Todd VanDerWerff: “We need cultural criticism not just to tell us which movies to go see and which ones to avoid, but to tell us things we already knew but didn’t know how to express. If reporting can explain the world to us, cultural criticism can explain us to us.” — Vox
Blog
How Ballet’s Leg Lifts Extended To 180 Degrees (And Sometimes Beyond)
To the end of the 19th century, no matter how virtuosic a ballet dancer could be, the leg was not to be lifted above the hip. Emma Sandall recounts how that changed, from Diaghilev through Balanchine to the pathbreaking hyperextension of Sylvie Guillem. — Dance Magazine
The Village Voice May Be Gone, But Its Annual Film Critics’ Poll Doesn’t Have To Be
“The [Voice] film poll was a fun and useful snapshot of the year in cinema from a healthy roster of film critics, and it’s one feature that a grieving fan desperately trying to duck family members over the holidays could theoretically replicate.” So that’s what Mike D’Angelo did. Here’s what he found. — Slate
US Supreme Court Rejects Olivia de Havilland’s Lawsuit Against Miniseries ‘Feud: Bette And Joan’
The 102-year-old actress objected to the FX series’ portrayal of her as a gossipy hypocrite who (this was very important to de Havilland) used dirty words. A California appeals court ruled against her on First Amendment grounds, and the Supreme Courts of both California and (now) the US have refused to reconsider the case. — The Hollywood Reporter
Retooling Scott Joplin’s ‘Treemonisha’ For The 21st-Century
That’s the project of Toronto theatre company Volcano, which hopes to tour its adaptation — with “an entirely new story” — of Joplin’s 1911 opera to California, D.C., Canada, and Britain next year. Says Volcano’s artistic director, “As far as I can find, the libretto has never been touched. We’re just giving Joplin the help he was denied.” — The Washington Post
Female Scene Shop Worker At Guthrie Theater Alleges Discrimination, But Two Investigations Disagree
After being passed over for a promotion, Molly Diers resigned from the theater last January, alleging gender discrimination and a hostile work environment. Now both a union-management arbitrator and the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights have ruled in the Guthrie’s favor. — The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Cornelia Street Café, A Hub Of Greenwich Village’s Artistic Ferment, Shuts Down
For almost 42 years, the café’s basement performance space had offered a stage and support for jazz, theatre, and other offbeat and experimental artists, from the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra to Suzanne Vega to Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues. But the rent is now literally 77 times what it was in 1977, and proprietor Robin Hirsch says he just can’t afford that much. — The New York Times
1,700-Year-Old Roman Busts Uncovered By Rain
After several dry winters in Israel, the earth in the old Roman cemetery in Beit She’an, near the Sea of Galilee, was dusty and loose. So this year’s rains washed some of that earth away, and the sculptures were noticed by a passerby. — Haaretz (Israel)
A Quarter Of Young Adults In UK Never Go To Theatre: Study
“A study of 2,000 18-to-30-year-olds found that 24% of respondents said they never attend theatre performances, with this figure higher among men than women.” (On the other hand, this means that 76% of the respondents do go to the theatre at least once a year.) — The Stage
The British Museum Thought This Was An Ancient Sumerian Vase. Turns Out It Was A Deadly Weapon
After years of displaying this 4,400-year-old object face-down, thinking it was a vessel for flowers, curators realized that was actually a vessel of grievous bodily harm: the head of a mace. — The Art Newspaper