The musical was groundbreaking for its time (for many reasons), and portrayed an optimistic version of America. A new production startles Rich into a reevaluation and the discovery of its darker side of that America. – New York Magazine
Tag: sj
It Wasn’t Mine: Why I Had To Stop Dancing Alvin Ailey’s ‘Revelations’
In an essay that won Brown University’s Barbara Banks Brodsky Prize for Excellence in Real World Writing, undergrad Jamila Wilkinson writes about how, as a young girl, she studied for years at Ailey’s school and danced in his masterpiece with the adult company several times — and how, later, she came to realize why she couldn’t connect with the work. – Guernica
Oppress This, Jair! Brazilian Theatermakers Resist Bolsonaro By Getting Naked
At least that’s what they’ve been doing at the International Theater Exposition of São Paulo, which is “squaring up to an era of right-wing populism with a celebration of otherness, difference and resistance. More often than not, this resistance manifests itself in the naked body. In show after show, nudity takes on a political role.” – The Guardian
Can We At Least Try To Make Ballet As Diverse As Contemporary Art?
Peter Boal of Pacific Northwest Ballet writes about his January trip around the US to audition dancers — and about how what he saw in the museums and galleries he visited made him think about the still-off racial balance of his and other ballet companies. – Dance Magazine
With New Curator, New York’s Museo Del Barrio Tries To Make Peace With Activists Who Say It Has Abandoned Its Nuyorican Roots
The East Harlem museum was founded 50 years ago by local artists and teachers who felt that the existing museums and institutions in New York had shut them out. Since then, the museum has expanded its mission to cover art from Latin American itself, and battles have periodically broken out over that change — including this week. In response, the Museo’s director announced that he’ll be hiring a new curator focused on “the art and culture of historically marginalized Latinx communities in the United States, including but not limited to Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, Afro-descendants from the Americas and LGBTQ populations.” – The New York Times
Now That Sackler Money Has Become Radioactive, Campaigners Are Looking At Cultural Donations By Big Tobacco
One of the biggest corporate donors to the arts in the US is the tobacco conglomerate Altria (formerly Philip Morris): among the major recipients of Altria support in 2018 alone were Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Smithsonian museums, the Newseum, and the Kennedy Center. – The Guardian
Paris Sees Blackface Controversy As Students Protest Aeschylus Staging At Sorbonne
Denouncing the staging (which no one had yet seen) as “Afrophobic, colonialist and racist,” protesters forced the Sorbonne to cancel a performance of The Suppliants at the university’s annual festival of ancient Greek theatre. Top Sorbonne officials and government officials called the protests “absurd,” while the director insisted that the production used no blackface at all. – The Guardian
New Canadian Film Shot In Indigenous Language With Only 20 Speakers Left
“With subtitles, audiences will be able to understand a feature film titled SGaawaay K’uuna, translated as Edge of the Knife, which has its UK premiere in April. It is in two dialects of the highly endangered Haida language, the ancestral tongue of the Haida people of British Columbia. … The film is playing an important role in preserving the language, its director Gwaai Edenshaw said.” – The Guardian
Theatre Company Goes Into Welsh Schools To Teach Students About Drug-Dealer Dangers
Long-distance drug-dealing gangs known as “county lines” have hit North Wales hard, with all the attendant violence and human misery. Theatr Clwyd, a professional company in the region, is touring to area schools with a new play depicting the dangers and consequences of getting involved with a county lines gang. – BBC
Trigger Warnings Do Not Work, New Study Finds
“Trigger warnings are, at best, trivially helpful,” writes a research team led by psychologist Mevagh Sanson of the University of Waikato. The paper finds they “have no effect, or might even work slightly in the direction of causing harm.” – Pacific Standard