Kathleen O'Connell

The dissenting Justice, David Friedman, makes this observation in the conclusion to his dissent: "By no means do I deprecate the serious social problem of digital harassment, which the New York City Council addressed by enacting Administrative Code § 10-180. Section 10-180, however, imposes liability on the perpetrators of digital harassment, not on their employers. In extending liability to such an employer in this case, the majority imposes upon every employer a heretofore unknown duty to monitor the private behavior of its employees, even though that private behavior is not made possible, or even more likely, by the circumstances of the employment and bears only an incidental connection to the employment. I believe that the invention of this new duty will have a deleterious effect upon employers and employees alike." Justice Friedman appears to be focussing on the specific act of employees sharing images on their private devices and whether an employer can be held responsible for that act simply because the activity took place on its premises.

With respect to the latter, I wonder if this was the first evaluation of Woetzel's performance. In the corporate world, at least, it's generally considered best practice to evaluate someone's performance regularly and to provide them with the guidance and opportunity to improve any deficiencies before asking for their resignation. Very often it's a "360 Degree" review that seeks feedback from a person's supervisors, reports, colleagues, and other constituencies, and is typically conducted by disinterested party using a professionally developed methodological apparatus—e.g., a consultant or HR professional. And of course, the person being reviewed knows that the process is taking place and is counseled on how to digest and respond to the feedback. (I went through the process any number of times, both as the person being evaluated and the person providing feedback.) This is what the whole executive coaching industry is about. What I'd like to know is whether Woetzel's deficiencies as a leader and administrator had been surfaced and brought to his attention before this particular evaluation and whether he undertook an effort to improve matters. I'd also like to know how the junior faculty, the students, and the administrative staff feel about his leadership. I don't think I have enough information to really understand what's going on.

Well, yes and no. Feedback is a gift and a good leader listens to it. It may well be that he took the criticism to heart and appreciates the opportunity to address them. And it wouldn't be in his best interests as a leader to contend that the people providing (presumably) honest feedback were wrong. If he believes that the evaluation was undertaken in bad faith, or was poorly designed and executed, he has better cause to challenge Kovner's actions on those grounds.

This paragraph in the NYT article certainly caught my eye: Kovner, who made his fortune as a hedge fund manager, has contributed extensively to conservative causes and has served on the boards of the American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute, both right-leaning think tanks. Last May, City Journal, which is published by the Manhattan Institute, criticized what it described as the school's “growing cadre of diversity bureaucrats” in an article headlined “The Revolution Comes to Juilliard: Racial hysteria is consuming the school; unchecked, it will consume the arts.” I clicked through to the City Journal article and its author, Heather MacDonald, appears to be beside herself that a) Juilliard is addressing matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion and b) that in attempting to do so, faculty, students, and administrators have made blunders and missteps. (And, yes, they have. Is anyone surprised? They are "the bumps and bruises that could be expected in navigating the national reckoning regarding racial injustice," as the Dean of the preparatory division put it. This is hard work for everyone and we will get things wrong while we try to get things right.) I suspect that in macDonald's view Juilliard's DEIJ initiatives have had no good results—or indeed, could never have good results since the whole premise behind such work is wrong-headed at best and grievous overreach at worst. If this is what people in Kovner's circle have been pouring into his ear—and if he hasn't troubled himself to look for another perspective—it might be at least part of what prompted his actions. (The article does not mention what actually prompted Kovner to undertake the evaluation in the first place.) I wish I knew whether and when Kovner or others on the Board approached Woetzel with their concerns, and whether Woetzel even knew the "internal evalutation" was taking place or what its results were before he was asked to resign.

During the curtain calls after today's matinee performance of Sonatine, Gonzalo Garcia ran off the stage like he forgot something, then ran back on with a bouquet of flowers for his partner, Megan Fairchild, presumably in tribute to their last time dancing on stage together. It was a lovely moment—the cherry on top of a beautiful and charming performance.

Of course—competitiveness is part of an elite athlete's make up and I'd be surprised if second or third place didn't sting. I was thinking more about the press in particular, but probably the audience too.

Google the phrase "settles for bronze" and you'll get page after page after page of results. Every time I see one of those "settles for bronze" headlines, my heart breaks a little—not because the athletes in question didn't win a gold, but because they medaled in an olympic or world championship event and all that seems to matter to the press is that it wasn't a gold medal. In my book, just making it onto an Olympic team is worthy of celebration—medaling, whatever the color of the medal, is icing on the cake.

Although some of Scotch Symphony's choreography evokes La Sylphide, Balanchine didn't import any of it from the original wholesale the way he did with Swan Lake. The music is different, too. And even if Balanchine had used Løvenskiold's La Sylphide score for Scotch Symphony, it's hardly as iconic as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake score; simply hearing it isn't likely to evoke the original ballet the way Swan Lake's score does. Even so, it's impossible for me not to think of La Sylphide whenever I'm watching Scotch Symphony, and often to the latter's detriment. (I love La Sylphide ...)

Scotch Symphony does seem like a very good analogue for Balanchine's one-act Swan Lake. Interestingly enough, there's more coherent "story" in, say, Serenade, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, or the first movement of Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 than there is in Balanchine's Swan Lake or, in Scotch Symphony, a kind of riff on La Sylphide. Both have a ton of narrative trappings but pretty muddled narrative content. In the case of Swan Lake, it's almost worse if you know the four-act original. To be honest, I run hot and cold on both Balanchine's Swan Lake and Scotch Symphony from season to season. Sometimes I appreciate the perfume, and sometimes I find the obvious reliance on another work's narrative and traditional trappings without any real distillation of that work to be annoying in the extreme. Given how much story Balanchine managed to pack into the first act of Midsummer Night's Dream on in La Sonnambula, I think he could have made a "complete" one-act version of either Swan Lake or La Sylphide had he wanted to.

Sigh. I forgot that today's Sunday matinee was a 2PM rather than the usual 3PM, and, much to my chagrin arrived too late to see 4Ts. (Where is everybody? I thought as I cruised alone through the vax check line into an empty lobby ...) Since my whole point in going was to see Teresa Reichlen dance one last time, I did not bail on Swan Lake. (Since I don't like any version of Swan Lake, I'd have preferred to have seen her in Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto or Firebird, but one must take what's on offer.) I thought she gave a beautiful performance—melting in adagio, blazing in allegro—and I'm glad I got to see it. She's leaving at her peak. (Tyler Angle was her partner) LaFreniere's dancing in the Black Swan PDD was not cautious, exactly—careful, maybe, is the term—which I found surprising given her bold, expansive, go-for-broke Chaconne debut. Ashley Laracey and Taylor Stanley's performance of Sonatine was lovely, lovely, lovely. Both looked wonderful, and looked wonderful together.

I saw two performances. At one, (1/29) Roomful of Teeth performed live. At the other (2/6) , the dancers performed to a recording. Sorry if I wasn't clear. Yees, they were.

I attended the third performance of Partita (Sat 1/29/22 Evening) and Roomful of Teeth performed live at that one. I also attended the Sun 2/6/22 matinee, and the cast performed to a recording. Roomful of Teeth was miked at the performance I saw: I suspect that at least some of the sounds they make wouldn't carry to the back of the theater.

I laughed out loud the first time I saw this. It's perfect. NYCB had a clip of it up on their website very shortly after the premiere, but took it down not long thereafter. The lyrics: I miss the old Kanye, straight from the 'Go Kanye Chop up the soul Kanye, set on his goals Kanye I hate the new Kanye, the bad mood Kanye The always rude Kanye, spaz in the news Kanye I miss the sweet Kanye, chop up the beats Kanye I gotta to say at that time I'd like to meet Kanye See I invented Kanye, it wasn't any Kanyes And now I look and look around and there's so many Kanyes I used to love Kanye, I used to love Kanye I even had the pink polo, I thought I was Kanye What if Kanye made a song about Kanye Called "I Miss The Old Kanye, " man that would be so Kanye That's all it was Kanye, we still love Kanye And I love you like Kanye loves Kanye The track: The Runaway is one of the few Fashion Gala ballets with real legs. The music, costumes, choreography, and dancers all came together with *chef's kiss* perfection. I liked Bartok Ballet more than most people when I saw it, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

The principals in the original cast—Suzanne Farrell, Ib Andersen, and Victor Castelli—were all tall, but also fast. (And if Andersen were one of the four elements, he'd be air ... he was also a very different kind of Prince than the grander Peter Martins.) The ballet was cast with tall dancers until, at some point, the second male role became the domain of short powerhouse technicians. To me, the overall temperature of the role has changed as a result. I'm not saying that's bad, just that it's become a somewhat different ballet than the one I first saw. I assumed that the contrast in height between the seven adult dancers and the four young SAB girls was purposeful, so I've found the gradual elimination of it over the years a marker of something, but I'm not sure what. (Necessity, perhaps? The tall up-and-comers may change that calculus.) The first genuinely not-tall principal woman I saw in Mozartiana was Sterling Hyltin. (Wendy Whelan was a medium.) It took my ballet eyes a few minutes to re-adjust to her scale, but I liked the wit and sparkle she brought to the ballet; to me one the the role's small miracles is the emotional range Balanchine has given the principal ballerina to explore—unambiguously reverent and inward in the opening Preghieria, witty in an "oh, the airs we aristocrats put on" kind of way in the Thème et variations. (I think both the Gigue and the Thème et variations wink at aristocratic manners.) Hyltin's partner was Chase Finlay, so the entire cast wasn't on the short side. The latest cast—Tiler Peck, Harrison Ball, and Troy Schumacher seem about as different from the original cast as it is possible to be—and it will be interesting to see what they do with it. (For the record, I've seen both Ball and Schumacher in the Gigue, and liked them.) PS - You can watch that original cast here:

I liked it too! I'm going to see it again over the weekend and will try to report back after I get a second look. I liked her in that role, too—it was one of her best, right up there with the Ratmansky roles she danced. On this we will have to disagree! The dancers gave it their all, but this ballet always gives me a headache.

Well, it's not the same as seeing her in the theater, but this New York Times "Speaking in Dance" Instagram clip from a few years back will give you an idea of what you missed ... when she was on in this role, she was ON.

I don't think any of these dancers necessarily need to retire now, although it may be time for them to retire some of their roles (as Mearns has already done.) That being said, the last time I saw Fairchild she looked like she had at least another decade left to her career; she must have gotten her hands on a couple of bottles of Joaquin de Luz's youth potion. 😉 I could see Gerrity taking on some of the roles that showcase Mearns at her powerhouse best, e.g., Walpurgisnacht. (As I mentioned in another post, she's already handled Mearns roles in Namouna and 4Ts more than ably.)

Oh no, indeed! I am an unabashed total Reichlen fangirl to the point where I exchange tickets just to see her in her best roles. One of her performances in Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 is burned into my brain and I don't expect to see a better Rubies Tall Girl in my lifetime. I don't think I could bear to be there for her final performances ... but I'm going to treasure every memory of her dancing that I have. ETA: Another performance I won't forget: Reichlen's Firebird, with Jonathan Stafford as Prince Ivan and Savannah Lowery as the Princess. All three were perfect in their roles and perfect complements to each other.

I saw her debut in Chaconne; it was so artistically strong and technically assured it wouldn't surprise me if her career followed a Sean Lavery or Ashley Bouder-like trajectory—i.e., a quick touchdown on the soloist runway and a prompt take-off to principal. (LaFreniere spent more time in the corps than Bouder, although I suspect that may have been due to injury; at least one of them kept her off the stage for quite some time and a couple of big debuts had to get scrubbed.) I'm a Gerrity fan too: I saw her deliver two blazing performances that were also unscheduled debuts—one in Sara Mearns' role in Namouna and one in Mazzo's role in Stravinsky Violin Concerto. She was so, so good in both. Her Sanguinic in Four Temperaments was also first-rate; I liked her better than Mearns, in fact.

I could mostly take or leave Teachout's criticism, but I was never less than charmed by his delight in building a curated collection of affordable art to hang on his own walls, which he dubbed "The Teachout Museum." He'd dutifully report on each acquisition in his pioneering blog, "About Last Night." (You can read some of those blog entries here.) He wrote about his little collection and the care that went into building it in his 2004 Commentary article "Living with Art - To appreciate beautiful works, nothing beats owning them; you don't have to be rich to play." Here are some selected quotes: " When I first moved to Manhattan, though, I did notice the etchings and small lithographs by famous artists hanging on the walls of the apartments of older middle-class New Yorkers, and from time to time it even occurred to me that I might like to own such things myself." ... "While not a collector by temperament, I do have an orderly mind, and I immediately grasped the difference between a roomful of unrelated artworks and a shapely, coherent collection. I realized that what I wanted to do was assemble a group of prints that told the story of American modernism—but from my point of view, not that of the Museum of Modern Art or anyone else." ... "I look lovingly at my copy of Downtown. The El each time I pass by, marveling at the chain of coincidence by which this exquisite specimen of prewar American modernism passed from Marin’s hands to mine. How many people have owned it? Did the last owner care for it as much as I do? Or was it hung in a dark hallway, there to be ignored and gather dust? Whatever its provenance, it has taught me a priceless lesson, which is that living with a work of art is the ultimate test of its quality—and the ultimate way of appreciating its beauty. I am lucky to own Downtown. The El, and luckier still to have wanted to own it. I hope someone else will want it as much, someday."

His take on New York State Theater as a venue wasn't exactly distinguished either: his assessment of it ("The balconies are too high, the auditorium too deep, and unless you're lucky enough to be sitting in the first fifteen rows of the orchestra, you feel as thought the stage is a mile or two away.") suggests he experienced it as a theater-goer, not a dance-goer. (As public spaces go, the Promenade is a wonder: I thank the ghost of Philip Johnson every time I'm there.) One may not care for the work of Jasper Johns, Elie Nadelman, Lee Bontecou, or Reuben Nakian, but to call the works of theirs that are on view in the theater's public areas "undistinguished" is a little wide of the mark. Teachout found the theater "squat on the outside and strange on the inside" and "not at all the sort of place where one might go expecting a revelation." One can practically hear him sigh that they just don't make them like the Palais Garnier anymore. OFF TOPIC: The Jasper Johns show at The Whitney is terrific! I recommend it highly.

Thank you! It's certainly an incentive to buy one.

What looks like peanuts to NYCB or the Met can make all the difference to a smaller organization. Keep in mind too that grants are typically awarded in support of a specific project or initiative for which the applicant is expected to secure additional funding. The applicant has to provide the NEA with a detailed description of and budget for the project or initiative. Here are some sample grant narratives that the NEA provides as good examples of what they're looking for.

Just a reminder that today's the day that the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) will livestream its performance of Balanchine's Liebeslieder Walzer, Robbins' Other Dances, and Lucinda Childs' Concerto starting at 1:30 PM. (I believe that that's 1:30 PM in whatever time zone is associated with your IP address.)* In the past they've left the video up for 24 hours after the livestream. Here's the link. *ETA: Hmmm ... Since the performance is scheduled for 7:30 PM Vienna time, 1:30 PM is probably EST. Here's a short video of Bart Cook and Maria Calegari rehearsing the cast in Liebbeslieder.

Agreed!