Dance Critic Sarah Kaufman: “Perhaps, somewhere, there exists a small, sad sliver of the human population that still believes, 17th-century style, that dancing is sinful, that having fun is wrong, that music is corrupting, that a young woman playfully noodling around with her hair down must be some kind of wild, out-to-get-you Medusa. I guess the Puritan prejudice against a good time hasn’t entirely disappeared. Otherwise, how could anyone think that publicizing a video clip of a beautiful, college-age Ocasio-Cortez dancing with her friends could harm the Democratic congresswoman from New York?” – Washington Post
Tag: 01.04.19
Honoring – And Keeping Alive The Music Of – A Composer Who Died Too Young
Matt Marks, composer, vocalist and French horn player, one of the founders of Alarm Will Sound, died suddenly at the age of 38 in May of 2018. Many of his works were intensely personal and intimate, but his friends and fellow musicians want to keep them alive. It’s not easy on the emotional level – or the musical one. – The New York Times
Even Harvard Can’t Afford Academic Science Journals
Seriously, it’s time to reform the academic journal – especially in the sciences, where colleges are being priced out (and if colleges are priced out, who’s buying the journals?). – Wired
This Artist Was Arrested As Soon As He Left The One – Yes, One – Corner Where It’s Legal To Protest In Singapore
Seelan Palay’s Singapore isn’t the overwhelmingly rich, lush fantasy of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians. Instead, it’s a place where protest, including performance art protest, is limited to one place, Speaker’s Corner. Step out of there? Hm. Palay: “I took a few of the objects used in the performance: the book, mirror, drawings, and banner that I used at Speakers’ Corner. I showed them to the arresting officer and asked him what meaning he derived from the objects. He admitted that he didn’t understand what they were trying to say.” – Los Angeles Review of Books
A Choreographer Creates An Homage To Fluidity, Biculturalism, And A Classic Third-Wave Feminist Book
That’s right, choreographer Miguel Gutierrez titled his new dance after the classic anthology This Bridge Called My Back – but with the word “ass” instead of back in his title. “‘What underlies ‘This Bridge,’ Mr. Gutierrez said, is a consideration of something that has long piqued him: ‘the perception that artists of color are always doing content work’ — dealing with identity politics — ‘and white artists are only doing form and line.'” – The New York Times
Keeping Track Of What You See Can Lead To Eye-Opening Statistics
Howard Sherman kept track of statistics about his theatregoing in 2017, and didn’t like the numbers he came up with. Did he see more plays by women and nonbinary folks and more plays by people of color in 2018 – and what will change in 2019? – The Stage (UK)
This Weekend, A Play Challenging ‘Hamilton’ Is Having Its Day
Ishmael Reed’s The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda is one of several strands of recent work critiquing the narrative of one of the defining musicals of our age. For one thing, Hamilton wasn’t an abolitionist – and the musical utterly fails Native Americans, Reed and many academics have said. The play is about “‘a playwright who is misled by a historian of white history into believing that Alexander Hamilton was an abolitionist,’ and his path to learning Hamilton’s true story.” – The New York Times
Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Historian Of Black Suffragists, Has Died At 77
Terborg-Penn didn’t let history departments get away without telling a fuller story than the one they had, for decades, been telling. Her work successfully “challenged the existing narrative that was dominated, and framed, by white activists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.” – The New York Times
What’s Behind The Explosion Of Merchandise From Hogwarts?
What was a joke in 2001 is a reality in 2019: You can buy a Harry Potter egg cup and toast branding set or a Hedwig lip balm (really? Owl lip balm?). That’s because “everything changed last March, when Warner Bros announced a new brand: WIZARDING WORLD™.” In other words, the books and movies might be a decade old, but marketing is evergreen. – The Guardian (UK)
Ballet Isn’t Only Women – It’s Also Trans, Nonbinary, And Genderqueer Dancers
At least, that’s one push for 2019 from the dancers themselves, who are ready, whether the classical ballet world is or not, for more than just partner training for male-identified dancers and pointe training for those who identify as female. – Pointe Magazine