Three weeks ago, due to the coronavirus epidemic, the orchestra cancelled three concert dates in China that were part of a planned eight-concert tour of East Asia March 3-12. Now the orchestra has withdrawn from the remaining five dates, all in Japan. – The Washington Post
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Dance Student Sues School For Making Her Lift Too Heavy A Partner
Charlotte Vanweersch alleges that the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds hadn’t taught her how to properly lift a partner as heavy as the one she was assigned for a “throwing and lifting” routine and that she suffered serious shoulder and neck injuries as a result. She is asking the court to award her up to £500,000 in damages. – The Times (UK)
George Gershwin And His Attempts To Define An American Sound
Over the course of his career, Gershwin was praised and criticized in equal measure for his willingness to borrow and fuse musical elements from various cultural and ethnic realms. He regularly tapped into the aesthetic values and popular tastes of his surroundings, in an attempt to compose works that would connect with as broad a public as possible. This approach to composition produced mixed results. – Times Literary Supplement
We’re Recreating The Nature Around Us With Technology
Under the rubric of “ubiquitous computing,” “smart dust,” and the “Internet of Things,” computers are melting into the fabric of everyday life. Light bulbs, toasters, even toothbrushes are being chipped. You can summon Alexa almost anywhere. And as life becomes computerized, computers become lifelike. Modern hardware and software have gotten so complicated that they resemble the organic: messy, unpredictable, inscrutable. – Nautilus
Eight Trends That Are Changing The Non-Profit Sector
There has also been unprecedented leadership turnover across the classical performing arts sector. “Furthermore, the pipeline for leadership is not there to meet the demands. Changing tastes, an oversupply of product and the delta between the availability and demand for leadership will lead to bankruptcies and dissolutions of many of the classical arts organizations.” – Hunt Scanlon Media
Uffizi’s Entire Scientific Committee Quits Over Rafael Loan
The panel said it had worked for months to draw up a list of works that should never be moved from the Florentine gallery, and the portrait of Pope Leo X was one of them. The famed portrait was specially restored for the show in the capital by the experts at Florence’s restoration works Opificio delle Pietre Dure. – Ansa
While We Weren’t Looking The Robots Became Our Bosses
The robots are watching over hotel housekeepers, telling them which room to clean and tracking how quickly they do it. They’re managing software developers, monitoring their clicks and scrolls and docking their pay if they work too slowly. They’re listening to call center workers, telling them what to say, how to say it, and keeping them constantly, maximally busy. While we’ve been watching the horizon for the self-driving trucks, perpetually five years away, the robots arrived in the form of the supervisor, the foreman, the middle manager. – The Verge
Pavement Libraries Are Popping Up At Protest Sites All Over India
“These libraries are offering an alternative form of resistance, opening up platforms traditionally reserved for committed activists to waves of first-time protesters — from high school students to homemakers — who have joined hands against moves by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to introduce a religious test for naturalized citizenship.” – OZY
Research: Angkor Wat May Have Been Built Because Of An Engineering Disaster
A new study published recently in the journal Geoarchaeology shows that there was more than political intrigue at play. A water reservoir critical for large-scale agriculture in the Koh Ker area collapsed around the time the capital moved back to Angkor. – Smithsonian
The New Choreography For ‘West Side Story’ Misses What Made Jerome Robbins’s Dances So Essential, Says NY Times Dance Critic
“That’s because what Robbins created wasn’t just a series of dances, however peerless, but an overarching view of how, beyond anything else, movement could tell a story,” writes Gia Kourlas. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s choreography for Ivo van Hove’s new Broadway staging “is part of a larger vision that renders it extraneous or, worse, inconsequential.” – The New York Times