Tapfan

On 10/9/2018 at 2:29 PM, NinaFan said:

  Yes, the classics of Balanchine are the backbone of NYCB, but why stop there?    

With the possible exception of  some pieces by Justin Peck,  many of NYCB's biggest fans and financial supporters are always going to be resistant to  anything that isn't Balanchine or Robbins.   It's as predictable as sand is in the desert that they will resent different  work because it means fewer chances to see even more selections from the prolific works of  B & R.    

What's wrong with staying in your lane?  It's worked for NYCB all these years.  As to the dancers, they didn't become  NYCB dancers because they wanted to dance  Petipa,  Forsythe  or McGregor. 

Geez Louise. Seems like NYCB has always been Peyton Place. Just another reason for me to hate 'em. 

Yes, it's a huge loss. These last few years, I got the feeling that he felt emotionally disconnected from his own marvelous creation, DTH. All he seemed to talk about or at least be asked about by dance writers, was his time at NYCB. 

16 hours ago, bcash said:

Or it may sadly speak to ballet's overall marginal presence in America's cultural landscape. 

I agree.

8 hours ago, Rock said:

It interests me that many posts have referred to the "complaint", which means they've read it. Yet no one has mentioned Chase Finlay's mental state. Aside from the gut wrenching texts and videos apparently sent around, the language he uses and the things he says indicate, to me at least, a very troubled person who needs help. 

If he wasn't  a participant in a high classical art, wasn't from an affluent family  and didn't look like a model from one of the old, pre-diversity,  Ralph Lauren adds, would folks use so delicate a term as  "troubled" to define Mr. Finlay?

Will the resolution of these troubles result in real and lasting change?  As is the case with many august arts institutions,  when you get outside the nexus of it's biggest fans and supporters,  NYCB can seem hopelessly insular and so concerned with the preservation of the Balanchine and Robbins legacies that other issues are given short shrift. 

6 hours ago, wonderwall said:

During graduate school, I remember reading a few ethnographic studies on male sports teams regarding gender norms, masculinity, etc. One of the interesting observations made was that male teams in sports typically viewed as a "softer" or "more feminine" often had cultures that endorsed toxic masculinity (I remember a particularly shocking one about a male volleyball team, but interesting nonetheless). Of course, ballet is not a gendered team sport in the traditional sense, but reading through this, it makes me wonder whether their profession causes some male dancers to feel the need to overtly demonstrate macho masculinity/womanizing behavior (compensating in some way). While ballet is already entrenched in gendered roles/power structures, it is just interesting food for thought.

I watched this after reading this thread and thought it was very interesting--especially 2:52 through the end.

 

I've always been bothered by the fact that some straight male classical dancers, feel the need to declare how in to women they are and to brag about how much access they have to scantily clad, nubile women.  

It sounds so defensive and definitely isn't the most mature stance you can project.  

Will the resolution of these troubles result in real and lasting change?  As is the case with many august arts institutions,  when you get outside the nexus of it's biggest fans and supporters,  NYCB can seem hopelessly insular and so concerned with the preservation of the Balanchine and Robbins legacies that other issues are given short shrift. 

8 hours ago, laurel said:

Right now, New York City Ballet makes ABT look very good in comparison, which I find as disturbing as all the other nightmarish things that are tearing  our country and culture and entire planet to shreds.  

If the management of ABT is smart, they will get out in front on any potential problems they might have with inappropriate work place behavior. Heck, all companies should be taking a look at acceptable standards of behavior. 

That's wonderful news. Congrats to all concerned. 

The fear of languishing in the corps is not a phenomenon that is unique to ABT.   It's a problem  for many large and even mid-sized companies. Dancers like free agents in sports,  move around much more frequently than in years past. And some like powerhouse soloist Derek Dunn formerly of Houston Ballet, now dancing with Boston Ballet, don't necessarily leave because they are unhappy, but because they want  other challenges.

Also, I believe  as surely as the president loves to tweet, that there are pockets of talent, administrative and programming mediocrity that exist in practically all of the so-called prestige companies.  The concept of unyielding artistic brilliance or even uniform excellence is a largely a myth.

I wonder if they'll try to lure Jared Mathews away from Houston Ballet?

Eric Underwood's available.  That is of course, if he hasn't quit ballet altogether. 

I know he's a bit long-in-the-tooth, but how about Arthur Mitchell as a replacement? That'd shake things up a bit. And considering the company's not so long ago rep for having been weak on the diversity front, it's poetic.

Precious is a beautiful classical dancer.  I hope she doesn't get typecast because she's so strong in contemporary.

On ‎7‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 6:28 AM, California said:

These reports about Copeland's performances in Orange County and Milan sadden me. She's not the first dancer to struggle with the hops nor the first to wear clunky/noisy shoes (Cojocaru comes to mind, e.g.). But she seems to be the first dancer many have seen who represents the effort to diversify dance in North America and she, most unfortunately, confirms for some their worst stereotypes of "affirmative action," viz., dancers promoted for reasons other than artistic merit. Bolle knows how to sell tickets, but this casting didn't do American ballet supporters any favors in the continuing effort to diversify dance.

The people who use Misty's supposedly bad performances as proof that black women can't be great ballet dancers, were going to believe that anyway. Who cares what they think?

I'm less fascinated by the  crimes against art that Copeland supposedly commits every time she sets foot on stage, than what her mere presence proves. A black woman can pack a concert hall as the central figure in a classical performance art that isn't opera. 

It may be depressing and vulgar to balletomanes, but the box office power that Copeland and Gilda Squire have unleashed has got most ballet companies at least pretending to care about racial diversity.  They actually care enough that some are regularly poaching ballerinas from DTH. I bet Virginia Johnson is both thrilled and extremely annoyed all at once.

Not all little girls want to wear the tiara. But many do, including little black girls. That this fact escaped so many in ballet for so many years is very strange. But now they know.

For years, ballet people have lamented about the lack of the next big thing that is supposed to wake  ballet up from it's doldrums and push it into the future. Who's the new Balanchine?  Where's the next Nureyev or Baryshnikov?  Where would the next big center of ballet emerge? Would it be in Asia? 

What if the next big thing in ballet is that none-white people under 50 actually start to care about it?  Could that be the thing that "saves" ballet?   

On 7/30/2017 at 7:36 AM, Natalia said:

ABT has a great history of diversity with Hispanics (Alonso!) and Asian-heritage (not just Hee Seo or Stella) ballerinas. I'm sure that they'll have a truly worthy black ballerina for the classics in due time. (I like Misty in contemporary.) It's too bad that ABT let Michaela De Prince "go" after she graduated from their school (eventually to Amsterdam). Maybe she'll be one of ABT's promised "exchange guests" in the future? 

Actually, Michaela de Prince has been knocked  by some balletomanes as  having more of a compelling story than actual talent. She  gets slammed as being nothing but atheletic and being a distraction to classical harmony.  

I suspect that any black ballerina of  stature, will be tarred as having reached that status due to affirmative action only, especially if said black dancer is promoted BEFORE a favorite white dancer.   As I've said before, the only black woman who will escape such judgments, will be someone who is so clearly superior in every  way - technique, musicality, physique, feet, stage presence, acting talent, versatility, European standards of beauty and offstage affability -   that she towers over the ballet world in the same way that Michael Jordan towered over the rest of the NBA. You have be twice as good to get half as far.  In other words,  superballerina.

 And even then, she'll be the ONLY one allowed lofty status even if some other black woman  with equal credentials comes along.  ( Because isn't one black ballerina enough to satisfy those always complaining social justice warrior people?)  

To our European friends it may be different in Europe but in the U. S., practically all advancement for racial minorities in a field previously dominated by whites, is NOT achieved on a level playing field. Yes, ballet is very, very, difficult for everyone.  But people who are not white have additional burdens no matter how much some folks may insist otherwise.

As Virginia Johnson has said, far too much was riding on Misty Copeland's ascendance. There should have been 15 or so black women  ready to step up and  help break the glass ceiling that has prevented black women from having a ballet career, let alone reaching  the principle rank.   Since there were so few in major companies, many who view RACIAL diversity in ballet as important, had pinned all their hopes on Misty.

As someone who believes  that ballet diversity that extends beyond  white Latino and East Asian women who are fair skinned, I see better days on the horizon. There are several very promising black, biracial, Afro-Latina and Native American,  dancers in the pipeline who feel empowered  because Copeland made it to the highest rank. Kaeli Ware,  Kamala Saara McDaniels, Olivia Winston, Alexandra "Sasha" Manuel, Kelly E. Hicks, Olivia Bell, Eliana Vaha'i Feao, Alysia Johnson, Raquel Smith, Destiny Wimpye, Tais Vinolo and Helga Paris-Morales are just a few truly excellent prospects along with others too numerous to name. And of course, many want to dance at ABT like Misty and some are already training at JKO.  Ware, aged 17 and McDaniels  almost 15, are such formidable talents that, both have been offered professional contracts with DTH. (Both declined in order to continue training at prestigious schools elsewhere.)

After seeing the wealth of truly exceptional non-white female talent coming up, a friend of mine remarked half-jokingly, that maybe the ballet establishment put so many obstacles in black women's paths all those years, because they secretly feared they'd take over the field like they have in  many sports.   Laugh all you want.  Stranger things have happened.

Representation is important.  It is something many folks take for granted when EVERYTHING defaults to their group.  

I saw that at another news site and was tempted to post it. But seeing as how I've been critical of Martins  in the past, I figured people would think I was being mean.

This whole thing is so bizarre. The story is begging to be made into an edgy indie film or a sensationalistic  Lifetime made-for-TV movie.

Precious Adams of English National Ballet has been promoted to First Artist.   Good for her.  I know she received good reviews for her dancing in "In the Middle Somewhat Elevated."  I just hope she doesn't get typecast as a contemporary dancer because she has a lovely port de bras, clean pointe work. beautiful lines and a graceful Russian back. 

On 6/24/2017 at 9:38 PM, cubanmiamiboy said:

 

Sorry, double post.

On 6/24/2017 at 8:38 PM, cubanmiamiboy said:

 

It is tough for me since I haven't encounter too many of them in any company I follow-(ABT...MCB...NYCB...BOLSHOI...MARIINSKY...POB). On the contrary...I do remember following Jose Manuel Carreno and Carlos Acosta since the very early stages of their career, and up until they left Cuba. They were both AMAZING...and being black had nothing to do with it. I hadn't seen Copeland dance a full evening ballet until I saw her SL...and dear...it was just a sad spectacle...whatever race she might be.

It's different for men.  The fact that  men like Acosta   - despite lingering bias -  have in rare cases risen to international stardom when black women have been unable to do so, has been a major concern for  the black ballet community.  And yes, there is such a thing as a black ballet community.  They meet every third Thursday  at secret locations across the Americas  to plot their systematic destruction of the evil, Western ballet establishment.  I'm their spokesperson ;)

Good folks, nobody wants quotas. Nobody wants to see bad black female ballet dancers. Nobody. Yet some of us insist on seeing racial diversity in ballet because it can enrich the art form and because we KNOW there WERE and ARE black women dancers who are more than deserving to be given the chance.   Some of us  also believe that  there should be more acknowledgement of excellent black ballerinas from the past   who didn't get their due. They exist and  are part of ballet history.  They are not unimportant just because some ballet fans don't know or care about them.

I just wish some folks were as concerned about the fact their beloved art form was for the longest time, NOT open  to everyone who wanted to master or appreciate it if those people happened to be  the wrong color.   And the great gods of ballet didn't suddenly snap their fingers and everything in ballet became an egalitarian utopia. 

Copeland's promotion to principal did not plunge ballet in to a state of soul-sucking mediocrity.  Mediocrity could already be found everywhere you looked  long before she came on the scene.   

On ‎7‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 11:16 AM, sandik said:

 

Last thing first -- your English says what you want it to say.  Which means it's far better than my Italian, German, French, or Japanese. 

 

I agree that in the US we tend to frame diversity in terms of black and white, when in fact we are a much more colorful country.  I live in the Pacific Northwest, and around here, our Asian and First Peoples populations are sometimes more numerous than our African American.  But even though those groups have a long history of unfair treatment from the white majority, we still, as a country, are grappling with the after effects of slavery.  And these struggles play themselves out in almost all parts of our culture.  It's messy, it's painful, and in some cases it does push other peoples aside, which also makes it unfair.  But honestly, it is such a stain on our heritage, that we really do need to do this work, as strange as it may seem to someone looking at it from the outside.

 

Explanations are not excuses, but they are explanations.

 Well said.  As someone who is an unabashed cheerleader for greater racial inclusion in the classical arts in America, I agree that the term "diversity" is too often used only as shorthand for "lack of black representation." 

And I wholeheartedly agree that it is ridiculous to expect to see what we in the West would define as "people of color" in ballet companies like the Bolshoi and Mariinsky that are so closely tied to national identity and are located in a largely racially homogeneous country. 

What I disagree with is the attitude still held  by some in the West, that brown bodies shatter uniformity and are therefore an attack on classicism.  Evidently, uniformity of style, movement and purpose is always trumped by the distraction of that dark girl in the line of Willies, Swans, Sylphs or Shades.  Evidently, other things in classical ballet may evolve, but not the need for everyone to have glowing white skin in Act II of Giselle. 

And the fact that these attitudes are expressed by some folks whose artistry I greatly admire like Mathias Heymann, is doubly disappointing.    If due to his Moroccan heritage, his complexion were darker making his being cast as James  in La Sylphide  a distraction, would he be okay with that commitment to white being right?

Bob Fosse is, well a god. People who have never heard of him have been influenced by his work and don't know it.( See Beyonce, who god bless her, steals from everyone  in entertainment who is good.)  I know that Americans are supposed to worship at the church of Balanchine or Graham, but I'm a heretic. I worship at the the alter of Fosse. 

And as Gwen Verdon said, he was a superb dancer as well as dance-maker.  

City ballet has convinced  yet another horse that was peeing into the tent, to come inside. Ford Foundation President Darren Walker who just a little over a year ago,  publicly accused  NYCB of bias against women of color, is now a Vice-Chair on the board of directors?! 

I'm truly gobsmacked.  I honestly thought the powers that be at City Ballet were largely  insulated from criticism and cared little if any what people thought about their lack of diversity.   After all,  the problem and the grumbling about it from outsiders, has gone on for many, many, years without change.   

Also, snarky remarks by SOME folks in the NYCB nexus about ABT's Project Plie' implied that some folks think that the diversity problem can't be fixed and that any attempts to do so are nothing more than cynical PR stunts.

But as Theresa Howard said at the Seattle Town Hall,  the major arts organizations like NYCB seem to be serious about real change this go-around. 

Many of us who criticized major companies for lack of diversity, were weary of being told we were crazy or racist for noticing. It's  so nice to see the gaslighting  that insisted there was no problem, stop.    Good for everyone concerned.

Bliss.

10 hours ago, Mashinka said:

 

Of course Acosta danced with the Bolshoi when the numbers of suitable dancers for Spartacus were down, it wouldn't surprise me if they invite Brooklyn Mack to fill the role in the future.

 

Francesca Hayward is mixed race and therefore never stood out in the corps.  Interestingly, she impresses those London fans whose interest is solely Bolshoi and Kirov, these are the ones who only go to the RB when the likes of Osipova and Muntagirov are dancing, but they've spotted Ms H and very much like what they see.

 

ENB have darker complexioned Precious Adams in the corps, I've never heard anyone comment negatively on her presence there.  ENB also invited over Michaela dePrince, a young lady of African birth to dance in Giselle, a bit puzzling as they have company members capable of Queen of the Wilis, I would much have preferred her to have danced it at the RB where the failure to produce an outstanding performance of that particular role (along with the Lilac Fairy) is an embarrassment.

 

Pretty much all the British companies have black male dancers, the RB has several, the majority seem to thrive.

It's not just the Brits,  almost all ballet companies in the West - from the major companies  to the  smallest regional organizations -  have at least one black male. Pick a company at random and check the head shots of the company rosters to see what I mean.

While black men definitely have their own race-related issues to contend with in the ballet world, male dancers are harder to come by in the West so it is easier for black men to find employment.  Also, black males don't have to contend with their skin color being a distraction when they stand in a line of white Swans or Willies.  Black women do.

While most folks in the black ballet community would like to see more black male and female dancers of all hues  dancing in companies of all sizes, the biggest complaint they've had over the years is the dearth of black female dancers.  And they definitely are not down with the presumption that no black females are or were qualified. 

Instead, they felt that black female dancers had to fight against hoary old stereotypes about always being poorly trained, lacking grace, being unable to control their power or having bad feet or the wrong body types. 

For instance, the way some people spoke about Michaela DePrince's body was disgraceful. This young woman is petite. And not just tiny for a regular young woman her height. She is tiny even when compared to other ballet dancers. But some donkey's behinds talked about her as if she was as muscled as a female body builder. It made me realize that they were not seeing her real body, or even the quality of her movement. They were seeing  her in a stereotyped way that they saw all black women's bodies as either too fleshy, or hyper-athletic in build.