Latest news with #AntonyGormley
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘It will lift the spirits': Kyiv to stage ‘most English of ballets' after Russian repertoire boycott
One of the 'most English of ballets' will be performed for the first time at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv after a boycott of the classic Russian repertoire, including Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. Sir Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée, a celebrated romantic comedy, will be performed to a sell-out audience on Thursday after Ukraine turned away from the works of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. The production, which will run for at least five years in Kyiv, was made possible by fundraising in London by the former Ukrainian star of the Royal Ballet, Ivan Putrov, and the sculptor Antony Gormley. The ballet's owner, Jean-Pierre Gasquet, has waived his fee. Originally a French ballet by Jean Dauberval, Ashton's choreography, first staged in 1960, turned La Fille mal gardée into one of the best-loved English ballets, featuring slapstick humour, a maypole and traditional folk dance. The Ukrainian government has asked cultural institutions in the country and abroad to boycott ballet productions by Russian composers and choreographers on the grounds that Vladimir Putin is seeking to use culture 'as a weapon' and justification for the war. The artistic director of ballet at the National Opera of Ukraine, Nobuhiro Terada, said the issue was sensitive, but that the turning point had come when dancers at the Donetsk Opera and Ballet theatre in Russian-occupied Ukraine performed the shape of a Z, a pro-war symbol, in the autumn of 2022. 'After that, Putin claimed that Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, all of them, belong to the Russian world and Russian people,' he said. 'After this story, the minister of culture of Ukraine at that moment, said 'no more'. Politics and culture are different things. But at that moment, there were a lot of victims of this war, and we realised relatives of these victims, they don't want to hear Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. 'It's a very sensitive question. I'm not a politician, I have to accept an opinion of Ukrainian people. Tchaikovsky, he was in Kyiv, he lived in Kyiv, and Prokofiev was even born in Donetsk. 'Of course, we want to perform Tchaikovsky and a lot of performers they want it, and it needs to happen for the next generation, in my opinion. But today it's not a good time to perform.' The boycott is controversial even among the cast of the La Fille mal gardée, which tells the story of a young woman named Lise who is determined to be with a young farmer rather than her mother's choice of dim-witted Alain, the son of a wealthy landowner. Daniil Silkin, 29, worked as a combat medic in the Ukrainian army for the first 18 months of the war but will perform as Alain in the production thanks to a time-limited exemption on service for performers. He said he did not agree with the boycott of the seminal works, which he described as a 'big part of world ballet'. 'I don't think the Ukrainian government was right,' he said. 'I think they should say to the people that Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev do not belong to Putin. They were of a very different time.' Andrianna Shabaeva, 20, whose role is as one of the friends of the main female character, said she had not had the opportunity to perform the Russian classics because of the full-scale invasion three years ago. 'Maybe one day. But not before the Russians go away,' she said. Terada, who came to live permanently in Ukraine without his parents in 1986 as an 11-year-old boy as part of a cultural exchange between ballet schools in Japan and the Soviet Union, said the boycott of Russian works had forced the opera house to look more widely for productions. With international assistance, it has since performed 5 Tango's by the Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen, Spring and Fall by John Neumeier and Alexei Ratmansky's Wartime elegy. Terada, who was appointed director in 2022, said: 'Before the war, we didn't have any opportunity to work with these famous names. They decided to help Ukraine and National theatre and ballet because of war. Related: The Reckoning review – shattering stories of invasion in Ukraine 'And thanks to Ivan Putrov and the other sponsors, we've got this production, La Fille mal gardée. It was impossible to get the choreography of Frederick Ashton. You need to pay. That is the reason that this Ukrainian theatre during last 50 years have had the same productions: Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Spartacus. 'I clearly understand – it's not popular, what I'm going to say – but when war is happening, we need to use this opportunity and to get the best from the world, because all world is going to help Ukraine.' The audience in Kyiv will have access to the coat room as a shelter during Russian air raids, but other inconveniences of putting on a show during a war are more difficult to overcome. Putrov, whose Dance for Ukraine event in London has helped finance the new production, said: 'I think it was 60 men who were called up from the stage crew. I think they only have 19 left. 'La Fille mal gardée is a beautiful blockbuster, a classic that is sunny, that is the most English of the ballets, with a grand dame, pantomime, maypole, clog dance. It will lift the spirits. What are Ukrainians fighting for? They're fighting for the way of life they want to live, and it's very important that the spirit is sustained.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It will lift the spirits': Kyiv to stage ‘most English of ballets' after Russian repertoire boycott
One of the 'most English of ballets' will be performed for the first time at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv after a boycott of the classic Russian repertoire, including Swan Lake and the Nutcracker. Sir Frederick Ashton's La Fille mal gardée, a celebrated romantic comedy, will be performed to a sell-out audience on Thursday after Ukraine turned away from the works of Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. The production, which will run for at least five years in Kyiv, was made possible by fundraising in London by the former Ukrainian star of the Royal Ballet, Ivan Putrov, and the sculptor Antony Gormley. The ballet's owner, Jean-Pierre Gasquet, has waived his fee. Originally a French ballet by Jean Dauberval, Ashton's choreography, first staged in 1960, turned La Fille mal gardée into one of the best-loved English ballets, featuring slapstick humour, a maypole and traditional folk dance. The Ukrainian government has asked cultural institutions in the country and abroad to boycott ballet productions by Russian composers and choreographers on the grounds that Vladimir Putin is seeking to use culture 'as a weapon' and justification for the war. The artistic director of ballet at the National Opera of Ukraine, Nobuhiro Terada, said the issue was sensitive, but that the turning point had come when dancers at the Donetsk Opera and Ballet theatre in Russian-occupied Ukraine performed the shape of a Z, a pro-war symbol, in the autumn of 2022. 'After that, Putin claimed that Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, all of them, belong to the Russian world and Russian people,' he said. 'After this story, the minister of culture of Ukraine at that moment, said 'no more'. Politics and culture are different things. But at that moment, there were a lot of victims of this war, and we realised relatives of these victims, they don't want to hear Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev. 'It's a very sensitive question. I'm not a politician, I have to accept an opinion of Ukrainian people. Tchaikovsky, he was in Kyiv, he lived in Kyiv, and Prokofiev was even born in Donetsk. 'Of course, we want to perform Tchaikovsky and a lot of performers they want it, and it needs to happen for the next generation, in my opinion. But today it's not a good time to perform.' The boycott is controversial even among the cast of the La Fille mal gardée, which tells the story of a young woman named Lise who is determined to be with a young farmer rather than her mother's choice of dim-witted Alain, the son of a wealthy landowner. Daniil Silkin, 29, worked as a combat medic in the Ukrainian army for the first 18 months of the war but will perform as Alain in the production thanks to a time-limited exemption on service for performers. He said he did not agree with the boycott of the seminal works, which he described as a 'big part of world ballet'. 'I don't think the Ukrainian government was right,' he said. 'I think they should say to the people that Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev do not belong to Putin. They were of a very different time.' Andrianna Shabaeva, 20, whose role is as one of the friends of the main female character, said she had not had the opportunity to perform the Russian classics because of the full-scale invasion three years ago. 'Maybe one day. But not before the Russians go away,' she said. Terada, who came to live permanently in Ukraine without his parents in 1986 as an 11-year-old boy as part of a cultural exchange between ballet schools in Japan and the Soviet Union, said the boycott of Russian works had forced the opera house to look more widely for productions. With international assistance, it has since performed 5 Tango's by the Dutch choreographer Hans van Manen, Spring and Fall by John Neumeier and Alexei Ratmansky's Wartime elegy. Terada, who was appointed director in 2022, said: 'Before the war, we didn't have any opportunity to work with these famous names. They decided to help Ukraine and National theatre and ballet because of war. 'And thanks to Ivan Putrov and the other sponsors, we've got this production, La Fille mal gardée. It was impossible to get the choreography of Frederick Ashton. You need to pay. That is the reason that this Ukrainian theatre during last 50 years have had the same productions: Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Spartacus. 'I clearly understand – it's not popular, what I'm going to say – but when war is happening, we need to use this opportunity and to get the best from the world, because all world is going to help Ukraine.' The audience in Kyiv will have access to the coat room as a shelter during Russian air raids, but other inconveniences of putting on a show during a war are more difficult to overcome. Putrov, whose Dance for Ukraine event in London has helped finance the new production, said: 'I think it was 60 men who were called up from the stage crew. I think they only have 19 left. 'La Fille mal gardée is a beautiful blockbuster, a classic that is sunny, that is the most English of the ballets, with a grand dame, pantomime, maypole, clog dance. It will lift the spirits. What are Ukrainians fighting for? They're fighting for the way of life they want to live, and it's very important that the spirit is sustained.'
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Seaside town with its own beach bar and some of the best sunsets in the UK
Crosby Beach in Merseyside is home to The Bus Yard beach bar, which serves cocktails and street food right on the sand - and the views get even better as the sun goes down Golden sands, radiant sunshine and azure waves - there's nothing quite like a beach trip on a sunny day. When the weather is just right, it feels like you're on holiday without the hassle of jetting off somewhere. From the quaint coves in North Wales to the renowned resort of Blackpool, the north of England has numerous stunning beaches. However, one seaside spot along the Sefton coast has gained fame for its unique bar situated directly on the sand. Crosby Beach is home to a stunning stretch of golden sand, backed by grass-topped sand dunes and peppered with the famous cast-iron statues crafted by artist Antony Gormley. The beach provides views across to the Wirral and North Wales, and due to its closeness to the Port of Liverpool, visitors can observe massive container ships and cruise ships sailing by. In recent years, visitors have flocked to the beach during the spring and summer months to visit The Bus Yard beach bar, conveniently located by the promenade next to Marine Lake, reports the Manchester Evening News. The bar itself is housed within a converted bus, while the surrounding complex features street-food vendors in repurposed shipping container units, serving up dishes like Gyros, burgers and loaded fries all made from locally sourced ingredients; and there's a spacious outdoor seating area. A former bus has been transformed into a unique beach bar with a top deck seating area offering stunning views of the sea. Located on Crosby Beach, which is renowned for its breathtaking sunsets, the bar serves cocktails and hosts live music events, creating a lively holiday atmosphere. One performer, Atmos Musik, recently shared a video of a DJ set on TikTok, showcasing the picturesque setting as the sun dipped below the horizon. A viewer, L'MLOU, was amazed, commenting: "This Liverpool? I thought it was Malibu! ! ! (and I'm from the NW)". Visitors have praised the bar, with Simon Ashman writing on Google: "Brilliant bar set on the front of Crosby Beach where the metal statues are set in the sand. "Just the thing after a nice walk or a day out on the beach. Great music, great atmosphere, good food available as well, you can sit and just watch the ships go by, or go with friends and have a great time." Katie A also left a glowing review, saying: "Lovely pit stop whilst on a walk, great atmosphere with some music playing, dogs are allowed also, staff came around and offered my dog a little biscuit." The Bus Yard, which initially started as a pop-up in 2022, has been granted a nine-year lease by Sefton Council. It operates seasonally, from April 1 to September 30. There are a number of parking options at Crosby, including the Sefton MBC Pay and Display Car park (L28 8TA) and the Crosby Leisure Centre Car Park (L23 6SX). It's crucial to remember that Crosby Beach is not suitable for swimming, with areas of soft sand and mud and a risk of changing tides. Visitors are advised to stay within 50 metres of the promenade at all times and not attempt to walk out to the furthest statues.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Unlocking the Mysteries of Antony Gormley's Art
The British sculptor Antony Gormley is a native Londoner who has been a fixture on the city's art scene for decades and the subject of many museum shows all over the world, including a 2019 survey at the Royal Academy of Arts. He won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1994 and was even knighted in 2014, gaining enough fame along the way to occasionally get the tabloid treatment from the British press ('Gorm Blimey: Statue by Sir Antony Gormley branded 'hideous' and a 'waste of money,'' read a 2020 headline in The Sun.) 'I'm one of the ones they like to beat on,' Gormley, 74, said with a laugh on a video call in April from his country house in Norfolk, northeast of London. Not that it has scared him from the limelight. Indeed, Gormley likes to talk about his art and its meaning, one on one or to a crowd. His latest show, 'Antony Gormley: Witness, Early Lead Works,' is on view until June 8 at White Cube gallery's Mason's Yard space in London, and he spoke at the Art for Tomorrow conference in Milan last week on topics that included art's origins as a collective enterprise, the importance of collaboration and his own drive to create. 'I don't have a choice about what I do,' he said. The gallery show is a skeleton key that helps to unlock some of the mysteries of his art, and most of the works are not for sale. Although he became perhaps best known for figural sculptures — including the large public work 'Angel of the North' (1998), a stylized, winged figure, which overlooks the A1 highway in Gateshead, England — his art is rooted in the Conceptual art of the 1970s. 'The show starts with five works that were all made prior to using my own body,' Gormley said, referring to a pivot point in 1981 that helped define the rest of his career. 'They deal with found objects in one way or another, but always using the medium of lead.' Those works include 'Land Sea and Air I' (1977-79), which at first glance looks like three stones of similar shape; actually, the forms are oxidized lead cases, one of them surrounding a stone he brought back from Ireland. One is filled with water and one is empty, or 'filled with air,' as Gormley put it. 'This was me investigating the distinction between substance and appearance, or between the skin of the thing and its mass,' Gormley said, adding that at the time it was made, there was widespread anxiety about nuclear proliferation. By using the basic element of life, he said, it was a way of highlighting 'the seeds of a future world beyond potential nuclear destruction.' Artistically, it was a breakthrough. 'I was so excited the night that I made that piece, I couldn't sleep,' Gormley recalled. 'I thought, 'This is where I want to go. This is the foundation of what I'm going to do with my life.'' Jay Jopling, a longtime dealer of Gormley's and the founder of White Cube, recalled his first encounter with the artist some four decades ago. Jopling was only around 20 and studying art history, and he arranged to meet Gormley, whose work he already admired. Over a cup of tea, the young Jopling asked Gormley about the meaning of his work. 'He said, 'My work is about what it means to be alive and alone and alert on this planet,'' Jopling said. 'It was a nice, succinct answer.' As his work was getting critical attention in the early 1980s, Gormley was not alone. Alex Farquharson, the director of Tate Britain, noted that British art of the 20th century has always been particularly strong in sculpture. Farquharson said that Gormley was 'a key figure in a generation of several sculptors who emerged in the early '80s — Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, Tony Cragg, Alison Wilding and others.' The White Cube show includes several works on paper from the 1980s, and has five lead sculptures from that decade and the following one; they show Gormley's evolution toward his own version of figuration. The sculptures include 'Home and the World II' (1986-96) a striding figure with an 18-foot-long house where its head should be, and 'Witness II' (1993), a figure seated on the ground with its head tucked into folded arms. The materials for both include lead, fiberglass, plaster and air, but they could almost include Gormley himself, given that at the time, he had to be encased in a plaster mold to make them. 'It was really messy,' he said of a process that had him covered in cling wrap for protection, and then plaster, for an hour or two with a hole at his mouth to breathe. Meditation and breathing exercises were employed, skills that he first gleaned on a two-year stint in India that came between his graduation from Cambridge University and his art degrees from Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Fine Art. Some earlier training also helped. 'I had a good Catholic upbringing, so I knew how to be obedient,' Gormley said. Once he was out of it, the completed plaster mold was then covered in fiberglass to 'harden it up,' Gormley said. Finally, the work was covered in thin sheets of lead, which he and an assistant pounded with a rubber hammer, a highly exertive way of making art. Around two decades ago, Gormley began to move toward 3-D scanning. But he said that using his own body was the essential element, not the particular process. 'I wanted to cut out that artist-model distancing device,' he said. 'I've stuck with the idea that my particular example of the universal human condition is good enough for me.' Despite his renown in Britain, Gormley has had less exposure in the United States. But his first solo museum survey in the country will be on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas later this year, from Sept. 12 to Jan. 4. 'He's one of the chief practitioners who has expanded how we think about the figure and the body,' said Jed Morse, the Nasher's chief curator. For viewers, the Nasher show will help complete the picture of Gormley's trajectory after the early 1990s, which saw him embark in new directions. In some works at the Nasher, like the Corten steel sculpture 'Model Model II' (2022), Gormley turns his body into a series of boxy forms — in a way that could be seen as Cubist or pixelated, or both. Gormley is constantly working, and drawing is a key activity for him. He pulled out a small notebook from his jacket pocket, full of sketches of bodies. 'I couldn't live without this,' he said. Having his artistic process result in heavy lead sculptures, as seen in the White Cube show, may be even more resonant now, much further along in the digital age than when they were made. 'Sculpture can bring you back to something firsthand and palpable,' he said. 'These are existential objects that hopefully can be used as instruments to investigate your own experience.'
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Where to eat, drink, stay and stroll in Edinburgh
The area The centre of New Town is a ten-minute walk from Waverley Station and has plenty of hotels and Airbnbs (the Cheval Collection's catered apartments in St Andrew Square are comfortable and cost around £220 a night). Almost all of Edinburgh is pretty, but New Town – a 4km-wide district to the north of the city centre – is prettiest. Imagine wide cobbled streets and high-ceilinged limestone or sandstone Georgian flats. Wander around Great King Street, Circus Lane (below) and Drummond Place and ogle. The restaurants Cafe St Honoré, on a tiny alley called Thistle Street Lane, has old-fashioned chequered floors and serves delicious French food (main courses start at around £28). For something cheap, go to The Outsider, which – despite its cool interiors and views of Edinburgh castle – has a reasonable lunch menu. Mussels with white wine sauce and chips (below) are £9.80. For something cheaper, the Bary wrap at the North African Nile Valley Cafe is stuffed with homemade falafel and fuul, costs £5.50 and tastes fantastic. The gallery The contemporary sculpture park Jupiter Artland is worth the 30-minute drive from Edinburgh's centre. It's set over 100 acres of meadows and woodland and has work by Tracey Emin, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley. The latter's contribution is a gigantic geometric figure made out of 1,770 interconnecting steel bars. There is also a series of grassy sculptures (below) designed by the landscape artist Charles Jencks. The result looks like a golf course for aliens. Entry is £11.80. The walk Arthur's Seat – the 251-metre-tall dormant volcano that sits near the centre of Edinburgh – is good, but, if you're lazy, Calton Hill is better. It's an achievable 103 metres high, so you can zip up it in ten minutes. At the top there are views of the sea, mountains, city and, in the evenings, the sunset. The summit also has various enormous stone monuments. One of them, the National Monument (above), was built in 1826 in honour of the Scottish soldiers who died in the Napoleonic Wars and looks a bit like a Scottish Acropolis. The pubs If it's sunny, sit with a drink in the sunken and stony garden at The Cumberland Bar, which has its own weeping willow tree. If it's raining – which is more likely – install yourself in Kay's Bar (above), a teeny Georgian coach house that became a bottle shop in the 1820s then a pub in the 1970s. It has red velvet seats and dark wooden walls. At the moment, the cheapest pint is Theakston Best Bitter, which costs £5.80. Bouji types should go to Spry, a Scandi-looking bar that specialises in naturally made wines. The market Stockbridge Market first opened in 1825 but was shuttered in 1906 after Nimbys complained about the noise and smell. Thankfully, the closure didn't last; since 2011 it's been held every Sunday. The gyoza stall (£6.50 for six) and the paella stall (from £6 per portion) have the biggest queues and for a reason. Try both then, to burn everything off, walk along the nearby Water of Leith into Dean Village, a 900-year-old former mill community that's so sweet it doesn't seem real. In one square, residents still use a communal washing line.
