Everyone is entitled to his opinion, until, of course, someone thinks he isn’t. Recently, three incidents have challenged our concept of freedom of speech.
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It is the subject of the second episode of the well-written, haunting new art historical series, “Civilizations,” now airing on PBS; the new Amy Schumer film “I Feel Pretty”; the May-June issue of The Gay & Lesbian Review; Heather Widdows’ forthcoming book “Perfect Me”; and a current show at The Met Breuer.
We’re talking, of course, about the body – the filter through which, “Civilizations” says, we see everything – including the body itself. …
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The ballet “Giselle” – the quintessence of 19th century Romanticism – tells the story of a simple, open-hearted peasant girl driven mad for love of Albrecht, a man who’s hidden his aristocratic identity and engagement to another. Dying, Giselle becomes a Wili, one of the female spirits compelled to avenge themselves on the men who wronged them in life by dancing them to death.
In the excellent, though far from perfect, Bolshoi Ballet production given an encore simulcast last Sunday in theaters around the world, there was a great moment in Act 2 when the Wilis dispensed with Hans, Giselle’s unrequited suitor, whose jealousy of the beloved Albrecht sets the tragedy in motion. Under Yuri Grigorovich’s choreography, two of the lead Wilis basically tossed Hans away. They were like elegant bouncers. The ladies sitting behind us ...
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