Farrell Fan

Were the 1950s really "the golden years" of NYCB? I would have thought those came at least a decade or two later. True, there were some audience members who professed nostalgia for the City Center days, but I think NYCB entered a glorious new era with the move to Lincoln Center. Balanchine underwent periods of creativity and its opposite, but the masterpieces outnumbered the clinkers, notably during the Stravinsky Festival of 1982. This is not to say that the fifties are not worth studying and remembering.

The Taras ballets I've seen could not have been more dissimilar. The first, Piege de Lumiere (my numeric keypad is giving me trouble, so I can't do the proper accents, sorry) was both beautiful and spooky. The stage was dominated by a big bonfire and the plot had do with convicts and butterflies, as my hallowed copy of Repertory in Review reminds me. I remember being made uncomfortable by it and worried about what would happen to the butterflies and/or convicts. It was not a happy ending. I saw Paul Mejia as the young convict, a role originated at NYCB by Arthur Mitchell. During the Tschaikovsky Festival of 1981 at NYCB, I saw Taras's ballet to Souvenir de Florence, repeatedly. I don't now remember why it was on so many of my programs, but I rather liked the piece. It was very much in the plotless Balanchine manner. The costumes, sort of nightgowny, were gorgeous, as were the music and choreography.

What about John Taras? I've only seen a couple of his later ballets, but would love to know more about his earlier career.

Whatever we're lacking, I don't think we're going to achieve anything by deciding to create a timeless masterpiece: narrative, musical, or choreographic.

What's wrong? There's just not enough information in this, even for a "stub." And it contains a phrase, "helming the company" which needs to be consigned to immediate oblivion.

The theme ofAcocella's piece is not snobbery. She wrote a review of the Christopher Wheeldon season and has many interesting things to say about it. What she says about Wendy Whelan and Maria Kowroski, for example, is wonderful. It is definitely worth reading. As for snobbery, I agree with carbro. I'm also with papeete patrick that the subject is irrelevant.

I overheard him bitching about "Mozartiana" one night. He particularly seemed to dislike the music.

What about chest hair? After all, this subject was precipitated by "Clear," Stanton Welch's bare-chested epic. My eyesight is not great, but everyone looked hairless. Every once in a while some oldtimer will recall NYCB dancer Afshin Mofid's mesmerizing performance in "Afternoon of a Faun." IMO, his modest chest hair had something to do with it. But in a cast of hairless men, it might not be fair.

My wife and I had a subscription in the first ring (as well as two others in the second ring.) Kirstein sat in the first row of the first ring, as Jack Reed said. Over the course of several years I saw him applaud politely a handful of times. Usually he remained impassive throughout the performance and left before the curtain calls.

I answered that I couldn't care less, because the fact is that whenever tattoos have been mentioned on this board, it's come as a surprise to me. I never notice them.

Thanks for this compilation, drb, and for your always apt remarks.

Nice recollections, Globetrotter. To have had "Jewels" as your first ballet (with Verdy. McBride, and Farrell, one hopes) in that magical Saratoga setting, is a memory to be cherished. Thanks for sharing it. You also mention the racing. That's one aspect of the Saratoga you remember that is just as popular today as then. There's something about the place that the other New York tracks, Aqueduct and Belmont, can't hope to duplicate. History perhaps?

I meant the question more generally -- whose reaction are you more comfortable with?

Grazie mille, dottore! Under the heading of quotable quotes, Ms. Bouder, asked whether she dances with her heart or her brain, responded that she dances with her brain in rehearsal and her heart in performance. Brava!

Treefrog mentions the "brava!"s emanating from Gerald Arpino's box at a performance of the Joffrey Giselle. It reminded me of the time I saw and heard Mr. Arpino at City Center, leading the applause for his company. He could scarecely contain himself -- a one-man standing-cheering-bouncing ovation. It impressed me a lot, since I couldn't help contrasting it with an audience reaction I was more familiar with -- that of Lincoln Kirstein at NYCB. Actually, Lincoln's was more of a non-reaction -- his expression never changed and I almost never saw him applaud, let alone emit whoops and hollers. This is kind of a stupid question, but I'll ask it anyway: who would you rather have as a boss?

The throw no longer occurs in the NYCB staging. Instead, the two kilted men gingerly place the ballerina in the poet's arms. Very disappointing to us old-timers.

I'm already wavering, Mme. Hermine. So in which ballets did that lavender leotard with the little skirt that doesn't quite match make an appearance?

This subject puts me in mind of a remark by Robert Caro, the biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson. In an essay in "Tributes: Celebrating Fifty Years of New York City Ballet," he wrote, "The ballet has never lost its wonder for me, and I try to make sure it never will -- by not learning too much about it." Similarly, I think Gorey's charming booklet is best served by not attempting to dig up now-outmoded references. Remaining cryptic adds to its charm.

I thoroughly enjoyed the gala performance, without quite understanding what made it "gala." Usually gala means higher prices, but that did not seem to be the case last night. Nor did the audience look particularly dolled up. At any rate, three of the greatest ballerinas since Farrell were on the program -- Bussell. Whelan, and Bouder, so what was not to like? All the pieces were sufficiently different from each other, IMO, so that I failed to detect any monotony. "The Dance of the Hours" is a hoot, especially to those audience members who remember Allan Sherman's "Hello Muddah, "Hello Faddah." In at least one respect, the Wheeldon company is ahead of the game. All the music is played and sung live. Even some long-established dance companies can't say that.

Some Balanchine masterpieces, Agon, for one, have no sets at all.

Thanks, Perky. I didn't know how to respond to Ostrich, because I thought it might be a joke -- in the nature of cubanmiamiboy confessing to be the great Alicia Alonzo.

Thanks, drb. I agree -- things were much simpler when we could post NYCB news under NYCB. I srill don't understand why this is no longer possible. I hope it doesn't take the powers that be as long to rectify this as it's taken NYCB to realize they made a mistake in cutting out the Saratoga trip.

Faith Petrides, the new director of the NYCB Guild, has announced the return of one of the most popular Guild actities, the annual weekend bus trip to Saratoga Springs during the company's summer residency there. I got the notice because of my past pariicipation in the trip. I'm sure more details will follow next year.

Grizzard appeared often during the golden age" of live television drama. I was watching a teleplay one night in which his character became incensed at someone or something and started throwing furniture around. He may have forgotten his lines because instead of sanitized TV dialogue, what came out of his mouth was a series of real-life expletives at tremendous volume. He would have made a great King Lear.

There is no real biography of George Balanchine -- none that is worthy of the subject. The standard one, by Bernard Taper, is a competent, journalistic job, but lacks psychological depth. The Richard Buckle one is gossipy, but patchy and incomplete. The Robert Gottlieb one is too short to cover much beyond the highlights. All the others I can think of -- by Moira Shearer, Terry Teachout, et. al. are seriously lacking in various ways. I would like to know how, for example, it was possible for Mr. B to have married and divorced five times, while remaining on good terms with all his exes? From time to time, talk of "the Balanchine book by Arlene Croce" surfaces on Ballet Talk, but we already know that's not a biography but a study of the ballets -- if it exists at all.