In 1992, American Ballet Theater was reeling from a $6 million deficit and an ugly breakup with artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov. “McKenzie – a plain-speaking former working-class Irish Catholic altar boy turned ABT principal dancer – was brought in to try to save the company.”
Tag: 12.28.13
Kevin McKenzie on Bringing ABT Back From the Brink
In 1992, American Ballet Theater was reeling from a $6 million deficit and an ugly breakup with artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov. “McKenzie – a plain-speaking former working-class Irish Catholic altar boy turned ABT principal dancer – was brought in to try to save the company.”
The Best In Canadian Arts In 2013
Alice Munro, of course. But the rise of Ballet BC and the return of Ben Heppner too…
How The Internet Has Grown Since It Was First Switched On
“Everything has expanded by a factor of a million since we turned it on in 1973. The number of machines on the network, the speeds of the network, the kind of memory capacity that’s available, it’s all 10 to the sixth. I would say that there aren’t too many systems that have been designed that can handle a millionfold scaling without completely collapsing. But that doesn’t mean that it will continue to work that way.”
The 8 P.M. Curtain-Time Is Becoming Old-Fashioned
David Patrick Stearns: “Empires rose and empires fell, but if there was one thing the world could depend on, it was the 8 p.m. curtain time for theater, opera, and classical music performances. That, however, was back in the 20th century.”
Marta Eggerth, Last Great Star of Viennese Operetta, Dead at 101
“[She] was a film and stage star in Europe in the 1930s, traveled from Hollywood to Broadway in the 1940s and continued to win audiences in cabaret performances well into her 90s.”
Culture Quiz – The FT’s 2013 Culture Question Contest (AJ Readers Should Have No Problem With These)
“In a study published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport in September, researchers discovered that practitioners of a certain art form performed better after taking vitamin D supplements in winter than those who didn’t. Name the art form.”
Global Fight To Attract Movie Business As California Loses Out
“Fueled by politicians doling out generous tax breaks, filmmaking talent is migrating to where the money is. The result is an incentives arms race that pits California against governments around the world and allows powerful studios –with hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal– to cherry-pick the best deals.”
Director Of The Barnes Moves On After Turbulent Tenure
“There was a fair amount of turbulence in the beginning, with one lawsuit after another. He weathered all of that in a spirit of, I would say, extreme graciousness and never lost his cool.”
The Year Music Escaped The Concert Hall
“This has been the year of sound art, a year when museums and galleries, alternative spaces and train stations, parks and Beverly Hills formal gardens, even the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva went after a decent-sized piece of the acoustical action. Why now?”