“Dancers interviewed on the condition of anonymity confide that weight gain can get them fired while thinness can help them advance. Even though the field has made progress, and has become more aware of the health risks of dieting, directors having ‘fat chats’ to tell dancers to slim down remains routine.” Says one corps member, “In shape for us is being hungry. Eat nothing and see how far you can go.”
Eight Nearly Forgotten Female Composers Who Were Hits In Their Own Day
Not many of us remember Barbara Strozzi and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre; more of us know of Clara Schumann and Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn). Here’s an opportunity to get to know all four of them, as well as four more, a bit better.
Actors With Disabilities Say It’s Time To Start Casting Them In Disabled Roles
“Recent conversations around this issue, in film and television as well as in theater, have become more contentious, with comparisons often drawn to traditions of blackface. As the journalist Frances Ryan wrote … last year, ‘Perhaps it is time to think before we next applaud ‘cripping up.’ Disabled people’s lives are more than something for non-disabled actors to play at.'”
UK (Finally) Gets First Public Statue To Honor A Named Black Woman
“Mary Seacole was a Jamaican-born nurse who cared for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War in the 19th Century. … The statue was created by sculptor Martin Jennings and stands opposite the Houses of Parliament in the grounds of St Thomas’ Hospital.”
Some Aesthetic Misgivings About Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Floating Saffron Piers
“It is undeniable that “Floating Piers” has tapped into the public imagination, drawing 270,000 visitors within the first three days of opening and over 500,000 to date. But if we are to take the work as a purely artistic statement (and a very popular one), it is nonetheless one that connects the private villa of an arms manufacturer to the mainland, drawing the parched masses to the Beretta family’s closed doors. I came, I saw, and I left feeling that a beautiful lake had been mired by a large-scale reinforcement of the social fabric: a paean to neo-feudalism, no less.”
Dispute Over Minimum Wage For L.A.’S 99-Seat Theaters Goes To Court As Talks Collapse
“Negotiations to resolve a minimum wage dispute between Actors’ Equity Assn. and members of the theater community have failed and the parties are headed to court … At the center of the lawsuit is Equity’s 99-seat theater plan, which calls for owners of theaters with fewer than 100 seats to pay Equity actors minimum wage for rehearsal and performance time.”
The Secret Lives Of Those Who Live In New York’s Libraries
“While the closed stack is currently sealed off to daylight to protect its rare contents, when the Thornberrys lived in the library, it was a light-filled and vibrant space. But the family was by no means confined to their apartment. They also enjoyed a penthouse-level garden and after hours, access to the library’s stacks and large reference rooms too.”
Downtown Los Angeles To Get Yet Another Large Art Space
“The museum … will have 40,000 square feet of exhibition space on the ground floors of the 1903 Hellman Building and the 1905 Farmers and Merchants Building. It will also have a rooftop sculpture garden and amphitheater.”
The Era Of Mid-Budget Movie Dramas Is Over
“Either you offer audiences an unmissable blockbuster derived from well-known intellectual property, or you invest in meek, sub-$10-million indies and pray for a return on investment on the art-house and VOD circuits. That once-upon-a-time sweet spot of $30-million to $50-million productions, with marquee stars and trusted directors? That era is over.”
A History Of Miss Havisham
One early critic of Dickens’s Great Expectations called the character “a foolish, senseless, fantastical, impossible humbug”; later, another critic wrote that “living types have already been pointed out that claim resemblance [to her].” Carrie Frye suggests that this “seems like a fitting jumping-off point for exploring how Miss Havisham came to be in the world: as a fantastical, impossible creature … clearly based on real-life people.”
Garrison Keillor, Consummate Radio Storyteller, Signs Off This Weekend
Radio itself is old-fashioned, of course, and yet – between Web-based podcasting, satellite radio and mobile apps — it is very much of the moment. Storytelling, which is the job inside Keillor’s bigger job, and one at which he casually excels, is the engine that drives “This American Life,” “Snap Judgment,” “StoryCorps” and “The Moth.”
How Much TV Are YOU Watching? Here’s How Much Your Neighbors Are Watching
“The average American watches an astonishing 4.3 hours of TV a day, according to a new report from Nielsen. Add in DVR time, and that number gets up to 5 hours a day.”
TV On The Radio: Analog Television Signals Squat At The Far Left Of The FM Dial
“As analog TV gave way to digital, a handful of risk-taking broadcasters, sensing an opportunity, have started to run those analog TV stations as FM radio stations – big FCC plans be damned. The shift is surprisingly contentious in the world of broadcast. Today, we talk about the special superpowers of Channel 6, the analog TV station on the FM dial.”
Sorry, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Basing A Country’s Governance Solely On ‘The Weight Of Evidence’ Could Not Work
On Wednesday, America’s star astrophysicist sent out this tweet: “Earth needs a virtual country: #Rationalia, with a one-line Constitution: All policy shall be based on the weight of evidence.” Jesse Singal explains that “it is, in fact, a pretty dumb tweet – uncharacteristically so, given how smart the author is – but one which usefully sums up a common misconception held by folks who bang the drum loudest for science and reason.”
This Theater Slashed Ticket Prices To Increase And Diversify Its Audiences – ‘What Happened Next Was A Revelation’
In 2005, Signature Theatre, an off-Broadway house on far West 42nd Street, “did a very hard-to-do thing. They convinced a big corporation, Time Warner, to hand the theater $500,000 to try to chip away at the price barrier. Before that grant, tickets to Signature’s shows had cost around $55. After the grant, they cost just $15.” (includes audio)
The National Youth Orchestra Of The USA Now Has A Junior Varsity Team
“National Youth Orchestra 2, formed this year under the auspices of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, has teenagers from around the country learning their professional craft with some of the busiest members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.” David Patrick Stearns watches them at work.
Diversity And Inclusion In British Arts – How Much Progress In 25 Years?
Arts Council England’s National Council member David Bryan considers what has happened in the quarter-century since he first wrote a major article on the subject and offers five possible actions for the future.
Top Posts From AJBlogs 06.30.16
Beware the volunteer sentence
It can be comforting when a solution or a path presents itself to you as the obvious choice. When you feel comfortable moving to the next problem or question without even thinking much about the one at hand. … read more
AJBlog: The Artful Manager Published 2016-06-30
A problem with classical music publicists
I’ve said these things before. But they need to be said again, following up on my last post, about a quick way to improve almost any publicity pitch. … read more
AJBlog: Sandow Published 2016-06-30
Changing Color
Susan Marshall, Jason Treuting, and Suzanne Bocanegra explore our perception of color. Is this the coolest ever lecture on color theory? Yes and no. … read more
AJBlog: Dancebeat Published 2016-06-30
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Apple Patents Idea To Block Fans From Taking Pictures At Concerts
“The patent describes a smartphone camera receiving coded infrared signals beamed from emitters in public places. The handset could then offer on-screen information or disable the camera functionality to stop pictures being taken.”
What You Know Versus What You Say – It’s Complicated
“I am surrounded by colleagues who study members of our species by presenting them with questionnaires. They trust the answers they receive and have ways, they assure me, of checking their veracity. But who says that what people say about themselves reveals actual emotions and motivations?”
‘The Man, The Myth, The Yannick’ – Philadelphia Is Marketing Its Maestro As A Tourist Attraction
“As you descend the Penn Station escalator to Track 3 for New Jersey Transit, your eyes are ambushed by an ad with a blazing headline … And there he is, Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in a raspberry pink vest, baton in hand, and head somewhere in heaven.”
Carnegie Hall’s Pugnacious Ex-Chairman Gives $75 Million For World Trade Center Arts Complex
“Less than a year since he stepped down as the chairman of Carnegie Hall after clashing with its staff, Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire businessman, announced Wednesday that he was donating $75 million to revive plans to build a performing arts center at the World Trade Center site.”
Violinist Who Stormed Into Woman’s Hotel Room Naked And Tried To Strangle Her Goes Free
“[Stefan] Arzberger, who had faced a charge of attempted murder, instead pleaded guilty to a less serious charge of reckless assault in the third degree, and was given an unconditional discharge. He faces no jail time or fine.”
Andris Nelsons Walks Out On Bayreuth Festival
“The 37-year-old podium star, currently chief conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and soon to take up the baton at Germany’s Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra [as well], had been scheduled to conduct the premiere of a new production of Richard Wagner’s final opera Parsifal this year.”
Broadway’s First Live-Stream Hits The Web (Why Did It Take So Long?)
“The fairly new online video service BroadwayHD … [on] Thursday night … offers up the first-ever live stream of a Broadway show, the musical revival She Loves Me. And in the process, the start-up hopes to cement its status as the ‘Netflix of Broadway’.” Jonathan Takiff looks at why the Great White Way is so late to the streaming party.