Singing back to the Bard: A conversation on Desdemona with Rokia Traoré

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Rapetti
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Music Industry ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Artistic Director

Rokia Traoré is a Malian singer, guitarist and composer, known worldwide for her artistic syncretism and political activism. Her distinctive style blends elements of traditional Malian music with blues, folk and rock to address contemporary geopolitical and humanitarian issues. She is the artistic director of Fondation Passerelle, a non-profit organization she founded in 2006 to support young African singers and musicians by offering them high-quality professional training and work opportunities in the music industry. In this interview, she discusses her experience as songwriter and performer in Desdemona (2012), a cross-cultural theatre adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello staged by American director Peter Sellars, with texts by African American Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, sharing some intimate memories and elaborating freely on the role of performers and the importance of focused listening in live stage productions.

Channelling the dead: A conversation on Desdemona with Tina Benko

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 305-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Rapetti
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
African American ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
York City ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
American Theatre ◽  
Broad Variety ◽  
Character Building

Tina Benko is an American stage, screen and television actress who has steadily trodden the Broadway boards for twenty years while starring in films and TV series and teaching acting and movement in New York City. An intensely focused and versatile performer, Benko has played in a broad variety of genres, ranging from screwball and Shakespearean comedies to realistic Russian, Scandinavian and American plays. In this interview, she discusses the factors that attracted her to drama and theatre, her acting training and approach to character-building, and theatre as a space for healing and reconciliation as she experienced it while working in Desdemona (2012), a cross-cultural theatre adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello staged by American theatre and opera director Peter Sellars, with texts by African American Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, and music and lyrics by Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré.

scholarly journals Cognitive processes development of future interpreters in the course of the professional training

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 303-307
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Pavlovna Timofeeva ◽  
Yuliya Aleksandrovna Fokeeva ◽  
Lidiya Arkadyevna Fedorchukova
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Analysis Of Results ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
Oral Skills

The paper deals with the specifics of interpretation skills development. The authors review the role of an interpreter in the act of communication, point out different aspects of interpretation, the success of which is determined by the ability for cross-cultural dialogue. As far as several sensory channels in the work of the interpreter are used, the necessity of special training of concentration, memory, thinking and oral skills and abilities is stated. Moreover the ways of cognitive processes development of future interpreters are described. It should be noted that a set of special exercises for cognitive processes perfection is given. The technique was tested during the training of third-year students studied interpreting. The paper contains a comparative analysis of results taken from diagnostics of both student groups training by the mentioned system of tasks and student groups training without this system. The studies carried out show that students training with special set of exercises focused on cognitive processes development demonstrate higher results. The data obtained can be used for further theoretical studies and for search of progressive methodical decisions.

‘I was your slave’: Revisioning kinship in Toni Morrison and Rokia Traoré’s Desdemona

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Rapetti
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Toni Morrison ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
American Theatre ◽  
Shared Spaces ◽  
And Performance ◽  
European Colonialism ◽  
Shakespearean Tragedy

This article offers a critical reading of Desdemona (2012), a cross-cultural theatre adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello staged by American theatre and opera director Peter Sellars, with texts by African American Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and music and lyrics by Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré. By drawing on early modern race studies and Marshall Sahlin’s notion of ‘mutuality of being’, the article discusses Morrison’s lyrical prose as well as Traoré’s songs and performance to show how they merge and amplify one another in Sellars’ meditative staging to jointly rearticulate early modern notions of race, kinship and family embedded in Othello. By questioning what lies dormant, unseen and unheard in the Shakespearean tragedy, Desdemona supplements it with what Imtiaz Habib has termed ‘imprints of the invisible’ and invites its readers and audiences to ponder the onset of European colonialism, the slave trade, colour-based racism and their global aftermath, positing theatre as a metaphor for other civic, shared spaces where honest conversations about race, gender and class inequalities can open up a path to healing and reconciliation.

scholarly journals Cultural Intelligence and Work–Family Conflict: A Moderated Mediation Model Based on Conservation of Resources Theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (13) ◽  
pp. 2406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guohua He ◽  
Ran An ◽  
Feng Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Family Conflict ◽  
Cultural Intelligence ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Conservation Of Resources ◽  
Work Family Conflict ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Work Family

This study aims to explore the influence mechanism of cultural intelligence on work–family conflict for Chinese expatriates in cross-cultural non-profit organizations. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this longitudinal study (six-month time lag) is the first to examine cultural intelligence as an antecedent of work–family conflict. The study also examines the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating role of leader–member exchange (LMX) in the cultural intelligence and work–family conflict relationship. The sample comprises 206 expatriate Chinese language teachers working at 45 Confucius Institutes in the US, Canada, and Russia. Results show that cultural intelligence not only reduces work–family conflict but also promotes expatriates’ work engagement. The higher the work engagement, the higher the work–family conflict experienced by expatriates. LMX moderates not only the positive relationship between work engagement and work–family conflict but also the indirect effect of cultural intelligence on work–family conflict through work engagement. Thus, the indirect effect of cultural intelligence on work–family conflict through work engagement is stronger with low (compared to high) LMX. This study’s findings provide implications for managers of cross-cultural non-profit organizations to better understand and solve expatriates’ work–family conflict problem.

scholarly journals Choreographic preparation as a component of the musical artist’s professional education

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-137
Author(s):  
Elizaveta A. Ezhova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Training Program ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Professional Training ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
High Quality ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Modern Russian

Musical is one of the most colorful types of dramatic art. The harmonious combination of vocal, dramatic and choreographic performance enables you to immerse the viewer as much as possible in the era and plot of the performance. It is necessary to receive high-quality professional training in the field of vocals, acting and choreography in order that the actor could skillfully express the character and right emotions from a scene to the auditorium. There are various programs and technologies for preparing a musical artist and a musical theater artist in the modern Russian system of education. The article analyzes the amount of time allocated to the main disciplines in the training program of the «Musical Actor.» Basically, a significant skew goes towards acting, although the profession of a musical artist implies ownership of all components equally. The emphasis is mainly on acting, although the profession of a musical artist implies the possession of all components equally. The role of choreography in the preparation of the musical actor is not sufficiently considered and does not allow making educational process effective and full-fledged. The author of the article proposes methodological recommendations for synthesizing vocal and choreographic performance, which is an important aspect in the preparation of the musical actor

For Your Calendar

1982 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-23
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Information Contact ◽  
Cultural Adaptations ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
International Response ◽  
Technical Advances ◽  
The Subject

Work and Technology" is the subject of a two-day workshop of the Center for Technetronic Studies (CENTEC) in Washington, DC. Presentations, panel discussions, and workshops are scheduled April 27-28, 1982, on such topics as robotics, work in the future, international response to new technologies, cross-cultural adaptations to technological change, and education for work/work for education. CENTEC is a non-profit organization concerned with the role of humankind in a technological society. Under its auspices anthropologists and scientific and technical specialists work to bring about a reasoned approach to human society's global adaptation to technical advances. For workshop information contact The Center for Technetronic Studies, 524-B 8th Street SE, Suite 701, Washington DC 20003, (202) 543-8464.

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