Farrell Fan

I was beginning to think I should take another walk through The Gates in a different spot to see if I liked them any better, when I was brought up short by a smug sentence in today's NY Times Metropolitan Diary: "Central Park, we agreed, has never looked better." I think I'll wait a couple of months and see what Mother Nature has to offer.

Thanks for calling this to our attention, because I otherwise would have missed the article on Miriam Pellman, who's a friend of mine.

I loved Bentley's article, and the thoughtful responses to it. Bentley's review is full of felicities .. "...pointed toes but soulless feet." "We are not naysayers, just dinosaurs who remember when the pterodactyls flew at the State Theater." And I was grateful for her putdown of the unnamed Anna Kisselgoff for reaching "a whole new plateau of equivocal diplomacy" in her review of "Musagete." I can hardly wait for her Kirstein biography.

I go way back, so the dancers I miss span several decades. Other than my obvious love and other principal dancers, they include Delia Peters, Teresa Reyes, Wilhelmina Frankfurt, Debra Austin, Robert Maiorano, and Paul Mejia.

Hehe, there is one. It's a fairly common one, so you've probably already seen it. It's Farrell caught in grand jeté as the Sugar Plum Fairy. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks, Old Fashioned. Yes, I know the one you mean.

Like carbro, I get an error message and remain unlinked. That's okay as long as I'm not missing any photos of Suzanne.That would make me unhinged.

It's the 21st century, I hear, but in Central Park it's the 1970s again, the time of "happenings" and "Fun City," of Mayor John Lindsay and Parks Commissioner Thomas Hoving. It was not a happy time for Central Park, which took years to recover. Presumably, The Gates will do no lasting damage to the park. Christo and Jean-Claude are supposed to disappear and leave not a rack behind. I certainly hope so. I went to the park today in search of art and solace. I associated the saffron color with lamas and spirituality. Instead, as I approached from the east on 78th Street, I saw what looked like flapping Con Edison banners delineating a construction site. Surely, those weren't The Gates? But they were. They looked a little better from within the park. Walking under that fabric with so many (mostly younger) fellow humans was not unpleasant, but I failed to feel part of something grand and artistic. Instead, it seemed we were imposing on a great New York City treasure to no purpose other than the aggrandizement of the "artists." As I left I heard one twenty-something say to another, "Awesome!" What else could I have expected her to say? I thought it was awful.

This is a shock -- a terrible loss. He was a great dancer in NYCB's greatest period.

More eloquent than the article is the wonderful photograph of Suzanne Farrell that accompanied it. As Dale said, it's another interesting Sunday piece by Rockwell. I was also happy with the big article about Alicia Alonzo (but not with that photograph.) Is this the beginning of a ballet boomlet at the Times?

Suzanne won the Dance Magazine Award in 1976. As for the Kennedy Center Honors, I don't know who gets to vote, but I'm guessing that her chances may have been diminished because of her official connections to the Kennedy Center -- the summer intensive and the Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Nevertheless, I share the hope that her revival of Balanchine's Don Q in June will result in seating her among Watermill's distinguished company.

In June, Suzanne will receive the Capezio Award for her significant contribution to American dance. Last December she received the Nijinsky Award, established by Princess Caroline of Monaco.

Yes, Michael, my feeling was that you might have made your point without positing a hypothetical performance by Sylve. The point, after all, was Kyra. I'm not sure that audience favoritism for the flashy is an entirely new phenomenon. In the old days, when Villella didn't jump and turn ("Watermill"), he got booed. And I used to get upset when curtain calls by the pre-Bejart Suzanne were greeted with tepid applause. There was never a golden-age-of-audience-reaction at NYCB, but I do agree that the ABT kind of hoopla is increasing there. I also decry it, and thank you for your comments.

Heretofore, I don't remember reading anything on this board but the highest praise for Sofiane Sylve, so Michael's gratuitous characterization of her demeanor surprised me. I haven't seen her often enough to have an opinion, but I do think one should be able to praise a favorite dancer without disparaging another. As for the audience behavior, what else is new?

John Rockwell was on the show and said he was "sad" that Leigh Witchel "couldn't be here, I don't know why." He said it made him uncomfortable "speaking for" him and for Alexandra. The rest of what he said will be well-known to Ballet Alerters. Incidentally, he made fun of the overlapping forums and publications -- Ballet Alert, Ballet Talk, Dance View, etc. He came out firmly for "mongrelization" and "miscegination" in the arts as a way of strengthening them. He also said he was against Adolph Hitler and his theory of racial purity. This last was an unworthy cheap shot, but on the whole, Rockwell seems like the most reasonable of men and it is much too bad that Leigh Witchel "couldn't" be there.

Approximately half an hour before curtain time, some NYCB Guild volunteers appear at the table between the staircases on your left as you walk in. They generally have some tickets for sale at all levels of the theater from subscribers who couldn't make the performance and phoned in their seat locations. You'd probably do better there than at the box office.

Having seen both Conrad Ludlow and James Fayette many times, I think the comparison by GeorgeB fan is right on the money. When longer hair for men became acceptable, it proved a boon for Ludlow who was able to cover what my wife called his "sticky-outy ears."

That's great! 'Soundcheck' is a good program and Schaeffer a calm and collected host who knows enough about ballet so as not to make a fool of himself. Incidentally, the second half-hour of yesterday's show was an interview with Pierre Boulez and concentrated on "The Rite of Spring." In his role as music critic, Rockwell has been on "Soundcheck"before, but I'm sure Leigh can hold his own. I should note that crossover music and its practitioners are frequent subjects on the show. The host is always kind and polite to his guests. More and more, it seems to me that Rockwell's original column, the Ballet Alert responses to it, and Rockwell's counter-response were the best things that have happened to Ballet Alert in a long time.

I'm probably misremembering, but didn't Peter Martins choreograph something to the "Italian Symphony" for an SAB Workshop years back?

Occasionally one hears complaints about the lack of a center aisle on the orchestra level of the New York State Theater (I think people's legs must have gotten longer in the last forty years and their feet bigger), but on the whole, I think it is by far the most successful building at Lincoln Center. The grand expanse of the Promenade is a particularly wonderful public space and makes intermissions a pleasure. In contrast, at the Metropolitan Opera House, there's no place to hang out, and the main intermission activity from the upper reaches of the place (aside from getting sozzled) is leaning over a railing to look at people's heads ascending the "grand" staircase to nowhere.

Jennifer Dunning, in the course of her review of Saturday afternoon's program, mentioned the promotions of Teresa Reichlen, Steven Hanna, Ashley Bouder, and Janie Taylor. But since Daniel Ulbricht, Megan Fairchild, Adam Henrickson, and Joaquin de Luz didn't take part in that program, they went unmentioned. I hope their promotions will eventually be recorded by what used to be "the newspaper of record." In the meantime, thank goodness for Ballet Alert for giving us the full story.

Especially on Ballet Alert.