“For years, [rock] musicians in Tunisia and Egypt were terrified of aggravating the authorities. Then a song by a little-known rapper showed it was possible to protest and survive.”
Tag: 02.27.11
35 Years of Eiko and Koma’s Butoh-Modern Dance Fusion
“Since the early ’70s, Eiko and Koma have created bold, almost still, theatrical works of elemental power. Dressed simply or naked, the married couple evoke a primitive world where primal emotions are conveyed wordlessly. … They don’t choreograph together either, each one creating his or her solos alone.”
Shanghai’s Red Church Rises Again
“A $3-million conservation plan is returning the Holy Trinity church, built in the 1860s, to its former glory and signals yet another transformation in Chinese history.”
Lauren Cuthbertson Escapes Rabbit-Hole of Illness to Create Ballet’s Alice
“Dancing Alice will complete [her] astonishing comeback from an illness that left her unable to make it out of her bed and wondering if she would ever dance again. Her body simply shut down months after her accession to principal; her doctors diagnosed glandular fever and ‘weeks and weeks would go by in a complete fog’.”
Choreographing the Punches in a Boxing Play
Steven Hoggett discusses how he and his actors develop and execute the “coordinated sparring set to music” in the National Theatre of Scotland’s production of Byrony Lavery’s Beautiful Burnout.
Venice Is Dying. Really.
“A few months ago, the city’s population dropped below 60,000. There are now two foreigners for every Venetian. Many believe that Venetians will be gone altogether by 2030.”
Want To Run A Cultural Center? Find Out About The Neighborhood Culture
“I looked at how people live, how they shopped. I went into stores and listened to what they had on the radio. There was salsa music coming out of cars, on the street. I said, ‘Holy cow, what did I get myself into?’ I mean, other than José Feliciano, I knew nothing about Latino music.”
How Borders Lost Its Mojo
“Even though the region had several well-established independent booksellers at the time, the Borders “experience” promised the hand-selling of independents with the wide selection of Kmart. As the landscape evolved in the digital age, that cozy, caffeine-scented solicitude gave way to the uniformity of all national chains and Borders lost its distinctiveness.”
Blame Reading
Long before 1949, when the term “ergonomics” was coined, doctors blamed reading for health hazards including (to quote one 1795 authority) “weakening of the eyes, heat rashes, gout, arthritis, hemorrhoids, asthma, apoplexy, pulmonary disease, indigestion, blocking of the bowels, nervous disorder, migraines, epilepsy, hypochondria and melancholy.”
Beat Writer And Editor Jay Landesman, 91
“He was an animating figure in one countercultural scene after another: as the editor of Neurotica; as the founder of the Crystal Palace, a daring cabaret theater in his hometown, St. Louis; as a mixer, mingler and promoter in the swinging London of the early 1960s; and later as a bohemian at large.”