Alexandra

Oh, Rachel -- how clever! The Dollars for Dancing campaign is now officially launched

Oh, Rachel -- how clever! The Dollars for Dancing campaign is now officially launched

Thank you for posting that sad news, BarreTalk.

The complete list of Varna prizes: Arsen Mehrabyan (Armenia), Jubilee Prize Boyko Dossev (Bulgaria / Hamburg Ballet), Senior Men's Gold ... Zhang Yao (China), Senior Men's Silver Alexander Alexandrov (Bulgaria), Senior Men's Silver Ulian Topor (Germany / Moldavia), Senior Men's Bronze . Jin Yao (China), Senior Women's Gold Helene Bouchet (France / Hamburg Ballet), Senior Women's Silver Irina Kolesnikova (Russia), Senior Women's Silver Anastassia Kolegova (Russia), Senior Women's Bronze Lu Meng (China), Special Junior Prize Sergei Kheilik (Germany), Junior Men's Gold Yuhao Guo (China), Junior Men's Silver Weng Yaosheng (China), Junior Men's Bronze Izabela Sokolowska (Poland), Junior Women's Gold Alexandra Sourodeeva (Kazakhistan), Junior Women's Silver Maria Kochetkova (Russia), Junior Women's Silver Sarah Mestrovic (Germany), Junior Women's Bronze . Soo Youn Cho (Korea), Junior Women's Bronze Ilia Kuznetsov (Russia), Partnering Prize Duan Jingting (China, female), Youngest Competitor Le Geng (China, female), Encouragement Prize Martha Petkova (Bulgaria), Encouragement Prize John Neumeir, Choreography Prize #1 Jiri Bubenicek, Choreography Prize #2 Press Jury Prizes: Marcin Kupinski (Poland, Senior), Classical Male Interpretation Prize Nikolai Viuzhanin (Russia, Senior), Contemporary Male Interpretation Prize Maria Kochetkova (Russia, Junior), Classical Female Interpretation Prize Alexandra Sourodeeva (Khazakistan, Junior), Contemporary Female Interpretation Prize.

Another email to be posted: Dear Caroline Miller, I am the artistic director and choreographer for New York City-based dance company SENSEDANCE. My press agent just informed me that the dance column in New York Magazine will be cut. I kindly ask you to refrain from taking such a misstep. The multicolored dance scene of our city is an important component of what makes New York unique. New York without dance is unthinkable. New York Magazine without a dance column not worth picking up. Sincerely, Henning Rubsam SENSEDANCE 1425 Third Avenue, #3c NYC 10028 Tel/Fax 212.717.6869

Another email to be posted: Dear Caroline Miller, I am the artistic director and choreographer for New York City-based dance company SENSEDANCE. My press agent just informed me that the dance column in New York Magazine will be cut. I kindly ask you to refrain from taking such a misstep. The multicolored dance scene of our city is an important component of what makes New York unique. New York without dance is unthinkable. New York Magazine without a dance column not worth picking up. Sincerely, Henning Rubsam SENSEDANCE 1425 Third Avenue, #3c NYC 10028 Tel/Fax 212.717.6869

There was no mention of Peter Martins either. I think the article was geared to those Morris's generation or younger, looking at the up and comers. In modern dance, you'd have to go to the smallest venues (another big problem; there are about 2% of the affordable studios now compared to Martha's day) to see what was going on there. Those are the labs.

dirac, I hope you find your long reply! I think there are two problems, and one of them is grossly inadequate coverage. When Martha Graham was doing her one night shows at the Y, there weren't very many people there, but one of those people was John Martin, and it made all the difference. The same thing with Ballet Society. The notion that things have to be "popular" -- i.e, mass market -- before they're worthy of newspaper coverage will kill dance. The second is that I do think dance is in a holding pattern -- but I see it as cyclical, not as an unrecoverable event. Marcia B. Siegel once wrote that, looking back on the 1940s in both ballet and modern dance, the beginnings of each movement were the most creative. I see it the same way. In the first few years of a new genre or movement, not only is everything new and exciting, so everyone runs over from Last Year's booth to This Year, but simply because it's new -- whether that's Graham's Americana works or Tudor's expressionism -- and therefore fresh in the sense of unexhausted. After the first few works, there's little choice but to become repetitive, and those who are inspired to work in the same genre/movement are seen as derivative. The way to solve that is to either do what Graham did, and have serial movements -- solos, Americana, reinvented Greek myths, etc -- and when one lode was mined out, she closed it and moved on. OR you can invent what I call an infinite formula. Bournonville, Petipa and Balanchine all had one. A good formula can be reinvented endlessly, whether by using new stories, as with the 19th century choreographers, or using new music and choreographing its structure and atmosphere, as with Balanchine. All of them repeated, too, but made work at such a high level that we don't mind As to the New York scene, Morris would never have gotten to Europe if he hadn't been loudly championed by New York critics. And there are a lot of very good modern dance choreographers -- Trisha Brown, Susan Marshall, the Urban Bush Women. Yes, I am forgetting David Parsons. -- who are not mainstream and probably don't want to be. As for ballet, it's hard to see what's happening in ballet, because 90% of the new works are not ballets. Classical and neoclassical choreography is actively discouraged. Company directors ask young choreographers for "something trendy." And that's just what they're getting. Calliope, we were posting at the same time. I was surprised at the inclusion of Stroman. Yes, of course she's a choreographer, but she works in musical theater, not dance. Now all of a sudden she's a spokesman for the dance world? She's not part of the concert dance world.

If you click the link now, it should work.

Flash! Another new form response from Caroline Miller at New York Magazine: It's true that we're not going to continue running Tobi's reviews, but, believe me, we are not abandoning dance coverage. We'll continue to run previews, listings and features, and are committed to making sure dance gets the attention it deserves, in every way we can. As you have observed, every publication in America, like every arts organization, has had to make painful decisions on how to deploy limited resources to give readers what they value most. This is something we feel we have to do at this point; it doesn't mean that we're not serious about dance and other arts in the city. Like all organisms, magazines need to keep evolving, developing new voices and new approaches. -------------------------------------- comment by A.T.: So cutting reviews is a "new approach?" Surely that's been tried And if the links and previews are being written by writers already on staff -- and already doing the links and previews -- then how is that "developing new voices"? I can't resist this dig, that Tobias's voice was already quite developed when she went to NYMag, and there has been no indication that this move was to replace her -- quite the opposite. Eliminating Tobias was because they were eliminating dance reviews.

Flash! Another new form response from Caroline Miller at New York Magazine: It's true that we're not going to continue running Tobi's reviews, but, believe me, we are not abandoning dance coverage. We'll continue to run previews, listings and features, and are committed to making sure dance gets the attention it deserves, in every way we can. As you have observed, every publication in America, like every arts organization, has had to make painful decisions on how to deploy limited resources to give readers what they value most. This is something we feel we have to do at this point; it doesn't mean that we're not serious about dance and other arts in the city. Like all organisms, magazines need to keep evolving, developing new voices and new approaches. -------------------------------------- comment by A.T.: So cutting reviews is a "new approach?" Surely that's been tried And if the links and previews are being written by writers already on staff -- and already doing the links and previews -- then how is that "developing new voices"? I can't resist this dig, that Tobias's voice was already quite developed when she went to NYMag, and there has been no indication that this move was to replace her -- quite the opposite. Eliminating Tobias was because they were eliminating dance reviews.

Just how troubled is American dance? Read Ismene Brown's take on it, and see if you agree: American ballet and modern dance companies

Another letter sent to me for posting. This is a reply to Miller's form response: Hello: I am stunned not by the loss of dance coverage in your magazine, but rather that you would fire the finest voice in dance criticism today. It seems to me that you have done the wrong thing, and I encourage you to rehire Tobi Tobias. Best, Andrea Siegel

Another letter sent to me for posting. This is a reply to Miller's form response: Hello: I am stunned not by the loss of dance coverage in your magazine, but rather that you would fire the finest voice in dance criticism today. It seems to me that you have done the wrong thing, and I encourage you to rehire Tobi Tobias. Best, Andrea Siegel

Thanks for posting that, dirac. This incident is but one more reminder, should one be needed, that truth is much stranger than fiction!

I agree with your last statement, Calliope (about not getting the difference between press and review). But I think Miller's latest response shows where the thinking comes from -- it has nothing to do with economic difficulties and everything to do with the perception that dance doesn't matter and there aren't enough readers who care about dance. On your question about recitals, apparently it is extremely difficult to determine statistically what's professional and what is not in the dance field: there's no agreed upon definition. There are a lot of professionals who work for little or no money -- in peforming, this is especially true, of course, in modern dance. Choreogrpahes may not receive fees for their work, etc. etc. etc. But from an editor's point of view, I'd be just as happy to have as a reader the parents of a four-year-old whose school has a dance recital as I would someone who only attends performances by the major companies, or the minor ones -- or never goes at all, but just dances. Who cares? As long as they're interested in dance.

I agree with your last statement, Calliope (about not getting the difference between press and review). But I think Miller's latest response shows where the thinking comes from -- it has nothing to do with economic difficulties and everything to do with the perception that dance doesn't matter and there aren't enough readers who care about dance. On your question about recitals, apparently it is extremely difficult to determine statistically what's professional and what is not in the dance field: there's no agreed upon definition. There are a lot of professionals who work for little or no money -- in peforming, this is especially true, of course, in modern dance. Choreogrpahes may not receive fees for their work, etc. etc. etc. But from an editor's point of view, I'd be just as happy to have as a reader the parents of a four-year-old whose school has a dance recital as I would someone who only attends performances by the major companies, or the minor ones -- or never goes at all, but just dances. Who cares? As long as they're interested in dance.

In the LATimes article of August 2, Ms. Miller (editor of NY Magazine) was quoted as saying "And it's no surprise to anyone that the audience for dance has diminished." I haven't been able to find anything to support this. DanceUSA, which keeps the numbers on dance in this country, has the following information on its website in the "Snap Facts" section (www.danceusa.org) This is a quote from the web site: Dance in America: Snapfacts 2000 Professional dance companies in America have a direct economic impact of over $350 million. A study by the NEA in 1997 estimated that 35.6 million people attend dance performances.* * This figure may include pre-professional performances and recitals. There are about 675 professional dance companies in the USA. Of these, 15 have budgets in excess of $5 million. An estimated 55 to 65 have budgets between $1 million and $5 million. About 12 to 14 of these are modern companies; the rest are ballet. New York City has more dance companies -- slightly over 200 -- than any other metropolis. But this number includes only 13 of the 70 - 80 companies with budgets over $1 million. Dance is a relatively young "industry" in America. In 1965, the NEA identified 37 professional dance companies in America. Only 72 companies claim founding dates earlier than 1970. The oldest companies are the Metropolitan Opera Ballet (1895), the Martha Graham Company (1926), the Atlanta Ballet (1929), and the San Francisco Ballet (1933). [emphasis added by A.T.; though these figures are from September 2000, and the NEA survey was from 1997, there has not been a major survey since that date, as far as I know. - A.T.]

In the LATimes article of August 2, Ms. Miller (editor of NY Magazine) was quoted as saying "And it's no surprise to anyone that the audience for dance has diminished." I haven't been able to find anything to support this. DanceUSA, which keeps the numbers on dance in this country, has the following information on its website in the "Snap Facts" section (www.danceusa.org) This is a quote from the web site: Dance in America: Snapfacts 2000 Professional dance companies in America have a direct economic impact of over $350 million. A study by the NEA in 1997 estimated that 35.6 million people attend dance performances.* * This figure may include pre-professional performances and recitals. There are about 675 professional dance companies in the USA. Of these, 15 have budgets in excess of $5 million. An estimated 55 to 65 have budgets between $1 million and $5 million. About 12 to 14 of these are modern companies; the rest are ballet. New York City has more dance companies -- slightly over 200 -- than any other metropolis. But this number includes only 13 of the 70 - 80 companies with budgets over $1 million. Dance is a relatively young "industry" in America. In 1965, the NEA identified 37 professional dance companies in America. Only 72 companies claim founding dates earlier than 1970. The oldest companies are the Metropolitan Opera Ballet (1895), the Martha Graham Company (1926), the Atlanta Ballet (1929), and the San Francisco Ballet (1933). [emphasis added by A.T.; though these figures are from September 2000, and the NEA survey was from 1997, there has not been a major survey since that date, as far as I know. - A.T.]

The New York magazine response has changed slightly (this is what those who email NYMag are now getting as a response) Thanks for your letter. It's true that we're not going to continue running Tobi's reviews, but, believe me, we are not abandoning dance coverage. We'll continue to run previews, listings and features, and are committed to making sure dance gets the attention it deserves, in every way we can. I know you're aware that every publication in America, like all arts organizations, has had to make painful descisions on how to deploy limited resources to give readers what they value most. This is something we feel we have to do at this point; nonetheless, as we go forward we'll continue to look for ways to support the dance community in the city.

The New York magazine response has changed slightly (this is what those who email NYMag are now getting as a response) Thanks for your letter. It's true that we're not going to continue running Tobi's reviews, but, believe me, we are not abandoning dance coverage. We'll continue to run previews, listings and features, and are committed to making sure dance gets the attention it deserves, in every way we can. I know you're aware that every publication in America, like all arts organizations, has had to make painful descisions on how to deploy limited resources to give readers what they value most. This is something we feel we have to do at this point; nonetheless, as we go forward we'll continue to look for ways to support the dance community in the city.

It's an interesting piece -- and very well-written, IMO. I wish someone who's directing this production -- any production of the full-length, anywhere -- would read this for the way he tells the story and describes the action and characters. It makes a good case for the ballet as a serious work of art. Whether Bayadere's time has come is a separate question, I think, from whether it's THE classical ballet. I thnk it's a huge, wonderful mess -- and I'm all for going back to the originally messy version and not Makarova's manicured sandwich version. (Sandwich because the white act is in the middle, just like all the other ballets.) It seems that Petipa's version had a first act that was nearly all pantomime, a second that was a variety show with character and off-pointe dancing, a long dream sequence with what we now think of as pure classical dancing (how did THEY think of it?) and then a last act that had all the elements. I think that tells us something about Petipa. I'm not sure what, exactly, but I'm still working out how he worked. How could someone create a Greek tragedy, the Ed Sullivan show, and symphonic classicism, and knit it together to make a coherent dramatic whole?

Before this turns into a joke thread, in this forum, could I ask that we discuss the ballet under consideration seriously? Thanks. Any further OT comments will be deleted.

Another letter sent to us for posting: A letter to Caroline Miller at New York Magazine: I've just heard that New York Magazine will be cancelling its dance coverage. This is extremely disturbing and disappointing news. I have for years been accustomed to checking your table of contents at the newsstand, and if there is no dance review, I seldom, if ever, buy the magazine. Not because I'm such a fan of dance reviews, but because I always look forward to Tobi Tobias's writing. Whether or not I've seen the performance she describes, I'm always interested, even thrilled, to read one of her witty and thoughtful columns. There is little enough great dance writing in the world, so your unfortunate decision greatly diminishes a long-standing and much-needed artistic discourse. Is it too late to reconsider? I'm heartbroken to think of doing without a writer who, for me, is sort of a conscience for the dance world. And then, whether you care or not, New York Magazine will be doing without a reader: me. Sincerely yours, June Omura, NYC

Another letter sent to us for posting: A letter to Caroline Miller at New York Magazine: I've just heard that New York Magazine will be cancelling its dance coverage. This is extremely disturbing and disappointing news. I have for years been accustomed to checking your table of contents at the newsstand, and if there is no dance review, I seldom, if ever, buy the magazine. Not because I'm such a fan of dance reviews, but because I always look forward to Tobi Tobias's writing. Whether or not I've seen the performance she describes, I'm always interested, even thrilled, to read one of her witty and thoughtful columns. There is little enough great dance writing in the world, so your unfortunate decision greatly diminishes a long-standing and much-needed artistic discourse. Is it too late to reconsider? I'm heartbroken to think of doing without a writer who, for me, is sort of a conscience for the dance world. And then, whether you care or not, New York Magazine will be doing without a reader: me. Sincerely yours, June Omura, NYC