Volochkova weighs in at just under 110 pounds on a 5-foot-6 frame. How could Bolshoi Ballet star Anastasia Volochkova be too heavy at 110 pounds on a 5’6″ frame? The Bolshoi fired her this week for being too big. “In the anorexic world of ballet, that qualifies her as a virtual Amazon, as one U.S. reviewer called her after a performance at the Kennedy Center earlier this year. And in the conspiratorial world of Russian ballet, her abrupt dismissal qualifies as a scandal of major proportions, flavored by a lively debate over her physical shape, the mysterious public disappearance of her onetime dancing partner and dark hints of shadowy money men quietly pulling the strings from backstage.”
Tag: 09.18.03
A Festival For The Anti-JLo’s
“In a postliterate age the New Yorker Festival stands as the maypole of a dedicated and ferocious demographic, fanatics who view the author Zadie Smith as far more dynamic and adorable than J.Lo…”
Protesting Scottish Ballet Move
“Scottish Ballet plans to move out of its historic home in Glasgow’s west end and into the Tramway venue in the city’s south side, provoking outrage among the visual arts community. It would mean the closure of the Tramway as an internationally renowned venue. Leading artists and gallery owners described the move as ‘vandalism’ and ‘a tragedy’, and promised a campaign to save it.”
Booker: A Surprising Year
This year’s Booker shortlist is something of a mystery, eschewing plenty of big names. “All but one of the big names in fiction, including that of Martin Amis, once the darling of literary London, were culled. Instead, the judges came up with one of the most surprising lists in the 35-year history of the prize. It includes the highest number of both first novelists – three – and women writers – four.”
US Congress Votes Insurance Increase For Museums
The US House of Representatives has voted to substantially increase the amount of insurance available to US museums to insure artwork borrowed from abroad. “The indemnity program, administered by the National Endowment for the Arts on behalf of the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, was created in 1975 to minimize costs American museums pay to insure international exhibitions. Unlike standard commercial insurance, government indemnity covers the effects of terrorism both in transit and on site. The program has been flooded with requests from museums trying to organize ambitious international shows at a time when insurance costs have risen as much as 500 percent.”
Major Artifact Recovered In Iraq
One of the most precious pieces of art stolen from Iraq’s National Museum – a 5000-year-old sculpture – has been recovered. “The 20-centimetre high marble sculpture, dating from 3000 BC, depicts the head of a woman. It was fashioned in the southern city of Warka during the Sumerian period, and was among the five most precious pieces still missing since the museum was sacked after the April 9 fall of Saddam Hussein.”
My Lunch With Tony Hall
Tony Hall has been running London’s Royal Opera House for a couple years now. “There might have been a time when running an opera house presented unique opportunities for leisurely lunching, schmoozing with business grandees desperate for a favourite seat in the orchestra stalls, perhaps the odd feisty exchange with the prima assoluta of the day. But that was then and this is now, and Hall is the epitome of the modern manager: brisk, fast-talking, affable and relentlessly upbeat.”
From The Front: Looking For Iraqi Art
Matthew Bogdanos is a marine helping to recover art stolen from Iraq’s National Museum: “To date over 1,700 items have been returned pursuant to the amnesty program, [but] there have been problems here, as well–specifically, the perception among the Iraqi people of the museum staff’s identification and association with the former regime and the Baath Party. Time and time again when individuals would turn property over, they would make it clear that they were turning the property over to the U.S. forces for safekeeping until a lawful Iraqi government could be elected. The raids and seizures have resulted in the recovery of over 900 artifacts.”