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"Holding On to the Air" sequel?


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In the new Dec/Jan issue of Pointe Magazine, Suzanne Farrell is this issues Ask the Star's contributor. What got me really excited was reading her profile at the beginning of the magazine. She says she has started to think about a follow-up to her 1990 autobiography. "I think it is time. My life has changed so much." :mad: Good news for her fans. I would like to read her perpective on the rift with Peter Martins, her work staging Mr. Balanchine's ballets around the globe, the formation of her company at The Kennedy Center, and her thoughts on staging Mr. B's Don Q among many, many other things. :)

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I hope this is not written with Toni Bentley, who, in my opinion, made Farrell sound more like Bentley than Farrell too much of the time.

Plus her writing can get too febrile. I wish Farrell would work with someone who knows dance (or maybe even who doesn't, but can communicate with her and together they come out with something both moving and readable) but also has a real journalistic sensibility and doesn't start indulging in the purple prose. In other words, someone who could fully avoid a sense of 'diva lit' would be most welcome.

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I agree about the need for, let me say, different collaboration, if not a different collaborator, for the reason you have given, but also for a different reason: I've heard Farrell talk several times now, and I've noticed that she knows when she's got a compact phrase, an epigram or a metaphor for putting her meaning in a nutshell, because sometimes she goes on just a bit until she finds it. In other words, I don't think she needs a lot of someone else's participation. Maybe just someone to talk to or run it by, a transcriber and/or an editor, rather than a co-author. It's a lean, powerful style, another example of "more is less."

I've just posted some of her remarks at Jacob's Pillow last summer, which include some examples of what I mean and which also touch on the subjects perky mentioned:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...pic=22748&st=0&

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I happen to think Toni Bentley is a good writer and has demonstrated great rapport with Farrell. If Farrell wants to write another book by herself, all well and good, but to team up with another writer? Isn't one of Suzanne's admirable qualities her loyalty to colleagues? I just don't see another writer entering the picture. Of course, if she asked me...

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