There was a time when dance got star treatment on film. “But somewhere along the line, dance itself got lost in all the narrative strategies. Nowadays, film directors have come to believe that audiences can’t get any pleasure from just watching it — and they don’t stop with merely cutting it to pieces in the editing room. No, they make sure their films are structured so dancing becomes some kind of competitive ordeal. Yes, Astaire and Rogers did win a trophy in one of their classic musicals, but in recent years, virtually every film about dance culminates in some kind of life-defining contest.”
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Torontopia – A City Building On Culture
“A generation ago, an astonished Toronto was energized when its multicultural neighbourhoods won favour from international urban thinkers such as Jane Jacobs. Then, for 30 years, the city the rest of Canada loves to hate cruised back into mediocrity. Today, it is regaining a sense of its own singular potential. In once derelict, now glamorous industrial lofts and hotels, indie rockers talk with hip architects and earnest young public-space activists about books like uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto and debate whether the term ‘Torontopia’ has gone too far in “fetishizing” the city’s newfound energy.”
Politically Incorrect – On Our Stages?
“How daringly political will we allow our stages to become? The question urges us to move beyond the self-congratulatory platitudes and catchphrases that we who love this art form all too readily dispense. It comes down to something more difficult: Can we envision (and, more to the point, finance) a theater that embraces what the great midcentury Italian critic Nicola Chiaromonte called its inherent and potentially liberating ‘unpopularity’?”
Is Nothing Sacred? Cell Phones In Libraries?
People are using their cell phones everywhere. But libraries? That’s intolerable, writes Scott McLemee. “Being forced to listen to one side of a manifestly inane conversation is now a routine part of public life. It is tolerable on the street — but not, somehow, in a library; and in one mostly full of academic tomes maybe least of all. What’s worse, the rot is spreading.”
Does “Physics For Poets” Kill Students’ Appreciation For Science?
The classic “Physics for Poets” classes at universities are an attempt to give liberal arts majors a smattering of science. But, writes Edward Morley, “despite the effort we put into providing classes that are both relevant and informative, I am troubled by the subtext of these classes. By their very existence, these classes send two damaging messages to students in other disciplines: first, that science is something alien and difficult, the exclusive province of nerds and geeks; and second, that we will happily accommodate their distaste for science and mathematics, by providing them with special classes that minimize the difficult aspects of the subject.”
Rostropovich Channels Shostakovich
Mstislav Rostropovich’s days of playing the cello are receding, and he’s been expanding his conducting activities, indulging a passion for Shostakovich. “He was the most important man in my life, after my father. Sometimes when I’m conducting, I see his face coming to me. Sometimes it’s not really a happy face — I conduct maybe a bit too slow, so I conduct faster, and the face disappears.”
Tarzan Comes In From The Jungle
Disney’s new “Tarzan” musical is “one of the most expensive shows ever mounted on Broadway, with a budget rumored to be between $15 million and $20 million. It is also one of the riskiest, even for Disney, a company which has had an excellent Broadway track record, with three hits in three tries. Most shows open out of town, where problems can be identified and fixed far from prying eyes. But “Tarzan,” based on the hit 1999 animated film and the classic Edgar Rice Burroughs novel that inspired it, will land on Broadway cold.”
Rethinking The Martha Graham Company
It’s been struggling, even in its reinvented form. “In the 15 years since Martha’s death, funding changed, presenting changed, audiences changed, and what we rebuilt last year was based on the old model.” The reinvented group “got the Picassos out of the attic and dusted them off beautifully, but the connection to how the field had moved forward wasn’t addressed. We had a goddess up on top of a mountain and everybody came to her. But without the goddess, we’re just another mountain.”
Where Illegal Downloads Are Encouraged
At a time that major recording labels are busy suing downloaders for illegally trading music, unknown bands are finding downloads (legal or otherwise) a benefit. “For an increasing number of acts, free or illegal downloads are a promotional tool more valuable than money.”
Michigan Opera In Transition
David DiChiera is the “genial founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre”, and the builder of Detroit’s $50-million opera house. “They are the products of his vision, his sweat, his moxie and his leadership. They are his destiny. But the 10th anniversary of the opera house, along with the 35th anniversary of MOT, captures the company in transition.”