New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, America’s top two ballet troupes, have been “playing rival spring seasons at Lincoln Center for more than two decades. Time was, the most profound and thrilling art lay with NYCB. Little by little, without Balanchine’s galvanizing presence as chief choreographer and—this should not be underestimated—chief coach, the power of attraction has shifted to ABT, with its warmer performing style, its growing complement of male virtuosi, its recent cultivation of tall, fresh, and athletic ‘American Girl’ ballerinas (Gillian Murphy, Michele Wiles), and the occasional dazzling guest star.”
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Expanding Vision
“Again and again, when black artists adapt street work to the stage, the critics say it’s terrific. When it’s framed as black history, it’s more than terrific.” writes Joan Acocella. Rennie Harris comes out of a Hip Hop tradition. In his new piece “Facing Mekka” the “moral vision is broader, and, despite the videos, the means are largely abstract: music, dance. This makes it encompassing—a story not just of African-American memory but of memory itself.”
Taking The “Public” Out Of Public Universities
“Today colleges and universities are seen principally as providing tickets to financial security and economic status. Few people worry about higher-education institutions leading young people astray. If anything, the lament is that they have, in their pursuit of market advantage, become dispensers of degrees and certificates rather than vibrant communities of educators who originate, debate, and promulgate important ideas. What happened? In part, colleges and universities are what they are today because the 1970s began so badly. The result is likely to be equally clear: a set of colleges and universities that have come to believe their futures are best served by satisfying the interests of their customers, even if that ultimately means becoming increasingly self-interested and detached from broader public goals.”
Iraq’s Archaeological Treasures Are Being Plundered
Iraqi’s say widespread looting of archaeological sites is continuing, despite please for help to the Americans. “On a visit Sunday, three sites near here were pocked with freshly dug holes and littered with hastily abandoned shovels, indicating looting in the last day or two. At one spot, about two dozen people ran off when they saw approaching trucks. At Isan Bakhriat, site of the ancient city of Isin to the north of here, more than 100 looters were openly digging out and selling urns, sculptures and cuneiform tablets. ‘It’s happening at almost every site. They are smart. They take the antiquities that they know have value, and they know how to get them out of the country’.”
A Digital Library To Preserve Artifact Records
The recent looting at the Iraq Museum has bolstered a project to digitize images of ancient artifacts. The looting “has graphically shown the need to make images of these tablets. The digital library is arguably the most important project in our field. Digital initiatives should be used aggressively to buffer ourselves against natural or man-made catastrophes. What happened in the Iraq museum is really an object lesson in why it is important.”
Poor Artist? Lemme Help
Most artists are poor. “Imagine the dissonance your average starving poet feels surrounded by moneyed book-lovers and big-wig sponsors at your local writer’s festival. Or the supreme weirdness of the novelist nominated for a glitzy award like the Giller Prize, with its debauched evening of champagne, tuxes and gowns. I have heard the experience likened to being a street-level prostitute, yanked into a limo by a group of corporate man-gods, and treated to the good life for one queenly booze-and-bonbon-addled night. Before, of course, a bouquet is shoved into your arms as you are simultaneously shoved back into the street to face cold, familiar reality.” Lynn Coady proposes a small “corrective measure” to help.
Bad Boys, Bad Boys….What You Gonna Do?
Okay, so we all enjoy a good scandal book to one degree or another. But will disgraced New York Times reporter Jayson Blair make his fortune on a tell-all book? “The success of a mea culpa manuscript is as much a case of where as of who, how, or when. ‘A story about someone who’s been in a scandal or any sort of bad experience of whatever kind, for it to be an effective story the person has to have come out on the other side. The problem with Jayson Blair, he’s still right in the middle of whatever he’s going through. Clearly, he’s thrashing around. To be an effective story, a book has to have a post-thrash perspective.”
Mounting Tate Modern
Vincente Todolí is the Tate Modern’s new leader. “I have come from a small corner of Europe to a great metropolis and an institution which must talk not only to the local community but to the world. That is exciting for me. In Valencia [where he was director of the Institute for Modern Art from 1988 to 1996] and in Porto I was a one-man orchestra – conductor, soloist, back-up vocals. But I have left my ego behind. Now I want dialogue, confrontation, to be part of a team, which is what Tate is all about.”
Luciano Berio, 77
Luciano Berio has died in Rome. He “was regarded as one of the most important contemporary avant-garde composers, with major influence as a teacher and conductor as well as a composer.” He was “an outstanding orchestral and vocal composer who was perhaps most remarked upon for his works with solo voice.”
Why Picasso Stayed A Spaniard
Picasso lived in France for 40 years but never became a citizen. Why? “When he sought French nationality in 1940, he was turned down on the ground that he was an anarchist with communist tendencies. The extent of French misgivings about Picasso’s politics have just become known with the discovery of the artist’s police files from 1901 to 1940. They were among millions of French documents seized by German occupation forces in 1940 and transferred to Berlin. After the defeat of Germany in 1945, they were taken to Moscow. Only since the collapse of the Soviet Union have they been gradually returned to France.”