At City Ballet, the master is coaching other dancers in a piece created for him by Jerome Robbins. “Dance, to Mr. Baryshnikov, is about five points: the head, the two hands and the two feet. ‘You cannot dance with three elements,’ he said. ‘You have to think about those things all the time — that it’s natural extension.'” – The New York Times
Author: ArtsJournal2
How Ann Patchett Threw Her Entire Book Away (Parts Of It A Few Times) Before Getting To The Right Voice
Patchett, author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder (and the new The Dutch House): “It was a funny thing to throw a book out. People seemed much more upset about it than I was. Some people said, It must be like a death! It was nothing like a death. It was like burning a cake. You know that feeling? Oh, hell, I burned the cake. Then you cut the cake open and eat the little pieces in the middle that aren’t completely ruined, then you bake another cake.” – LitHub
Netflix Might Start Giving Out Bonuses For Successful Films
Of course, that would mean it might need to release numbers because, after all, what is “successful” for Netflix? Bonuses for awards, however, might also be in the works at the streaming giant. – Bloomberg
It’s Only 2019, But The Guardian Has Made A List Of The 100 Best Books Of The 21st Century
Agree, disagree, tick off the ones you’ve read on a list … whatever, here they all are, from nonfiction to poetry to doorstop novels to graphic novel memoirs to everything else that won the approval of the British newspaper’s reviewers. (We hesitate to imagine the epic meetings and battles that took place to decide on number one.) – The Guardian (UK)
Actor Aron Eisenberg, Who Took A Joke Character And Imbued Him With Full Humanity On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Has Died At 50
Eisenberg’s character Nog was supposed to be a joke, like all of the Ferengi. But Eisenberg helped change all of that. (And here’s a Twitter thread that explains it more beautifully than a news report ever could.) – CNN
Illustrator Marjorie Blamey, Who Just Died At 101, Had 10,000 Wildflower Paintings To Her Name
Blamey was an utterly prolific illustrator of wildflowers. She “contributed all the colour illustrations, amounting to many thousands of paintings, for a succession of distinguished field guides” – all without formal botanical training. “Her watercolour illustrations opened people’s eyes to the beauty of wild flowers at home and throughout Europe. … Her pictures captured the essence of a plant in a way that photography rarely can, and made identification much easier than was previously the case.” – The Guardian (UK)
Male Dancers Say Homophobia And Misogyny (Yes, Misogyny) Still Cloud Their Careers
The recent #BoysDanceToo discussion – and the need for that discussion – highlighted the issue that boys and men who become dancers, especially ballet dancers, face bullying and homophobia offstage, and, if they’re gay or bi, problems of heteronormativity onstage. – NBC
A New, Young Generation Of Fashion Photographers Is Changing The Genre
These photographers have the covers of (American) Vogue or (British) Vogue, gain access to their subjects for portraits on social media, and change the way the people they photograph are thought about – and maybe treated. “It is easy to point to magazine covers as markers of changing times, but many of these photographers didn’t wait for the old-guard titles to bestow approval, forging partnerships with brands such as Nike, Apple and Tiffany & Co.” And, of course, “platforms such as Instagram have helped democratise the creative industries.” – The Guardian (UK)
Call It The End Of A (Millennials-Long) Era: Convents And Monasteries Are Dying
In Europe, an entire way of life is ending. “Around 1960, there were still about 110,000 nuns and monks in Germany. Twenty years ago, there were 38,348. Now, there are about 17,900.” But what to do with all of the art, architecture, land, and so much more? Er, how about student housing? “The students bring life into the convent. When they party on the field behind their building in the summer, it’s the superior general who has to deal with the calls from unhappy neighbors.” – Der Spiegel
Dance Class Helps A Child-Turned-Adult Movie Star Feel Normal
Keke Palmer came to fame playing Queen Latifah’s niece, and 17 years later, she’s about to become the host for the third hour of Good Morning America (oh, and she plays a part in the new movie Hustlers as well). How does she relax and stay focused? Dance, of course. “Fame is extremely traumatic,” she says, but dancing helps her find friends and just feel like a normal person in the struggle of a challenging class. – The New York Times