She was “a fiery Hungarian ballerina who caused a sensation in 1953 with Istvan Rabovsky, her ballet partner and first husband, when they became the first highly publicized dance defectors to the West from the Soviet bloc.”
Tag: 01.25.09
Who Invented Tango? We Both Did, Former Rivals Tell UN.
“For a century, Argentina and Uruguay have duelled over who invented tango, the sultry music and dance synonymous with Latin passion. … At last, however, a truce has been declared. The respective culture ministries of Montevideo and Buenos Aires set aside their rivalry jointly to petition Unesco, the UN’s cultural agency, to grant tango world heritage status.”
Online Sniping Has Art Dealers Fearing For Livelihoods
“As if art dealers weren’t upset enough about falling prices, now there’s short-selling of galleries. Last fall, the How’s My Dealing? blog (which rates gallerists’ treatment of their artists according to anonymous informants) began a gallery ‘DeathWatch’ thread–and dealers are on edge over its retailing of unsubstantiated rumors.”
Porn Industry Feeling Downturn Too
The porn industry sells about $12,6 billion worth of product. “The conventional wisdom about the adult entertainment business is that it is recession-proof. This time in the adult industry, though, it may be different, partly because of the current conditions and partly because of the drift by consumers toward new options.”
Martha Graham Company Issues Web Challenge
“The company is launching a global competition asking anyone who’s cyber-savvy to transform the late choreographer’s masterpiece, “Clytemnestra,” into a brief online video. The challenge: picking a character from the story and creating a four-minute scene linked to today’s life.”
Trevor Nunn Fears For Straight Theatre In West End
“I am worried as anybody else that, with this massive downturn, people are going to say that what they can cut out of their budget is coming to the West End and going to the theatre. I think it will be a period of time where the populist things are what we rely on, and the more difficult and more serious things will have a lean time for a while. I guess that was exactly the same in the Great Depression and it was a long time before serious work started to come back.”
Push Wins Sundance
Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire, “a dark film about an overweight, pregnant teenage girl abused by her parents prevailed at the Sundance Film Festival with three trophies, including best picture and the audience award for top film.”
London’s Record Year At The Box Office
“London theater had a record-breaking year in 2008, with attendance for the year totaling 13,807,286, up 1% on the previous record set in 2007. Box office revenue hit £480,563,674 ($658 million), a 3% rise on the 2007 high.”
Slumdog Wins Big At Screen Actors Awards
Meryl Streep wins best actress for “Doubt” and Sean Penn wins best actor for “Milk”.
French TV Eliminating TV Commercials
“By 2011, French public TV is supposed to go entirely commercial-free. Still, at a time when more media are scrambling for ever fewer advertising dollars, the ad-free revolution is not one anyone else, including the CBC, seems in a hurry to join.”