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      in Theater

      ‘Let’s Make a Dance.’ At Nature Theater, the Body Rules.

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      In “No President,” Nature Theater of Oklahoma creates its version of a story ballet, one burpee at a time.It started with a dance. For Nature Theater of Oklahoma, that’s not unusual. Pavol Liska, who directs the company with his wife, Kelly Copper, said, “Dance becomes a kind of cell that contains the full DNA of everything.”In “No President,” set mainly to Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” the dance that Liska and Copper made is not performed in its entirety until the very end. It’s a distillation of the movement and gestural material seen throughout the work, its “vocabulary,” Liska said. “You steal from the dance.”There is no Land of the Sweets or Sugarplum Fairy in “No President,” which has its North American premiere at NYU Skirball on Thursday and runs through Saturday. But the show, subtitled “a story ballet of enlightenment in two immoral acts,” is choreographed — humorously, violently, roughly, tenderly — within an inch of its life. For Nature Theater, a capacious, playful experimental theater company in New York City that is known for its risk and rigor, dance serves a distinct purpose.“I’m always nervous,” Liska said. “I’m always anxious, and the best way for me to just relax myself into the process is to make a dance. Even if we teach a class, the first thing I say is, ‘OK, let’s make a dance.’”Copper said, “Dance is like a way of insisting that the heart of the thing will be a kind of pleasure, because it is a pleasure for us to work in dance. It’s the most fun we have.”A scene from “No President”: “Dance becomes a kind of cell that contains the full DNA of everything,” Liska said.Heinrich Brinkmöller-BeckerWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      The Revolutionary Sound at the Heart of ‘The Nutcracker’

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      There comes a moment in “The Nutcracker,” a ballet full of fantasy of fantastical music, when the Sugar Plum Fairy dances to a tune you’ve probably heard before.Over plucked string instruments, a glassy, bell-like melody emerges from a celesta, evoking water drops and then more as those drops give way to flowing runs. It’s a transporting sound: mysterious and otherworldly, delicate and playful.This is the famous “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” a highlight of “The Nutcracker” and a holiday staple, born on the stage and heard today in commercials and on movie soundtracks around this time every year.Unmute to listen as Megan Fairchild dances the Sugarplum Fairy in New York City Ballet’s production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.New York City BalletThe “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” is so familiar that it’s difficult to imagine that when this music was new, in 1892, it was really new. And that’s because of the celesta.Only recently invented, the celesta was in its infancy when Tchaikovsky began to imagine how he might write for it. Since then, its sound has spread throughout classical music and into pop, often with the same magical effect you hear in “The Nutcracker.” More

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      in Music

      ‘The Interview’: K-Pop Trained Rosé to Be ‘a Perfect Girl.’ Now She’s Trying to Be Herself.

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      South Korean pop, known as K-pop, is not just a type of music — it’s a culture, where bold style, perfectly choreographed dance moves and ebullient earworms that draw from pop, hip-hop and traditional Korean music attract a huge and particularly devoted global fan base. The genre’s stars, known as idols, are trained, often for years, by entertainment companies that then place the most promising trainees in groups, write and produce their music and obsessively manage their public images. It’s a system that works for the idols who make it big, but it has also drawn criticism for its grueling methods, which some call exploitative.One of the biggest stars to come out of that system is Rosé. Born Roseanne Park, she trained for four years with one of K-pop’s largest agencies, YG Entertainment, eventually breaking through as part of the girl group Blackpink. Now at age 27, she is striking out on her own with her first full-length solo album, “Rosie,” which comes out on Dec. 6 from Atlantic Records. (The album’s first single, “APT.” a collaboration with Bruno Mars, is a true bop and has made history as the first track by a female K-pop artist to break into the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.) She is still a member of Blackpink, and the group re-signed with YG in 2023. But after years of singing other people’s songs and performing as Rosé, which she described to me as “a character that I really worked hard on as a trainee,” writing her own songs for this solo album has made her think about where she came from and who she is, separate from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Listen to the Conversation With RoséThe Blackpink star talks about striking out on her own, away from the system that turned her into a global phenomenon.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppYou’re about to release your first full-length solo album. Can you tell me what you’re feeling? Like I’ve been waiting to release this album for my whole life. I grew up listening to a lot of female artists. I used to relate to them, and they used to really get me through a lot of tough times. And so I would always dream of one day having an album myself. But I never really thought it would be realistic. I remember last year when I first began the whole process of it, I doubted myself a lot.It probably would be surprising to anyone who would look at Rosé, with all your success, with the enormous fan base that you have, to know that you doubted yourself so much. I don’t think I ever learned or trained myself to be vulnerable and open and honest. So that was the part I feared, because it was the opposite of what I was trained to do.You were born in New Zealand to South Korean immigrant parents and then you moved to Australia when you were 8. In 2012, when you were 15, you auditioned for a slot in YG Entertainment’s trainee program, which is basically a boarding school for becoming a K-pop star. It was your dad’s idea, right? Yes. More

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      in Music

      Rebuilding After Fire, Jacob’s Pillow Will Open a New Theater

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      The Doris Duke Theater, more than twice as large as the original and designed for modern technology, will open in July.When the Doris Duke Theater at Jacob’s Pillow, the bucolic dance festival in Becket, Mass., was destroyed by a fire four years ago, the festival’s director, Pamela Tatge, promised that it would be rebuilt.“The theater,” she said at the time, “is an essential component of the ecology of Jacob’s Pillow.”On Wednesday, Jacob’s Pillow announced that its new Doris Duke Theater would reopen on July 9, as part of its coming season. And the initial wave of programming there has been conceived specifically with the space in mind.“We all struggled when we lost the Doris Duke,” Tatge said in an interview. “But we had this moment to think of what we will build and why, and what sort of building we need in the future.”The campus of Jacob’s Pillow has other performances spaces: the large Ted Shawn Theater, and the outdoor Henry J. Leir Stage. The old Doris Duke opened in 1990, with 230 seats and the look of a sleek barn.A $10 million gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, insurance claims and other gifts paid for the costs of the new theater. Jacob’s Pillow, Tatge said, wanted its new building to be a flexible space with “the ability to support the future of where this field is going.” The organization hired the Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo, and brought on the Choctaw and Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson as a consultant, to design a theater, Tatge added, “that was in dialogue with nature.”The result is a building nearly twice the size of the original theater, with a range of 220-400 seats and the ability to also house residencies and other events, perhaps at the same time. It will be equipped with a spatial audio system and specialized cameras for livestreaming and interactive video performances.Tatge said that next summer’s lineup of artists at the Doris Duke Theater was based on “works that could magnify and amplify the flexibility of the space, as well as works that demonstrate the intersection of dance and technology.”The programming includes the world premiere of Andrew Schneider’s “Here,” Shamel Pitts’s “Touch of Red” and Eun-Me Ahn’s “Dragons.” The Taiwanese choreographer and roboticist Huang Yi will make his Pillow debut, as will the Indigenous Sámi choreographer Elle Sofe. Faye Driscoll will return to the festival with her work “Weathering,” from last year, and Schneider and Pitts will create digital-first pieces.In the future, Tatge said, Jacob’s Pillow hopes to commission works that incorporate augmented reality, technology similar to video conferencing and other forms of mixed reality. And they can be developed year-round in the new building.“It will be a maker space,” Tatge said of the Doris Duke Theater. “At a time where there is a crisis of ambition in our country because a lack of resources, the fact that we’re going to be able to support artists — that is something.” More

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      in Theater

      TKTS to Open Booth in Philadelphia, Hoping to Boost Local Theaters

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      The first domestic TKTS outpost outside New York comes at a time of rising concern about ticket prices and theater economics.TKTS, the landmark theater discounter that has been a Times Square mainstay for 51 years, is expanding to Philadelphia at a time when regional theaters are struggling and ticket costs are a persistent cause of consumer concern.The new booth, located inside Independence Visitor Center in the city’s historic district, will be the first in an American city other than New York. London and Tokyo also have TKTS booths, and New York has a second booth at Lincoln Center.The Philadelphia booth will sell tickets to local theater, dance and music productions, as well as for some touring Broadway shows; the tickets will be discounted by 30 percent to 50 percent and can be purchased up to 72 hours before curtain (in New York, the purchase window is shorter). The visitor center, which is near major tourist attractions including the Liberty Bell, drew 1.3 million people last year and already sells tickets to other attractions.The TKTS kiosk will begin selling tickets on Thursday and will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.Angela Val, the president and chief executive of Visit Philadelphia, a tourism marketing agency, said her organization had contacted TDF, the nonprofit that runs the TKTS booths, to propose the expansion. The agency was motivated by a concern that ticket prices were limiting audiences for local arts and culture events. “We wanted to make sure all people had access to theater,” Val said. “Everyone, no matter how much money you have, should have access to arts and culture.”More than 20 presenting organizations will offer tickets through the program, including Ensemble Arts Philly, which has three venues that host music, dance, comedy and theater performances, as well as touring Broadway shows. Also participating are the three top-tier regional theaters in the city — Arden Theater Company, Philadelphia Theater Company and Wilma Theater (the recipient of this year’s Regional Theater Tony Award) — as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Ballet and BalletX.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Music

      Tales of 19th-Century A.I.: Don’t Fall in Love With a Singing Robot

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      Love me, love me, pretend that you love me.One of today’s most popular artificial intelligence apps is Replika, a chatbot service whose users — many millions of them — converse with virtual companions through their phones or on VR headsets. Visually, the avatars are rudimentary. But each Replika offers personal attention and words of encouragement, and gets better at it with each update. There are dozens of A.I. services like this now: imitation humans who promise, via text or voice, to console, to understand, to adore.Many users (men and boys, mostly) are developing long-term bonds with these simulated lovers (“women,” mostly). Some fall into ruin. A young man in Britain tried to assassinate the former queen after plotting with a Replika avatar; and last month a mother filed a lawsuit against Character.AI, another of these apps, after her son killed himself with the encouragement of his virtual “girlfriend.”It all sounds new. It all sounds alarming. Yet these online lonely-hearts are brushing against anxieties at the core of modern art and philosophy — anxieties, as Sigmund Freud wrote more than a century ago, that things not alive may yet have spirits, and that our animistic ancestors were onto something.One of the most famous musical automatons of Enlightenment Europe: a female organist, designed by the Swiss inventor Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz in 1774.Grisel/RDB/ullstein bild, via Getty ImagesIntricate gearwork drives the automaton’s fingers, which play the organ’s keys. Her eyes move back and forth, and her chest rises and falls as if breathing.Grisel/RDB/ullstein bild, via Getty ImagesThis fall I’ve been thinking about lovers and robots, erotics and mechanics — ever since seeing two performances, both at Lincoln Center, that resonated with all our contemporary worries about art, sex and technology. One was Offenbach’s “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” (1881) at the Metropolitan Opera, which puts an android musician at center stage: the automaton Olympia, whose song and dance captivate and then devastate her human paramour. The other, next door at New York City Ballet, was “Coppélia” (1870), a merry comedy featuring not only dancing machines but also, more troublingly, humans pretending to dance like machines.Is our projection of life onto technology a sign of derangement? Or is it more like wish fulfillment? In both “Hoffmann” and “Coppélia,” grown men fall hard for female contraptions, only to discover the gears and grease that power their music and movement. Singing and dancing, in particular, seem to awaken these men’s archaic passions and juvenile needs, and shatter their rational skepticism about gadgets.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Television

      Danny Amendola’s ‘DWTS’ Lift Inspires TikTok Dance Trend

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      Danny Amendola’s smooth lift on “Dancing With the Stars” spawned numerous imitators (with varying results). TikTok cautions users that it can be dangerous.Katie Fraser and her fiancé, Amandeep Sandhu, woke up the other day feeling sore and experiencing mild pain. They hadn’t fallen out of bed or exercised vigorously, though it felt that way. Rather, they had tried to recreate a move done by Danny Amendola on the ABC show “Dancing With the Stars.”On an episode that aired on Oct. 15, Mr. Amendola, 38, a former N.F.L. player, and his partner, Witney Carson, a dancer and choreographer, performed a sexy routine set to the song “Unsteady” by X Ambassadors. At around the 45-second mark, Mr. Amendola lifted Ms. Carson, who was laying on the ground, by pulling her up by her ankle.The pair, who performed the move seamlessly, drew immediate cheers from the studio audience. They also unwittingly created a trend on TikTok as others have tried to recreate the move, which apparently is so difficult that TikTok added a disclaimer to some of the videos. “Participating in this activity could result in you or others getting hurt,” it reads.“I had seen their dance posted online and I thought it was absolutely beautiful,” Ms. Fraser, 28, wrote in an email. “Then I saw the TikTok trend going around of other couples trying and begged my fiancé to try it with me.”Like Johnny’s iconic lift of Baby in the movie “Dirty Dancing,” Mr. Amendola’s lift of Ms. Carson has proved appealing for many, but is considerably harder than it looks.

      @mollythemom @Dancing with the Stars #DWTS HERE WE COME! Dance by @Witney Carson ♬ original sound – Walmart Amy Adams

      @madismellie Why is this all I want to do now😂💃🙈 @Dancing with the Stars #DWTS @Witney Carson #leglift #husband #witneycarson #dannyamendola #mykindofdatenight ♬ Unsteady – X Ambassadors We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      in Movies

      Mitzi Gaynor, Leading Lady of Movie Musicals, Is Dead at 93

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      She was best known for starring in the 1958 screen version of “South Pacific.” But her Hollywood career was brief, and she soon shifted her focus to Las Vegas and TV.Mitzi Gaynor, the bubbly actress, singer and dancer who landed one of the most coveted movie roles of the mid-20th century, the female lead in “South Pacific,” but who abandoned film as the era of movie musicals came to an end, died on Thursday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 93. Her managers, Rene Reyes and Shane Rosamonda, confirmed the death.The role of Nellie Forbush, a World War II Navy nurse and (in the words of a song lyric) a “cockeyed optimist” in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s hit 1949 Broadway musical, had been originated and defined by Mary Martin. But when it came time to cast the 1958 movie of “South Pacific,” some considered Ms. Martin too old (she was in her 40s) and perhaps too strong-voiced for any actor who might be cast opposite her. (Ezio Pinza, her Broadway co-star, had died.)Doris Day was considered. Mike Todd wanted his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, to play the role. Ms. Gaynor was the only candidate to agree to do a screen test, she recalled decades later, although she was an established actress, with a dozen films, seven of them musicals, to her credit.In fact, she was shooting “The Joker Is Wild” (1957), a musical drama with Frank Sinatra, when Oscar Hammerstein II came to town and asked to hear her sing. (Ms. Gaynor always credited Sinatra with making her best-known role possible, because he asked for a change in the shooting schedule that would give her a day off to audition.)Ms. Gaynor in 1962. A year later, she would make her last movie, but she became a star in Las Vegas.Don Brinn/Associated Press“South Pacific” was a box-office smash, and Ms. Gaynor’s performance, opposite Rossano Brazzi, was well received. (She turned out to be the only one of the film’s stars to do her own singing.) But she made only three more films, all comedies without music; the last of them, “For Love or Money” with Kirk Douglas, was released in 1963. She turned instead to Las Vegas, where she headlined shows at major resorts for more than a decade, and to television.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More