Category: people

“Legendary Russian ballerina Ekaterina Maximova, who graced the stage of the Bolshoi Theater for 30 years, died Tuesday. … Ballet directors and President Dmitry Medvedev praised Maximova’s work as an artist and a teacher of young ballerinas, and mourned her death as a great loss to Russia.”

“Frankie Manning, a master of swing-era dance who went from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem to Broadway and Hollywood, and then after a long break enjoyed a globe-trotting second career as an inspirational teacher and choreographer of the Lindy hop, died on Monday in Manhattan.” (WIth WNET video.)

“Poland’s Krystian Zimerman, widely regarded as one of the finest pianists in the world, created a furor Sunday night in his debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall when he announced this would be his last performance in America because of the nation’s military policies overseas.”

“Television critics can pay appropriate homage to the place of these shows in small-screen history. But I can’t help thinking about the stage origins of those unerring instincts for comedy, the hours upon hours of performing in theaters large and small that taught Arthur better than any videotape what worked and what didn’t. Nor can I keep myself from mourning a death that in some respects marks the passing of an entertainment era.”

“James MacMillan has long been dubbed ‘Scotland’s best musical export’. He’s commissioned by orchestras and opera houses round the world, and his turbulently expressive music is known to a wide public which normally wouldn’t go anywhere near new music. But his fame goes beyond art.”

“Zwilich’s witty, unpretentious personality belie her determination and toughness, qualities necessary for a female composer to make her way in a male-dominated profession, particularly three decades ago when a woman composer was still viewed as something of an eccentric novelty. Zwilich has been remarkably prolific. She has written in all genres except opera, and created a significant, extensive body of work, averaging more than one new composition a year since she “started counting” in 1971.”

“On the last day of a research trip to the British Library in London, Alan Houston unearthed an unexpected bit of history: 47 letters written by, to and about Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman, inventor and icon. No one knew the letters existed. No one had read them in 250 years.”

“It’s not every day that a hot Hollywood star takes a detour off Sunset Boulevard and into avant-garde art territory. We expect that sort of thing from moody European actors, not from publicist-groomed studio chattel. […] Now it turns out Franco has also carved out a side career in experimental video art. Earlier this month at MoMA in New York, the artist known as Carter presented his latest work, a 63-minute piece titled Erased James Franco.“

“Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert and his wife, Chaz, have made a gift of $1 million toward creation of the Roger Ebert Program for Film Studies Fund at the University of Illinois, his alma mater. The gift was announced during the 11th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival in Champaign.”

A Los Angeles judge dismissed a suit against the actor and the UK’s Channel 4 (HBO settled) by a woman claiming that Baron Cohen “used her name in a defamatory way” during an interview in which his character Ali G asked Gore Vidal “why there was any point in amending the US Constitution.”