grace

dear Peregrin Took - what a great name! i am also in australia - so i sympathise. the answer to your question depends on which state you are in - if you have access to sydney, then the performing arts bookshop (assuming it still exists!) should be able to help you. if in melbourne, i seem to recall that the giftshop in the south yarra arts centre had a few ballet books which you wouldn't get at Angus & Robertson or Dymocks - but still not many. i am in perth, so i find that such specialised books really DO have to be ordered - usually via specialist bookstores. OR - if out of print - hunted down via 2nd hand bookshops. alexandra's suggestion of AMAZON.COM is probably the most efficient, if you can buy anything online (i.e. if you have a credit card, and don't mind using it online, etc). good luck to you!

if such a column appeared here, it would certainly ignite a flurry of letters to the editor, from ballet teachers and parents, attempting to educate the writer. i wonder if that has happened at this paper?

this is a variant of something i have been thinking about recently: my theory is that one AD with real vision could re-instate any one country's style (that we so much enjoyed to see in the past) - and that s/he might be praised internationally - after a good while for word to get around - but that s/he would be absolutely DAMNED in his/her own country (as being 'backward'=looking, etc.) quite possibly, such a person wouldn't last long enough with the funding sources to even establish what they were trying to do...such a person would be mighty unpopular, methinks...

hmm...i don't feel informed enough to step back into my own debate, now! these posts touch on quite wide-ranging issues. just to clarify, after i confused ari. what i meant was that your re-wording (overly) narrowed what i was trying to say. that's all.globalisation as "simplification" - never thought of it that way! lots of interesting ideas here - many of which i agree with. for those who are talking about how balanchine WAS the big deal internationally, but is no longer - i agree with you. i too feel we have moved on from that. but we did not throw it all out and go in another direction entirely - we *accepted* some of the things he was famous for/associated with (like the body type) - and have now moved forward on top of that (i think).

oh gosh, ari - too many questions! but: GOOD ones! ;) "Anglicisation"? YES! re balanchine: fascinating thought! instant response: YES! but then...hmm....a topic for another thread, methinks. well, no - that's not what i'm asking - although you COULD re-phrase it that way - but then it becomes narrower, and more dated.i suppose what i am asking is, similarly to what alexandra has posted (in another thread): that there is probably a concensus, when the word 'globalisation' is used, re politics or culture or anything else in the everyday stream of things, that it is almost synonomous with Americanisation. going on from there, when we talk of 'globalisation' in BALLET, are we talking of Americanisation? i am inclined to think we are - but others may hold other views. that is what i am trying to clarify - even for myself - to see whether i REALLY do think that - or if i am just a bit mixed up about it!

...and this is probably quite irrelevant, but here's a review of a performance he enjoyed more: http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsu...ior/4481152.htm

well found, leigh! ;) i suppose we could email the writer and ask him to join in, here... it's an interesting read. it doesn't read (to me) as if he's got a chip on his shoulder. it is reasonably descriptive, and gives a bit each way. i think it is very fair to acknowledge that the audience seems to love something, when the writer doesn't. COULD be damning - but seems to be followed by comments which soften the impact hugely...btw, i just did a search on the author's name, and found the following: there was also this one: pvirtuci@duluthnews.com

i agree with alexandra and calliope and mel - the idealists. there is too much already posted here for me to know where to begin to comment... but i have had this situation happen to me, as a reviewer. an independent artist phoned my editor to ask that i NOT be sent to review his work, because he didn't like what i'd already written about some performing friends of his. he seemed to be thinking that i *obviously* didn't have a clue and didn't like what i was seeing - and COULDN'T like that style of work. my editor stood up for me, pointed out what she thought were my strengths, and refused to change writers. i wrote a very favourable review, (not knowing any of this). then she told me that he had rung. i was incensed: how dare he ring up my employer and suggest that i not be given work?! that would be like me ringing the director of the arts funding board and saying HE shouldn't be given any more money (i.e. HIS employer/HIS work). next time i saw him, i challenged him on this, and we argued it out - as politely and rationally as possible (at this stage he still didn't know i had written a favourable review, because the magazine takes a while to come out). i felt i had won his respect, by articulating who i am, what i stand for, my values/principles and my point of view about his action (yes - all that, in 25 words or less!) ;) next time i saw him - at an al fresco/picnic performance - i offered him a glass of wine... and we have been on respectful friendly terms ever since. happy endings DO happen.

oh dear - dancermom has taken offence. i agree with you, myself, dancermom, that some of the above-listed things aren't necessarily 'american' or ONLY american. i am not 'swatting' - not at all. these things are big big issues - not swattable! most of them ARE, however, things people in the rest of the world think of, when they think of american culture, and the aspects of it that are copied in their own countries. as you suggest, australia is a very good example. it used to be based on english culture - when i was born and raised, way back in the dark ages - but these days, it is considered - by australians - to be 'very american'. (as alexandra says, this is said to be due to the influence of the media.) i agree with you that it is best to leave aside any debates as to whether my descriptions of american influences are fully accurate. regardless of that, i'm sure you DO have an image of what 'america' and americanisation might mean, to other cultures... (and they might perhaps be stereotypic things, just as one might think of THE australian as being a roughly spoken leather-skinned beer-swilling paul hogan wrestling a crocodile while wearing a cork-brimmed hat...) if we go back to the issue of ballet, can you see what i am getting at? i DO think that balanchine IS american ballet. OK: he is dead. and there is FAR MORE to american ballet than balanchine - always was. BUT - his style became synonomous with ballet in america, for the rest of the world. does that help understanding? mel - forsythe said that himself, so i didn't question his own view of his own influences....or are you querying whether forsythe is an influence on choreographic taste today?

i am just exploring this idea - not agreeing or disagreeing with anyone who has posted, but rather just teasing out the threads of what seems to be in my brain... when the world speaks of globalisation, in general, it is often a code-word for americanisation: the fall of communism/the rise of capitalism and of economic rationalism, an expectation of at least the APPEARANCE of democratic values, an opportunistic get-rich-quick culture where the strong thrive and the weak struggle, a rise in social violence, too-early teenagerhood, wild-child behaviour/'freedom' and 'creativity' in child-raising rather than discipline, fast-foods, easy divorce, multiple marriages, celebrities as role models, etc etc. don't get me wrong - i have lived in america and loved it, and i still love americans as individuals (although i'm not too hot on their foreign policy) - so this ISN'T mean to 'bag' american traits - just to enumerate SOME of the aspects which we DO think of, when we list american influences which are now accepted as commonplace, around the world. when we think of the ballet image that is now accepted around the world, it has more in common with the (balanchinean) american ballerina image than with any other country's. who do stereotypical 'ballerinas' look like now? fonteyn? seymour?chauvire? jeanmaire? haydee? gregory? kain? - not really. but farrell: YES! bussell just happened to arrive at the right time, and as jane says was well-established, in english public taste, well before guillem was allowed into the country - let alone 'the' company! they look similar, in retrospect - but bussell established the taste for long-leggedness in the RB. guillem was a co-incidental beneficiary of that taste. but both are an amplification of the farrell ideal. +, as alexandra says, the athleticism/gymnastic style. i agree that forsythe is a driver of choreographic taste in recent times, but HIS base was balanchine and, by his own admission, the 'speed' and brashness of america... still just playing with the idea...

now that i understand you better, mel, i see you have a point. in a way, we are making the same point: that the product these days is indeed "luxurious and splendid"...but no one talent rises superlatively above the rest. still, the bar(re) is set awfully high these days...

Hans wrote: i don't agree. i feel we have an overabundance of glorious ballerinas, of phenomenal ability - i could even say that we now have SO many, that that is the reason that no ONE stands out....also, other reasons i would identify, have to do with the way society has changed, to a point where a single individual is never promoted to the same extent as in the past. like alexandra, i am inclined to say "I don't think we're living in a time of legends" - but i would be saying it, for the reason that i can't imagine a ballet legend existing, ever again. i could well be wrong, though! it's only a 'feeling' or a guess.

i've got a feeling the question that underlies this thread topic is a really dumb one... - too obvious to talk about, maybe. but then again, maybe not? i don't know, so i'll put it up - and if you all laugh at me, i'll take it down! ;) i have been thinking about the term 'globalisation', as applied to ballet - quite frequently here, in recent weeks. it occurred to me that what we have in the world of ballet today is americanisation, rather than globalisation... i mean: compare it to food... all over the world today, in western countries (which is all i have personal knowledge of), you can get McDonalds and Burger King and Baskin Robbins and Haagen Daz - but you can also get 'Chinese" and 'Japanese' and 'Italian' and 'Mexican', etc etc... in ballet, the ideal female dancer now is what USED TO BE the (US) balanchine ballerina - tall, leggy, slim, pretty, energetic, colt-like. the ideal male dancer therefore 'has to' be taller, to complement her as a 'cavalier'. ACTUAL balanchine works are in companies everywhere. i imagine some of you are thinking 'so are ashton's' or 'so are cranko's' or whatever...but surely not to the same extent? the balletic choreography we have today, over so much of the world, is more INFLUENCED by balanchine's (in particular) than it is by ashton's or cranko's or macmillan's or bournonville's or van manen's, etc etc. so - should it be narrowed even further? do we mean the 'balanchinisation' of ballet, all over the world - rather than its 'americanisation'? (i don't think so, myself - but i'm not sure i can explain why...) what do others think?

thanks, old fashioned. i too was wondering why stevenson was leaving houston, when his name has been tied to the company for so long. i don't know anything about janie parker, so i am still somewhat in the dark. i am intrigued by the choice of geilgud as assistant (or is it 'associate?) director...quite an unusual choice, it seems to me, for a young person to make. if i were in such a position, i would want support - but not from someone who has done it ALL before, for years - and who is potentially in a position to undermine, or to compete with you. i guess he must respect her skills, and be VERY sure of her.

i believe i recall an earlier thread (MUCH earlier) about male pointe roles - perhaps mel or alexandra can find it? - i think we came up with more than a few examples.

interesting thought, diane :

i'd like to stay out of analysing this question - although i do share some of steve's discomfiture with the wording (aren't we all pedantic?!?) ;) i can't really imagine us, ever again, having legends like "Fonteyn, Pavlova, Taglioni, Grisi, Elssler" ...something to do with - well, all sorts of reasons, so i won't go there. i'll just put up my list: ferri, guillem presumably bussell and cojocaru will get there, 'later' ? i have not seen many of the other names mentioned here, regrettably.

i'm late coming in, here - but: "anger management" - good one! LOL in the circumstances - reality and all that - if there WERE such a course, i would see it as a one year graduate diploma type of thing - which would have to be very specifically focused on the essentials: HR stuff, finance stuff, marketing stuff...if i seem to be contradicting an earlier post of my own, where i said that i thought the AD should attend to 'A' (artistic) matters (in preference to the admin stuff), i don't mean to. but i think one has to have an awareness of these things, in order to work WITH the people who specialise in these areas (the CEO, business manager, staff or board members). i would rather hope that things like dance history and aesthetics would be things which the candidates would have individually (formally or otherwise), developed their knowledge and awareness of, over the years PREceding their application for an AD position...

watermill - not to derail this thread topic, but just to explain: i actually read the phrase about 'intelligent and literate' teens, in this context, as meaning teen dance students being intelligent and literate ABOUT DANCE. i may have misinterpreted, in that way, as i can see it the original post doesn't actually say that, and you read it differently. ...just to explain.

just to clarify: i don't regard any of the teens i have taught as 'bad apples', or, as unusual, at all (except unusual in their level of dedication to a discipline like ballet) - but it is extremely rare or almost nonexistent, in my experience today, to meet one who knows anything about ballet history, apart from the name of fonteyn, and similar items of trivia. (to explain THAT phrase: not having seen her, or been alive in her lifetime, or read her autobiography, or even seen film of her, they have merely heard of the legend, and accept it as gospel - a fact of trivia, rather than something they actually know anything about, or have an opinion about.) as (amongst other things) a teacher of ballet history, to some of the countries most talented dancers and young ballet teachers, this has stunned me - and yet i know that my experience is not unique among my peers in australia. not at all. it is common. this doesn't mean there is anything wrong with them as people - or that they have bad parents - or bad ballet teachers - they DON'T! but life today just doesn't seem conducive to the kind of rapt focused concentrated LOVE of an artform, in one's childhood and teen years, as was the case when i was growing up - but then again, i was 'wierd' even then! i am happily accepting that my 'wierdness' had a purpose - but i miss coming across such love today - even though the teens i speak of are far better dancers than i ever was. the one example i can think of, of a teen who was so darned clever and in love with with the artform that i felt a great kinship, was the famed/notorious intuviel (long time balletalert members will know who i speak of). i completely accept that you, as parents, or teachers, may well have a different experience in america - but this is my experience. not a 'bad' one, but a disappointing one, nevertheless.

i agree with you, citibob. DO people talk about fundraising as one of the AD's jobs? even if the answer is 'no', i think the american AD may have a slightly different job description, to that of other countries, just as i believe the baords of american companies are quite different to boards in other countries.

thanks for highlighting that interview, brendan - very interesting reading.

enjoyed the sylve video - thanks balletstar!

FYI, brandsen came to this position from west australian ballet, where he choreographed the carmen, and of course presented van manen's 5 tangos. also a work by pastor.