“Theyyam dance is a spectacular form of possession dance from northern Kerala, in the southwest of India … During the season, the theyyam dancers bring stories of the gods to life, and overturn the caste barriers in Hindu society. For once it’s the Dalits, the Untouchables, who are in control.”
Tag: 09.23.09
Troubled Skylight Opera Names Managing Director
Amy S. Jensen, “who observed the theater’s turbulent summer, said strong communication with the board, staff, artists, patrons and donors will be an immediate priority” when she takes over as managing director Nov. 16. “The Skylight is still working out how it will handle artistic direction.”
Sarasota Orchestra Musicians File Labor Charges Against Management
“The musicians filed the [unfair labor practice] charges with the National Labor Relations Board, saying the orchestra failed and refused to bargain in good faith … [The] charges stem from the [unilateral] imposition by the Sarasota Orchestra of a ‘final offer,’ which the musicians previously rejected.”
‘The Werner Herzog School Of Guerrilla Film-Making’
This is not a quip. For $1,450 and one weekend, “students of the Rogue Film School will experience ‘the exhilaration of being shot at unsuccessfully’, while learning [from Herzog] skills which include ‘the neutralisation of bureaucracy’.”
Blanche Moyse, One Of Music’s Quiet Heroes, Turns 100
“She was a co-founder of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. She established the New England Bach Festival, which offered tremendous performances of Bach’s masterpieces for 35 years. She created a vibrant musical community of both amateurs and professionals in rural Vermont. … She should be celebrated more.”
Haven’t We Always Been Obsessed With Vampires?
“[P]erhaps instead of talking about vampire crazes, we should really be talking about vampire droughts. The brief, anomalous periods when few or perhaps even no vampire movies, books, or TV shows are produced at all. The Garlic Years.”
It’s Okay That Frank Gehry Won’t Be Redesigning Brooklyn
“It is a shame that Gehry wasn’t given a chance to build his transparent, landscape-topped arena, but it is hard not to cheer the fact that the rest of his plan for the Atlantic Yards has also been abandoned. … Surely we’ve learned by now that having large chunks of the city designed by one architect, no matter how talented, is not a good idea.”
How Wynton Marsalis Has Built Jazz At Lincoln Center
“From the start, the organization has built jazz awareness from the bottom up. Yet there’d be no Jazz at Lincoln Center were it not for the ability of its artistic director, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, to win support for jazz from the top down.”
For Female Conductors, The Tide Is Turning
“The number of young women studying to become conductors still lags far behind female instrumentalists, singers or even composers, which is another traditionally male-dominated area. … According to the League of American Orchestras, not even 12% of American orchestras of any size are headed by women.” But that seems to be changing.
Where Did Our Cultural Incivility Begin? Stand-Up Comedy.
“Sometime in the late 1950s, the taste for comedy based on edgy political satire (think Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl) mutated into shtick based on insult (think Don Rickles and Jackie Mason). People, as it turned out, found it highly entertaining to watch other people being insulted.”