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jayeldee

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Everything posted by jayeldee

  1. Sorry, I've messed up my "qoute" links, here--but bart wrote, 'How about a "former dancer," also a "dance teacher" [smoking]?' No, I can't fathom it. I think it's just plain crazy, for a dancer to smoke, or dance teacher. But it's their decision. They know their bodies (and psyches) better than I do (all too obviously)--and indeed, better than anyone else does. On this topic, I've just finished John Gruen's "The Private World of Ballet"--and therein, was the first I learned, of dancers smoking. (Whereupon, I made a beeline for BALLET ALERT!--to see what else I might discover on the subject.) In Gruen's collection, mention is made of Makarova and Baryshnikov and ... and a few others I can't recall--smoking their way through their interviews. It astonished me. How could they have danced?!?! I don't understand it! I ran across a mention, online, of even my heroine, Moira Shearer, smoking! Something about her not being able to leave her dressing room, in later years, without first partaking of coffee and a smoke. (By the way--and here I go, off-topic--perhaps you know, but Gruen's book also includes an illuminating interview with Violette Verdy.... And his later book, "People Who Dance", includes a very interesting conversation with Miss Shearer--who was, by the way, at least as articulate in speaking as she was in writing. But there was--to return to the topic at hand--no mention made of her smoking....)
  2. Yes, bart--and thank you once again! It was Shearer that originally drove me here, a year or so ago--and I think I found most of the posts regarding her (and printed out a judicious selection thereof). But I'll have another look, in response to your very kind personal Alert. Everything's always worth a re-read, in any event. But do you wish, as I do, that there were more of her, available on video? As it is, it seems we have to settle for the films in which she appeared--quite nearly all of which, by my estimation, are "redeemed" only by her presence (including "The Red Shoes", which I think is a generally dreadful movie, overall--especially in its theme, which is pessimistic and uninspiring in the extreme; which theme I take to be: "Art and Life are fundamentally incompatible." In point of fact, that "message" is the total opposite of the truth--and a horrid one to convey, especially via the medium of art!) ... I have, and have seen, everything with Moira that's available--including "The Man Who Loved Redheads" and "A Simple Man"--but where is footage of her in performance with the British ballet companies??? There's nothing, that I know of. (But then, too, I'm nowhere near the archives in New York--and what may exist there, I've no idea.) ... I also wish, as I previously mentioned, that some publisher would see fit to issue a collection of her newspaper writings.... Finally, and also in the Extreme Frustrations Department, there is a listing at both Amazon.com and Blackwell's Books, of a paperback number entitled "Moira Shearer", supposedly penned by her late husband, Ludovic Kennedy; it even has an ISBN--9780719561764, and a publisher (John Murray Ltd.), and a publication date (01 Jan 2011); but it (if it exists) remains unavailable, to date!! Figure that one out (and please let me know, if you do!). Sighhhhh.... Thank you again. And all the best to you.
  3. And thank YOU, bart, for acknowledging my post! Nice to know someone's listening! ... I'll have to look up Verdy, too: your description of her writing is very much akin to my impression of Miss Shearer: she "sparkled [good word, that] with life, energy and intelligence." (Unfortunately, my passion for ballet only came to fruition after the lady had passed. Else, I think I'd've moved heaven and earth to have somehow communicated my admiration to her. As it is, I have to settle for being haunted by her splendid spirit, all unbeknownst to her..... ) (Hmmm...I sound eerily smitten..... Well: I am.)
  4. Moira Shearer. Authored two books (on Balanchine, and on the Victorian actress Ellen Terry; both well worth reading--especially the former)--and a series of book reviews and opinion pieces (a collection of which I'd very, VERY much like to see). She also commenced, at some juncture, upon an autobiography--but reportedly gave it up early on, thinking it would not be of much interest to the general public; a bloody pity, that!
  5. Johnny-come-lately, here (that is, Jeffrey-come-lately) .... I just read through every post. No one seems to acknowledge that smoking can also offer benefits to a person--the nature and degree of such depending entirely upon the preferences and consititution (both physiological and psychological) of that person. Given that, it can be entirely reasonable for a person to smoke, rather than to not smoke. But--that said, it IS hard, awfully, to comprehend a dancer smoking! One would think that the lung capacity would be so diminished as to make it wholly unprofitable. But again, it all depends upon the individual; some can probably withstand whatever ill effects smoking might induce, better than others can. In the end, it's their decision, and they ought to be left alone to make it. (As for the legality of it, the key is property rights: one is free to allow smoking or not, on one's own property--be it a house, a restaurant, a theatre, or a stadium.... That is, one SHOULD be free to allow it within the domain of one's own property, or not: but not in this totalitarian era, when individual rights are vanishing faster than the execution of a grand jete.) (As for smoking "in public", there is no viable solution: "public property" is not, by definition, governed by principles applicable to private property. Since it's effectively "owned" by everyone, it's owned by no one--and unending, irresolvable conflict is the inevitable result. Economists refer to this conundrum as "the tragedy of the commons." The solution to which conundrum is obvious: abolish "public property", as such, by transferring it into private ownership.... Yes, even the streets--and the highways, too; and the oceans; and the airspace.)
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