2010 Kennedy Center Honorees Announced

[kfw]

But don't agree with me that 'there is no excuse' if you also give me all the reasons why Carter doesn't have 'easier points of access' as do Balanchine and Copland.

I agree that there is no excuse because I also agree that the show, attached to a major arts institution as it is, shouldn't be the People's Choice Awards. And I'm going to leave it at that.

[Jack Reed]

Tharp was, I believe, two years ago, 2008. Yes, just checked. There was no dancer or choreography honoured in 2009.

Just goes to show you how much attention I pay to it when there's no dancer honored...

Still, two years apart seems more frequent than we've seen dance people honored previously.

[dirac]

Yes, thanks for the correction on Tharp, Patrick.

[sandik]

Tharp was, I believe, two years ago, 2008. Yes, just checked. There was no dancer or choreography honoured in 2009.

Just goes to show you how much attention I pay to it when there's no dancer honored...

Still, two years apart seems more frequent than we've seen dance people honored previously.

I went back and looked at the Wikipedia link again (thanks!) and did some counting up (there's nothing like trying to avoid other work to encourage playing around with statistics...)

Counting this year, this is the 32nd set of KC honors. Of those, there have been nine years when there was no dance honoree. There have been two times when there was a two year gap between 'dance years,' and both of them were in the 2000s. And there have been two years when there were two dance honorees each.

There have been four or five years when there was no one who represented classical music (depending on how you feel about Victor Borge), and none of those were consecutive. And there have been as many as nine years with no one from the theater world (depending on how you characterize Sammy Davis, Jr., Myrna Loy, and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward). And that's if you count Barbra Streisand as representing theater as well as music -- if she 'doesn't count' then there were three consecutive years without a theater honoree.

I could keep nitpicking, but I should probably do some other work for awhile.

[sandik]

And they missed Robert Joffrey.

[dirac]

Joffrey was truly an embarrassing omission.

Olivia de Havilland is still alive and in pretty good health when last I heard. She would certainly be worthy. (They could honor Joan Fontaine in the same year and watch the sparks fly.)

Reinking would be a decent if iffy choice but it's really unfortunate they didn't get to Gwen Verdon and/or Bob Fosse before it was too late. It would have been nice to honor them together.

[papeetepatrick]

Joffrey was truly an embarrassing omission.

No worse than Nureyev, and that's one that's so obvious you don't know how they could have missed it. He's not only a serious classical ballet dancer, but he's also one of the few ballet dancers that many Americans really knew about. And he's at least as 'American culture' as Baryshnikov and Balanchine--or, even if identified more with RB, maybe not quite to some, at least as much as McCartney and Lloyd Webber, unless you consider the $$$$$$$$$$$ the latter has brought in to B'way houses. But maybe RB and POB made it seem like he hadn't lived in the U.S. and danced here all the time all those years. Surely, Nureyev, more than anybody, made Americans more aware of ballet than anybody else, just by television appearances alone. And he did live in New York whenever he could, keeping an apt. at the Dakota from sometime in the 80s until his death.

[volcanohunter]

No worse than Nureyev, and that's one that's so obvious you don't know how they could have missed it. He's not only a serious classical ballet dancer, but he's also one of the few ballet dancers that many Americans really knew about. And he's at least as 'American culture' as Baryshnikov and Balanchine

I have to disagree with you there. Baryshnikov and Balanchine were naturalized American citizens whose careers were firmly rooted in the U.S. But if you're going to give the prize to Luciano Pavarotti, there's no reason to exclude Nureyev.

[dirac]

But if you're going to give the prize to Luciano Pavarotti, there's no reason to exclude Nureyev.

I guess at some point the adage "two wrongs don't make a right" has to be invoked., otherwise the discussion becomes like those sports Hall of Fame arguments, with the admittance of underqualified Player X justified by the previous admittance of underqualified Player Z.

[sandik]

Apologies if this thread is already started somewhere else -- found this Washington Post article earlier on who actually comes to the program and giggled at this

But Alec Baldwin doing the intro for Paul McCartney? And Steven Tyler, Norah Jones, Dave Grohl and Gwen Stefani and No Doubt providing the Beatles covers? Same thing with Julia Roberts introducing Oprah Winfrey, or Claire Danes and playwright Edward Albee speaking on behalf of honoree Bill T. Jones, an avant-garde choreographer.

Connections? Turns out Oprah and Roberts are old friends, as are Danes and Jones; Baldwin and McCartney are East Hampton neighbors who take summer yoga class together (why didn't People magazine tell us this?). Albee (himself a 1996 Kennedy Center honoree) apparently just likes Jones.

Post on KC Honors event

The broadcast is December 28.

[dirac]

Thanks for the link, sandik. Sounds like a cozy time was had by all.

[dirac]

Bumping this up in case anyone wants to comment on the broadcast. Didn't see it myself.

[sandik]

Fiddlesticks -- I had a guest, and couldn't watch the program. Could someone please tell us what they performed?

[kfw]

I’ll pass on a few impressions. For McCartney, Gwen Stefani and her band sounded good – or at least the band did – but looked ridiculously glitzy on Penny Lane, which is not about glamour. Steven Tyler sang She Came in Through the Bathroom Window and Golden Slumbers and others from the 2nd side of Abbey Road. James Taylor and Mavis Staples (yea!) followed them with Let it Be and Hey Jude. Dave Grohl and Norah Jones were good foils for each other vocally on Maybe I’m Amazed. Video here: http://www.billboard.com/column/viralvideos/gwen-stefani-steven-tyler-salute-paul-mccartney-1004137323.story#/column/viralvideos/gwen-stefani-steven-tyler-salute-paul-mccartney-1004137323.story

I’m willing to believe that Bill T. Jones has done important work, but – this may be my fault - I found what I saw here dull and pretentious.

Angela Lansbury gave a lovely introduction to Jerry Herman, and Chita Rivera, Carol Channing, Christine Ebersole, Kelli O’Hara, Lansbury herself and others performed.

I was most touched by the tributes to Herman, whose work I hardly know, and Merle Haggard, whose work I love. Vince Gill introduced “Hagg.” Kris Kristofferson dueted with a young woman whose name I didn’t catch on Silver Wings. Willie Nelson sang Today I Started Loving You Again with Sheryl Crow. Gill and Brad Paisley sang Workingman’s Blues, and Kid Rock and Jamie Johnson(?) did Ramblin’ Fever. Even the prez was dancing a little. Willie’s harmonica payer, Mickey Raphael was in the band. Willie’s hair hasn’t quite grown out again, but at least it wasn’t the girlie bob it was earlier in the year.

Julia Roberts introduced Oprah and Chris Rock had a good line about looking up and seeing the most powerful person in the world. “And next to her, Barack Obama! She got him a job, he didn’t get her one.” Even better was the political joke reported by the Washington Post but cut by CBS, which I shall not repeat because we wisely don’t talk politics around here. Jennifer Hudson sang I’m Here.

[papeetepatrick]

kfw--surprised to hear that it really sounds like it was a good show. Thanks.

[sandik]

I’m willing to believe that Bill T. Jones has done important work, but – this may be my fault - I found what I saw here dull and pretentious.

I'm sorry if it wasn't for you, but if you remember, could you please tell us what was danced?

[kfw]

I'm sorry if it wasn't for you, but if you remember, could you please tell us what was danced?

sandik, Jones' company danced what I presume was an excerpt of what was announced as Fondly Do We Hope, Fervently Do We Desire. It had three sections, if memory serves, and each had a speaker along with a dancer or dancers. The first must have concerned the slave trade, as the barking speaker described parts of the body. Edward Albee introduced Jones, and Claire Danes spoke after the filmed tribute, which included clips of Jones dancing alone while words like "collision" and "belonging" were shown on the screen. Of course Arnie Zane was shown as well.

One more thing: I would have loved to have seen Jones - surely the least well-known and celebrated of the five honorees - seated next to the president and Mrs. Obama. Instead, McCartney had that honor, with Oprah next to him, then Haggard, Herman and Jones. I don't know who gives seating assignments, CBS or the Kennedy Center, but it was as if the honorees had been ranked, and I felt bad for Jones.

[papeetepatrick]

One more thing: I would have loved to have seen Jones - surely the least well-known and celebrated of the five honorees - seated next to the president and Mrs. Obama. Instead, McCartney had that honor, with Oprah next to him, then Haggard, Herman and Jones. I don't know who gives seating assignments, CBS or the Kennedy Center, but it was as if the honorees had been ranked, and I felt bad for Jones.

I doubt that, but I can see why you might think it. Despite Mccartney's longer history, Oprah is 'bigger' now. At this point, Haggard and Herman are not that well-known outside their fields, esp. Herman, who hasn't done anything new for a long time (although Haggard used to be). I'd say Herman's popular shows from the past are obviously better-known than anything of Jones, but Jones is well-known in the dance world--although almost nobody in the dance world is all that well-known. Oprah probably had 'rank' by not being so obviously right next to the president, which wouldn't have looked right, given that she's so political, and McCartney's English,so that neutralized her closeness to Obama.

[Helene]

I can't imagine that race, too, wasn't considered in the seating chart.

[papeetepatrick]

I can't imagine that race, too, wasn't considered in the seating chart.

I think it would for Oprah (so as not to call attention to it if she sat right next to Obama), but not for Jones. What do you think? I don't think they put Jones last 'after white people'. Frankly, I doubt they even considered the three last ones, that it was more like a coin-toss. The people that know Jones won't necessarily know Haggard, although some more of both, maybe, will 'remember' Herman, although he's actually the least productive now (correct me if I'm wrong about Haggard, though, who may still perform.) I like Jones's work a lot sometimes, what I've seen of it, but I haven't seen the piece mentioned.

[sandik]

Fondly/Fervently just opened last year, and they will probably be touring it well into the 2011-12 season. Jones often takes some time to make a work, and then gives it a fairly long life.

[Helene]

I don't think they would have seated a black honoree directly next to the Obamas, unless it was a much older black woman, like Maya Angelou. If anything, I think Jones was at the end because he was the youngest and male. I suspect they would have put him between Herman and Haggard if he were a woman.

[kfw]

patrick, Haggard does still perform.

It's been interesting to hear different views re: the seating chart.

[dirac]

Thank you for that report, kfw.

I don't think they would have seated a black honoree directly next to the Obamas, unless it was a much older black woman, like Maya Angelou

As the surviving leading Beatle, McCartney outranks any chat show host, but Winfrey might have been seated next to the Obamas if not for their well known personal and political connection, noted by Patrick. Her race was likely a secondary consideration.