Japanese dancers Eiko and Koma, accompanied by the Kronos Quartet, take on their own history. But “we don’t even need the music,” Eiko said. “As a performer I’m not much more than a slime or a maggot.”
Tag: 03.16.12
Playlist: Eight (Delightful! Well, Ravishing, Anyway) Days Of Schubert
As the BBC preps for The Spirit of Schubert – everything ever recorded, March 23-31 – Jessica Duchen can’t wait. “Previously we’ve been treated to days or weeks of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and more – but Schubert is different, so intense, intimate and direct is his idiom and so raw the sensibility it contains.”
Does Our Love For Downton Abbey Mean We’re Culturally Stuck – Or Looking Backward?
“Art, film, literature and television all appear to be backward-looking, if not reactionary – as epitomised by the success of Downton Abbey. But perhaps there is a more subtle narrative at work here.”
A Delicate Balance: Finding The Right Partners In Ballet
“Actors play romantic duos for one movie or so, or for a theatrical run, and then go their separate ways. So do opera singers. But ballet dancers unite for season after season, sometimes for years, and their teamwork involves a physical intimacy and mutual reliance shared only by the likes of ballroom superstars, figure skaters and stars of long-running TV romances.”
The Performing Arts Are Ephemeral – And Don’t You Forget It!
Terry Teachout considers George Balanchine’s ballets (still performed three decades after Mr. B’s death), the new Broadway staging of Death of a Salesman (which reproduces the original set and incidental music) and an enterprising and detailed 2011 re-creation of the original 1943 production of Oklahoma!.