Birmingham Royal Ballet artistic director David Bintley: “The great thing about his characters is that there is just enough of a framework to tell you who the character is, but enough leeway as to how you portray them.”
Tag: 03.25.09
Is West Side Story Overrated?
The show’s new Broadway revival has Richard Zoglin thinking some heretical thoughts: that the script “seems too thin to live up to its ambitions”; wondering if Bernstein’s score “really belongs in the very top rank of American musicals”; asking “Who would know that the lyricist would grow up to be Stephen Sondheim?”
San Fran’s Top Dance Award Goes To Circus Aerialist
Two women shared the individual performance honors at San Francisco’s Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (the “Izzies”) this week. One was San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Maria Kochetkova; the other was Circo Zero aerialist Emily Leap. Keith Hennessy, Circo’s director, said this was probably the first time the award had gone “to a trapeze artist who did a three-man-high with two men standing on her.”
Minnesota Orchestra Cuts Back Sommerfest
“In a belt-tightening move, the Minnesota Orchestra has scaled back this year’s Sommerfest from four weekends to three. […] Also gone this year is the 24-hour Day of Music that has marked the Sommerfest opening for the past eight years, sponsored first by Marshall Field and, in the past three years, by Macy’s.”
Unlocking Déjà Vu
Researchers are finally beginning to figure out how to explain the puzzling phenomenon, thanks to a group of patients who “have dementia and experience continuous déjà vu, and also by the discovery that there is a group of people with epilepsy who have déjà vu-like auras before a seizure.”
Gardaà Question Painter Of Naked Taoiseach Portraits
“A secondary school teacher has been interviewed in connection with the hanging of two paintings of Taoiseach Brian Cowen in two art galleries in Dublin. The 34-year-old man was questioned by detectives at Pearse Street Garda Station for two hours yesterday afternoon. He was released without the charge and a file is being sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.”
Irish PM’s Office, Police Lean On Media Over Nude Portraits
“Fresh life was breathed into the controversy over nude paintings of the Taoiseach which were found hanging in two Dublin art galleries after it emerged that a Garda detective had visited the offices of a national radio station looking for emails it had received from the artist. The news came after RTÉ apologised for a television news report concerning the nude portraits of Mr Cowen.”
One Turner Juror’s Alternative Shortlist
“As the 2009 Turner jury – on which I’m serving – gears up for the shortlisting meeting in just under a month, it’s time to put away childish things. … Still, it is a shame that some artists can’t be included, or anyway are unlikely to be, just because they don’t exist within the framework of art as we know it. So here is my alternative Turner shortlist of things that are sort of Turner-worthy without being eligible …”
Now, That’s Flexible: Finance Museum Tackles Credit Crisis
“The global economic crisis wears on, but the Museum of American Finance is already documenting its history in an exhibit that opened on Wednesday. ‘Tracking the Credit Crisis’ provides a timeline of the events that led to the current recession and translates the catchphrases of the economic downturn such as ‘securitization,’ ‘liquidity,’ and ‘derivative’ for the average person.”
Augusta Symphony Names New Conductor
“The Augusta Symphony has a new conductor. His friends call him Z. Shizuo Kuwahara is set to be named today as the third conductor in the organization’s history. He succeeds Donald Portnoy, who is retiring at the end of the performance season.”