“A Swansea-based Russian ballet company has stopped touring, blaming changes to the UK’s work permit and visa system. Six principal dancers with Ballet Russe have been unable to return to Wales since the start of the year. Ballet Russe said it had been forced to cancel a tour and would have to borrow UK-based dancers for two autumn shows.”
Tag: 06.04.09
Taking Page From Past, Russia Targets Artistic Freedom
“A Moscow museum director and a prominent curator seeking to protest Russia’s renewed censorship could face up to five years in prison in a criminal case that international human rights groups say targets freedom of expression in Russia. They are charged with inciting hatred and offending human dignity. … The ongoing trial at Moscow’s Taganka district court seems straight from Russia’s Soviet past.”
Audiences, Not Young Audiences, Are Classical’s Holy Grail
“[W]e need to stop fixating on the young audience and focus on reaching an audience, period. … So how do you reach a bigger audience, period? What can you do to make people realize that this kind of music is exciting, interesting, fun? No one has the whole answer to this; a lot of people are working on it. But I think this is the question to be asking.”
Pinault’s Venice Museum: Contemporary Art Meets 17th C.
“French billionaire Francois Pinault has dramatically extended his Venetian empire of contemporary art this week, and given the city a new museum. Pinault’s foundation has taken over one of the most prominent buildings in Venice: the old customs house, or Punta della Dogana, just across the water from Piazza San Marco. Pinault … becomes by far the biggest contemporary-art presence in the hometown of Titian and Giorgione.”
NY City Ballet Tries “Video Notes’
“In addition to its own notes in daily programs, today’s NYCB provides video footage on screens in the lobby and outside the auditorium of the David H. Koch Theater, as well as on its Website (nycballet.com; see ‘The Viewing Room’). … [These loops] present clips of dancers and choreographers addressing the unheard questions of unseen interviewers about their work with NYCB.”