“Modeled after the dance numbers in Fred Astaire movies, ‘Dance in America’ became known for showing dancers’ bodies mostly in full. Mr. Brockway said his collaboration with Balanchine influenced that approach.”
Category: people
Jacqueline Brookes, 82, Who Played Equally Well In Hamlet and Naked Gun
In 1955, “Theater World cited her as among ‘the most promising personalities of the stage’; the others that year included Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.”
Søren Kierkegaard, The First New Atheist
“Søren Kierkegaard was not an atheist. He was a Christian.” Nevertheless, “today, at the 200th anniversary of his birth, Kierkegaard seems as relevant as ever. That’s because there is a public discussion about faith in America today. Kierkegaard’s central concern was faith and the problems of faith.”
Warhol Superstar Taylor Mead Dead At 88
“[He] was the quintessential Downtown figure. He read his poems in a Bowery bar, walked as many as 80 blocks a day and fed stray cats in a cemetery, usually after midnight.” Mead estimated that he appeared in 130 films in all, including 11 by Warhol.
Jobless Professionals In Copenhagen Display Themselves In Storefront Window
“Catching people’s attention is exactly what more than a dozen job hopefuls in Denmark’s capital are looking to do, even though they seem to be ripping a page from Amsterdam’s famous red-light district to achieve their goal.”
WTF Is Up With Marc Maron Anyway?
“Prior to starting his podcast, WTF, [the comedian] resembled no one so much as he did a Sam Lipsyte character. Like many Lipsyte protagonists, he was a middle-aged guy with artistic aspirations who, despite some notable successes, considered himself, on some level, a failure.”
‘My Psychic Garburator’ – Margaret Atwood On Dreams
“Last night’s dream: ‘The Forest of Misplaced Inventory,’ said the dream voice. ‘That shouldn’t take much description!’ The visual was a stack of shrink-wrapped red plastic garbage-can lids in a stand of green spruce trees.” (Note: “garburator” is Canadian for kitchen garbage disposal.)
What Is It About Baz Luhrmann That Rubs Critics Wrong?
“Is it his love of bold, technicolour dance sequences? Perhaps it’s his penchant for melodrama and theatrical characters? Or is it because he’s not making gritty, hard-hitting films about life in the suburbs?”
Ray Harryhausen, 92, Master Of Stop-Motion Animation
With his Dynamation process, he became “the prime exponent of the [stop-motion] technique and its combination with live action” in fantasies such as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts. Current cinema titans Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, among others, credit Harryhausen with making their work possible.
Composer Steve Martland Dead At 53
“Throughout a fruitful musical career he worked almost exclusively with artists outside of traditional classical institutions – in particular with Dutch and American groups, freelance musicians and especially his own Steve Martland Band. … His works are frequently intended to be played amplified and their muscular and rhythmic forms led to many dance commissions.”