devilish throat from ear to ear, and well do slave-holders know it.'”
Omarosa, ‘Celebrity Big Brother’, and Reality-TV Politics
“Omarosa Manigault Newman, a three-time contestant on NBC’s The Apprentice, volunteered to enter a surreal house in which minor celebrities, acting out under constant media surveillance, conspire to eject their rivals one by one.
Then she went on Celebrity Big Brother. That it took the second experience (a CBS reality show) to get Ms. Newman to open up about the first (her tenure in Donald J. Trump’s White House) may not be the model of civic discourse that the founders envisioned. But it’s the one Americans voted for, and maybe the one we deserve.” (includes video)
A Brief History Of The Panel Show (Which Is Alive And Well In Britain, Even If Americans Have Given It Up)
It was a perfect genre for the early days of television, and was quite successful, as you can see on YouTube in old episodes of What’s My Line and To Tell the Truth. “[It] was a purely American invention, yet somehow it’s become deeply associated with modern British TV. Here’s why.”
Think The CD Is Disappearing? Think Again
“Compared to two decades ago, when CDs were at peak popularity, of course 2017’s sales statistics look anemic. But the compact disc is still the most popular format for people purchasing records. The second-most-popular format, with 66.2 million units sold? Another one pundits love to say is dying, digital albums. And it’s certainly not correct to say that all consumers are eschewing CDs.”
A History Of The Late, Unlamented CD Longbox (Remember Those?)
These aren’t the “jewel box” CD cases, mind you – they’re the long, mostly empty plastic containers that jewel boxes were stuffed inside for record store shelves, and they were supposed to be removed at the cash register. “From a distance, it seems like putting a CD or a cassette inside a massive [plastic] box, of which more than half of it was effectively useless, would be a really questionable choice. But the record industry had a couple of good reasons for doing so.”