“She was scouted at her graduation from St. Petersburg’s Vaganova school and coaxed down to Moscow, where she spent exactly one day in the corps de ballet before being offered a series of high-profile solos. … You might think the speed of her ascent would leave Smirnova slightly breathless and giddy, but of course ballerinas are nothing if not poised.”
Tag: 10.15.12
NJ Performing Arts Center Beefs Up Programming
“The venue wasn’t programming its nearly 3,000-seat main stage during the better part of the week. So simply adding more shows to the lineup was one of the first items on the to-do list of president and CEO John Schreiber, who took over in July 2011. ‘There was a canard out there that people didn’t want to come to Newark during the week. That’s not true,’ he said.”
Why Internet Trolls Troll (And Precisely What Is Trolling, Anyway?)
“Given … the push for legislation to combat such behaviors (despite the fact that no one can seem to agree on exactly which behaviors the category of ‘trolling’ subsumes), it is critical to interrogate where the term comes from and the ways in which discussions of trolling butt up against questions of anonymity, safety, and aggression online.”
Dan Stevens – Proof That Life Isn’t Fair
The Downton Abbey heartthrob “is good-looking, intellectually gifted, charming, witty, adept at being unassuming, and doesn’t look ridiculous in his newsboy cap. While at Cambridge University, which he attended on scholarship, he got the first break of his career – playing Macbeth opposite Rebecca Hall, the daughter of celebrated stage director Sir Peter Hall.”
Did Welsh National Opera Sell One Of Its Slots For A Big Donation?
“The chief executive of the Welsh National Opera (WNO) has defended the decision to put on a Gordon Getty opera after a donation from the Getty family.”
Toronto’s Canadian Stage Shrinks (Er…. “Right-Sizes…”)
“Its new strategy of “right-sizing,” to use corporate-speak that has entered the artistic sector, may be the surest path to stability for the in-peril model of regional theatre – and show that cash-strapped times don’t have to mean downsizing artistic goals.”
Frieze Fair’s Decade Of Huge Growth
“Frieze has more than doubled in size in its ten years of life.”
Gerhard Richter Painting Sets Sales Record For Living Artist
” ‘Abstract Painting (809-4),’ sold at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening auction in London on Friday for £21.3 million $34.2 million–more than anyone has ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.”
Explaining Hilary Mantel
“What sort of person writes fiction about the past? It is helpful to be acquainted with violence, because the past is violent. It is necessary to know that the people who live there are not the same as people now. It is necessary to understand that the dead are real, and have power over the living. It is helpful to have encountered the dead firsthand, in the form of ghosts.” (Mantel is all these things and more.)