San Francisco Ballet star Lorena Feijoo was trained at the National Ballet of Cuba under the legendary Alonso, from whom she separated on less-than-amicable terms. “Now here was Feijoo, 38, and at the invitation of the young Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami, about to appropriate her former mentor’s Carmen in front of what essentially was a Havana audience, made up mostly of the more-recently arrived.”
Tag: 04.05.09
Why Ex-Dancers Make The Best Dance Photographers
Angela Sterling: “I actually feel it. I know exactly in my eye and my body, I can tell when the dancer’s going to go up for a jump, so it’s like my body feels that moment in the air. That’s when I click, and usually I hear the clicks of the other photographers a split second later.”
Oregon Ballet Theatre Budget Gets 28 Percent Tighter
“Oregon Ballet Theatre is cutting its budget 28 percent. The ballet will go on. Just don’t expect a live orchestra at any OBT performances or quite as many dancers on stage next season. Approved by OBT’s board of directors last week, the almost $2 million budget cuts kick in with the new fiscal year in July, reducing the annual budget from $6.7 million to slightly more than $4.8 million.”
Rethinking The Art Conservation Model
“For more than 50 years conservators around the world have sought to prevent damage to the varied objects in their collections by observing a uniform climate-control mantra… But as museum budgets shrink, energy costs spiral, and gradual climate changes make the traditional HVAC system more costly to maintain, conservators and other museum experts are rethinking this model.”
Orchestras – In Need Of A New Business Model
“The global economic contraction has shaken a guiding principle of orchestras. Ticket sales and annual giving may ebb and flow, the argument went, so great endowments should be raised to provide stability in lean years. Most major orchestras have spent the last decade or two doing just that.”
Arab Art Before The Louvre Arrives
“To speak of the contemporary art scene in the Middle East as if it were one, or as if the region itself were a monolith, has become increasingly problematic and untenable of late, particularly as outside interest in the field has so markedly increased, and even more so in the UAE, where it is possible to imagine more complex exchanges among artists of Arab, Iranian, African and South Asian origin.”
A California Dance Icon (But Does Anyone Remember?)
Theodore Kosloff’s “efforts to promote ballet in L.A. stretched over decades: He ran schools, trained dancers, performed in vaudeville and was a key producer at the Hollywood Bowl. The 7-acre dacha he built in Sunland boasted wood-carved interiors, an indoor-outdoor pond, a gazebo, kennels and a six-car garage.”
Disney Slashes 1,900 Theme Park Jobs
“In a sign that the recession is cutting into the Walt Disney Co.’s park business even deeper than originally thought, Disney today said it eliminated about 1,900 jobs at its domestic theme parks through job cuts and attrition.”
Mexican Bands Find Big Success With Cell Phones
“As most sectors of the music industry scramble to cope with the way the Internet and online stores like iTunes have changed how music is distributed and consumed, the regional Mexican industry is focused elsewhere, on the power of the cellphone as both a one-stop music source and a symbol of working-class immigrant identity.”
Faculty Protest Cuts At Parsons Design School
“Of the 42 fine-arts professors at Parsons — all working artists — 39 teach part time. On March 10 nine professors, who taught on either a semester-to-semester or year-to-year basis, received e-mail messages that said they would not be reappointed for the 2009-10 academic year. Faculty members at Parsons and at other area universities are protesting the action.”