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LATEST PROGRAMME |
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WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH
Presented by Francine Stock
ANISH KAPOOR
Anish Kapoor has won the competition to create a memorial to the 67 British victims of the terrorist attacks in September 2001. The sculpture will stand in South Manhattan, not far from Ground Zero. Anish Kapoor, speaking from his studio in South London speaks to Francine about the official announcement in New York.
 Listen to the review
DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM
In 1968, in the aftershock of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Arthur Mitchell began teaching local children to dance in a disused garage. He is the founder and artistic director of Dance of Theatre of Harlem, the ballet company that is just beginning a tour of the UK. This week they’re at Sadler’s Wells before touring, with a mixture of classic Balanchine and more recent works.
In 1957, the choreographer George Balanchine created a ballet, Agon, to Stravinsky music, in which Mitchell partnered a white ballerina, Diana Adams. The reaction was fevered. Many adored it – others felt outraged by the perceived eroticism combined with the fact that one dancer was white and the other black. The ballet was banned from being televised.
Francine asked him how he prepares the programmes.
The Dance Theatre of Harlem is performing at the Sadlers Wells theatre in London until 10th April and then tour to Plymouth, Belfast, Salford, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Glasgow and Birmingham.
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DR. SEUSS - THE CAT IN THE HAT
When New York City Ballet audiences were enthralled by Arthur Mitchell in 1957, their babysitters might well have been reading an educational, but entertaining volume to wakeful charges. Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat had begun his rhyming dominance of a nation’s early years – he’d travel here a little later. The book, which was commissioned to introduce new readers vocabulary words, caught on with its combination of repetitive rhyme, graphic and slightly scary illustrations and the promotion of (apparent) anarchy, as the Cat exhorted the children to excesses of untidiness while their mother was out.
This simple plot has been blown up into a screenplay in a new film in which Mike Myers (of Austin Powers) plays the Cat. The director is Bo Welch, former production designer of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands. The producer was also responsible for the successful Dr Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas. So with that pedigree how does this screen cat look? Terence Blacker explains.
Cat In The Hat is released nationwide this Friday, certificate PG
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SKYLON
Mention the 1951 Festival of Britain and the word Skylon inevitably crops up. For six months on London’s South Bank, the spear-like construction of aluminium-clad steel was lit up, a beacon to technology and progress. There are now plans to rebuild it as a tribute to its architect Sir Philip Powell. These have been put forward to London’s South Bank Centre by the architect Ian Ritchie. It would stand alongside the London Eye wheel. BBC commentator Wynford Vaughan Thomas took a space age ride up the outside.
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PETER ESTERHAZY
Peter Esterhazy is not a name that will be familiar to many British readers. He is, however, Hungary’s leading writer and his latest novel Celestial Harmonies IS a massive 800 plus page family chronicle, is this week published in translation in Britain. Its tone is ambitious, stretching across history and time. In his own acknowledgements, Esterhazy pays tribute to many of the big names of Western literature, so Front Row spoke to Hungarian writers, Tibor Fischer and George Szirtes to explain Esterhazy's supremacy.
Celestial Harmonies by Peter Esterhazy which is published by Flamingo
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BUSY GALLERIES
Do you find art galleries and museums too crowded? Do the crowds put you off going to some exhibitions? Or do you enjoy the bustle of busy galleries and enjoy sharing the exhibits with others?
This week we'll be discussing how museums and galleries monitor and control visitor numbers and we'd like to hear your views. Email us at frontrow@bbc.co.uk
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