NPR Topics: Performing ArtsNews, interviews, and commentary on theater, the arts, music, and dance.Ballet's 'Flying Cuban' Looks Toward Home- August 11, 2008 Ballet dancer Carlos Acosta is known for powerful leaps that make him seem to fly. Those leaps have earned him comparisons with Nureyev and Baryshnikov. He grew up in a poor neighborhood outside Havana. How that boy became a man who dances with grace and power is the subject of Acosta's memoir, No Way Home.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91983259&ft=1&f=1046 Circus Smirkus: Training Clowns On Tour- August 6, 2008 Where do circus clowns come from Some of them are being trained by Circus Smirkus, an award-winning touring show for young aerialists, jugglers and rubber-nosed pranksters. Smirkus is an incubator of sorts, where scouts for big-time big tops find their new talent.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93089871&ft=1&f=1046 |