The News Review:
- Review: Ilkhom Theatre’s journey to ‘Ecstasy’
- Court rules Chicago not liable in club stampede
- Foster mother found guilty in slaying of 3-year-old nephew
Review: Ilkhom Theatre’s journey to ‘Ecstasy’
San Francisco Chronicle – May 17, 2008
tmpl –>The dancers undulate with the sensual grace of anemone tentacles or blossoms opening. One after another then in sultry unison the slender bodies of the dancing boys succumb to waves of energy that rise from their ankles and ripple through thighs bellies chests and necks. The eroticism of the traditional Uzbek dance is as clearly liberating to some of the early 20th century Russian spectators in the play as it is dangerously seductive to others. tmpl –> Images… But “Ecstasy” offers clues to possible motives. Based on the “Bacha Boys” paintings of Aleksandr Nikolaev a Russian who attempted to disappear into Tashkent during the revolution the play interweaves a fictional account of his life with man-boy eroticism in a Muslim society where homosexuality is illegal. It also critiques Russian nationalism cultural imperialism Stalinist repression and Islamic puritanism and includes a girl (Nargis Abdullaeva who sings and dances like an angel) desperate to throw off the burqa-like “paranja” and break the taboo against women performers. “Ecstasy” is a bit on the long side and it’s hard to take your eyes off the action long enough to keep up with the dense supertitles and follow the convoluted story. But it’s an extraordinary immersion in another time and place staged with sumptuous simplicity on an inventive folding screen set (by Babur Ismailov and Vasily Urev) with precision projections (Evgeniy Padalkin) of Nikolaev’s paintings scenery and yes pomegranates all vibrantly enveloped in Artyom Kim’s dynamic score. It’s also magnetically performed by a strikingly focused and engaging cast led by Anton Pakhomov as the painter Farukh Khaldjigitov as the bacha cafe proprietor Boris Gafurov and Iliya Dudochkin as conflicted Russian officers and the lithe Denis Boyko as the bacha leader. No it isn’t all “Ecstasy.
Court rules Chicago not liable in club stampede
International Herald Tribune – May 17, 2008
The lawsuits also alleged that police mishandled rescue efforts in the February 2003 tragedy. A three-judge panel with the 1st District Appellate Court in Chicago concluded that “the city is immune from liability” because the accusations were not “willful and wanton. ” Authorities have said the stampede started after someone used pepper spray to break up a fight on the dance floor of the club#039;s second level. Patrons then fled down narrow stairs toward an exit and their bodies piled up behind a door they couldn#039;t open.
Foster mother found guilty in slaying of 3-year-old nephew
Providence Journal – May 17, 2008
#8221; Wright were alive today he would be in kindergarten or the first grade an energetic little boy who when the radio was turned on would get up and dance around the room. 30 2004 3-year-old T. was beaten so brutally he was taken unconscious to Hasbro Children#8217;s Hospital where he was declared brain dead and taken off life support a day later.