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Dance Europe Review of Paris Opera Ballet Season Opener


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The November 2015 issue of Dance Europe carries a review of the Paris Opera Ballet's triple bill (Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward/Opus 19/The Dreamer/Theme and Variations) season opener. Can you spot the rather large error from the following review extract?

"As a final piece, Balanchine's Theme and Variations needs no profound construing. Created in 1947, for Baryshnikov (again) and Alicia Alonso, the ballet simply aims to amaze."

That's quite a feat for Balanchine and Baryshnikov given that Baryshnikov wasn't born until 1948! My guess would be that this is a copy editing mistake because, if the reviewer got it wrong, they have no business reviewing dance,

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The November 2015 issue of Dance Europe carries a review of the Paris Opera Ballet's triple bill (Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward/Opus 19/The Dreamer/Theme and Variations) season opener. Can you spot the rather large error from the following review extract?

"As a final piece, Balanchine's Theme and Variations needs no profound construing. Created in 1947, for Baryshnikov (again) and Alicia Alonso, the ballet simply aims to amaze."

That's quite a feat for Balanchine and Baryshnikov given that Baryshnikov wasn't born until 1948! My guess would be that this is a copy editing mistake because, if the reviewer got it wrong, they have no business reviewing dance,

Hmm...hard to picture a copyeditor replacing Youskevitch with Baryshnikov! Maybe it's the reviewer's mistake, but perhaps not a mistake about 'facts'--more a slip of brain to pen coordination or break in concentration--like the kind of unthinking name or word slip that occurs in speech all the time (parapraxis)--or, say, writing the wrong year down, by a decade, when dating a check. (I can't be the only person who has ever done that). Of course professionals are supposed to catch those kinds of mistakes, and it's a very embarassing blooper for the writer and, also, the editor of the journal, even if it is just a 'slip of the pen.'

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The following correction appeared in the January 2016 issue of Dance Europe:

"In the November issue of Dance Europe, Francois Fargue wrote that Balanchine's Theme and Variations was created for Baryshnikov in 1947. This was obviously an error, not least because Baryshnikov was not born until 1948. In fact, the ballet, as many of our informed readers have rightly pointed out, was premiered with Igor Youskevitch partnering Alicia Alonso. Apologies for this editorial oversight."

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