“Donizetti’s queens, however, were not an obvious direction for Sills to take. They were, among other things, still little known, especially in America. (Even today they are not often seen.)”
Self-Care: An ABT Principal On Sleep, Diet, Athleticism, Pain, And Adrenaline
Isabella Boylston: “My relationship to pain is obviously a lot different than most people, as a ballerina. Dancers do have a really high pain tolerance. … We just don’t know when to stop. … The great thing about performing is that all the adrenaline takes the pain away. I never feel pain in a performance. The next day that I’m like, Owww.”
Why Even Skilled People Make Big Mistakes In Chess (Or Anything Else)
“The fact that mistakes have more to do with the problem itself, as opposed to skill or time, raises questions well beyond the domain of chess.”
Turning An Auto-Body Shop Into A Center For Dance And Dancers
Renovations began last week on the Performance Garage, which former Martha Graham dancer Jeanne Ruddy and her husband bought back when it was an actual garage for repairing cars. The plan is to make it a comfortable, affordable performance and rehearsal center for many companies; BalletX already rehearses there.
Backstage Drama Bursts Into Public View At Legendary Berlin Theatre
“On Monday, 180 directors, actors and stage designers associated with the Volksbühne published an open letter in which they expressed ‘deep concerns’ about plans for the future of the legendary avant garde theatre, which is due to be headed by Tate Modern’s outgoing director Chris Dercon from early 2017. ‘This is not a friendly takeover,’ they write.”
NY Post Lets Its Theatre Critic Go
“The steady decrease in professional journalists covering theatre and reviewing Broadway and Off-Broadway productions has been made evident once again, as the New York Post’s first-string theatre critic, Elisabeth Vincentelli, has apparently been let go.”
Teach Your Robot To Be More Human By Settling It In With Unlimited Netflix
“Six hundred hours of video sounds like a lot, but it’s not really that much. By the time we’re 10 years old, we’ve logged nearly 60,000 hours of waking-hours experience.”
Taking Performance Outdoors Makes A Big Difference In Audience
“Outdoor arts achieves what the rest of the arts sector and theatre aspires to but seldom delivers: an audience that is representative of the population as a whole. Not only that, but 97% rated their experience of outdoor arts as either very good or good.”
The Physics Of A Cup Of Coffee [VIDEO]
Coffee drinkers, settle in with a mug for this (French, subtitled) exploration of what, exactly, makes that mug work.
A Dating App For Intellectual Property
“Want a peek at the buzzy new sci-fi novel? Swipe right. Curious if its movie rights have sold? Swipe again. Publishing upstart Inkshares is launching an app, dubbed Properties, to promote its content to Hollywood. It curates selections for each user, offers sample chapters and provides updates on theatrical, TV, audiobook and foreign rights.”
So Barnes & Noble Might Close… And That’s A Very Bad Thing
“There’s more than a little irony to the impending collapse of Barnes & Noble. The mega-retailer that drove many small, independent booksellers out of business is now being done in by the rise of Amazon. But while many book lovers may be tempted to gloat, the death of Barnes & Noble would be catastrophic—not just for publishing houses and the writers they publish, but for American culture as a whole.”
Poetry As Failure (And That’s A Good Thing)
In Ben Lerner’s account, poetry is the perfect medium for failure. Even great poems, he claims, perform this failure by suggesting the transcendent in their absence. “You can only compose poems that, when read with perfect contempt, clear a place for the genuine Poem that never appears.”
Social Media Can Power Art – But There Are Landmines Everywhere
“The relationship between art and social media is a tricky one. The former is about pushing boundaries; the latter, enforcing them — in the case of Instagram, in a literal square.”
Public Radio’s Big New Opportunities
“One person’s existential crisis is another’s opportunity; a period of expanding audiences, creative disruption, and greeting the future. From where I sit, at the helm of New York Public Radio, the news is overwhelmingly positive and the terrain is open for anyone bold enough to embrace what is undoubtedly radio’s next incarnation.”
Led Zeppelin Did Not Steal Chords In ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ Rules Jury – What Will This Mean?
Scott Timberg: “At times, it looked like it was going to bend the other way. But a Los Angeles federal jury has decided unanimously that Led Zeppelin did not break copyright law in the composition of its song ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ … So what’s likely to be the effect of the judgment? This is probably a case where a process that seems to be accelerating will halt for a little while.”
Alessandra Ferri, Still Dancing (A Lot) At 53, Maintains She’s Retired
“When I retired, it was the end of my career, and that’s still true. My career is over. I have gone back to the pure joy of what I feel when I dance.”
Ralph Stanley, Bluegrass Master Known For ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, Dead At 89
“Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead once called him ‘the most perfect singer alive.’ It was a plaintive, nimble and haunting voice that blended elements of Primitive Baptist church choirs and the Grand Ole Opry, music on which Mr. Stanley was weaned in far southwestern Virginia.”
‘For The Long Haul’: Dallas Opera Extends Institute For Women Conductors For 15 More Years
“As female conductors aim their batons at cracking classical music’s glass ceiling, the Dallas Opera has invested in fueling their battle. The organization has committed to running the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Women Conductors for 20 years, 15 more than initially promised, general director and CEO Keith Cerny said Tuesday.”
Mariinsky Theater’s Ballet School, World’s Second Oldest, To Open Campus 4,000 Miles Away
The Vaganova Ballet Academy in St. Petersburg, a school whose history goes back to 1738, has announced that it will open a branch in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East – in part to train dancers for the Mariinsky’s Vladivostok outpost, which was established at the beginning of this year.
Kennedy Center Honors For 2016 To Argerich, Eagles, Pacino, Staples, Taylor
“Actor Al Pacino, musician James Taylor, gospel and blues singer Mavis Staples, Argentine pianist Martha Argerich and rockers the Eagles will receive the 2016 Kennedy Center Honors, the arts center announced Thursday.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.23.16
Welcome
Think of a time that you didn’t feel welcome. As a woman who is the soon-to-be-wife of a woman who prefers buttons and a collar over scoop necks and pencil skirts, the inevitable wedding suit shopping experience loomed in my future. … read more
AJBlog: Field Notes Published 2016-06-23
Other Places: Linda Oh In The Village Voice
In the new issue of The Village Voice, Michael J. Agovino wraps three years of observing the bassist Linda Oh into a 4,000-word article about what it takes these days for a leading musician to practice the profession in the world’s jazz capital. … read more
AJBlog: RiffTides Published 2016-06-23
So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly so) in The Wall Street Journal when they opened. For more … read more
AJBlog: About Last Night Published 2016-06-23
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University Of British Columbia Fires Director Of Creative Writing School Ove “Breach Of Trust”
“The school says acclaimed writer Steven Galloway was suspended in November of last year while an investigation was completed over what it said were serious allegations of misconduct. Addition complaints were also received after he was suspended and former B.C. Supreme Court justice Mary Ellen Boyd was appointed to conduct an investigation.”
Christo’s Water Walk Is “Too” Popular, Has To Cut Back Hours
“Plans to keep “The Floating Piers” open day and night until July 3 have had to be shelved as it is being worn out faster than expected, local officials said.”
Janet Malcolm Takes Down The Current Stars Of Russian Literary Translation
“A sort of asteroid has hit the safe world of Russian literature in English translation. A couple named Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have established an industry of taking everything they can get their hands on written in Russian and putting it into flat, awkward English.” (includes side-by-side excerpts from Anna Karenina in P&V’s translation and Constance Garnett’s)
The Most Expensive Cubist Painting Ever Sold Just Went For $63.7 Million
“Picasso’s Femme Assise, painted in the summer of 1909 – when the artist traveled to the remote Spanish village of Horta de Ebro, which could only be reached by mule – sold for $63.7 million at Sotheby’s in London on Tuesday, making it the most expensive Cubist painting ever sold at auction.”