sandik

True, but it's sad as well -- we've all seen people whose tenure in the dance community has lasted longer than their skills...

As well as Ann Miller, Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) died last week, which reminded me of one of the characters on his show, Dancing Bear. Does anyone here know who performed in that bear suit, and if he choreographed his own material (or perhaps worked with someone else)? I have a very distinct memory of a dance he did on a swivel chair (the conceit was that DB had hurt his foot and couldn't dance on it) -- it was a charming number.

I was so sad to hear about her death -- she was so exuberant and brash in her performing, almost a perfect example of a certain style of film musical dancing. For me, "Too Darn Hot" is probably her most typical work (the one I think of first when I think of her), but I treasure the "From This Moment On" number from the same film, for different reasons -- with the appearance of Bob Fosse and Carol Haney it seems to mark a transition to a new style of jazz dance and a new kind of film dance performance.

Ben Houk brought this version of the work to the Dallas/Fort Worth Ballet while he was artistic director there a few years ago, though I doubt they still perform it.

"Emerging" Especially "emerging choreographer." I'm guilty, I've used it, and it does indeed describe a particular point in someone's career, but it is so overused right now that I'm trying to excise it from my vocabulary. It just needs a rest, maybe a trip to the beach and a nice nap, and then it can come back. I don't think I'm going to be able to use "pantherine," but I do love reading it.

As well as PNB's all-Balanchine program in February, Dance Theater of Harlem will be performing two Balanchine works (Apollo and Serenade) on their program at the Paramount 2/6-7 (during the first weekend of the PNB run), so you can really make a weekend out of it.

I also studied with one of O'Donnell's performers when I was in college -- the technique most closely resembled Graham, in its earlier versions, with some influence by Doris Humphrey. I don't know of anyone currently who teaches O'Donnell's work (though there may be practitioners out there), but if you are looking for something similar, you could look for someone Graham-ish. This technique isn't taught as widely now as it once was, so you may have to look at bit to find something. You don't mention where in Ohio you're working, but as you know there are extensive dance programs at both Ohio State and Ohio University -- try asking someone on the faculty there to recommend a studio or a specific teacher that might fit your needs.

You are quite right, but I am still disheartened about the diminution of government support for the arts since it suggests that the arts are not a part of our national life, that they are not part of what our culture exists to nurture. Sigh.

This has been a subject of considerable interest and alarm for over a year -- the Yahoo article is succinct, but if you'd like to follow up on some of this, Doug McLennan's excellent general arts journalism site ArtsJournal <www.artsjournal.com> has been posting links to articles around the country on the topic. This continued dwindling of "public" money means that arts organizations are even more dependent on earned income and donations from private sources (as in the thread discussing "naming" gifts on this site)

Misc. thoughts. I was interested in Jennifer Dunning's comments on the new Cunningham work, especially about the inclusion of the "dice throwing" at the opening of the piece. I understand her impatience with it, but I thought (haven't seen the work, just read Nancy Dalva's review in DanceViewTimes online) that since Radiohead and Sigur Ros brought audience to the theater who were new to Cunningham's work it was a good way to introduce that aspect of his process. I also liked Jack Anderson's comment on busyness, though I usually call it "steppy" -- lots and lots of steps, usually performed extremely well, but not adding up to anything. On "naming" -- we're seeing it across the country. Here in Seattle the newly remodeled opera house has a new name (McCaw Hall), as do the two auditoria in it, the lobby, the staircase, several meeting rooms, and a plaza, along with the usual seat plaques. Since one of the highly touted (and much needed) features of the remodel was the addition of more womens toilets, several of us were wondering if we could buy naming rights to individual stalls (and if that meant we could go to the head of the line to use "our" toilet). (a silly aside about naming -- a friend of mine was working at a local theater that had sold seat plaques to help underwrite a remodel. When one of the donors divorced and remarried they had to removed the first wife's plaque and replace her with the new wife.) The emphasis on naming seems to be coming with a new population of donors who would like civic recognition for civic involvement. Traditionally, big money came from wealthy people who weren't interested in, or didn't need, additional visibility. Cities were usually the major developer of cultural real estate, and for all the Carnegie Halls and Guggenheim Museums, we also have the Metropolitan Museums and the New York City Operas. Recently, though, that has changed, and cities don't have the initiative or the money to insist they be the "headliner" for an institution. Looking for funding partners, they often find businesses or that interesting amalgam, the personal corporation, rather than old, anonymous money. Still, though, the Seattle Art Museum has for many years been trying to establish an outdoor sculpture park, and this last year received a substantial "naming" gift from someone who doesn't want their name on the door, so it will be named after the mountain range it looks at rather than the person who wrote the check. The Olympic Sculpture Park is supposed to open in a couple years.

I've never seen one of the contracts for restaging a Balanchine work, but it's my understanding that the copyright extends to the choreography, and that issues of design are indeed up for negotiation. Pacific Northwest Ballet has many Balanchine works in its repertory, and (caveat -- this is off the top of my head) with the exception of the leotard works and Serenade they've all been redesigned.

I want to say thanks again, to Alexandra and her cohorts, for all the energy and attention they put into Ballet Alert and DanceView -- I'm not the only one who smiles when they arrive in the mail!

"Figure in the Carpet" -- the buzz you read about it is quite special.

I have a terrible confession to make -- I was humming accidentally at Swan Lake this autumn. I hum in the car, the shower, the office (I work alone at home), walking down the street.. you get the picture. I was totally unaware that I was doing this in the theater until the woman next to me very kindly said that I was humming and could I please stop. I didn't expire from embarassment, but my ears were warm for several hours after that! There are several movie houses and a couple of legit theaters here (Seattle) with "crying rooms" for parents with kids (unfortunately none of the dance houses have them).

Dee Snider? Oh my. I have to say that I always thought the NYCB angels looked pretty architectural, though.

Indeed. Some artists, like Pavlova, make their mark as performers, even if they also create the dances they dance. Some are known as choreographers, even if they had a performing career as well (Balanchine, Fokine perhaps, Ashton himself). We've all had moments in the theater where we've known we were really just there for one or the other, the performer or the choreography. The times when it's the absolute right person combined with the absolute right material are all the sweeter for it. (and Nan -- I agree absolutely about David Gordon)

Pacific Northwest Ballet's performances of the work are similar -- much lighter, both in tone and physically, that the Taylor company's. It was interesting to me that I didn't object to the difference here, while I get itchy during many ballet performances of Limon's "Moor's Pavane." I think it's because I saw Company B on a ballet company first, so that's my original reference point.

If I was going to watch a rehearsal of Balanchine's, I'd be having palpitations too!

I sat around the auditorium a lot during the open houses they sponsored during the summer, but foolishly didn't look at the row letters while I was doing it. Let me do a bit of research and get back to you. Do you have a preference about side v. center? (I'll move further back in order to get more center -- seating is very personal...)

Just my intuition, but I don't think you'll find it for sale through PBS. There was a measure of sarcasm in it, but really, I thought most of it was quite charming.

As imagination-defying as that image is, the actual bobblehead is of the Sendak Nutcracker, which is already pretty head-heavy, so the bobbling action isn't too farfetched. http://www.pnb.org/season/nutcracker/index.html

Acc. to Jack Anderson, the BR d Monte Carlo broke box office records for their autumn 1939 season, and then went on tour. They were back in New York by April 1940, but certainly could have been the company your mother saw. And I'd agree with Alexandra -- Danilova's legs were extremely well known at the time!

Although I think that art can show us a great deal about who we are and what we believe, I don't necessarily look to ballet to tell me what my child is thinking. I do think that Ms Brown is presenting a false dichotomy, though -- either zippy new choreography or stodgy old 3-acters. The tricky part is the nature of dance. For so many years we've relied on the bodies and brains of former dancers to retain the truth of our history we're nervous about using any other form of preservation. We can't have old work along with new, so dance has often followed a cult of the world premiere -- like vampires, we long for fresh blood. (this is true in modern dance as well as ballet -- the number of companies performing work more than 10 years old is depressingly small) On the preservation thread -- the mixed response that the Kirov's restagings of Sleeping Beauty and Bayadere are a part of this. The dance historian part of me is thrilled that an organization of such resources is willing to make that commitment. As these works have been gradually stripped of their more dramatic elements in contemporary productions (like mime sequences) they have become less of what their creators meant them to be and more like dances made new today. I'm heartened to see those components returned, but I'm also aware that current audiences find them difficult to follow. Being the Pollyanna that I am, I think there is a place for both in a company repertoire. Dancers and audiences need to see the older works as they were meant to be performed, or we will never understand how the art form came to be as it is. But there has to be new experimentation as well, or dance loses the momentum it needs to survive.

There is an article in the 12/6 Seattle Times about local holiday shows that discusses the affect of the touring Radio City show -- apparently it hasn't cut into local sales here, but they opened in mid-November and are closing this weekend, so the timing is less damaging. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/arts...87_shows06.html

Cunxin also gave the Peggy van Praagh Memorial Address at the Body Talk conference in Melbourne last October -- a part of the text is in the latest edition of AudDance National Forum and the full text will be on their website soon. In his speech he talks about his early training in China. <www.ausdance.org.au>