Tag: 07.01.20

The Appeal Of Master Classes With The Greats

The classes mix entertainment and education, each one shot in a different location. You can learn basketball on the personal training court of NBA star Stephen Curry, or step into the kitchen of Massimo Bottura, the chef of the three-Michelin-star restaurant Osteria Francescana. “No two classes are remotely the same,” says Rogier, who keeps a wishlist of potential teachers. “Everyone has their own approach.” – The Guardian

I Was A Foot Soldier In The Dance Boom Of 1970s New York

Elizabeth Kendall remembers: “SoHo was dance spilling out into life. It was a grimy laboratory of the future. … In SoHo you could get a turnip soup with an asymmetrical bread chunk at an exotically rustic cafeteria named Food. You could climb leaning stairways to see free-form jazz men riffing in lofts. And you could meet other dancers on street corners and converse with them in the deadpan physical vernacular of [Yvonne] Rainer’s Trio A. Somebody would start those opening arm swings of the sloppy-tidy, faux-plebeian dance, and somebody else would cross the street and join in with the next move.” – The New York Times

Why Theatres In England Are Opening Up When They Can’t Present Plays

They’re showing movies in their auditoriums (social distancing observed, of course), opening their cafes and bars, presenting art exhibits — anything that can offer a place to (safely) gather. As the artistic director of a theatre in Chester put it, “People are desperate for contact again, to get back into community spaces, where they feel safe and connected. [Putting on plays is] not our mission. We put on plays in service of our mission.” – The Guardian

That Statue Of Teddy Roosevelt That’s Coming Down In New York? This Russian Collector Will Buy It

Andrei Filatov, a rail transport and investment magnate (who is also chairman of the Chess Federation of Russia), has offered to purchase the long-controversial statue in front of the American Museum of Natural History that depicts Theodore Roosevelt on horseback flanked by half-naked American Indian and African men on foot. He’d made a similar offer for a statue of Alexander Baranov, the Russian colonial governor of Alaska, in Sitka that activists want relocated. – The Art Newspaper

A Theater-Within-A-Theater, Modeled On Shakespeare’s Globe, Will Divide Socially Distanced Patrons With Partitions

The Wilma in Philadelphia plans to construct and install what it’s calling The Wilma Globe. “It would be built within the current Wilma Theater and would place audience members, individually or by small groups, into two tiers of stalls separated by wooden dividers and facing the stage. With a flexible configuration it could seat as many as 100 people or as few as 35.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer

What Ballet Companies Are Losing As They Cancel This Year’s ‘Nutcracker’s Is More Than Just Money

Sarah Kaufman: “Artistically, The Nutcracker is a big playing field where dancers can achieve breakthroughs, because over the unusually long run of performances, they are typically cast in many different roles … [and get] chances to experiment and become comfortable in a range of characters and styles. It’s a prized platform for showing off strengths and catching the director’s eye. So while missing a cherished holiday ritual is surely a letdown for audiences …, it’s an incomparable hardship for the dancers.” – The Washington Post