Ray

I hope that means they'll buy her some new pointe shoes!

Sandi, I had the opportunity to see an edition of "From the Horse's Mouth" devoted to Nik, performed last night at the Henry Street Settlement (referred to here). Alberto Del Saz ("Tito"), among many others, danced AMAZINGLY--he must have a decrepit painting of himself in some attic somewhere! You would have loved it; I hope it was videoed! EDITED TO ADD: Here's Robert Johnson's take on the evening.

I came across this review today of Dancing Across Borders, the Anne Bass documentary on Cambodian ballet dancer Sokvannara "Sy" Sar, by Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey. The documentary follows Sy from folk-dance training in Angkor Wat to the School of American Ballet in New York. The film is meant to celebrate Sy's journey, but raises some troubling quesitons for the reviewer. The following passages from the review really stood out to me: Praising the candor with which Sy speaks about his experiences and ambivalences, Rickey notes that "the film is not forthcoming about Bass' motives for bringing him to the States and the nature of their relationship. Is Bass his patroness, his surrogate mother, his life partner? These unanswered questions linger over the film like a stubborn smog." She continues, adding "Though it's a joy to watch Sy move with unself-conscious exuberance, it is painful to see him struggle with the expectations thrust upon him." Her review concludes "It becomes very hard during this uneven and unsatisfying documentary to know whether Bass made this bittersweet film to document Sy's struggle - or her own." Another interesting moment comes when Rickey describes others evaluating him: "Peter Boal, then of the School of American Ballet, examines Sy like livestock: 'Good feet, good extension.'" I appreciated this reviewer's willingness to be critical about what she sees, when many are just bowled over by seeing beautiful dancers on screen. I haven't seen the movie myself, though, and wondered what others who had think of this review.

In today's NY Times, Roslyn Sulcas reviews Lawrence Goldhuber's Trellis (Goldhuber is a Bill T. Jones alum). In describing the surprisingly balletic movements of the female dancer in the dance, Sulcas quips, "Is ballet supposed to signify annoying personality traits?"

I had a copy of the book and Nabokov's criticisms are 'right on'. It was one of the first ballet books I bought along with a bio of Diaghilev by Haskell/Nouvel. It oozes with pomposity both in the writing style and Lifar's importance in D's life. When the POB was in NY in the late '40's he autographed it to me as "un amie de la danse"... Oh, but I think Leigh's onto something right--Lifar's book tells a story that Nabokov simply isn't interested in listening to (and it's a fabulous read, I think). In fact, I wonder if they asked VN to review the book simply b/c he was a Russian ex-pat! His knowledge of Diaghilev seems gleaned from the popular presses descriptions and caricatures. (I do love, though, the parts that Quiggin quotes in re the "Russian renaissance"--I don't think I've heard that period characterized in quite that way before.) In any case, despite their respective faults or deficiencies both writers offer us something that contemporary observers never can: proximity to their subject, the movement, and the country of origin. And here's the Faulker with line breaks restored: I follow through the singing trees Her streaming clouded hair and face And lascivious dreaming knees Like gleaming water from some place Of sleeping streams, or autumn leaves Slow shed through still, love-wearied air. She pauses: and as one who grieves Shakes down her blown and vagrant hair To veil her face, but not her eyes— A hot quick spark, each sudden glance, Or like the wild brown bee that flies Sweet winged, a sharp extravagance Of kisses on my limbs and neck. She whirls and dances through the trees That life and sway like arms and fleck Her with quick shadows, and the breeze Lies on her short and circled breast. Now hand in hand with her I go, The green night in the silver west Of virgin stars, pale row on row Like ghostly hands, and ere she sleep In silent meadows, dim and deep— In dreams of stars and dreaming dream. I have a nameless wish to go To some far silent midnight noon Where lonely streams whisper and flow And sigh on sands blanched by the moon, And blond limbed dancers whirling past, The senile worn moon staring through The sighing trees, until at last, Their hair is powdered bright with dew. And their sad slow limbs and brows And petals drifting on the breeze Shed from the fingers of the boughs; Then suddenly on all of these, A sound like some great deep bell stroke Falls, and they dance, unclad and cold— It was the earth's great heart they broke For springs before the world grew old.

A friend recently forwarded this link to Nabokov's 1940 review of Lifar's Serge Diaghilev: An Intimate Memoir, and Faulkner's 1919 meditation on L'après-midi d'un faune, both of which appeared in The New Republic. (You need to scroll down past the first item to get to these gems.) Nabokov's review is scathing; sometimes bordering on homophobic, but mostly just acerbic. A quip: The book consists of two parts [...] and for serious students of the Russian ballet, it will be quite sufficient to dip into these first 246 pages, where compilation prevails over original effort. True, there is too much of the good thing, and I for one have never been able to stomach these minute details of a biographee's infancy. But there is worse: Mr. Lifar's style is so pompous and long winded that it runs away with him. Such expressions as divine, sublime, quest for the Holy City, memory of a distant heaven, applied to an irascible gentleman in top-hat and silk muffler, who happened to possess a wonderful flair in the matter of dancing, may be put down to the devotion of a pupil to his master; but I refuse to be solemnly told that "childish memories persisted in Diaghilev all through his life," and that "in Benois' decor for the 'Gotterdammerung' [with which Diaghilev was not directly connected] it is as though some tiny corner of the Perm province haunts him [Diaghilev].” Faulkner's begins with this (it sounds like poetry, but despite the midstream capitalization there are no line breaks): I follow through the singing trees Her streaming clouded hair and face And lascivious dreaming knees Like gleaming water from some place Of sleeping streams, or autumn leaves Slow shed through still, love-wearied air. EDITED TO ADD: Apologies if these have been posted/discussed before. I didn't find them on a cursory search.

Am I missing something here, Simon? Do you mean the 2nd movement of Symphony in C? Neither Ballo nor T&V have more than one movement; neither is associated with Farrell.

I agree, but also b/c of her (also gross) "Assessing the future of modern dance" article, which I won't discuss here in the ballet section.

I agree, bart. It's ultimately uninteresting, and does little to advance the conversation.

True enough, nijinsky1979, I concur entirely. I guess when I speak of my "unhappiness" re Tidwell it's completely selfish on my part: I want to see him do Theme and Variations! I know many, many dancers who went to Broadway for security--most marvel at getting paid so much to do so (comparatively) little in terms of training and personal sacrifice. One woman I know became a dance captain for a long-running show; she had her own office! While she was technically on call to step into any part, she rarely had to (there was usually some eager young dancer waiting in the wings)--but even if she did, it was very easy stuff.

I don't think anything anyone's saying here will prevent Tidwell from doing what he wants to do. Nor does anyone wish him ill. I think we're all speaking from a ballet viewer's perspective: most of us would have liked to have seen such a dynamic performer dance in a major ballet company, doing the ballets that we love. It's true that some of us--myself included--feel that the things he dances now don't really push him as an artist, but I defend my right to criticize the public practices (i.e., not the private behavior, which I don't care about) of someone who has put himself out there in the public eye. And to talk about my unhappiness about them.

Am into this too and loving it. I really appreciate the attention to the life AND to the work. It made me think, though--why don't biographers of composers take advantage of new technologies and include audio tracks with the musical notation examples? (Dance writers could do the same w/videos, the powers-at-be willing...).

Leigh: I think the editor of the blog lets him edit himself, so I guess you are right, sort of. EDITED TO ADD: Sorry, I underestimated the nature of the Broad Street Review. They do indeed have an editor. And to dirac: when I first posted this--before I went off on my snotty rant--I did ask the question about the value of this kind of reviewing--i.e., by an interested, perhaps educated person who is not a dance person. I'm definitely not against it, per se. And while I can see that he does offer some good "big picture" reflections about the nature of art and choreography--again, a good thing--I don't know how productive it is to compare Neenan's 3-year-old work to Balanchine's 50+-year-old work without, well, contextualizing that comparison. So while I will cede him his reflective creativity, I'll still wish he (a) knew more about dance, (b) didn't show off so much by throwing in so many disparate quotations , as LiLing illustrates, and (c ) could write more directly. It's ironic to cite Descartes, who wrote so clearly even if his ideas were difficult, and then churn out sloppy sentences.

For your...delectation...I include this link to a recent review of Pennsylvania Ballet by Jim Rutter in a local online publication. The question for the group, before I begin my rant: do we celebrate this kind of review b/c the reviewer is paying attention to dance? I'm not celebrating, at least right now. To me, the review reads as pretentious and wrong-headed on so many levels. I love the part where the reviewer describes Balanchine's Four Temperaments as "an exploration of each pole in the Ancient Greek system of dividing personalities." First of all, there can only be two poles--i.e., positive/negative, north/south; and, while the temperaments my have their bases in Aristotelian theory, Hindemith was going Medieval here. And the sentence "an artist should subordinate his voice a bit to avoid losing too much in his interpretation" is particularly vague. Reading the review reminded me of some interesting connections, though. For instance, Orff and Hindemith were almost exact contemporaries, who, despite clear differences in musical expression, were both responding in similar ways to the musical directions of their times (i.e., exploring smaller instrumental forces; an interest in "neoclassicism"). Both also had complicated relationships to the nazis, although Hindemith comes off as the better guy in that regard (the nazis loved Carmina, btw!). NONE of that appeared in this "review," however.

I couldn't disagree more. I thought the dancing was fantasic. Truly creative, reflective of the what the "real" world is doing out on the streets with dance, and refreshingly not what I expected. I'll clarify, b/c I don't disagree: the dancing was good, but I think it was poorly presented for TV. As one dancer I know put it, "That was dancing, but not choreography." As far as being "from the streets," though, I'm not so sure...I think those styles have been commodified for a while now...

The music and especially dancing were particularly bad this year.

This isn't a book, but a series of documentary videos about the use of Freud by governments and corporations. Remarkable and, before someone led me to this link, unavailable. The Century Of The Self By Adam Curtis (Documentary, 2002) Episode 1: "Happiness Machines" Episode 2: "The Engineering of Consent" Episode 3: "There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed" Episode 4: "Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering" "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." - Adam Curtis

I'm going to look at this, and the series's bio of Schubert as well. Thanks!

Sounds just like how I expect a Russian ensemble to play Tchaikovsky: to use a syrupy word, with soul.

A very good question ... and possibly one that Wheeldon and Lopez should have discussed more often when setting this whole thing up. Out of curiosity on this very point, I started trawling the dance company IRS Form 990s and other filings posted on the New York State Attorney General's Charities Bureau website (www.charitiesnys.com). It's a fascinating exercise. A factoid: in terms of revenue, Morphoses and Complexions were about the same size in 2007. Morphoses had total revenues of $1.47 million ($729K in contributions /grants and $740K in performance income); its expenses totaled $796K - i.e. it socked away $674K. Complexions had total revenues of $1.3 million ($652K in contributions /grants and $689K in performance income); its expenses totaled $1.14 million. (Someone at Complexions has real fund raising mojo: contributions /grants shot up to $1.2 million in 2008.) One can see via the filings how much Complexions paid its dancers in 2007 ($522K) - what isn't available is how many were under contract and for how many weeks. (Thirteen are listed on its current roster, along with a ballet master and assistant ballet master.) Morphoses' 2007 and 2008 "Performer Fees" were $305K and $273K, respectively. I assume that some or all of this was for dancers. IIRC, there was at least some live music on its 2007 programs - I don't know whether musicians are included in "Performer Fees" or whether they are included in "Direct Production Fees" ($122K / $193K) or "Artistic and Performance" ($37K / $51K) Travel expenses were $112K / $113K . Keep in mind that 2007 was Morphoses' first year; it was Complexions' 13th. Morphoses' 2008 990 (go here) contains a multi-page summary of the year's activities - where it performed, who it commissioned works from, etc - and some prose about its mission. Deborah Jowitt has some comments on Wheeldon's announcement here. Thank you for carrying out all of this research!

ITA w/ this. I never grasped what the point of Morphoses was -- what need was it filling that wasn't being filled elsewhere? Morphoses wasn't the exclusive destination point for Wheeldon's work (he was still working in every place under the sun) and I often got the impression he was saving his best efforts for his important commissions. The non-Wheeldon works were drearily similar to one another (in the worst contemporary way) and coated the Morphoses programs in a glaze of sameness. What cache the company did have came from the leading lights of City Ballet and the Royal and, once they decamped, Morphoses became a lot less glamorous. At the end of the day, I don't know that the basic concept and its subsequent execution were substantial enough to keep the company going. (I don't see how Morphoses survives without Wheeldon.) Well put, you two. And all of this was eminently predictable had there been any significant critical conversation about and research into establishing this company. But who in the nonprofit arts world listens to those who came before them (especially if they imagine themselves to be "special")? Such hubris on all sides of the table.

I just started reading The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, by Jonathan Zittrain. Fascinating so far.

Well put, miliosr. I heard Smith speak and drew the same conclusion--she was, actually, oddly conservative about RM's art, while wonderfully vivid and candid about their time in NYC together, and their friendship.

Many BTers may not be aware that Macaulay's recent end-of-decade roundup sparked a lot of animosity in the world of contemporary dance (in AM's anachronistic phrase, "downtown dance"). Here's a recent blog posting by Eva Yaa Asantewaa that exemplifies the fracas. My personal sense is that more blame needs to be put at the feet of the NY Times than Macaulay himself--he's just a single critic with singular interests, and sounds worst when he's asked to travel outside of his comfort zone.

Eric Cutler, and he was excellent!