18 replies to this topic

[Mel Johnson]

I can't take any credit for it.  It's an old Latin saying, sometimes credited to Marcus Tullius Cicero, and with the verb at the end, I guess he would have expressed it that way, if he ever used it!  Usually, when he encountered opposition to his opinions, he said, "Exi!"  (Get out!)

[dirac]

Yet another great topic for this forum from Mel.  You're really on a roll.

Leigh Witchel writes:

Quote

I'd have to say a lot of Helgi Tomasson's work - the interesting thing is that even if the choreography is beige, it's well-tailored, astute beige.

My feelings exactly.  It's not great but it's not awful, and it's generally tailored to some need he sees in the reportory or to showcase a dancer or dancer(s).

[Philip]

Mel Johnson, on Dec 21 2008, 12:22 AM, said:

This is what I used to, and still do, call a "De Gustibus" thread.  Not everybody's beige ballet will be beige to everybody else.   My nominee for Balanchine Beige is, believe it or not, "Divertimento #15".  That it is workmanlike, I don't dispute.  That it looks like fun to dance, I don't doubt, but to me it just looks like what it is, a ballet set to dinner music.

LOL!  When I performed this ballet and we did it in blues and greens!  So much for Karinska's determination of standardization, LOL!

-Philip

[Mel Johnson]

Karinska's costumes are yellow.  

But beige has more to it than costume/decor.  It's just a blandness that makes the viewing of a ballet untroubling, but at the same time, unmemorable.  I can remember a ballet by John Taras, "La Guirlande de Campra" that was a beige ballet, except it was all dressed up to go somewhere; it apparently did and didn't come back.