It’s George Balanchine’s company, after all, and he had a special gift for coordinating and synchronizing large casts. Peck particularly admires that achievement and was frustrated by how few choreographers today do the same. So, in her new Symphonie Espagnole, she’s deploying 40 dancers. - The New York Times
Five leading publishers and a best-selling author filed a class-action lawsuit against Meta and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on Tuesday, alleging that the tech giant violated copyright law by training its generative artificial intelligence platform on millions of illegally pirated books and articles. - Washington Post
“Fashion is art” was meant to encourage attendees to think about how every human body is a canvas, and about how making an item of clothing—the precision that goes into selecting textiles, creating shapes, and combining colors—requires the same kind of artistry deployed by the painters and sculptors featured throughout the museum. - The Atlantic
While it’s too early to tell which of the nominated shows will go on to have an international life, we can find some hints of the possibilities with a look at the title pages of their Playbills. - Jaques
“Traditionally one of the German capital’s top tourist attractions, (the Pergamon) will reopen next year after the first part of a painstaking restoration effort. ... The Pergamon Museum has been closed altogether since October 2023. The part of the building containing the Pergamon Altar has been closed for far longer, since 2014.” - AP
“With her dance partner and onetime husband, Juan Carlos Copes” — described as the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers of tango — “(she) formed a duo that, despite their often-painful personal relationship, helped spark a tango revival in Argentina that spread worldwide.” - The New York Times
“The Holocaust Museum LA, the first survivor-founded and oldest Holocaust museum in the United States, will reopen after a 10-month closure as part of the new Goldrich Cultural Center — a $70-million campus expansion set to debut June 14 in Pan Pacific Park (near downtown).” - Los Angeles Times (Yahoo!)
In mid-February, the precarious orchestra called off the remainder of this season and lost its music director. In what may be a surprising development, the SA Phil has just announced two performances of a program of Moncayo, Ravel and Tchaikovsky, scheduled for the last weekend of this month. - Texas Public Radio
“There weren’t any paintings or sculptures in Russia’s pale green building, which dates to before the Revolution. Instead, … the Toloka Ensemble, a folk group, sat below a bulbous flower arrangement and sang traditional songs to a cluster of reporters eager to witness the country’s controversial comeback at the Biennale.” - The New York Times
Five large publishing houses, along with Scott Turow representing authors as a class, allege in their filing that Zuckerberg himself “personally authorized and actively encouraged the infringement” of copyrights by Meta, which used countless books and articles to train Llama, its AI language system. - AP
“Media investor James Murdoch is in advanced talks to buy Vox Media’s New York magazine and podcast division, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, which is through Murdoch’s Lupa Systems investment company, isn’t yet final, and could still fall apart, they said.” - The Wall Street Journal (MSN)
“Founded in 1997, the African Dance Biennial has spent three decades rotating across African cities — most recently Maputo, Mozambique, in 2023 — with the aim of raising the visibility of choreographic work on the continent. The three-day event, which closed Sunday, was held at the École des Sables … in Toubab Dialao, Senegal.” - AP
The most-visible type is an artist who digs into the history of colonialism, surfaces some charged document or symbol, and highlights it by doing something poetic with it. The tone is more reflective than truly didactic. Often, the art is channeling the look of an exhibit in a science or history museum. - Artnet
Beatrice Venezi’s appointment as music director of Teatro La Fenice was greeted with an avalanche of criticism that she was unqualified, hired only because she’s a protégée of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni. Now Venezi says, “The (political) Right needed my clean face; they used me and then threw me away.” - Moto Perpetuo
Broadcast once provided a predictable, repeated structure built into daily life. As the “tune-in” habit has eroded, we haven’t been deliberate enough in designing something to take its place. - Greater Public
