Tap dance today is as marginal to popular culture in America as it was in 1960. Why has so delightful and exhilarating a dance style as tap been so resistant to revival?
Trailer With Matisse, Chagall, Miró Works Inside Stolen In L.A.
The 24-foot-long, rectangular 2005 Haulmark trailer disappeared Nov. 20 from an industrial park near Nordhoff Street and Alabama Avenue … [LAPD] art investigators said the trailer and roughly $250,000 in precious cargo, including art works by Matisse, Chagall, Miró, Haring and Neiman, were stolen. (Wait – all that was worth only $250,000?)
National LGBT Museum Abandons Plans For D.C., Sets Sights On New York
“Tim Gold, who co-chairs the board, said organizers looked north after learning the museum would not be eligible for tax breaks in D.C. and searching unsuccessfully for a location near the National Mall.”
The Futurist Chinese City That No One Went To Live In (Until Now)
“The district of Kangbashi in Inner Mongolia, … widely labelled a ghost town, stands as a cautionary tale of over-investment, home to grand feats of architecture and real estate that rose out of eagerness and ambition, but never received [a] human population … In the last few years, however, Kangbashi has actually witnessed an influx of new residents.”
And What Have Iran’s Mullahs Banned From Books *This* Time?
“Iran’s culture ministry has decided to censor the use of the word ‘wine’ and the names of ‘foreign animals’ and dignitaries from any books published in the Islamic Republic. The new rules are designed to protect Iranians from what the regime calls a ‘cultural onslaught’ by the West.”
Fort Worth Symphony Musicians Authorize Strike; Management Makes Final Offer
Management’s plan, which they say they will implement unilaterally if musicians don’t approve it on Friday, “cuts musician pay by 8.4 percent and trims vacation and weeks of work, but won’t reduce the number of concerts in a season. Members say they took 13.5 percent cuts five years ago and shouldn’t face more because the city and economy are growing again.”
Stripper Karaoke Is Portland’s Latest Contribution To The Culture
“Perhaps the most unlikely pairing in live performance has become a Sunday night favorite of [the hipster mecca] – and it’s starting to spread across the US. Our correspondent visits Devil’s Point Strip Club, originator of the trend.”
Philly’s New Theater Center Is Ready For Opening Night
The Drake – just behind the Kimmel Center on Spruce Street, once an Art Deco hotel and apartment building – is the new home for five of the city’s small companies, “who felt the need for place, permanency, and identity, stepped in quickly to establish a theatrical world amid the ghosts of dance and the bustle of a reviving downtown.”
An Anarchist Education: The Unlikely History Of Tolstoy College
“Tolstoy College was an educational community based on the anarchist principles espoused, late in his life, by the author … It ran from 1969 to 1985, and was part of a project by the president of [SUNY] at the time, Martin Meyerson, to transform the Buffalo campus into the ‘Berkeley of the East,’ a quest for prestige and higher enrollments that required something of an image change for a university in a freezing steel town suffering the effects of a long economic decline.”
Stiffed New York City Opera Ticketholders Will Finally Get Refunds
“Nearly 670 people had bought roughly $323,000 worth of tickets for performances that were canceled when City Opera went bankrupt in 2013” – and they’ll be getting their money back from NYCO Renaissance, the group that’s reviving the company.
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg To Step Down As Music Director Of Bay Area’s New Century Chamber Orchestra
“Since she joined NCCO in 2008, Salerno-Sonnenberg led the orchestra over a robust period of growth, including a Featured Composer program, commissioning eight new works and expanding the string orchestra repertoire, going on three extensive national tours, publishing three live recordings on her own NSS music label.”
Netflix Keeps Growing Like Crazy
“Netflix said it finished the year with nearly 75 million members, for a net gain of 17 million new members. That level was even higher than the 74 million Netflix had projected for the year back in October, bolstering its image as a growing power in entertainment. The growth in subscribers — a key metric for investors — fueled a 23% jump in revenue to $1.82 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015.”
The Problem With Oscar Diversity Isn’t The Oscars, It’s The Movie Industry
“Decades from now, maybe it’ll be easier to discuss the Oscars without breaking everything down by ethnicity and gender. We’ll only need to change the entire makeup of the academy membership, not to mention the power structure of the film industry, for that to happen.”
‘We’re Screaming And Crying And Laughing’ – What It’s Like To Dance For Pina Bausch
“The work is very theatrical, but we don’t have any acting classes – we never did. We’re not actors. Pina put us in situations where people might feel we were acting, but we’re not. We might have been talking about something that happened to us, and she put it on stage.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 01.19.16
If Dance Can’t Pay Its Dancers, What Does It Mean To Be A Professional Dancer?
A survey of dancers in the UK last summer reported that “more than half of professional dancers earn less than £5,000 a year from their performance work.” That’s professional dancers. … read more
AJBlog: Diacritical Published 2016-01-19
AfAS Follow Up
“Art for art’s sake” is a concept that always generates discussion and passion. My last post (Art for Art’s Sake Revisited) was no exception. My good friend Andrew Taylor took me to task both for … read more
AJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2016-01-19
Listening Tip: Zeitlin Plays Monk Live
Pianist Denny Zeitlin will play a solo concert, “Exploring Thelonious Monk,” this Thursday, January 21, at 9 PM PST. It will be streamed live on Jim Bennett’s “In the Moment” show at kcsm.org … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-01-19
Leftovers? Again?
Last Thursday when I came home from work, followed by a two-mile run and high intensity circuit workout, I was not in the mood to … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-01-19
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Dear Hollywood: Can We Have Some Definition Of Great Drama That Isn’t Just White Men Triumphing Over Adversity?
“Just two years after the much-touted breakthrough of “12 Years a Slave,” the best picture nominees announced Thursday, with a few notable exceptions, follow a dishearteningly repetitive story line of white men triumphing over enormous odds.”
A Call For Black Movie Industry To Boycott Oscars
“Director Spike Lee and the actress Jada Pinkett Smith announced they would not be attending the ceremony on Feb. 28.”
Berklee College Of Music And Boston Conservatory Agree To Merger
“The schools announced on Tuesday that their governing bodies had unanimously agreed to the deal, six months after they began exploring a merger. The neighboring schools have started an accreditation review process that is expected to be finished early this year. The combined school will be known simply as Berklee.”
Hartford Symphony Musicians Accept Pay Cut Management Demanded To Keep Orchestra Open
“The union faced a deadline of midnight Monday to agree to concessions. Without a vote accepting $450,000 in wage concessions, management said it would shut down the symphony.”
Bette Midler To Return To Broadway In ‘Hello, Dolly!’
Producer Scott Rudin “There has not been a new production in 50 years. Partly it was the difficulty of who could play Dolly. It had to be someone who could take it to a different level. Bette is the only one who can. Never has there been something more inevitable than her in this role.”