David Bowie’S Advice To Artists
Strange Sounds Dancers’ Bodies Make
Winona Ryder On Aging In Hollywood
Stranger Things is the latest talked-about Netflix hit series, and one of the most praised aspects of the supernatural drama is the performance of Winona Ryder. The former 1990s “it” girl stars on the series as a mother who is searching for her missing son and discovers she can communicate with him through unbelievable means. Ryder spoke to the New York Times about her role on Stranger Things, being an actress over 40 in Hollywood and “mom” roles, and what good came out of her 2001 shoplifting conviction.
Though Ryder is of the age where she is playing mothers of young children, because she does not have children herself she turns to an obvious place for guidance — her own mother. She explains, “I don’t have kids, so my mom helped me a lot on this. I’d call her sometimes and say: ‘Mom, what would you do if every indication is that your child is dead, but you believe that lights are telling you that he isn’t?’ And she’d say: ‘Honey, I’d totally believe that. It’s primal.’”
On top of that, while Ryder is determined to stay relevant, she points out that Hollywood’s age problem with actresses is a deeply-rooted issue. She says, “I love watching old movies, and I read a lot of autobiographies. Apparently Bette Davis and a lot of actresses had a hard time in their 30s, too.”
Anna Netrebko ~ Quando M’en Vo’ Soletta (Puccini)
Women’s Offstage Role in Ballet
George Balanchine is often quoted as saying, “Ballet is woman.” Though a simple statement, his ballets illustrate a deep love and appreciation of women. Even as his ballets age, audiences are drawn to the way he flawlessly highlighted the beauty of the females who interpret his steps. He is known to offer moments of such simplicity that all the audience can do is admire a ballerina’s beauty.
This is a topic I tackle with fellow Miami City Ballet dancer, Michael Sean Breeden, in this week’s installment of our new podcast, “Conversations on Dance”: why are women are not as prominent in the world of choreography? The professional ballet world tends to be more competitive for women. With most repertoire requiring larger numbers of women, men often find themselves with spare time which some often use to dabble in choreography. Perhaps this explains the larger number of men interested in creating dance.
But it seems to me that the real truth is starting a career in choreography is extremely difficult. Finding the time and opportunity to put your talent to the test is almost impossible. In order to create, a choreographer needs good, willing dancers, studio space, and a venue to showcase the work. A lot of things need to fall into place just for a first big break. That’s why it is often up to teachers or school/company directors, to offer the opportunity. Hopefully in the future this is something the field will work to cultivate.
(via)
How To Make Money As A Musician
After doing these gigs for 21 years, I’d have to say that finding a “hook” is your very best bet for getting this kind of work.
For me, that hook is history and culture. When I market my three-piece string band to these venues, I play up the fact that we do quirky, forgotten old American music – authentic stuff collected from cowboys and mountain people and canallers and lake sailors and old field recordings. There’s a storyline there much greater than us and how well we can play or sing.
(We also do original material and whatever else we want to, really, but that’s not as easy to “sell” to these venues, so we surprise them with that material once we’re there.)
Your Hook Doesn’t Need to be Complicated
Blues band? How about calling it “America’s music” and telling a few stories about how the blues came to be, and the migration of the music from country to city. Bam!
Singer songwriter? How about a song cycle about your favorite topic, or based on stories from your region, or anything else you’re passionate about.
Themed shows check all the boxes for these non-profits: they engage, they entertain, and they inform the community, and because of that, they’re valuable.
(via)
The Surprising Truth about Learning Styles
Thing #1: Learning preferences vs. Learning styles hypothesis
It is true that we do have study preferences. When given a choice, most of us will prefer receiving instruction in certain ways (e.g. I’ll always prefer reading something to listening to a lecture of the same material). And research does bears this out.
However, the learning styles hypothesis doesn’t just say that we have preferences for how we receive information. It goes a step further and predicts that our learning will be enhanced if instruction is tailored to our preferred style (or compromised, if we don’t receive instruction in our preferred style). Which takes us to the second thing.
Thing #2: What learning is and isn’t
It’s important to note that there is a fundamental difference between how quickly we pick up things (performance), and how much of those gains actually stick and can be retrieved a day or week later (learning). The learning-performance distinction as it is sometimes called.
What does the research actually show?
The researchers did an exhaustive search, but found surprisingly few studies which were set up this way. And the few that were…well, let’s take a look.
A 2006 study compared the performance of verbal and visual learners who were taught a lesson in either a visual-based or verbal-based style. It was a sophisticated, well-designed study, and they undertook a pretty exhaustive statistical analysis in search of some effect, but couldn’t find any difference between the performance of those whose training was matched to their preferred style, and those who were mismatched.
And then there’s a 2009 study of medical residents, where researchers thought that those with a “sensing” learning style might learn more effectively if presented with the problem to be solvedbefore receiving the information or instruction they would need to solve it. Conversely, they hypothesized that those with an “intuitive” style would do better if they received the lesson first, before being presented with the problem. But here too, there was no difference in performance.
(via)