Can Hip Hop Dance Show Hold A Whole Evening Off-Broadway?

“There’s a massive hole,” producer Lyndsay Magid Aviner said of the lack of urban dance on New York stages. Coming from the circus world, the Aviners said they believe there’s a broad audience for physical storytelling. Justin Peck’s popular 2017 work “The Times Are Racing” for New York City Ballet, danced in sneakers, convinced them that audiences would embrace the kind of work the Madrids are doing. Taking a cue from movement-based hits like “Blue Man Group,” “Stomp” and “Fuerza Bruta,” the Aviners went the for-profit route. They said they raised $200,000 for the San Diego run, then held their breath. – The New York Times

How Margaret Mead’s Reputation Eroded

Within anthropology, Mead is still revered, but mostly as a way to understand the discipline’s origins. In the popular mind, Mead’s name has all but vanished, her reputation whittled down to an apocryphal quote found on coffee mugs and dorm-room posters: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’ What’s more, Mead has become a target of vitriolic dislike for a particular kind of cultural conservatism. – Aeon

Artificial Intelligence Is About To Transform Video

AI-assisted editing won’t make Oscar-­worthy auteurs out of us. But amateur visual storytelling will probably explode in complexity. Even tools for one-to-one video messaging might evolve—AI on our phones could pull together disparate clips into weird, delightful missives. And, of course, AI editing will uncork new forms of digital malfeasance: It’ll be a lot easier to persuasively lie, to make ever-slicker propaganda. – Wired