New books from Laura Jacobs, Toni Bentley

[dirac]

Neither of these two volumes is directly dance related, but the dance critic Laura Jacobs and author/dancer Toni Bentley have new books out. The Jacobs book, "Women About Town," is fiction; the Bentley book, "Sisters of Salome," celebrates the joys of stripping and reviews the history of same. Both are available from our site sponsor. ;)

[Alexandra]

I'll bet "The Joys of Stripping" would sell more copies than "Sisters of Salome." You have a future in publishing, dirac thanks for this.

[kfw]

Bentley's first chapter includes a fascinating anecdote about Balanchine trotting off to a pretentious Paris strip club after City Ballet performances. And she makes an interesting comparison between dancing and stripping. For my money, her own story is sad and -- not to be unkind -- a little pathetic. But she can write!

[dirac]

kfw, Iwasn't actually planning to say this, but since you mention it I must admit to being sort of stunned when I read that. I guess it may be "empowering" to some women to have the happy opportunity to strip for money in front of a gaggle of leering or indifferent men, but I don't think that I would find the experience that inspiring, speaking for myself. It is true that many women in our society have had to exploit their physical appeal in one way or another in order to get ahead, or just survive -- but that hardly indicates an expression of feminine power, rather the reverse, I should think. (Although it does offer a potential new slogan for feminists -- ''Girls -- you don't have to head a Fortune 500 company or run for the Senate to be empowered. Just strip naked for a bunch of tipsy salesmen!")

I was actually sorry to read that about Balanchine -- unless he was going to check for any novel theatrical effects, which I doubt. Richard Feynman, not a man noted for feminist sentiments, used to visit one regularly, too.

[Estelle]

Here's a link to a New York Times review of Toni Bentley's book:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/02/books/re...iew/02SCHI.html

and another review:

http://www.dancingbadger.com/ssbentley.html

Also Toni Bentley has her own site there:

http://www.tonibentley.com/

There were some articles in "Les Saisons de la Danse" around 1993-1994 about Colette's "dancing" career (by Olivier Marmin- he managed to write interesting articles about really odd topics, like "dance in the comic books series *Alix*" or "dance and vampire stories" (that was before the Dracula ballet craze). There's a bit of information about her "music-hall career" on the following page:

http://www.colette.org/musihall.htm

Those performing episodes, as well as her "scandalous" love life (her complicated mariage with the writer Willy, who published her books with his name and their various "menages a trois", her liaisons with the marquise de Belboeuf and later with her stepson Bertrand de Jouvenel who was 30 years younger than her, and so on) were quite famous, but now she is better known for her

novels, and I doubt that she would have had national funerals if she had only done some stripping...

About Balanchine and the Crazy Horse (argh!), well, I guess even geniuses can have moments of really, really bad taste...

[dirac]

Germaine Greer reviews Bentley's book for the Telegraph:

http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main..../02/bomain.html

[tempusfugit]

Toni Bentley's own story is "pathetic"? one of the best, most incisive writers on dance, who wrote the brilliant Winter Season at age 22 or so, and also provided us with the fascinating Costumes by Karinska? (No, I'm not employed by Bentley's publishers. lol) what would be "pathetic", her honesty on the subject of ballet's vicissitudes? and is it OKAY that Balanchine enjoyed a strip club? Wagner was anti-Semitic; Picasso hardly treated women well. the foibles and imperfections of artists --outside their art -- are legion. we're lucky that geniuses such as Balanchine-- or Picasso, or Wagner-- USUALLY spared us their bad taste within their work. :-)

[dirac]

tempusfugit, I think kfw didn't mean "pathetic" to refer Bentley's career, or Bentley herself, or any of her books -- just to her anecdote about her own Adventures in Stripping.

As to whether it was okay for Balanchine to go to a strip club -- well, I agree with you that there are sins far, far worse. On the other hand, I admit that I suffer an inward wince. It's not a terrible thing to do by any means, it's just not in the best of taste, IMO.

[kfw]

dirac, thanks for explaining.

tempusfugit, I wasn't knocking Balanchine. I don't think going to a strip club is either a good thing, or the worst thing in the world.

As for Toni Bentley, I loved "Winter "Season" the first time I read it and I loved it the second time I read it. And I've been meaning to buy "Costumes for Karinska" for years. I just think it's sad that she felt driven to experience such power over men (maybe some archetypal urges ought to be rejected), and to seek it by stripping. I think it's especially sad given that she was already a Balanchine dancer, and as such already had a great deal of sensual power. I myself half fell in love with her just reading "Winter Season."

[dirac]

"Archetypal urge" for power over men? What a depressing idea...

[tempusfugit]

dirac, Ursula Le Guin in one of her essays refers to one of her own novels, lol, as "populated exclusively by exquisitely boring Archetypes." Yes.......................

[Ed Waffle]

dirac wrote:

"I guess it may be "empowering" to some women to have the happy opportunity to strip for money in front of a gaggle of leering or indifferent men, but I don't think that I would find the experience that inspiring, speaking for myself."

For an alternative view take a look at

Strip City: A Stripper's Farewell Journey Across America

by Lily Burana

Like Bentley (who is one of my favorites ) Burana is a real writer. This is her first book but she has written for the "Village Voice", the "New York Times Book Review" and other mainstream publications.

She is also a former stripper who took a sentimental journey to some of the clubs where she had worked in the past--she was about to get married and wanted to either get stripping or (although she doesn't make this obvious) her fiance out of her system.

Available from Amazon.com by using the ad at the top of this page.

[dirac]

There was a piece in the NY Times the other day about sexy books going mainstream and aimed at the general reader. Mention was made of a forthcoming book by "a former ballet dancer," which will celebrate the ungainly joys of a certain anally oriented activity. I wondered if this was the “erotic memoir” Bentley threatened us with some time ago and checked Amazon.com. Apparently it is, and the publication date is this October. I must say that Bentley achieves empowerment in the most curious ways. I suppose it’s easier than, say, running for the Senate. (The book is already listed on Amazon; I particularly enjoyed looking at the “Customers who bought this book also liked” section.)

I really do recommend "Costumes by Karinska."

[carbro]

Hmmm. I really don't find the scope of Ms. Bentley's latest work all that surprising. It seems to me that in order to go on stage -- often wearing very little, indeed -- before 3,000 ticket holding ballet fans, a person has to have some exhibitionistic tendencies in the first place. Take it from there . . . . :shrug:

How a stripper relates to her work depends a lot, I would imagine, on the clientele for whom she strips. There are strip clubs, and then there are strip clubs. Also her initial motivation. A neighbor of mine did it for the lucrative remuneration, but found it degrading. If you're doing it to pay the rent, it has a whole different meaning than if you're undertaking an erotic exploration.

Personally, I'm intrigued.

[Leigh Witchel]

Ah Carbro, but in her new book, The Surrender, she's talking about something new and fascinating to her. Sodomy.

For all those stampeding to buy it, do clink on the site's affiliate link above!

[carbro]

Yes, Leigh, I understood that. Her exhibitionism, I was trying to imply, progressed from ballet dancer to stripper to describer of her adventures in sodomy. The third stage grew from her enjoyment of the second. I'm still intrigued.

One can only wonder what she'll do next. A book on household hints, perhaps?

[Nanatchka]

Oh for heaven' sake. But good news. This may be about Toni Bentley, but this is no longer about ballet. Let's talk about something else. Say ballet household hints. I like to use a Swiffer dust mop--the one with the extension rod, this is not a symbol, it is a duster-- on my ballet books.

[dirac]

No, it isn’t about ballet, but Bentley is a well known writer on the subject and not only does she bring it up in her books about, er, other topics but she is usually identified as such (the NY Times piece, for example, didn’t mention her by name, but as “a former ballet dancer”). I also think carbro is onto something. There are many varieties of exhibitionism, and it is possible that the same impulse that drew Bentley to the ballet stage also drew her to stripping, as well.

[perky]

The release date for Toni Bentley's The Surrender is October 1,2004. Amazon is taking pre-orders.

[Farrell Fan]

There are many varieties of exhibitionism, and it is possible that the same impulse that drew Bentley to the ballet stage also drew her to stripping, as well.

Bentley made the connection explicit in her introduction to Sisters of Salome:

"Partial, simulated, decorated, and disguised nudity is part of the appeal of a ballerina," she wrote, going on to explain that after a hip injury forced her to stop dancing for NYCB, "My desire to strip was surely due in part to the loss of a theatrical outlet and the daily physical challenge, though it is certainly not the aim of every ballerina who has been grounded."

[kfw]

[quote

Bentley made the connection explicit in her introduction to Sisters of Salome:

"Partial, simulated, decorated, and disguised nudity is part of the appeal of a ballerina," she wrote, going on to explain that after a hip injury forced her to stop dancing for NYCB, "My desire to strip was surely due in part to the loss of a theatrical outlet and the daily physical challenge, though it is certainly not the aim of every ballerina who has been grounded."

Bentley's quote is ambiguous. Is she speaking of the appeal for the audience (so it would seem from from the syntax) or for the dancer (so it would seem from her second sentence). In any case, every time I read a dancer referring to the approximate nudity of white leotard ballets, it's with modesty and trepidation.

"I wore a white leotard in that part, which is the most exposed you can get, aside from being nude. When I thought about it afterward I realized that of course it looked sexual, and I was never able to do it well again." -- Diana Adams, re: "Electronics" in Robert Tracy's "Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses"

Nothing is more erotic that modesty.

[dirac]

I was just reading the interview with Bentley (in the NY Observer, by Alexandra Jacobs. I assume we have a link to it, haven’t checked). It's quite something. As in previous pieces, her background in ballet is discussed at length.

[perky]

That interview in the NY Observer had me choking on my tea this morning due to laughter. Thanks to Ari for the link!

I have the book on order. I can't imagine reading it anywhere but at home. I could just picture reading it at a coffee shop and having someone ask me "What are you reading? What is it about?"

Stammers I, "well..............uh.......... : "

[aigle]

Isn't The Surrender a grotesque and pathetic book? I wonder if having 'bent' in her last name has subconsciously influenced her.

[perky]

The Surrender is certainly not a book for everyone. I haven't read it yet so I can't pass judgement on it one way or another. My reasons for wanting to read it are due entirely to the fact that it is written by Toni Bentley, an author whose books I have enjoyed and admired in the past.