The Ballet Boyz – Michael Nunn and William Trevitt – “have achieved something few would have thought possible when they started out in 2001: they have created a dance culture for the Radiohead generation. ‘We want as many people to come and see our shows as possible. But telling people that we’re serious artists probably isn’t the way to do that. We’d rather say look, we’re ordinary blokes, it’s just that we go on stage and do this extraordinary thing’.”
Tag: 07.08.07
Remy The Rat, Defender Of Artistic Excellence
“‘Ratatouille’ puts itself forward as an egalitarian fable, with a recurring motto, ‘anyone can cook,’ that’s embodied in Remy and the pack of rats that help him pull together a climactic feast. But it’s in one sense a defense of discrimination: of a discriminating palate. … When Remy is told that ‘food is fuel’ and instructed to ‘shut up and eat your garbage,’ these are statements not merely of ignorance but of apostasy.”
Vail, Colorado Finds A Winning Festival Formula
“Few if any classical music institutions west of the Mississippi have flourished as Bravo has: What began in 1987 with chamber music now hosts three symphony orchestras in five weeks. And this in Vail – a ski resort that didn’t exist before 1962. Bravo is considered, within the classical music industry, a very enviable gig. Festival audiences have doubled in the last 10 years, from 33,000 to 66,000, and those audiences have plenty to feast on.”
Do You Suffer From EOS?
“Let’s call it Excessive Ovation Syndrome (EOS for short). Those suffering from it stand and applaud at performances that aren’t good enough to deserve such enthusiasm. In extreme cases, they shout “Bravo!” during events that are best forgotten. The more people pay for tickets, the more susceptible they are to EOS, because ovations confirm that their money was well spent.”
Blanche Marvin, London Theatre’s Super-Critic
“In theatre circles, this pint-sized American widow is something of an institution. Her online newsletter, blanchemarvin.com, has a huge following here, and in the US. In it, she reviews every production she sees – and she sees a lot – be it in the West End or in a tiny room above a pub. Her reviews are detailed and impassioned, and feature a nifty star system. More significantly, she is a big champion of fringe theatre – though she prefers the term ‘studio’ – to the extent that, since 1991, she has funded, out of her own pocket, an annual £2,000 award to help small venues.”
Dancing In Extreme Slow Motion
“The effect of seeing human faces and bodies in crystalline extreme slow motion has been revelatory, to dancers and nondancers alike. Until now, David Michalek said, this technology — still in the prototype phase — has been used primarily for applications like military ballistics tests and car-crash simulations. Now, in ‘Slow Dancing,’ slow-motion high definition is being harnessed to show things as minute as the trajectory of a flyaway strand of hair or the progression of a gesture through a hand, finger by finger.”
Smut – Same As It Ever Was
Put off by a seemingly rising tide of coarse language on the airwaves? Turns out it’s not a recent phenomenon. “The zeal with which phonograph pioneers took to indecent material is a reminder that, from the Victrola to the Internet, smut peddlers have always been among the earliest and savviest adapters of new technologies.”
The Dismantling Of The British Film Institute
“In international circles the BFI is now mentioned not as an enviable model but as an awful example of political vandalism. Variety magazine talks of the ‘tipping point’ at which the institute will cease to exist. In recent weeks the institute has announced that it can no longer support its publication division; its great library, the recipient of hundreds of valuable donations, from Derek Jarman to Richard Attenborough, is being offered to any university that will house it; and most recently the film archive itself has been declared in grave danger through lack of resources.”
Why Vegas Theatre Is Different From Broadway
“Once they decide to hire a creative force like Cirque (not that much is like Cirque), they pony up whatever’s needed and get out of the way. That’s unlike Broadway, where the producers consider themselves collaborators, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. They fight to keep investments modest, by Vegas standards. That’s because of another major difference, real estate: Broadway theaters are relative relics, charming but constricted.”
The “I Want” Culture
“The government reports that in 1950, the average American had $8,306 in personal disposable income — the money to spend as he wished after taxes. In 2006, the inflation-adjusted figure had ballooned more than threefold to $27,755. This turbo-charged purchasing power has in large part fueled the rise of the consumer society. Average Americans are more interested in products because more products are within their reach.”