47 replies to this topic

[Mel Johnson]

Well, seeing as Rauschenberg's seventy-eighth birthday is coming up, there goes the Youth emphasis.;)

[Amy Reusch]

I believe Cunningham mentioned Rauschenberg, not Baryshnikov.  I don't believe Rauschenberg is part of it.   Cunningham is no puppy himself.  It doesn't seem like the advisory panel is young, but then they're the advisory panel, not the subjects(?) of this experiment?

[Alexandra]

It looks as though everyone is 50-plus -- so is this The Last Stand of the Old Avant-Garde?     This should mean that there's a new avant garde bubbling around somewhere......

[Mel Johnson]

There is a new avant-garde, but like all vanguards, they won't be found with the main army in an institutionalized setting like the one proposed.  My wish is to find not the vanguard, nor the rear guard, nor the main body itself, but the quarter-guard, whose course parallels the march of the main army, but ranges afield, for the safety and security of the whole by covering its flanks.  Most often, that's where the action is!

[piccolo]

Baryshnikov wants to do things that interest him and he is definitely in a position to do so. I like his concept of the arts complex and wish him well.

In the article, I found it most interesting that he doesn't want to have to pander to a board of directors, sponsors, etc. -- something nearly every arts organization has to do. If he doesn't much like fundraising, well, he's got a problem. I'm a fundraiser myself and I don't find it particularly impressive that out of the $8 million he needs to raise, he's already raised $3 million -- when $2 million is from himself and a $1 million grant from another source. Now a $1 million grant is nothing to sneeze at, but outside of himself, he only has ONE other major funder? Uh, Mr. Barishnikov, you're going to have to start using that star power of yours and hitting the pavement whether you like it or not.

[Amy Reusch]

Pardon me for answering my own question, but I found myself thinking about what difference there might be between Baryshnikov's place & a good dance conservatory/university dept. One answer, perhaps, is the lack of bureaucracy and the freedom that might entail.  

Regarding this being a vanity plate kind of production, who cares?  Does it seem so very dilettante?  I wouldn't have thought he qualified as a dilettante (unless you mean it's secondary meaning).  The perfume was more that vanity plate thing...      ....although, I admit I do like the perfume.

[Mel Johnson]

It seems to me, anyway, from the story, that the mechanics of the operation would be a sort of cross between the Rand Corporation or Hoover Institute (think tanks) and Gertrude Stein's parlor (a salon).  Salons have been about for years, whether formal or informal.   The mother of Paul Draper, the great tap innovator, had one of her own which contained some pretty intense talent, like Tchelitchew, de Kooning, Vachel Lindsay, and in a group portrait of the bunch which still hangs in the original parlor where it met, off on a settee by himself, Lincoln Kirstein!

[kfw]

Where is that portrait, Mel? In a private residence, I guess?

[Mel Johnson]

Yes, in Draper's daughter's apartment.

[Alexandra]

Quote

Originally posted by Amy Reusch
Pardon me for answering my own question, but I found myself thinking about what difference there might be between Baryshnikov's place & a good dance conservatory/university dept. One answer, perhaps, is the lack of bureaucracy and the freedom that might entail.  

I think that's a good question -- and good answer.  There are places for both, but the avant-garde, even an old one , doesn't really work very well in an institution.  We coould get into the "tenure" vs. "creativity" debate.  I keep hoping that a new wave of creativity will come from the new university ballet departments, with all their resources (and the built in structure, not to mention the adjacent theater and music departments) but it hasn't happened yet.

[balletmama]

If you go back to the NY Times article, you will see that a university in NYC is going to be involved in the Baryshnikov project.  Will be very interesting to see how this shapes up.

[Alexandra]

I think the discussion above was a theoretical one about creativity ex-institutio or within an institution.  But in the article, in the section on the difficulty of fundraising it said: "The center may also affiliate with a local university." There are a lot of ways to "affiliate." It could mean that students could take courses at the Center for credit in exchange for some revenue, say.  But it's not a project generated by a university.

[balletmama]

The institutional nature of Baryshikov's center has not yet been fully revealed in public, which is why my comment is relevant to a theoretical discussion.  Stay tuned.

[Amy Reusch]

Quote

Originally posted by Alexandra
I think that's a good question -- and good answer.  There are places for both, but the avant-garde, even an old one , doesn't really work very well in an institution.  We coould get into the "tenure" vs. "creativity" debate.  I keep hoping that a new wave of creativity will come from the new university ballet departments, with all their resources (and the built in structure, not to mention the adjacent theater and music departments) but it hasn't happened yet.

I really think something is about to emerge from the university scene, Alexandra.  With all the aging baby boomers, and the difficult fiscal climate, universities offer serious subsistence opportunities... no, wait, way better than subsistence....  Perhaps it just my age, but it seems like so many people I know in the arts who would never have considered it 15 years ago are all now either in or chasing university positions...  Has there ever before been quite the flight to university dance departments (except perhaps in the early Bennington days?) of serious talent that we're seeing now?    I don't know that it's happening in the ballet world to the extent it is in the modern.  We've had so many years of "don't think, dear, just do" in ballet that there isn't the crop of ambitious young choreographers that modern turns up... or is it just the authoritarian style of ballet training that squelches and doesn't reward the creative spirit?  That's an old issue, but the exit from the cities to the universities is not.

And of course, Mel, I didn't think Baryshnikov invented the idea of a salon... it's just that perhaps he's the first artist to pump $2 Million of his own into it with plans of attracting how much more?

[Leigh Witchel]

I don't see it Amy.  The one thing the universities are not getting. . .are the best dancers.  Until that happens, I think they'll be regarded (at least in ballet) as places people go to gently quit.