Melissa Toogood Named New Director of Juilliard's Dance Division
The Juilliard School has named Melissa Toogood as dean and director of its dance division, the school announced on Tuesday. Toogood, a Bessie Award-winning dancer who was a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in its final years, succeeds Alicia Graf Mack, who is to become the artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Toogood, who is Australian and lives in Sydney, will begin on July 1.
'I've had many types of experiences and worked with many kinds of dancers and companies, Toogood, 43, said in a phone interview. 'I've always been reaching for new knowledge.'
Damian Woetzel, president of the Juilliard School, called her 'one of the extraordinary artists of our time' and said: 'I've watched her stage, I've watched her teach, I've watched her develop dancers at all levels, but really focusing on the younger dancers. And I have seen her develop her own leadership in that way that is inspiring.'
Toogood, who started teaching at the Cunningham school at the choreographer's request, continued to dance in New York after Cunningham's company performed for the last time in 2011. 'I had a really intense freelance career, which is challenging and uncertain, and I hope to prepare young people for all of those outcomes,' she said. 'Because I can speak to it personally.'
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Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
10 songs to celebrate the life and legacy of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
NEW YORK (AP) — The musical world lost a giant with news Wednesday that Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys' visionary and fragile leader, had died. He was 82. Attempting to distill Wilson's talent and influence in a few short songs is an impossibility; even just focusing on a few select cuts from The Beach Boys' 1966 album 'Pet Sounds,' routinely regarded as one of the greatest songs of all time, would feel short sighted. (Lest we forget, there is no The Beatles''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club' without it, and countless other classics past and present.) Instead, to celebrate Wilson's life and legacy, we've decided to identify just a few songs that made the man, from the fiercely familiar to a few unexpected selections. Read on and then listen to all of the tracks on our Spotify playlist, here. 1963: The Beach Boys, 'Surfin' USA' The song of the summer in 1963 — heck, the song of any summer, ever — 'Surfin' USA' at least partially introduced the group that would forever become synonymous with an image of eternal California bliss, where the sun always shines, the waves are always pristine, and paradise is a place on Earth. It's hard to imagine the beach existing before these wake-up riffs, the guitars that sparked a surf rock movement and then some. (Though it is important to mention that the song borrows heavily from Chuck Berry's 'Sweet Little Sixteen.') It's hard to think that surf music was once mostly just instrumental — even when Wilson and his cousin, fellow Beach Boy Mike Love, hastily wrote up their first single, 'Surfin,'' a minor hit released in 1961. 1964: The Beach Boys, 'Don't Worry Baby' Think of it as a response to The Ronettes' 'Be My Baby.' The hot-rod hit 'Don't Worry Baby' is the cheery B-side to 'I Get Around,' and has one of the most transformative key shifts in pop music history, from the man's perspective in the verse to the woman's response in the chorus. Brilliant! 1965: The Beach Boys, 'California Girls' Headphones on, stereo up. The Beach Boys' 'California Girls' sounds massive. It is no doubt the result of Wilson's love and admiration for Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound,' which lead to the song's use of guitar, horns, percussion and organ as its overture. The song is a sunshine-y good time — and would later inspire Katy Perry's 'California Gurls,' among countless others. But most importantly, the song establishes the band — and Wilson's own — larger-than-life aspirations, where pop music could be both avant-garde and built of earworms. 1966: The Beach Boys, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' Wilson's voice is the first one heard on the Beach Boys' unimpeachable 'Pet Sounds.' 'Wouldn't it be nice if we were older? / Then we wouldn't have to wait so long,' he sweetly sings on the album's opener. 'And wouldn't it be nice to live together / In the kind of world where we belong?' Optimism and innocence are the name of the game, and the listener is the winner. 1966: The Beach Boys, 'God Only Knows' If Wilson must be known for one thing, let it be his inimitable sense of harmony, perfected across his craft and completely unignorable on 'God Only Knows,' a master class in vocals, love, emotional depth, harpsichord and the intersection of all such forces. 'God Only Knows' is also one of Paul McCartney's favorite songs of all time, one known to bring him to tears. 1967: The Beach Boys, 'Good Vibrations' What kind of vibrations? Good, good, GOOD vibrations. And at a cost. As the story goes, one of the Beach Boys' best-known hits — and, arguably, one of the most immediately recognizable songs in rock 'n' roll history — was recorded over seven months, in four different studios, reportedly costing up to $75,000. And it is an absolute masterpiece of theremin, cello, harmonica and so much more. Pop music has never been so ambitious — and successful. 1967: The Beach Boys, 'Heroes and Villains' 'Heroes and Villains' might be one of the most complex songs in The Beach Boys' discography, and with good reason. It is the opener of 'Smile,' what Wilson called a 'teenage symphony to God,' a whimsical cycle of songs on nature and American folklore written with lyricist Van Dyke Parks. It was delayed, then canceled, then rerecorded and issued in September 1967 on 'Smiley Smile,' dismissed by Carl Wilson as a 'bunt instead of a grand slam.' In moments, 'Heroes and Villains' is psychedelic, in others, it embodies an otherworldly barbershop quartet. It is off kilter and clever, as Wilson's band so often proved to be. 1967: The Beach Boys, 'Darlin'' The late-60s are an undercelebrated time in Wilson's creative oeuvre — no doubt an effect of his declining mental health — but there are many rich songs to dig into. Particularly, the soulful, R&B, Motown-esq. harmonies of 'Darlin'.' 2004: Brian Wilson, 'Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel' As the story goes, 'Don't Let Her Know She's an Angel' was originally record for his 1991 unreleased album 'Sweet Insanity,' but did not officially appear until it was rerecorded for his 2004 album 'Gettin' in Over My Head.' The song features a bunch of programming, synths and percussion, which might strike The Beach Boys' fan as odd. But trust us, it works here. 2012: The Beach Boys, 'Isn't It Time' This pick might come as a surprise for many fans of The Beach Boys. 'Isn't It Time' is a cut from 'That's Why God Made the Radio,' the album the legendary group put out to celebrate their 50th anniversary that left a lot to be desired. But within its filler, this song is undoubtedly catchy, with its ukulele and handclap percussion. ___ AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Eddie Huang Returns To New York With A Lower East Side Pop-Up, Gazebo
Eddie Huang in the kitchen at Gazebo, a pop-up at The Flower Shop running intermittently throughout ... More the summer. One of New York's most beloved chefs is back in the city with a new menu and space this summer. Eddie Huang, whose counter service bao spot, Baohaus, on East Fourteenth Street, lured in customers until the late hours, is cooking at a new pop up, Gazebo by Eddie Huang at Flower Shop (107 Eldridge St.), a concept inspired by his Floridian upbringing, Chinese heritage, and wife's family olive oil farm. Huang also authored the bestselling memoir Fresh Off The Boat, which then inspired the ABC sitcom of the same name, detailing Huang's upbringing in a Taiwanese family in Orlando. Now, Huang is back from a culinary sabbatical in Taiwan (following the 2020 closure of Baohaus), bringing his signature inventive cooking style back to Manhattan. His pop-up, running just three days a month in June, July, August, and September will offer dishes like Beijing lamb skewers, lion's head meatballs, Hunan red cooked pork, Taiwanese beef noodle soup and more traditional Chinese cuisine. The Gazebo Quesadilla 'Most people have only had my food at Baohaus, which I'm grateful for, but I've quietly evolved my cooking the last 15 years at home and living in Taiwan for all of 2020. The only time I've been able to cook these dishes for other people are through private chef gigs so I'm grateful to have a home at the Flower Shop where anyone who wants to try them can come get a table,' Huang said. 'There's been a real evolution in my technique and I'm excited to see what people think." Though many dishes are classic Chinese, Huang's signature Gazebo Quesadilla stands out on the menu. The creation was originally an accident after Huang came home with leftovers of an Iberian pork and clam stew he was working on. When he wife requested he make a quesadilla for his son, Senna, that night, 'I laid down the tortilla, cheese, then Iberian pork and clams, topped it, flipped it and it was incredible,' Huang recalls. Dan dan noodles were pushed off the menu in favor of the new cheesy tortilla dish. 'Instead of spending my time working on a bunch of different cuisines or dishes, I've completely focused my time and energy on the dishes that captured my imagination as a kid and continued to stay curious fine tuning them,' Huang said. "I'm a bit of a lounge singer when it comes to food and I like that.' Huang envisions guests experiencing the pop-up together as a party with great dance music. As opposed to Baohaus, which had an open kitchen in a 400 square foot space Flower Shop's dining room will offer Huang's menu in a full service setting, to enjoy family style. Gazebo opens Wednesday, June 11 and will offer a three course menu with a small plat, large plate, and a signature dessert for $80 per person. Seatings are available at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Reservations are available online.
Digital Trends
an hour ago
- Digital Trends
If you have to watch one Netflix movie in June 2025, stream this one
If you're trying to decide what to watch on a given streaming service, one of the best ways to make you decide to view the recent arrivals on that service and what might be leaving soon. Netflix is filled with great movies, but most of them feel like the same old things you see every time you log in. If you're looking for something new, though, Rear Window was just added to the streamer in June. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window is one of the best ever made. Here are three reasons you should make the time to check it out: Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. It's perfectly staged Rear Window tells the story of a restless photographer who takes to spying on his neighbors because he's been waylaid by a broken leg. What begins as a bit of creepy but lighthearted fun slowly gets more serious as he becomes convinced that one of his neighbors murdered his wife. As he tries to convince his girlfriend, nurse, and friend that his neighbor is guilty, we follow all the action right alongside the main character. Rear Window is staged out the window of its title. The film even opens with a curtain being raised, almost like a performance. Everything about this elaborate backlot set is perfectly staged, so much so that you feel like you're watching a real New York street. It's remarkably tense You might think that there's no way a movie made in 1954 could possibly hold the attention of a modern audience, but Rear Window's moments of suspense are better than those in almost any other movie. Although the central photographer spends most of the film simply watching the action from a distance, that only works to make things more suspenseful. As we become more convinced that something sinister's at work, the movie's central character and the audience become the same: people watching the action unfold who find themselves unable to intervene to prevent something terrible from happening. It's a brilliant, wholly original formal conceit. It features the luminous Grace Kelly Although the surface-level plot of Rear Window is about a man who suspects his neighbor of murder, the movie is at least as much about one man's obsession with watching the world and his disinterest in actually living in it. That's embodied by his girlfriend, played by the incredible Grace Kelly. Kelly plays Lisa, a woman of high fashion who's desperate for her boyfriend to pay her even a little bit of attention. Given that she looks and behaves like Grace Kelly, the fact that he doesn't is frankly outrageous. Once she gets involved in the action he cares about, he starts to change his tune in ways both fascinating and enthralling. You can watch Rear Window on Netflix.
