Above photo by Erin Baiano from The Winger.
MY FRIEND TAYLOR GORDON IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
There’s an interactive feature with my friend, dancer Taylor Gordon, in the New York Times today. She talks about her career as a freelance ballet dancer – from performing in Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular to taking extra work in ABT Met season productions, to venturing into jazz and contemporary roles. Yay Taylor!
And here is the full article by Claudia La Rocco.
Photo above by Rosalie O’Connor, taken from Explore Dance.
IS SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE "CULTURALLY RADICAL"?
Here’s an interesting perspective from the Huffington Post’s Miles Mogulescu on So You Think You Can Dance:
“Here, the culture wars of the past 30 years appear over, at least for an hour or two, and the progressive side–which has stood for racial equality, gender equality, and gay rights–is the undisputed winner, without the need even to overtly comment about it. I’m not sure what Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, or the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal would have to say if they were watching. But then, Rupert Murdoch has never been known to let his conservative political views get in the way of making a buck.”
I’m not sure that I agree with him that the show represents a huge but unspoken triumph for women’s or gay rights but I find the race issue interesting because I’ve had several people comment on my own Huffington Post pieces on the show saying how great it is that blacks and whites and Asians and Latinos are all dancing together without issue. I guess I never even noticed because it’s so ridiculous to think that it should be any other way. And it’s not, in New York. Is it still in other parts of the country??? I mean, really, both on the concert dance stage and in social dance clubs there just doesn’t seem to be a race issue, unless I really have my head up my butt…
BARYSHNIKOV INTERVIEW SERIES FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
In honor of his 62nd birthday (which occurred last week), the British website The Arts Desk is posting a two-part series of interviews that Daily Telegraph writer Ismene Brown conducted with Mikhail Baryshnikov over the years, covering everything from his youth and Kirov training, to his defection, to his relationship with Nureyev and some of his ballerina partners (including Gelsey Kirkland).
Here is the first part. They’ve got a couple of old videos there too — do check it out!
Above photo taken from the article.