After decades of talking about it, planning and construction, the giant dam on China’s Three Gorges section of the Yangtze River has finally been erected. “Once completed, the dam would be the largest in the world—as high as a sixty-story building and as wide as five Hoover Dams. The official price tag was more than twenty-one billion dollars, roughly half of which would be funded by a tax on electricity across China.” And after evacuating hundreds of thousands of residents who lived along the river, the river rose in early June, flooding villages and thousands of years of history…
Tag: 06.30.03
Baryshnikov: In Search Of A Repertoire
Mikhail Baryshnikov is on a solo one-man tour across America (raising money for his new dance center). “Why is Baryshnikov wasting time with mediocre choreography? One notes that he is stiff across the shoulders and neck, that the flexibility in his hips has diminished, that his jump lifts him inches, not feet, yet he is still Baryshnikov – still an incomparably beautiful mover. Still a riveting dramatic presence. Still in possession of the expertly timed look and musical phrasing, still capable of sweeping turns and wonderfully fluid motion. Part of the problem is that there is no repertory for the middle-aged ex-virtuoso. To continue performing at an age when few others would dare to step onstage, Baryshnikov has to have works custom-made…”
Movin’ On, Not Sellin’ Out
Now that choreographer Twyla Tharp has a Broadway hit, is she selling out? “Sellin’ out might seem a more appropriate label for a career that has advanced so publicly from avant-garde to Broadway. Tharp is even publishing a self-help book on the art of creative thinking this autumn. Yet she hasn’t abandoned her pure-dance audience – her small-scale touring company appears at Sadler’s Wells this week – and it would be foolhardy to suggest to her face that Movin’ Out represents her art’s dumbing down. Nor does Tharp look like a woman basking in easy success…”
The Road To Better Canadian TV?
Finally, a comprehensive plan to improve and stabilize Canadian TV. But “statistics show that Canadians aren’t watching as much Canadian-made TV as they once did. ‘Well, you have to ask, what came first? Was it a decline in the amount of Canadian programs or a loss of interest? If there are fewer Canadian-made programs on the air, then there is less for the audience to watch. We have heard loud and clear that Canadian drama is in suffering. We have also heard that people want to see it.”
Denver’s Top-Heavy Theatre
Denver theatre is top heavy. There are a couple of large companies at the top, then… an absence of mid-size theatres. So what’s the problem? “The greatest weakness of the Denver theater community is its repetitively conservative fare. New and innovative works are the lifeblood of any artistic community, but in a down economy, familiar titles keep theaters open. More than a dozen companies have folded in the past 18 months – and none of them was producing standard fare.”
Strikes Threaten French Arts Festivals
French arts workers, angry about a reduction in their work benefits, are staging strikes, threatening major summer arts festivals. “The first three days of a July opera festival in the southern city of Aix-en-Provence have already been pushed back, with director Stephane Lissner warning that the entire three-week event could be in jeopardy. Also at risk is the Festival d’Avignon, one of Europe’s most prestigious drama festivals due to begin on July 8. The event drew 98,000 theater-lovers last year, according to culture ministry figures.”
Arts On The Tube – A Difficult Sell
Why is arts programming such a difficult sell for TV? “For the commercial broadcasters, the problem is manifold: arts TV is expensive to do properly, it’s difficult to schedule and it attracts only niche advertising and niche viewing. In short, it’s a lot of effort for little return. For the BBC, the problem is different: if you run a minority channel and a highbrow digital channel as well, why would you want arts bunging up your main service?”
Actors Unions Voting On Merging
Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have been voting on whether to merge their unions. Ballots were “due Monday and will be counted Tuesday. The consolidation must be approved by 60 percent of the voting members of each union.”
Hollywood’s High-Tech Transformation
The typical Hollywood movie studio is looking more like a high-tech company than a traditional movie maker these days. “Hollywood companies will spend roughly $500 million on data storage in 2003, and expenditures will increase about 70 percent each year. By 2006, the annual storage needs of film studios, video and television production companies, and distribution outfits will reach 740 petabytes, or 740 million gigabytes. These trends are forcing spending on information technology tremendously up,”
Strikes Could Cripple Festivals
“Summer festivals in France and throughout Europe have become big business. Last year about 900,000 spectators attended a staggering 650 music, dance and theater festivals across France. French tourism has already suffered this year from the sharp drop in the value of the dollar, the political fallout from the war with Iraq (which France opposed) and fears of the SARS virus. In cities like Avignon and Aix-en-Provence festival organizers and local business rely heavily on the income from the summer festivals, and the cancellations could be financially disastrous.”