TOP 100 NEWSPAPER SITES
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dance can be dangerous | Alistair Spalding Despite its effete image, choreography retains the power to shock and provoke audiencesThis evening BBC4 is screening three works filmed during Sadler's Wells' In the Spirit of Diaghilev season. But viewers will not see the work that formed the fourth part of the programme. The contribution from choreographer Javier de Frutos – which featured scenes of papal sodomy, garrotting, and pregnant nuns – has been deemed unsuitable for the pre-watershed slot.This week, Javier expressed his anger over the decision in this paper, calling it "silly as well as dangerous". But, though I share his frustration, it is not my wish to launch a further attack on the BBC. In fact, the BBC's decision has given me at least two reasons for celebrating the strength of the live arts, and in particular the form I am deeply committed to: dance.Firstly, let us celebrate the fact that, as an artistic director working in live theatre I can still, with appropriate warnings, show work which hovers on the edge of what is acceptable to audiences. We are still in the fortunate position where we can allow artists to show uncensored material on our stages. Theatre is not yet subject to the rules of compliance that increasingly exist in broadcast media, and as long as we comply with the law of the land we are free to present work freely. Long live this freedom I say, for if we go down the alternative route it will lead to a total stagnation.There have always been uncomfortable boundaries between what is and what is not acceptable, the breaching of which have led many to protest. Diaghilev himself tested the tastes of Parisian audiences when the Rite of Spring premiered in 1913. But if the forces of conservatism had not been challenged in the past we would still have screen actors keeping one foot on the floor during encounters with the opposite sex – and of course never having encounters with their own sex.We in the live arts are in the fortunate position that we have not been at the mercy of a censor since the Theatres Act of 1968, and a return of formal censorship does not seem an immediate threat. But if our artistic choices are influenced by a fear of offending the public, we risk having the same culture of compliance dominate our stages. There is no such thing as great art that is safe and appeals to all.Secondly, I believe that part of the furore over Javier's work and its ability to shock is that no one, including the BBC, realised that a piece of choreography could do this. Most take the view that dance is a rather effete art form that deals only with truth and beauty. The reality is that dance is often disturbing, ugly, confrontational, violent and sometimes sexually explicit. In actual fact, Javier's piece is rather tame compared to some of the things I have witnessed on dance stages around the world and at Sadler's Wells. Choreographers such as Alain Platel and Jan Fabre have in the past broken many taboos. Those of a nervous disposition certainly should not come to Marie Chouinard's performances at Sadler's Wells next May. Dance can be dangerous – you have been warned!The very reason I work in dance is that as well as celebrating truth and beauty it does have the power to be provocative and challenge perceptions of the acceptable. Not simply in ways that are sexually or violently shocking – it is more often because it challenges the conventions of live theatre.I have on many occasions asserted that the most daring and radical work currently being created in the performing arts is happening in the form of dance. Contemporary dance is a relatively young tradition that is not burdened by the weight of history or expectation. This leaves it free to experiment freely with form and convention – and that is why I love it so much.BBCDanceBalletTheatreCensorshipAlistair Spaldingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Israeli man granted record 11th divorce A 50-year-old man from Jerusalem is granted a divorce for the 11th time, a new Israeli record for Jews. news.bbc.co.uk |
Suspects in Egypt's Christmas slayings surrender CAIRO (AP) -- Three suspects in a drive-by shooting that killed six Christians in southern Egypt surrendered to police Friday, while authorities faced mounting pressure to resolve the sectarian dispute in the tense community reeling from a bloody Coptic Christmas Eve attack.... hosted.ap.org |
A fearful lack of proportion | Peter Preston In airports and battlefields the west pursues security with no regard for the cost to citizens of foreign landsSuppose you're a young ÂPakistani doctor with a practice in Doncaster or ÂDetroit. And suppose you're heading back to work after a holiday in Lahore. Then stop supposing: you'll need to get to the airport very early indeed. Wrong passport, wrong nationality. Expect to be stopped, searched and scanned. Fear maximum hassle. So why not fill in the time by pondering simple concepts, like proportionality?On one hand, all this sudden conflation of inspection and interrogation is down to one man, a 23-year-old Nigerian who couldn't set fire to his underpants. Cue Messrs Brown, Obama and sundry leaders of the west buying more costly surveillance kit, announcing more nerve-fraying terminal delays and Âgetting anxious about Yemen.And, on the other, cue the figures from Pakistan's own lousy 2009 as our doctor waits in line: 3,021 innocent Âcivilians and soldiers killed by terrorist bombs – carnage far worse than Afghanistan endures. Does the family he left behind in Punjab live in fear? Of course. Markets, mosques, shops, hotels are all Taliban targets – and the violence is growing. President Asif Ali Zardari talks democracy and defiance. The army carries the fight into some terrorist areas. But you can't escape a feeling of mounting crisis, and a future without hope.The war on terror? Here it is. The casualties of that war? Here they are. And now, as spotlights swings towards Sana'a and political packs yelp excitedly about Yemeni training camps, Pakistan's problems suddenly fade from view. Other countries must hear the tough talk. One pair of pants and the west wallows in hysteria before ordering stops, searches and profilings for hapless doctors who keep health systems going. One pair of pants against 3,021 violent deaths. Is that what we mean by proportionality?Of course, 9/11 and 7/7 both have a bearing on this equation, along with outrages from Madrid to Mumbai. Nobody's pretending there isn't a threat. But it's a threat to put in a commonsense context. It's also a threat turned almost daily into reality around many beleagured parts of our neurotic world.There is a sort of war being fought out there – designed to keep "homeÂlands" safe at whatever becomes the necessary cost to foreign lands. Ask Brown: Why are we in Afghanistan? – and he talks about UK shopping centres, UK railway stations, UK airports. Meanwhile, somewhere overhead, another drone misses its target, another village where women and children live turns to rubble.Let's see things through other eyes: what our doctor may see. An Afghan problem, first financed and fuelled by the west. A problem that's grown because of oil and corruption and all the bad things that have happened in Saudi. No thanks to the west again. A problem, from Baghdad to Kabul, rooted in imported chaos. A problem that brought 12,600 violent deaths to Pakistan last year. And now the stop and search becomes almost frenzied. Pakistanis, Saudis, Yemenis, Somalis, Nigerians, Muslims. Watch the watch lists grow.We moved to stop your average high-street stop and search because of the discrimination it signalled and anger it caused. Now judges in Strasbourg feel the same about section 44 of the Terrorism Act. These things can't be random. They need specific cause – otherwise the resentment it fuels is simply out of all proportion. And so, today, is the kind of targeted airport regime taking shape after Detroit on Christmas day.It says whole nations and religions are suspect. It says war over there only Âmatters because of what it involves over here. It seeks to keep jets safe as they fly over lands where thousands die. Does our doctor make such connections as he queues and strips? Does he feel one of us, or one of them? It's worth asking. Too simple? Of course. But not so simple that proportionality plays no part.Global terrorismPakistanAfghanistanPeter Prestonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Urgent need for tent cities for Haitian refugees PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The collapse of much of Haiti's capital has a large part of the nation struggling just to find a place to sleep.... hosted.ap.org |