Alexandra

Hmmm. Another thing gymnastics and (some) ballet have in common!

I agree that this is the best model. I'm wary of a "CEO" (shades of Boston) that has, as his "assistant," in effect, the artistic director. I'm also frankly wary of boards who view the AD as carrying out their wishes. To me, boards should be selfless, generous artslovers who hire the best artist they can afford, and in whom they believe, and then let him make art.

It does seem obvious. Some of the gymnasts, women especially, had torsos of wood! The judging controversy is difficult. On the one hand, rules are rules. If you're going to have rules, you have to enforce them, and ensure that they're fair. Thanks to Helene for posting that article -- it seemed balanced, and raised some good points. If you don't get points for doing extra moves, or inventing moves (sounds like they ought to look at that one), and your technique is sloppy because you're doing the extra, crowd-pleasing moves, then, well, that's the rules. If you're supposed to file a protest by X hour, then whining to the media about an unfair mark the next day shouldn't count for extra points either. But and on the other hand, if there has been a continuing controversy of the quality of judging, and the crowd is screaming about that -- then they may have a point. I don't know enough about gymnastics to judge. As for ballet competitions, I don't know how they're scored. Does someone here know? Do you get a tenth of a point deduction if you start to travel, or if the leg drops below vertical in a grand pirouette, etc? But then, I've never known how you "judge" art. I think I posted this story once before, but I think it's worth repeating. I interviewed a choreographer once who watched one of the major competitions from the wings. He said he was amazed at how many things the judges -- who were seated in the auditorium, watching at a far greater distance than he was -- missed. Perhaps, if they're going to have a judging system that takes deductions for very small, possible to miss, errors, then videotape review has to come into play? And how about banning smiles during competition, across the board? At least the pasted on grins?

Sizova is alive and well and teaching in Washington, D.C.! I hope Marc, or someone, can give more details on her career. I've seen only pieces on tape -- that "Corsaire," and a tiny bit of her Maria in "Fountain of Baksichirai" (which I'm sure I've spelled wrong). She's also Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" on an oddly truncated version that is, or at least as, available commercially (they cut the SOLOS from Bluebird, and the dancers are Makarova and Panov!!!!, and then they cut the adagio from the grand pas de deux; Sizova dances with Soloviev)

Oh, pugbee, careful. There are those who would interpret that as "JUST do it" Re the play by play, watching the Olympics reinforces my opinion that televised coverage would be the kiss of death. "Next, Chrissie and Caleb in the famous pas de deux from "Agon"" or "Back with the rest of "The Dying Swan" in a moment. But first, a word from our sponsors." I did have a party routine a few years ago called "A Swan is DOWN, ladies and gentlemen! A swan is down!" shamelessly stolen from Peter Schickele's "Report from Hoople" ("There it is again! The fate motif"). His was much cleverer than mine, of course, and if there were ever Play by Play Ballet, I wouldn't let anybody do it except Schickele.

These are great! Dale, you might be on to something. An enterprising company might start lobby pools to bet on how many fouettes tonight's Odette will get through, say. Klingsor, I wonder if the reluctance to boo and cheer is an American reticence (a welcome one, to me, but others may differ!). I once took a German friend to a modern dance performance in a very small house and he began to boo almost instantly. I was shocked (I was also there on duty, reviewing the concert, so I was doubly mortified). After several elbows in the ribs, he stopped, and later complained to me, at intermission, that Americans didn't know how to watch dance, that half the fun was booing. I keep wondering about the element of unknown outcomes. You know Giselle will die and Albrecht will be saved. You don't know who will win this race, or that baseball game. Not that I'm advocating switching to chance ballet -- throw the dice to see if tonight's ending, Odette A, dies; B, marries Rothbart; C, leaves Siegfried in disgust; D, turns back into a swan; E, goes off to Heaven with Siegfried in a beautiful little boat. But I do remember one "Swan Lake" with Nureyev, where you really really thought, just for a few seconds, that he was going to throw Rothbart off that cliff, and you sensed that Rothbart thought it too, that was quite exciting.

My comparison was between sports and the arts, not pop art

Watching the Olympics, off and on, these last few days, I'm pondering the differences between art and sport, why one does have a mass popular appeal and the other never has (and, I think, never will have). Is it that sport is simple -- there's a winner, and a loser. There are easily defined rules, some of them quite complicated that one can enjoy memorizing and understanding, but, at the end, a winner and a loser. Or is it that the outcome is undcertain until the absolute final moment? That gives the effect of watching a story we love over and over -- and the ending is different. The story is different, too, because the competitors are different, and yet it is, in some way, still the same story. Or is it something else?

I think questions about dancers' relationships are best handled if and as they arise; otherwise, the fine line between seeing two identical surnames on a roster and asking if the two dancers are related and seeing two dancers walking down the street and asking "Are they an item???" would be too difficult to maintain I hope, whoever the cast is, those who see these performances will report on them!

Sorry it was a disappointment. Some of the smaller traveling Russian companies I've seen have been half very green (often very appealing!) young dancers, and dancers at the end of their careers. What was the repertory? For the part you saw. (And what did you miss? )

But allowable Marie Pierre Greve is Kenneth Greve's wife.

That is sad news -- thank you for posting it. Tom was one of the first people I "met" on the internet. He was an excellent writer. His site, especially his essays on discovering dance, meant a great deal to a great many people Tom Parsons Dance Pages He reposted the FAQ every month on aab, and just did so a few days ago, so the news is quite a shock. He was an Internet pioneer, back in the days when the usenet groups were the only way for people to communicate. He believed in them, and for those who cherish the old, free-wheeling days of the internet, and unmoderated message boards, alt.arts.ballet remained the king. In the last few years, Tom was its backbone, and he will be sorely missed by many people. Raising a large lager of mead in salute, Tom.

Today is the 75th anniversary of the death of Serge Diaghilev (Ari has a link to an article about this on today's Links. One line from it: "He strived to rid Russian art of its tediousness and provinciality.") 50 years ago, even 25 years ago, perhaps, many Western balletomanes and dancers would have said he was the most important man in 20th century ballet. The British critic Richard Buckle's memoirs is entitled "In the Wake of Diaghilev." What is Diaghilev's legacy today?

Most blogs have an update list -- I know Tobias's does, not sure about the others, but you could explore and find out

Here's a fuller schedule of Limon performances and a TV special (!!!!) LIMON DANCE COMPANY - ON STAGE AND TV IN SEPTEMBER September 3 - SHOWING AT SUNY PURCHASE AT 5 pm (TBC) Program: Evening Songs, Chaconne, Angelitos Negros, Concerto Six Twenty-Two September 9 - SHOWING AT JUILLIARD AT 6 pm (invited audience) Program: Evening Songs, Dance in the Sun, Concerto Six Twenty Two September 11 - 9/11 PERFORMANCE IN BATTERY PARK AT 8 PM September 15 - LIMON DOCUMENTARY ON PBS AT 8 PM September 25 - LIMON DOCUMENTARY ON PBS AT 5 PM September 21-October 3 - 2 WEEK SEASON AT THE JOYCE Program A The Unsung (Limon) Extreme Beauty (Linke/Kurtag and Sciarrino) World Premiere Concerto Six Twenty-Two (Lubovitch/Mozart) Company Premiere (Program A will be performed September 21 at 8 PM; September 22 at 8 PM; September 25 at 2 PM; September 26 at 7:30 PM; September 29 at 8 PM; October 1 at 8 PM; October 2 at 8 PM; October 3 at 2 PM) Program B Evening Songs (Kylian/Dvorak) Major Revival Chaconne (Limon/Bach) (performed with live music) Angelitos Negros (McKayle) Company Premiere September 23, 25, 28 at 8 PM; October 2 at 2 PM; October 3 at 7:30 PM (alternates with) Dance in the Sun (Nagrin/Gilbert) Company Premiere - live music September 24 at 8 PM; September 26 at 2 PM; September 30 at 8 PM Phantasy Quintet (Hougland/Vaughn Williams) (live music) Psalm (Limon/Magnussen) Program B will be performed September 23, 24, 25 at 8 PM; September 26 at 2 PM; September 28 & 30 at 8 PM; October 2 at 2 PM; October 3 at 7:30 PM September 22 - Pre-Performance Reception - A Celebration of Extreme Beauty September 29 - Joyce "Humanities" program post performance

From the Cincinnati Enquirer: Ballet director going West? It's a very short article, but says that Morgan had been invited to submit her name.

There are now several Blogs Worth Checking that deal with ballet, and I thought I'd start a thread for them, for easy reference. Tobi Tobias recently celebrated her first anniversary of her ArtsJournal blog Seeing Things She writes nearly weekly (and there's a "coming soon" line where she posts when she expects to write again, and the subject. San Francisco dance critic and writer Rachel Howard just started a blog. In addition to reviews, she raises issues in dance that deserve an airing. Updated frequently. Bruce Sansom has a blog over on ballet.co. He kept a record of his company's summer tour -- it's stopped now, or at least resting, but well worth a read.

Nikia, we have a whole forum devoted to "Giselle" Most of the threads are about the ballet, or different productions, but there are also some threads on dancers, here: http://balletalert.com/forum/index.php?showforum=42

No problem! I've been mulling over the difference in effect/perception between viewing a photograph of a rich older woman with a young male dancer, and a rich older man with a young female dancer. I don't question at all that the two images conjure up different assumptions, but ... wouldn't it be nice to be able to look at the latter photo and say, "What a guy! He supports the arts" and the former, "What an attractive, powerful woman! What a lucky young man." Any guesses which century that will happen?

Thank you for that, Herman; brave of you to come to this thread! (I'd second your last comment, about Giselle shedding real tears on stage, though I'm sure many find it genuine and touching.)

Actually, that was my point -- sorry it wasn't clear. It's the opposite of the scornful, "He only did it for the money" attitude of yore.

All of her positions are so clear in those photos, which goes along with what you're saying, sandi. And your point about dancers being different in different places is well taken. in D.C. we don't have too many contact improv troops now (we used to have about a half-dozen). We talk a lot. But we also have troops that are going for the burn. I think your point about small spaces is also a very good one, and during the 1920s and 1930s, there was certainly a lot of intimate dancing. But there was plastique, too, in opera house ballet as late as the 1960s -- think of the Bolshoi in its Spartacus era. Those dancers were very clearly sons of Mordkin, muscularly speaking. And very three-dimensional. Ulanova and Fonteyn were three-dimensional, and they could show you plastique to the back of the Met. I think it's that we're after different things now. It all goes back to what every teacher of note says: it's all about technique today.

High energy and speed? Modern dance wouldn't call it "epaulement" -- they'd speak about being three-dimensional in space, I think -- but it's part of the same thing. There's a sculptural quality to the Graham -- and the Mordkin -- photos, where today's dancers in any genre look more, in photographs, like paper dolls. Also (again, just thinking out loud) "plastique" used to be taught. You took plastique classes. I don't think that's taught anywhere now. Ballet dancers take modern classes, supposedly to get loosened up. But modern dancers are trying to get "cut" and "buff" and going for the speed and the technique. Calling Isadora........

Yes, in the arts as everywhere else, unfortunately. Not saying that everyone is immoral (and I'm sure Clara wasn't either!) but we're certainly in a money can buy you anything mode.

Save up enough money and you can buy the choreographer of your choice