Ray

he anticipates and rebuts the charge that he's being disrepectful. At the end of his piece he again distinguishes between the man and the art.I also find it refreshing to see someone challenging the conventional wisdom that Rauschenberg's work exemplifies and I appreciate his quoting what Shattuck had to say about juxtaposition in modern art. Sorry, but we won't agree on this. I think it's fine and necessary to challenge conventional wisdom; ballet certainly gives us plenty of opportunities for that! What I don't like is the occasion for doing it--it's just too easy in this case to grab the limelight to toot one's own horn. It's just bad form. And to me, Perl's "rebuttal" just amounts to a bald assetion. Yes of course we have the right to say whatever we think--about the man too, by the way; it's America, after all--but that doesn't mean it's the civil thing to do. I guess I'm getting soft in my dotage and am seeing deaths as occasions for reflecting on the times rather than full-scale attacks on individuals--or their works. I'd give Perl some slack if he at least indicted the art world in valorizing RR's work for so many years. After all, he didn't canonize himself.

Thanks, Quiggin. I learned more from your response than from Perl's essay!

I agree that that's one of the many functions an art critic may have, but I think Perl does a poor job of assessing the cultural effect of RR's career; we learn mostly about its effect on himself. I think the reactionary timing shows a lack of simple respect, and for what? The thrill of the buzz it will undoubtedly stir up? The job description of Art Critic can certainly include a sense of propriety, can't it? There's always time to mount a critique if the arguments hold water--and for me, that's part of a critic's job: to persuade me, not just pontificate.

This reminds me of the derogatory editorials published in the NY Times after the deaths of Derrida and Said. Someone's death should inspire us to rise above our own personal likes and dislikes and assess the person's effect on the world (I think many BTers did so after the death of Bejart, for instance), esp. if one has the luxury of a public forum like the New Republic. Doing so begins a conversation; asserting a judgment based solely on taste cuts one off or starts an argument, neither suitable on the occasion of a death (unless the situation is extraordinary--i.e., a political funeral in Apartheid-era South Africa). And while I certainly agree with interrogating commonplace formulations such as "the gap between art and life," I don't know that it does much to assert, categorically, that "there never has been a gap between art and life. There is art. There is life."

At Kamin’s Dance Bookshop (from Lunch Poems, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1964.) by Frank O'Hara [Dedicated to Vincent Warren, one of the important loves in O'Hara's life, and a dancer for the New York City Ballet.] Shade of Fanny Elssler! I dreamt that you passed over me last night in sleep was it you who was fast asleep or was it me? sweet shade shade shade shill spade agony freak geek you were not nor were you made of ribbons but of warm moving flesh & tulle you were twining your left leg around your right as if your right were me I’ve never felt so wide awake I seemed to be wearing tights entwined with your legs and a big sash over my crotch and a jewel in my left ear for luck (to help me balance) and you were pulling me toward the floor reaching for stars it seemed to me that I was warm at last and palpable not just a skein of lust dipped in the grand appreciation of yours where are you Fanny Elssler come back!

In today's NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/arts/des...amp;oref=slogin And from Macaulay, "Rauschenberg and Dance, Partners for Life": http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/arts/dan...&oref=login

Especially when it even occurs in NYC. I'm really sorry to hear Ms. Dunning will be leaving. I'm sorry to hear about the downsizing; I won't, however, miss Dunning. Like Helene, though, it does make me feel old too! I find Dunning's writing rather bland, and the work she carries out to contextualize dances in her reviews does not impress me the way it does with other NYT critics. Unlike Macaulay and even Kisselgoff at times, I don't often get a sense of the rich viewing history Dunning must carry after all of her dancegoing years.

What's wrong with the Trockaderos?

A very thoughtful response, but I'm going to limit my response to the paragraph above. I think this can be true, although I find that the kind of elitism that is often practised in the ballet world is that of the collector, the fan, or the connoisseur (rather than, say, the "intellectual elite"). This sometimes results in a tolerance of very coarse productions--i.e., ballets about Dracula, baseball, Darfur, etc.; tacky "contemporary" solos in international competitions, etc. The snobbery in these cases is all aimed at how dancers dance, but does not extend to quality of choreography, music, scenery, lighting, etc. I guess this happens in opera a lot too--people will kill to hear favorite singers sing anything, and in any venue.

As a former dancer who is at an age where I'm watching some of my perfectly capable female ex-colleagues turn into crazy, controlling/self-deprecating ballet ladies right before my very eyes, I found this pretty funny. It is satire, after all. Do we think this is really representative of a larger trend?

The third Kaiser...is that like the fifth Beatle? Zeppo Marx?

Joan Didion!

I think this discussion shows the usefulness of categories as helping the understanding, if they're used as a starting rather than an ending point. By beginning with her categories--staking out a hypothesis about distinctions between and within dance styles and inviting others to contradict, confirm, or complicate it--Catherine opens up a productive discussion about the nature of ballet within and outside of those rubrics. The "descriptive detail" she proffers doesn't emerge in spite of the "labels," but is engendered by them. Yes, there is a danger of allowing "lazy categories" to close down conversation, as EAW warns, but I think Catherine's method is sound as a way to begin, rather than end, discussion(s). And I think this is exactly what's happened here. Croce was probably right to worry about such facile labeling, because dance in general is not discussed thoughtfully, and journalism loves to pigeonhole (for sometimes very practical reasons, as papeetepatrick points out). But that's certainly not the case here on Ballet Talk!

The Sarah Cohen book is excellent and recent; be sure to mine her bibliography for further reading. Without knowing the precise scope of your inquiries, here are some more suggestions (there's more where they came from; message me if you want other titles): Brainard, Ingrid. "New Dances for the Ball: The Annual Collections of France and England in the 18th Century." Early Music 14.2 (1986): 164-73. Chazin-Bennahum, Judith. Dance in the Shadow of the Guillotine. Goff, Moira. She's written numerous articles, mostly on the late 17th-early 18th-c scene in England (sometimes in collaboration with Thorp). Hilton, Wendy. Dance and Music of Court and Theater: Selected Writings of Wendy Hilton. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1997. Howard, Skiles. The Politics of Courly Dancing in Early Modern England. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1998. Lewis, Elizabeth Miller. "Hester Santlow's Harlequine: Dance, Dress, Status, and Gender on the English Stage, 1706-1734." The Clothes That Wear Us: Essays on Dressing and Transgressing in Eighteenth-Century Culture. Ed. Jessica Munns and Penny Richards. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1999. 80-101. Lindberg, Mary Klinger. "'A Delightful Play upon the Eye': William Hogarth and Theatrical Dance." Dance Chronicle 4 (1981): 19-41. Lindstrom, Kristin. "Problems of Doing Research in Dance History." Journal for the Anthropological Study of Movement at New York University 9.3 (1997): 125-30. Macaulay, Alastair. "The First British Ballerina: Hester Santlow c.1690-1773." Dancing Times Dec. 1990: 248-50. Pierce, Ken. "Dance Notation Systems in Late 17th-Century France." Early Music 26.2 (May 1998): 286-299. Pierce, Ken. "Dance Vocabulary in the Early 18th Century as Seen through Feuillet's Step Tables." Proceedings of Dance History Scholars (1997). 227-36. Thorp, Jennifer. She's written numerous articles, mostly on the late 17th-early 18th-c scene in England (sometimes in collaboration with Goff or Pierce). As far as primary texts go, there are 17th and 18th-c writings by John Weaver, Kellom Tomlinson, John Essex, and John Playford.

And territoriality. Thank you popularlibrary--I had a feeling everything was not available to everyone, but didn't know if my feeling was out of date.

Closing my eyes and listening to the music. Ballet brothers: Kaisers or Ottos?

Just for the record, MCB isn't doing Balanchine's Don Q; from the press release: Program III will feature the return of the 19th century classic Don Quixote set to music by Léon Minkus. Miguel de Cervantes’ famous novel mesmerized Spain and the rest of the world for four hundred years – inspiring major works of art, plays, and ballets. There have been many dance enactments of the tale of the man from La Mancha – and Miami City Ballet’s full-length production is based on some of the best – from the famed 19th century choreographers Marius Petipa and Alexander Gorsky, with some exciting and lively enhancements. This work is filled with plenty of ballet action and Spanishstyle dancing and is one of the largest productions ever performed by Miami City Ballet, featuring nearly 50 dancers.

Here's a funny one: During a performance of Allegro Brillante way out in the provinces, our tech person stuck in a new CD of the Tchaikovsky. Well, he clearly hadn't listened to it, because for some reason the solo piano passages--during which the lead couple dance while the corps stands on the sidelines--were hugely extended, with lots of repeated pianistic cadenzas that sounded improvised by the musician. The lead couple just started improvising themselves--pique, penche, pique, penche, soutenou, and on and on. Every time the music started again, you could see the "Oh no, not again" looks on their faces. Tears of laughter were streaming down their faces, and we were all laughing so hard we could barely stand still. The fact that the theater was tiny, meaning the audience could see everything, didn't help!

Balanchine Fokine Firebird or Balanchine Firebird? Closing my eyes and listening to the music. In a dancer of either gender: Strong technique + facial plainness or beauty + technical weaknesses?

Yes! But the saying "cutting off your nose to spite your face" comes to mind in thinking about the way the Trust exercises its priorities. To prevent unauthorized productions, the Trust supports a kind of cultural amnesia that has the effect of maintaining the general American ignorance of 20th-century ballet. (Just how dangerous is a bad production of Midsummer, anyway? Some legitimate ones are pretty bad, too.) And to address Andre's point--"I believe the Trust (or any copyright holder) also has to make reasonable efforts to protect its property, otherwise they could lose their rights to it if someone challenges them. Sort of like, 'You didn't care about those videos then, why do you care now?'"--a simple solution would be for the Trust/NYPL/Balanchine Foundation/whoever to post the clips themselves, to back up Nancy Reynolds's promise of bringing Balanchine into the Internet age. As for the Trust's magnanimity in re allowing any Jo Shmo to watch NYCB videos: it costs them nothing to do this and, in fact, would be unethical if they didn't: those video materials are part of our SHARED cultural heritage now, historical materials tended by a PUBLIC library.

S&S The Red Poppy or Gayne?

Violin Concerto Balanchine: Duo Concertante or Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux? Tchai PDD Trocks or Grandivas? (whatever you answer, watch your back!)

WOW so much to respond to, but I'll start small by replying to this snippet of Haglund's commentary. Of course a 10-year plan is one of hope and vision--dreams and ideals even! But w/out that then you're just reacting, lurching from crisis to crisis. I think many struggling large-scale organizations with, as you say, "a founder at the helm" still behave this way, even if they have access to all kinds of assistance, financial and otherwise. My positive spin on all this--against the backdrop of the kinds of pervasive commercialization and consumerist ideology that SanderO brings up--is that there are creative solutions to problems that have yet to be tried yet because of the inherently slow-to-change nature of large-scale arts organizations (Bart this is part of Jeff Edwards's point; I will try to summarize it soon). .

Yes it IS. Absolutely. And it's stuff that many ballet lovers seem to have little or no interest in. It always suprises me when people go to a performance, or enter a museum, and have a lovely time while not even sparing a thought about the the complex processes (economic and other) that make these arts possible. Great institutions can disappear or be changed out of recognition. It can happen.Sometimes -- and this is the old curmudgeon coming out of its closet -- I think that balletomanes should pay perhaps a little less time brooding over whose mad scene is best in Giselle ... and a little more to appreciating how difficult it is to sustain the larger structures that are needed to sustain any performance art: companies, productions, staff, schools, repertoires, etc.. THANK YOU! --from another curmudgeon. How about these for "what's best" lists?: Which companies have the most viable or visionary 10-year (20-year?) plan? Which companies do the best job in terms of looking beyond a reductive model of "audience development"--i.e., working on long-term projects that go beyond putting butts in seats? Which companies manage best the balance between attracting wealthy funders and pulling in less well-heeled viewers? Which companies seem as creative administratively as they are artistically? (Jeff Edwards has a lot to say about this in a recent article in Dancing Times.) Which companies seem to suffer from "founder's syndrome"? I'm sure there are many others...

Here's what I found: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Costume Institute (New York, N.Y.). Diaghilev, Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes: Costumes in the Exhibition. [New York]: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978. Library of Congress call number: GV1785.D5 Google will take you to booksellers that list it in ways that make me suspicious about what it is they're selling--i.e., they list Richard Buckle as the author (he wrote the famous Diaghilev bio) and MOMA as the publisher. Yet some of them list Diana Vreeland as the introducer, which sounds right. The price is low, if you can determine what it is, exactly, that they're selling! I also found these articles about the exhibition: Luten, Karen Ann. "Dressing the Ballets Russes." Ballet News. (1979): 22-23. Macdonald, Nesta. "Diaghilev Retrieved: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 1978 to June 1979." Dance Magazine. (1979): 79-81. [sorry, rq, our postings crossed!]