NYCB is returning to Copenhagen with an all Balanchine programme on September 6. Serenade is included.

Get tickets here: billetnet

photo via ballet blog the winger 

check the revamped new york city ballet website for videos on balanchine and other choreographers

by jason jobson via pierce mattie public relations

With all the "reality" shows that run the networks these days, it is so refreshing to discover a novel that you can dive into as a distraction to all the noise around us. Yes, thats right - remember books? I know you can read!! I recently tore through one I could not put down and had to share it.
The Last Day of Paradise is one of those books you pick up because of the interesting cover art and unusual title. It doesn't take long to discover the double entendre of the title and realize the book is not at all what you thought. That is how the best works of fiction usually hook you. What you think is coming doesn't - and what you find you weren't looking for!

Click to read more ...

It's been quiet on the interview front at Shortcut, but here's a special treat: I've talked childhood friend Linda Heydegger into letting me interview her about her work as a painter and showcase some of her pieces in digital form on the site. Linda's been painting and drawing since i first met her at age 11 and she's done so with increasing success. Her last exhibition, a series of still lives, was a delightful amalgam of mundane objects set off by dazzling colours: these are household items glimpsed perhaps casually on kitchen tables across Europe, but rendered with fastidious detail and arranged sensually like objets d'art before the viewer. Each piece barely bigger than a large-sized envelope, the still lives evoke a series of postcards conveying multiple domestic worlds, each with its inherent cultural flavor. And yet these multiple, disparate words, nudged into careful composition and bathed in glistening colours, converge into fundamentally the same vision: an image of home.

Linda was born in Basel but raised between Arizona, Germany, Switzerland and now lives in France.

Read the interview or enter the gallery

Shortcut: You've been painting for years and have had several exhibitions. At what point did painting become more than a hobby for you?

Click to read more ...

by jnoelbell 

For all its great history, sometimes London can be very... well, traditional.

And sometimes, you just want to shake loose and do something a little different, explore (or create!) a new niche in an old city full of old things. With spring creeping around the corner, here are three offbeat activities to try, to get you off the couch and out the door - new exploits for a new season.

Looking for something a little bit retro, a little bit rock n' roll? Everything old is new again! Check out the London Rollergirls, a funky group of women who are single-handedly working to bring back the lost art of flat track roller derby.

Click to read more ...

by tim anderson

Digging deeply into Copenhagen's underground electronic music scene has its rewards. It also has its challenges, since though it's out there, its extent is relatively limited - particularly the further below the surface you try to get.

Please forgive the grainy low-quality mobile phone pictures, though poor, they do capture the atmosphere of Lab rather well...

If you're into electronic sounds, the various arrangements put on by Komponent are about as deep as you can get in Copenhagen - both in terms of music and venues. At least that is my belief after 6 years of exploring. 

Komponent's usual venue of choice is Lab (site in Danish), a space that could not possibly be any less pretentious. It would take about three minutes to convert it into a motorcycle repair shop.

Click to read more ...

by eye prefer paris 

I strolled over the Ile St. Louis to the Arab Institute to see the Venise et l’Orient exhibit. I’ve been intrigued by the exotic and inviting poster that’s been on the metro and the streets of Paris in the last few months. I thought a Tuesday in January would be a good off day to go with no crowds. I was wrong - it was busy!

I charged past the huddled masses to view the exhibit in peace.

Click to read more ...

by ben curtis 

Speaking of Spanish film (the post on nudity in Spanish cinema is the most commented on in a long time!), it seems Penelope Cruz has been nominated for Best Female Actress in the next Oscars, for her role in the excellent (and bizzarely not nominated) Volver.

Click to read more ...

by ben curtis 

The other night I was speaking with Marina and a friend, Yolanda, about Spanish films and, in particular, the classic Jamon Jamon. Yolanda thought that it really went for the dark side of Spanish life (whorehouses, amateur bull taunting, violence), and Marina commented that Penelope Cruz, then 16, portrayed a strongly sexual role. My reaction was: “Typical Spanish film”.

Click to read more ...

The only violence at the Berlin Opera on Monday was done onstage, when King Idomeneo came out with a bag full of heads and placed each of them, carefully, on chairs: Buddha, Jesus, Poseidon, Mohammed. One man yelled "Aufhören!" Someone else yelled "Weiter so!" and then people booed and cheered. For a translation of the German, and a full account of the evening, go read my piece in the LA Times.

The place was a fecking journo circus — among all the klieg lights and pushy TV crews I was so embarrassed to belong to the trade that I kept my notebook hidden and wound up, for my sins, interviewed no less than three times on camera and microphone. I made sure to spout nonsense so the interviews wouldn't get used. It reminded me of when Ratzinger became Pope. Stringers and reporters descended on St. Hedwig's Cathedral only to find out how few practicing Catholics live in Berlin. A young woman with a radio microphone looked at all of us waiting on the steps and said, "Hm. More journalists than people."

by jnoelbell

One of the fabulous things about London is their commitment to publicly accessible arts. What this means for the average person is that all major museums are free for all (donations suggested). In a city where a cappucino is nearly £3, a single tube ride as much as £4, and a curry takeway a fiver... well, having beauty and wonder available for free is simply priceless. If you're skint this time of year (and who isn't?) here are a few seasonal offerings to lift your spirits.

Here are a few artsy ideas, guaranteed to take the bah out of your humbug...

Click to read more ...

by eye prefer paris

Here's my Top 5, Eye Need To Do’s this month:
 
1. Doisneau: Paris en Liberté
Robert Doisneau’s “The Kiss at Hotel De Ville” is one of the most iconic and popular photos of Paris ever taken. A new exhibition of 280 of his black and white photos of Paris cityscapes is now on at the Hôtel De Ville.

To February 17, 2007
Hôtel de Ville, 5, rue Lobau, 75004
Open daily except Sundays, from 10am until 7pm
Free
Metro: Hotel de Ville
Note: Be prepared to stand in line for at least 30 minutes

Click to read more ...

by eye prefer paris 

As a Paris insider, I have an embarrassing admission to make: I’ve never been to The Panthéon. Quelle Horreur! Sunday afternoon I finally went, and the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s astounding installation was worth the wait.

The installation, inspired by a sea monster in the Book of Job, is a series of white fabric sculptures filled with tiny grains of white polystrene, where the shapes look like a combination of white tear drops, cow udders, and snow filled balloons. Words don’t do it justice and the pictures help, but it’s simply one of those things you have to experience in person. This installation jumps to the top of my Eye Need to Do List and absolutely don’t miss it.

Ernesto Neto’s Leviathan Thot at The Panthéon

Click to read more ...

by jnoelbell

It's a well worn cliché, but there really is something magical which settles over London at the holidays. During the rest of the year, the urban qualities of a large city are characteristics you either love or hate: the throngs of cityfolk, the non-stop lifestyle, the concrete buildings, the public transportation, the touristy attractions. No matter how much you love city living, it's bound to drive you mad from time to time. So as the end of the year approaches, it becomes all too easy to spend your commute cocooned in your iPod, or walk to your destinations with head down and shoulders squared against the world.

As the daylight gets shorter and the damp fog of autumn descends over both city and dwellers, it can get downright dreary. But it doesn't have to be this way...

Click to read more ...

by eye prefer paris 

My first Paris play: Isabelle Huppert in “Quartett”, directed by Robert Wilson at the Odeon Theatre.

My friend Olivier generously invited me to the theater last night and what a stellar introduction it was with a performance by one of France’s greatest actresses at the most prestigious theater in Paris.

Officially titled the Odeon- Theatre of Europe, it was built in 1827 and was the first theater in France to present Shakespeare in English and introduced French audiences to Ibsen, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Stindberg. Its mission is “to foster joint work and projects by stage directors, actors, and writers for the purpose of presenting new original works and bringing life to the artistic heritage of Europe “. The theater, recently reopened after extensive renovations, is a beautiful formidable structure with creamy white columns outside, gorgeous sculptures and chandeliers in the lobby, and the theater itself a marvel of gold gilt and velvet.

Click to read more ...

by rhiannon davies

For 10 days Copenhagen is the hub of the international documentary film scene. From 10-19 November, 150 documentaries from some of the world’s best documentary makers will be shown at cinemas across the city.

CPH:DOX 2006 is the fourth edition of Scandinavia’s largest documentary film festival and there’s an impressive programme choose from. Click on the calendar on the left for the day’s showings.

There is something for everyone with subjects ranging from the first elected woman in Afghanistan, gangs in Port au Prince’s worst slums, impoverished musicians in Africa, love, integration & separation, to finding the perfect Hitchcock look-a-like, and taking a closer look at Zinedine Zidane or Maradona.

It is time to get excited because many of this year’s feature films are coming to Copenhagen fresh from major international film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Toronto and Venice. Work by directors like Alan Berliner, Romuald Karmaker and David LaChapelle to 11 brand new, Danish success stories.

Click to read more ...