美国国家公共电台 NPR Raise Your (He)art Rate With A Workout At The Met

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Great Hall at New York City's Metropolitan¹ Museum of Art has a way of humbling² people and hushing you to prepare for some quiet contemplation. For the next few weeks, though, through March 9, it's also the starting point for the museum workout, part performance, part workout, part tour. It turns the museum's best-known exhibit spaces into a gym. WNYC's Sean Rameswaram spent a very unorthodox morning at the Met for us.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for being with us.

SEAN RAMESWARAM, BYLINE³: Fifteen of us are inside the Met before it opens. We're lined up behind two tour guide dancers. One's wearing a yellow cocktail⁴ dress. The other's wearing a red one, and they're both in sneakers. A guy standing⁵ nearby has a laptop and a Bluetooth speaker. And then he pushes play.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEE GEES⁶ SONG, "STAYIN' ALIVE")

RAMESWARAM: Now we're power walking and punching the air to disco, and the workout has begun.

I am lightly, daintily jogging through the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 9 in the morning. There's a lot of light. There's a lot of antiquity⁷...

...And a lot of stink-eye.

Museum security looks like they've never seen anything like this.

MONICA BILL BARNES: We were approached by the Metropolitan Museum to make a dance.

RAMESWARAM: Like, on stage in a performance space.

BARNES: And we counter-offered and asked to make a led tour that's a workout.

RAMESWARAM: That's Monica Bill Barnes. She was the dancer in the yellow dress. Her dance company wanted to get people moving in the Met. And jumping jacks⁸ and yoga poses seemed a lot easier than teaching amateurs a complicated dance routine.

BARNES: It's one of the most expansive spaces in New York City. And to be able to move through all the different galleries and the rooms and the spaces that they've created felt like such an incredible opportunity.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T GO BREAKING ME HEART")

ELTON JOHN AND KIKI DEE: (Singing) Knock on my door...

RAMESWARAM: Now we're aggressively walking through a hall of busts⁹ - lots of heads, some headless.

This is the fastest tour of a museum you'll ever take. Most of the workout is spent jogging past priceless important artwork. But we do slow down a few times, like when we approach a portrait of a beautiful, pale woman in a long, black gown. It's John Singer Sargent's "Madame X," and we're doing squats¹⁰ in front of her to "Easy Like Sunday Morning" (ph).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EASY")

THE COMMODORES: (Singing) Easy, ah...

RAMESWARAM: When I told Monica Bill Barnes that I cracked up in that moment, she totally absolved¹¹ me.

BARNES: We're sort of purposefully combining things that you don't naturally put together.

RAMESWARAM: She said laughter's part of what they're going for.

BARNES: There's something that I feel like happens when you can laugh at yourself, when you can laugh at a situation that literally¹² sort of lightens the mood but also opens you up to experience things differently.

RAMESWARAM: Maybe a little too differently at first. It took Monica Bill Barnes & Company over two years to get the Met on board with this sort of subversive¹³ idea.

BARNES: It's really - how many inches are you from that work?

(LAUGHTER)

BARNES: That's where we had to do a lot of good, careful conversations.

RAMESWARAM: The patience and planning really paid off - like, to the point where I caught a few museum guards dancing along with us. Four weeks of the workout sold out immediately. And it turns out, a little music and movement really can make you see things differently.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T GO BREAKING ME HEART")

ELTON JOHN AND KIKI DEE: (Singing) Don't go breaking my heart. I won't go breaking your heart.

RAMESWARAM: (Singing) I won't go breaking your heart.

For NPR News, I'm Sean Rameswaram.

1 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

2 humbling   

adj.令人羞辱的v.使谦恭( humble的现在分词 )；轻松打败（尤指强大的对手）；低声下气

参考例句：

• A certain humbling from time to time is good. 不时受点儿屈辱是有好处的。 来自辞典例句
• It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-buildingexperience. 据说天文学是一种令人产生自卑、塑造人格的科学。 来自互联网

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 gees   

n.（美俚）一千元（gee的复数形式）v.驭马快走或向右（gee的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• When the lunch bell rang, she peeled the gees and ate them. 中午吃饭铃响时她就剥开鸡蛋吃起来。 来自互联网
• How do you want you gees? 你要怎么样的蛋呢？ 来自互联网

7 antiquity   

n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹

参考例句：

• The museum contains the remains of Chinese antiquity.博物馆藏有中国古代的遗物。
• There are many legends about the heroes of antiquity.有许多关于古代英雄的传说。

8 jacks   

n.抓子游戏；千斤顶( jack的名词复数 )；（电）插孔；[电子学]插座；放弃

参考例句：

• Hydraulic jacks under the machine produce the movement. 是机器下面的液压千斤顶造成的移动。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The front end is equipped with hydraulic jacks used for grade adjustment. 前瑞安装有液压千斤顶用来调整坡度。 来自辞典例句

9 busts   

半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 )； 妇女的胸部； 胸围； 突击搜捕

参考例句：

• Dey bags swells up and busts. 那奶袋快胀破了。
• Marble busts all looked like a cemetery. 大理石的半身象，简直就象是坟山。

10 squats   

n.蹲坐，蹲姿( squat的名词复数 )；被擅自占用的建筑物v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的第三人称单数 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。

参考例句：

• The square squats in the centre of the city. 广场位于市中心。 来自互联网
• Various squats, lunges, jumps and sprints are incorporated for the humans. 主人们还要进行下蹲、弓步、跳跃和短跑等各项训练。 来自互联网

11 absolved   

宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责）

参考例句：

• The court absolved him of all responsibility for the accident. 法院宣告他对该事故不负任何责任。
• The court absolved him of guilt in her death. 法庭赦免了他在她的死亡中所犯的罪。

12 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

13 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。