Dancers can spend their whole careers seeking out a rich mind–body connection. Achieving that sense of integration can be incredibly satisfying, leading to better physical and mental health, and a more holistic performance quality. But what happens when that connection goes too far, leading to anxiety or obsession instead of artistic fulfillment? – Dance Magazine
Dick Van Dyke Is 95, And He Really Wants To Get Back On Stage
“His last singing gig took place on a Saturday night 15 months ago at the Catalina Jazz Club. He packed the house. They even had to cram in extra tables. … ‘Oh, God, I knew I liked it, but I didn’t know how much I would miss it,’ he says of performing. ‘I really miss getting up in front of an audience.'” – The Washington Post
World’s Oldest Cave Art Is Being Damaged By Climate Change
“Researchers examined 11 caves and rock-shelters [on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi], which feature art dating from 45,000 to 20,000 years old. … The scientists found that the art, which is made with red and mulberry pigments, is being physically weathered by a process known as haloclasty — when salt crystals form as a result of repeated changes in temperature and humidity.” – CNN
At The Ballpark, In The Concert Hall, A Crowd Feeds Off Itself. But At 25% Full?…
“You don’t feel part of a crowd,” said Michael Howell, a season ticket holder for 40 years. “It’s more like a movie theatre where you’re all watching the same event. But you don’t feel a common purpose like you do when a sports crowd is really excited.” – WBGH
The Mystery Man Who Now Controls The World’s Largest Classical Music Management Company
After wresting control of IMG Artists in an internal power struggle, Russian-born tycoon Alexander Shustorovich has kept the agency alive through the pandemic to become the world’s largest manager of classical music talent. – Billboard
Emily Blunt Is One Of Vanishingly Few Actors Resisting Superhero Movies
It’s rare – incredibly rare – for a Hollywood actor to turn down Marvel or DC. But Blunt said recently, “I don’t know if superheroes are for me. They’re not up my alley. I think it’s been exhausted. We are inundated. It’s not that it’s only the movies, it’s all the TV shows as well.” It’s possible that she speaks for many of us (only without as much income on the line). – The Guardian (UK)
Where Should, Or Could, A Reader Start With Speculative Fiction From Africa?
As speculative fiction from African writers starts to gain mainstream press attention in the U.S. and U.K., readers might wonder where to start. Short story anthologies? A trilogy about an alien invasion of Lagos? (Yes, definitely.) But also, says writer Lavie Tidhar, “African literature is huge and diverse — from the Francophone works of West Africa to the Arabic powerhouses of Egypt and North Africa, not to mention such classic authors as Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who wrote primarily in the Gikuyu language. … We haven’t even mentioned local imprints, such as Umuzi in South Africa, which publish great genre fiction not available elsewhere.” – Washington Post
We Need Unconventional Art Now More Than Ever
After 15 months of COVID-19 restrictions, deaths, infections, fear, and all kinds of life challenges, we must have more public art. “It does a simple but essential thing: reminds everyday people that they are not alone in this bizzarro moment, and miraculously and fortunately, they are still alive and kicking.” – Hyperallergic
A Dancer Who Connects A History Of Dance Through Her Body
“To watch her dance, especially to jazz music, is to watch historical distance collapse. Steps and attitudes separated by eras flow through her improvising body not as some premeditated fusion but as a single language she appears to have always known and yet is creating on the spot. The links are self-evident, unforced, authentic without a hint of the antiquarian. They’re active, present, a live circuit. The revelatory shock can make you laugh out loud.” – The New York Times
Time To Do Away With The Idea Of The Artist As Transgressor?
“Abusers are often shielded not only by this “myth of authenticity,” but by another myth, which pervades all the performing arts, and indeed all the other arts as well. This is an age-old myth, at least as old as Romanticism. The myth is that the constraint of usual social norms and rules is bad for artists. They have to be permitted to be transgressive, to break the rules, or else their creativity will be stifled. Genius is beyond good and evil. This myth is basically false.” – LitHub
San Diego Symphony Has A New $85 Million Outdoor Venue
The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, located on the downtown waterfront, seats up to 10,000 people and (because it’s San Diego and they can) will be used year-round. It hosts a livestream with selected orchestra members on May 21 and will have its first full orchestra concert, under music director Rafael Payaré, later this summer. – The San Diego Union-Tribune
‘There’s Something Going On’ — Who Will Really Be Running LA’s MOCA?
“As the Museum of Contemporary Art prepares to reopen after a historic pandemic closure, it finds itself in the midst of restructuring, moving director Klaus Biesenbach into the role of artistic director and hiring an executive director to co-run the institution with him. But The Times has spoken with more than two dozen people including current and former MOCA employees, artists, curators and executives at other museums, and the majority were skeptical of the dual leadership model. … Will the new executive director really be holding the reins at the institution, which has seen four directors in 13 years?” – Los Angeles Times
As Broadway Prepares To Reopen, Here’s How It Will (And Won’t) Be Operating Differently
“Ticket-buyers are being told they will be required to wear face masks (although it’s not clear how changing advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might affect that expectation). Theaters will have upgraded HVAC systems with virus-trapping filters. Most ticketing will be digital. And theaters are reserving the right to impose a variety of safety protocols” — on casts and crews as well as on audiences. “Prices, at least so far, are similar to what they were prepandemic, although premium prices are somewhat lower. … But it will be far easier to cancel or exchange tickets.” – The New York Times
Bayreuth Festival: Christian Thielemann May Have Lost His Other Job, Too
At the beginning of this week it was announced that the conductor (who was, when he was younger, hailed as a new Herbert von Karajan) was not offered a contract renewal at the orchestra and opera house in Dresden. It turns out that his term as music director at Wagner’s own opera house in Bayreuth expired on Jan. 1, and his name and title have reportedly disappeared from the festival’s website. Bayreuth’s spokesperson says only that Thielemann has a contract as a guest conductor for one opera this summer and beyond that “there is no decision yet.” (in German; for Google Translate version, click here) – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (DPA)
St. Paul’s Cathedral In London Is Running Out Of Cash And Could Close
With the pandemic having cut off the revenue from tourist admissions, the landmark’s income is down by 90%. The engineer in charge of maintenance and upkeep says the 300-year-old building is “rotting” and all renovation projects have been halted; there’s little to no money for the professional choir that sings services; the Dean of the Cathedral said frankly, “If we can’t raise the resources to be able to employ the people to look after the building and pay for the heating and lighting, we would have to shut our doors.” – BBC
Do we know how changing prices affects the income-diversity of audiences?
Real care has to be taken with comparing data on prices and audience characteristics, because the prices were set in the first place as a result of local audience characteristics. There is no universal ‘demand curve’ for the arts: each company has a unique situation based on where it is. – Michael Rushton
What Goodreads Has Done To My Reading, And Why I’m Giving It Up
“Quantifying, dissecting and broadcasting our most-loved hobbies sucks the joy out of them. I find myself glancing towards the corner of the page to see how much I’ve read. … Even when absorbed in the climax of a story, one eye is always on my proximity to the end, when I’ll be able to post it all to Goodreads. … [It’s] far more performative than I have previously admitted to myself: I love reading, but I also love the feeling of people thinking I’m well read.” – The Guardian
Benin Bronzes Are Still Being Made Today (Who Knew?)
In Benin City, in what was historically the metalworkers’ quarter on and around Igun Street, skilled artists continue to make figures with the traditional techniques used to make the famous Benin Bronzes now in museums in other parts of the world (and gradually being repatriated). – Artnet
Vincent Van Gogh Was His Own Worst Enemy (Just Read His Letters)
“The tone of the letters consistently is that of a man still aflame after a violent argument, gradually subsiding into a hot puddle of guilt and shame from which now and then, in a renewed fit of rage, he surges up into yet another outburst of rancorous self-justification. On practically every page we seem to hear the slammed door, the kicked chair, the pen nib gouging into the writing paper, and the fierce little red-haired man hissing in fury through his teeth.” – The New York Review of Books