Charlottesville Breaking News
Moves that bind: Katie Schetlick finds connections through dance
Publicity photoWe fidget as we sit, we walk, we run and dance—we’re all in constant motion. But how often do we think of it as something that we share with others, something that links us together? Katie Schetlick, ballet instructor at the Charlottesville Performing Arts School, considers this connection between people, dancing, and movement every day.
“I’ve always just been interested in movement in general, and not even just dance movement," Schetlick says, noting that dance can manifest itself in different activities you might not think of– skating, or even surfing. "Those things can, in my eyes, also be considered dance," says Schetlick, who finds inspiration for her choreography in everyday movements.
“I find that the thing that really inspires me the most, no matter what form it is, is finding movements where people are really present in what they’re doing.”
The belief that dance can be transformative was the inspiration for The Movement Party, a program Schetlick founded with her close friend Zena Bibler. Described on its website as "a growing body politic committed to communication through a physicality currently threatened by the encroachment of a sedentary, voyeuristic life," Schetlick says she and Bibler wanted “to kind of fill the gaps in what we saw happening with dance in New York. We wanted to branch out and make dance more accessible for audiences and in a way, demystify dance.”
After launching The M...
Animal matters: Sahar Akhtar on the morals of animal treatment
Dave McNairUVA professor of philosophy Sahar Akhtar's class "Animals and Ethics" is a popular one.
"Students now want to know what the justifications are for treating animals in certain ways," says Akhtar, "what the morality and ethics of that is, and what, if any, obligations we have to them as a society and as human beings."
The class examines the moral and legal standing of non-human animals, and how we come to terms with using animals for research and for food.
Akhtar, a self-proclaimed "almost vegan," clearly leans in the direction of embracing a more widespread practice of producing vegetables to feed the world, but she's not against people eating animals. She wants people to understand what that means however, from the processing systems humans have in place to kill animals, to the point of view of the animals themselves.
Of course, any trend or research at UVA wouldn't be complete without Jefferson having thought of it first. While not a vegan as it's practiced today, Jefferson appears to have preferred vegetables over meat as the main course.
The basis for Jefferson's preference isn't known, but as Akhtar skims over such historical tidbits, she's intrigued. Perhaps the Father of the University might have something to teach her students. And perhaps it's no accident that UVA Law School actually has an Animal Law Program– something Akhtar calls "pretty amazing."
Indeed, the program, made possible by a gift from famous game show h...
Love thy neighbor: Pastor Greg Thompson brings back the beloved community
Dave McNairGreg Thompson wants us to learn to love each other, even if we have deep differences, and not just because he's a pastor at a local Presbyterian church and Jesus said love thy neighbor and all that, but because he believes the survival of our democracy depends on it.
Disturbed by the divisive political discourse in the country, Thompson, 39, began studying Martin Luther King, Jr. for his dissertation at UVA about seven years ago, asking himself how people with deep differences could not only live together, but flourish.
"King believed in the 'beloved community' and that we were supposed to love people we have differences with," says Thompson. "He believed, with a straight face, that America could be ordered this way."
Indeed, King's message of love is not one we hear much of these days.
"King asked us to love each other, and believed that segregation was hurtful to whites as well," says Thompson, "but nobody talks that way anymore."
So why is that?
"After he was killed, it was hard for people to embrace the 'love is the answer' thing," says Thompson. "People asked themselves, does this really work, or is it just preacher words?"
Thompson says there have been glimpses of the "beloved community" that King talked about in recent years, during which we laid down our differences and came together as a nation. However, they usually follow a national tragedy and are short-lived. Think of 9/11 or the tragedy in Newtown.
"Cris...
Just Curry returns
Just Curry has a sleek interior and a streamlined menu.Meri Jane SmithMore than three years after closing down two locations of Just Curry– one on the Corner and one in the Downtown Transit Center– Chef Alex George is currying favor once more with a new location on the Downtown Mall.
"The opportunity presented itself, and it was too good a chance to pass up," says George, a one-time personal chef for the wealthy who also serves as executive chef at the popular and upscale Commonwealth Restaurant and Skybar. For the revived Just Curry, which opened on February 20, George has partnered with a physician who declines to be named.
The menu features two types of chicken curry as well as beef, lamb and a vegetarian option in three sizes ranging from $6 to $14. Side dishes include basmati rice, peas and rice, plantains and rice pudding. And former Just Curry loyalists may also appreciate the bright ambience of the new space– located directly across from Commonwealth in the former Great Scott's Gourmet Popcorn location– which features bright red walls, hardwood floors and stainless steel accents.
Currently, Just Curry is open only for lunch Monday through Friday, but George says the restaurant will start serving dinner on Friday nights with the arrival of Fridays After Five in April. After that, he says, "we'll see how it goes."
Mall battle: Arena, city face off over broken bricks
The ADA compliant barricade the city erected around the damaged bricks blew down in March.Roger VoisinetFour years after the $7 million re-bricking of the Downtown Mall, a patch of damaged bricks along the edge of the Main Street Arena near Water Street is pitting a property owner against the city in a dispute over who's responsible for the repairs.
"They have been in this condition for almost a year," wrote Arena General Manager Will van der Linde in an email sent last July to the city in advance of the planned visit by Michelle Obama, which was cancelled in the wake of the mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater.
"Anything you can do to attend to this problem would be appreciated," van der Linde wrote.
The city fired back a week later with a letter from Parks and Rec Director Brian Daly, who cites a 1995 agreement between the city and the property's original developers assigning the responsibility for repairing storm and sewer lines under the bricks and for replacing the damaged bricks.
The failure, wrote Daly, was of a drain and pipe under the bricks. "I am advising Main Street LLC that you have thirty days from the receipt of this letter to develop a plan of action for remediation of the defects."
Arena owner Mark Brown was quick to dispute Daly's assessment, asserting in a letter to Daly that the storm and sewer lines were in working order and that the area of damaged bricks is outside the bricked area that the Arena must maintain.
"As you can plainly see the area in question is not included in the private maintenanc...
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