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Lewis Segal in the LA Times on what's wrong with ballet


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Well I see I've engendered quite a conversation on taste and classicism. Big topics! My concern was more local, and I probably should use less loaded terms. So here goes. Dancers seem to make a show of bowing to tradition, judging at least by the popular view of ballet culture (think of Danilova "passing the mantle" in The Turning Point). As a dancer, I certainly felt that we were a serious bunch compared to show folk, singers, or musicians. But I do think the image of a "weighty" tradition does turn some away from looking at ballet--again whether it's "true" or not, or however one might define "tradition."

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I dunno. Tradition is only a burden if you find it so. I think culture is additive - every generation adds something to the pot. I feel as if our generation has been struggling with the fact that we haven't measured up to what came before yet - our interests lie elsewhere. You can call it the weight of tradition if you'd like. I'd call it a fallow period.

I guess someone's going to have to open the Pandora's Box of class. Ballet flourishes when people believe that its ideals and ethos are something to aspire to. I think one of the movements of the 20th century (at least partly because of mass communications) was that the compass of culture shifted its needle away from the upper class. For most of the century it was the middle class that drove culture, but presently it seems we're looking to the street for our aspirations right now. And ballet isn't an art form of the street.

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I guess someone's going to have to open the Pandora's Box of class. Ballet flourishes when people believe that its ideals and ethos are something to aspire to. I think one of the movements of the 20th century (at least partly because of mass communications) was that the compass of culture shifted its needle away from the upper class. For most of the century it was the middle class that drove culture, but presently it seems we're looking to the street for our aspirations right now. And ballet isn't an art form of the street.
To go one layer down, for the first seven decades of the 20th century, the middle class aspired to adulthood. In a youth-focused culture, where "sixty is the new forty," aspirations have gone south.
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Leigh has brought up the matter of social class. Helene, the matter of age. Both are important parts of the mix. They are closely linked because ballet is an art of the young and one which takes the investment of many years before one can achieve high levels of competence.

Training to dance at this high level costs a great deal in terms of time and money And then there are the serious opportunity costs -- what the young dancer must sacrifice (other activities, other interests, other ways of spending time and money) when he or she concentrates on ballet training.

Think about what ballet dancing must look like to the average young and not-wealthy young person in modern America. The pay for most classical dancers is low. The career is short. The risk of injury is always present. There appears to be relatively little room for individuallity and expressing one's uniqueness (highly prized in pop culture). On top of this, ballet performers are relatively invisible in modern culture, especially for the young and poor who cannot afford the tickets and who never get the chance to see classical dance on tv or on dvd.

With all of this stacked against ballet, it's a wonder that ANY young people in modern America make the commitment.

But ...

I was impressed by Helene's story of the teacher whose car was protected in an inner neighborhood by young men who felt -- and wanted to express -- respect for a man who was a "danccing guy." There's hope here -- not for all those kids, but for some. This got me thinking about Leigh's point: "Tradition is only a burden if you find it so." I'd like to tell a story of my own:

In West Palm Beach, the Ballet Florida school offers free tuition -- and practices outreach -- to many kids who come from poorer, less educated, less "traditional" (in ballet terms) families. There's also a connection with programs in the well-financed and highly respected Middle and High Schools of the Arts in the county-wide school district.

I have taken evening beginners classes with a number of young people from non-traditional backgrounds -- the kind of kid Jacques d'Amboise reaches out to. Some clearly don't get the ritual or appeciate the regimentation. They give it a shot and then disappear.

But a few others have seemed to thrive under these traditional conditions. The silence, the respect, the simple beauty of the movements, the need for strength and discipline, even the final reverences to pianist and teacher at the end of the class -- these have a kind of magic for me and, to my delight, for some of these young people as well.

Young people are perfectly capable of loving hip hop, jazz, Cirque de Soleil and even Dracula -- and ALSO feeling fierce about preserving the highest standards of classical dancing when it comes to Swan Lake or the Sugar Plum Fairy's variation. They can understand what all of these forms of dance share -- and what makes each distinct and special.

I wish that alll Artistic Directors and Company boards were as wise.

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In the meantime, Segal gave an qualoified by generally very positive review to LA Ballet's "Nutcracker." Looking past the appearance of Herrera and Millepied as guest artists, her praises the company and expresses hope for ballet in southern California.

Guest artists Paloma Herrera and Benjamin Millepied brought star power and finesse to the occasion, but their scheduled replacements later in the run — company members Corina Gill and Oleg Gorboulev — danced the Arabian duet with so much authority that anyone could see they're stars in the making. Local stars, our stars: compelling motivation for balletomanes who say they want a major Southland classical ensemble to start supporting this one.
Here's the complete article (courtesy of dirac):

http://www.calendarlive.com/stage/cl-et-nu...y?coll=cl-stage

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I guess someone's going to have to open the Pandora's Box of class. Ballet flourishes when people believe that its ideals and ethos are something to aspire to. I think one of the movements of the 20th century (at least partly because of mass communications) was that the compass of culture shifted its needle away from the upper class. For most of the century it was the middle class that drove culture, but presently it seems we're looking to the street for our aspirations right now. And ballet isn't an art form of the street.

I would disagree that the middle class drove culture during the last century, at least from a mass culture perspective. Generally, the middle class mined African-American culture (generally, the lower class) for its inspiration and homogenized it for mass consumption. Jazz, swing, charleston, lindy hop, blues, and then later R&B, rock & roll, rap and hip hop all have their roots deeply in the streets. Not much has changed in that respect.

In Horatio Alger-style, I think the lower and middle classes have aspired to the capitalistic success of the upper classes, but I'm not so sure that the upper classes have really ever had that much weight as far as mass culture.

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I would disagree that the middle class drove culture during the last century, at least from a mass culture perspective. Generally, the middle class mined African-American culture (generally, the lower class) for its inspiration and homogenized it for mass consumption. Jazz, swing, charleston, lindy hop, blues, and then later R&B, rock & roll, rap and hip hop all have their roots deeply in the streets. Not much has changed in that respect.
Or, to quote Robert Farris Thompson, "To be white in America is to be very black. If you don't know how black you are, you don't know how American you are."

In the most recent program for PNB's Swan Lake, the following appeared in Peter Boal's "Director's Notebook" :

Lewis Segal wrote a provocative article for the Los Angeles Times last summer, questioning, among other things, why we return to Swan Lake. He suggested that the ballet as an art form may be stalled by dated storylines and trapped by past box office sucesses. We do return to Swan Lake often and it does generate considerable revenue, but the work has a stronger hold on us. We rediscover the source of the ballet's appeal in the technical challenge of thirty-two fouettés, the virtuosity of the Prince's solo, the uncanny unison of the four little swans, the perfection of the symmetry in the formations of the corps de ballet, and the sheer beauty of the ballerina as a magical blend of strength and vulnerability. The story also draws us in. Within the ancient tale we find eternal themes. Like a well-crafted Greek tragedy, we know that all cannot end well for our hero and heroine. Yet we recognize the opportunity for true love, the inevitable presence of human error, and the cruel realities of consequence. We are spectators, separated from our protagonists by only a few feet, and watch helplessly as they fall inevitably into the traps set for them. We are all-knowing and powerless. We see not only the failings of Prince Siegfried, we see ourselves and the relevance of the classic tale in our lives.
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This has been a very thoughtful and insightful discussion that has done much to assuage my frustration after first reading Segal's article while I was in LA last year. I agree with much of what Leonid and Bart recently posted especially the point about educating the general populace and younger generations--which brings me back to my own experiences...

FUNDRAISING

Having much experience with NPO's and fundraising, development directors in the last decade or so all seemed to be focused on declining audience attendance and greying/aging/dying patrons. In short, unless the younger generations were 'educated' to appreciate and understand (and hopefully fund) the arts, they would indeed become irrelevant to that younger generation. And so there were myriads of outreach plans and strategies--some effective, some laughable--to attract and educate the young. Surveys of these audiences showed they were intimidated by a lack of knowledge and fear of looking foolish, and by the need to "dress up" to attend a performance. To counter this, the Phoenix Symphony/Philharmonic? Orchestra invited people to attend in jeans instead of suits, programed more "pops' to entice as well, and held "pre-performance talks" to 'educate' attendees. An "education" effort which of course has also been applied at many ballet companies. Apropos this, I also agreed with (Helene's?) post that attitudes towards male dancers also needs to change. All of which brings me to the next point (no pun intended)...

MEDIA

Slice and dice it how you will, commercial media wants that 18-49 demographic's eyeballs and purses and will do anything to attract them. So they research what's "cool" to the young, and then create images, characters, programs to mirror that. And since companies hire young researchers to research/infiltrate the young--everything gets skewed further and further south in age and "lowest common denominator" tastes. (A good analysis of this is a PBS documentary "The Merchants of Cool" and "The Persuaders".) Concurrently, if there is no (fine)arts training in schools, younger generations--including the ones now researching tastes and running the media centers--are not exposed to those arts or interested in them. This trend was most noticeable to me in the decline of the major newsmagazines grammatical syntax, vocabulary, length of articles, and focus on less and less "hard news" in favor of 'entertainment' enticements. So we are left with only ONE public television station doing dance performances/docs on a regular basis, and no cable companies left to do it that I can see. Which brings me back to that education/outreach element....

OUTREACH (for who?)

I live in a small state 2-3 hours to drive across its length, 1hr to drive top to bottom. Yes, it does have a major nationally known ballet company, that on occasion tours, and prides itself on the fact that it has opened 2-3 "outreach" schools outside the metropolitan area in which it is based. Yet, those outreach schools are only about 20 miles away from the central hub--anything beyond is forgotten. They never tour their state, only outside. This had a direct affect upon me and my dance training. I grew up in Japan, where we had a rigourous school schedule that included culture/arts classes and fieldtrips 3x/week. I danced professionally and so saw and did even more. Then my family moved back to the States, and it took a year to find even the most basic level of that training again. I traveled 1+hrs each way to attend class/rehearse/dance with an "adjunct" branch of a smaller company. That famous big city company never bothered to notify us about "summer intensives" or "scholarships" or academic training. And when that small company's 'adjunct' facility closed, so did my opportunity to continue in professional ballet. My parents just couldn't agree to a 2+ hr commute each way, at MUCH more expense, and still make sure I attended high school with a 4.0 average. So...outreach is important, but make sure it's not just to those next door--inner city youth have many programs available that seek to expose & enlighten them, but not rural that I've seen. And MONEY is a factor that explains a lot of the demographics of most US ballet companies--and why those not part of that homogenous mix come from countries that have state supported arts training, or are again from the proximity of an inner city outreach effort by a school/company or other concerned NPO. And once you examine the money issue...you open the pandora's box of "elitist" again.

Sorry this is so long, needed to say it.

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I love that months later this thread is still going.

As a working professional dancer this article did a bit more than upset me.

In our current state of so many struggling companies the last thing we need is someone like Lewis Segal taking advantage of his position as a "Dance Critic". And yes I used those quotes on purpose. As a SoCal native I have read his reviews for years (and still receive them in the mail from my family) and am constantly wondering why this man who obviously doesn't even like ballet, is given the authority to criticize it?

And on top of that, not that it is any of Mr. Segal's business, but I have had a completely normal menstrual cycle since I was 15... and until Mr. Segal is a woman in the ballet world himself, I'd appreciate him leaving this topic to those of us that actually know something about it.

~Pointe1432 :wallbash:

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I am coming very late to this topic...I appreciate the dialogue and the debate. Didn't anticipate the depth that could be found following Lew Segal's name. Segal follows in the LA Times tradition of dance criticism exemplified best by Martin Bernheimer who noted that Clark Tippet moved partnered someone as if she was a side of beef.

Dancers in classical ballet companies come to LA prepared to be slated by Segal...they are rarely disappointed. Is this better than cities who have critics who can never find fault with the local company? Theoretically, it is better...but it is sad when there is so much bitterness and bile present.

I wait for Alan Ulrich to get to LA for a review I trust.

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The article has expired, so unfortunately Lewis Segal's opinion is hard to comment on.

I don't know what San Francisco is doing that works, but part of our problem is the supremacy of an Artistic Director and a Board which don't put the dancers front and centre. Audiences want to know about the performers (scandals and all) -- hockey does that very well -- not about the administrators. Maria Callas and Rudolph Nureyev excelled at this, keeping attention on the stage, not on the politics.

Is it inappropriate to suggest that as long as Boards insist on using the Artistic Director to do their function (raising money, promoting the company), then micro-managing Artistic decisions (hiring, repertoire, season content), ballet cannot go forward?

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