The ObserverDanceFrom TV’s ‘Strictly’ to films about Nureyev and Acosta, the art form once dismissed as elitist is everywhere. One dance critic explains why…
It feels like the future,” says the BBC’s director of arts Jonty Claypole. “In tackling some of the inequalities that still exist around the arts, you can do far worse than look at the way dance is merging traditional notions of high art and popular art, and attracting mixed, diverse, multi-generational audiences. Read More...
TelevisionReviewThe editor of one of Russia’s independent newspapers, Dmitry Muratov, has risked his life to report on abuses of power against the odds. This is his remarkable but terrifying story
In 2021, Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was jointly awarded the Nobel peace prize, alongside the Philippines’ journalist Maria Ressa. It marked, said the Nobel committee, “another existential point for democracy”, and the award was a rallying cry for truth, freedom of the press and holding power to account. Read More...
"Nobody with the temperament to win a campaign should be in charge of anything." A character says this near the end of the first episode of The Diplomat, an excellent new Netflix political thriller series that stars Keri Russell (The Americans, Felicity) and was created by Debora Cahn (The West Wing, Homeland). This line about temperament might sound like a statement of cynicism about politics. And it is. But it's also about competencies. Read More...