Ray

Thanks, Carbro, for directing me to this thread. I did look for it, honest! Now, I'd like some explanation as to why people seemed to like this documentary. I hated the jumpcut shots (the blurry slo-mo) and cuts in the performances, the too-dark shots of Serenade opening and closing, the cheesy tourist shots, and the portentious narration. I did enjoy hearing from Rosemary D., and appreciated the subtitles rather than voiceover translations, but I thought the rehearsal footage of Alexandra Ansanelli in onstage rehearsals was a bit bizarre (why was she and she alone in costume? Why was Peter Martins rehearsing her in Serenade? And I don't think it's OK not to be told why she ultimately wasn't cast). Despite the thrill of seeing Symphony in Three Movements on TV, the show just didn't cut it for me.

This was rebroadcast today on one of the public stations here in the Philly area. Has anyone seen it? I thought it was poorly filmed/edited (despite a few good bits) and even more poorly written.

Amen! And the wide access to video today (of all stripes) just exacerbates the frustration. BTW I just saw a rebroadcast of the 2006 documentary on NYCB's trip to Russia. Very poorly done (I imagine that there's already a thread on it, so I'll see what others have thought).

...and from the past, of cooooooooourse, who else than Mr. Perfection, (aka George Zoritch?) just take a look... http://www.georgezoritch.com/frame.html Love the beard on Hadrian too!

Fielding's Joseph Andrews is one of the funniest books I ever read--not to mention Tom Jones.

A ballet that Taras--ahem--"recycled" as Trio in A for PBT in the late 80s-early 90s!

Warren Conover--now THERE'S a great teacher--Hubbard Street and Ruth Page in Chicago, before he moved to NCSA. And leibling's right about McCollough running the PBT Ballet School, back in the late 80s (her husband Rick, another NDT alum, was ballet master there at the time as well). Below is an invite I received today by email about the McCullough tribute performance (it's addressed to NCSA dance alums, but I'm sure they'd take anybody's money); no news here about Stiefel: Dear Dance Alumni, After 19 years of service to NCSA Dean Susan McCullough stepped down from her post on June 30th, with plans to return to teaching at NCSA in Fall 2008. NCSA alumni, faculty, and students, including the NCSA Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Chancellor John Mauceri, will pay tribute to Dean McCullough for her 19 years of service as Dean of the School of Dance by performing in a star-studded concert featuring classical ballet and contemporary works. Guest artists from American Ballet Theatre, Boston Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet, as well as contemporary artists from New York City , will participate. As valued members of the NCSA family, we want to be sure that you are aware of this wonderful opportunity to honor Dean McCullough. Please mark your calendars so you don't miss it. Monday, October 15, 2007 7:30 p.m. The Stevens Center of the North Carolina School of the Arts Tickets for this exciting program are $60 for orchestra level seats and $50 for balcony seats, and are now available: Stevens Center Box Office 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Monday-Friday) Phone Number: (336) 721-1945 Fax: (336) 631-1212 Online: http://www.ncarts.edu/performances/boxoffice.htm We hope you will join us! Best Regards, Alex C. Ewing Interim Dean School of Dance North Carolina School of the Arts

Most lists, like this one, shy away from anything between Milton and Emma--i.e., Hobbes, Locke, Pope, Swift, Defoe, Sterne, Rousseau, Richardson, Fielding, Voltaire, Hume, etc. No "classics" there?

That seems like a good fit! I wonder if it was even thought of by the powers that be?

A number of years ago, this is exctly how I would have described Suzanne Farrell, even after her book was published.

It'll all depends on how much of a support staff he has there in the dance office at NCSA. I had the sense that Susuan McCullough was a hands-on administrator; Robert Lindgren before her also worked very hard at his job. But perhaps they are investing in a good assistant or two to do the dirty work. I'm sure development is crucial to them in these times (they've certainly beefed up their alumni activities, a sure sign); let's hope they use Stiefel effectively. It's interesting that they emphasized that he'll be dancing with his GIRLFRIEND. Already wooing those conservative donors!

There are currently a number of Nureyev threads in process on BT. This one --http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=25514 -- began as a discussion of Nureyev and demi-pointe and digressed into other issues when a rather negative article about Nureyev by Lewis Segal was Linked. I think this is the one you are thinking of, Ray. And it's still there! No, that's not the one, unless I'm just not seeing it. I remember that someone posted something to the effect of why sexuality was important to RN, since it "made him dead."

While I agree that these books exploit the felt victimization of their authors, I would also assert that what non-dancers are interested in reading about are the ways that ballet stages the inequities of life in particularly harsh, explicit, and often highly personal manners. These books tell stories of a kind of naked exercise of power that few people experience unless they are incarcerated or in some kind of high-pressure profession (but even a doctor who kills a patient though negligence in many cases gets a fairer hearing than a dancer who gains weight or drops a partner!). Still, I would agree that what is dissatisfying about Brody and especially Kirkland's writing is the low level of self-reflecting on the ways their own ambition fed into the messes that their lives became. I don't think they should've just "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps," yet I do think there's a far more complex interplay of external pressures and internal drives that I don't think they explored very deeply (Toni Bently does a better job in Winter Season).

I could have sworn there was discussion on this thread about RN's sexuality. Did that get snipped, perhaps in homage to Soviet-era cultural control? Just kidding...

Thanks for that insight, GWTW. I'm going to take another look at some Wilde with this in mind.Ghastly thought: What if we reverse this? What would Austen's novels be like if she had some of Wilde's compulsve need to translate all human behavior into epigrams? Well, to be fair to Wilde, he was perfectly capable of writing non-epigrammatic prose. Dorian Gray, for one! And I think Wilde might see this "translating" differently--i.e., remember his quip "life imitates art."

Can anyone tell me which Giselle video does the best job in showing the mad scene? By "best" here I mean in terms of filming/video quality--I want to show it to a non-dance class of students and I want them to see it clearly.

But does that make it OK? Is the fault, then, of the New Yorker for not using other reviewers (as they do with almost all other arts)? I was thinking today about the amount of space Croce devoted to Balanchine, her fave, but that was in the context of far more frequent reviewing. These days, it's hard enough to have to wait so long between dance reviews, and disappointing to me when they don't cover any new critical ground--again, there was lots of dance, and even new dance, in the area this summer. While I certainly appreciate your thoughtful comments, Helene--enlightening as always--I'm holding onto my pleasure in reading SATIRICAL writing about the dance world, a tone that has always seemed to me woefully lacking: as a theater friend of mine once quipped, "dance people are so damned serious." And I think one of the most powerful voices in dance criticism (a small pool, to be sure) is fair game. Laura Jacobs is hardly as well known as JA.

Ah, but it is--Woods's translation came out in 1994 and it's excellent. He's tackled almost all of them at this point, even Joseph and His Brothers and Dr Faustus. Busy guy!

Are these the Woods translations? Yes. Many thanks! I just ordered two from amazon.com. It's more than time for me to re-read Thomas Mann Yes, the H.T. Lowe-Porter translations are shockingly bad--dispells any illusions about the past being the "good old days" of literature!

He's not really an outsider, though: he's married to critic Laura Jacobs, who has made her feelings about Mark Morris quite clear. Point well taken--and I never knew that! So is he a "sock puppet" for Jacobs (to use his words)?

Are these the Woods translations? Yes.

Kurt Vonnegut--I just can't even open his books anymore. Thomas Mann--I love reading him more, mostly because the new translations are better than those I read originally.

I LOVE that someone has finally called her on her sanctification of Morris, even if it is a bit over the top (most good satire is)--especially considering all of the dance that happened in NYC (and Jacob's Pillow and ADF) that she ignored in order to give space to him for, as Woolcott jabs, "the 400th reiteration." Maybe it takes a dance outsider to articulate what no one in the field dare say. Thank you nysusan!

Thanks for all of this, Chris. I debated whether or not to put this post in this thread because, as you rightly point out, her resignation didn't directly involve her gender. It is, though, news of a ballerina who has gone onto the directing track (derailed temporarily), so I thought it was pertinent. (Should we instead create a space for Greek National Ballet in "European Ballet Companies, and put these posts in it?)

Thank you for all of this insight. I wonder what MM thought of the broadcast?