dirac

Agreed. Fairchild suddenly mentions his father and "Suzanne" without any explanation or context. I don't know what I would have made of it if I didn't already know the context (that's been an issue with some of the other interviews as well).

Drag comedy traditionally tends to show up more in British sketch comedy than American sketch comedy. Didn't say it never happened Stateside. The practice can be questionable. A heavy or large thing trying to be lighter and smaller is generally funnier than the reverse. In certain instances a man wearing woman's clothing is symbolically abandoning the markers of superiority and voluntarily assuming the markers of an inferior caste. Historically women wearing masculine-style clothing has often been a form of independence and rebellion - it's empowering or even scandalous, but not funny, although as On Pointe notes there have been a few recent examples on SNL. I remember reading about that, On Pointe. Interesting. (I no longer watch the show regularly.) There was very little male (or female) drag when SNL was new - none of the original male cast members had recurring drag characters, There were one-offs.

I guess that will depend on the shortlist of possible successors.

Thank you for reviving this thread, Lidewij. I'd forgotten about this book. Just placed an order.

British sketch comedians tend to do it more than Americans - Benny Hill and "Little Britain" come to mind. There are a few well known individual drag characters in American sketch comedy - Dana Carvey's Church Lady, Harvey Korman's yenta, and lmspear has mentioned Flip Wilson's great Geraldine Jones. Dan Aykroyd's Julia Child, bleeding to death on camera after cutting herself while demonstrating how to debone a chicken, was a memorable one-off. James Cagney started off in vaudeville as a female impersonator. But I digress.

This is what you wrote: If media promotion is happening, the implication is that someone must be doing the promoting. That's a lot to make out of a human interest feature on local news. I doubt if Edwards is taking attention away from other students, since studying ballet in and of itself isn't terribly newsworthy. Very possibly.

This is great, canbelto, thanks for posting. I prefer the exhilarating later ending, but this one has its interest. I'm not sure that I see the woman as being "bounced" up and down, but the image of human sacrifice is interesting. I was reminded of photographs of the "Metastaseis" portion of "Metastaseis and Pithoprakta."

Royal Ballet ballerinas talk about starting,or growing, families during the lockdown.

A story on the costumes stolen from San Jose Dance Theatre.

The Fort Wayne Ballet carries on during the pandemic.

A review of the Stuttgart Ballet by Deborah Weiss for DanceTabs.

A review of the Sarasota Ballet by Jann Parry for DanceTabs.

Culture wars at the Paris Opera Ballet.

A review of "Scottish Ballet: The Secret Theatre" by Lyndsey Winship for The Guardian.

Most of San Jose Dance Theater's costumes are stolen.

A look at the original E.T.A. Hoffman Nutcracker tale.

A look at the life of Rudolf Nureyev.

An ancestor of Margot Fonteyn figures heavily in a 19th century Glasgow murder case.

Mikhail Baryshnikov's Nutcracker memories.

Helgi Tomasson announces plans to retire. Related.

I was a bit disappointed by the Fairchild interview, although I enjoyed hearing about what Ashley (and Fairchild) are doing now. It's too bad because with ninety minutes of time they could have explored ground less traveled - if you've read Ashley's book, followed her interviews over the years, or seen the (very good) Houston Ballet interview from a few years back with Connor Walsh, "The Dance Goodbye," etc. many of the anecdotes were familiar.

One local TV interview is hardly a media blitz.

An appreciation by Anthony Lane in The New Yorker.

I acquired a DVD of "The Dance Goodbye" recently. I thought it well worth seeing. Much of the dance footage is now available on YouTube, but a couple - like the clips of Meehan and Ashley dancing the pas de deux from Agon at Jacob's Pillow - are not. Also enjoyed the clips of Ashley performing Madge with the Royal Danish Ballet. It is a little odd to see Meehan interviewed instead of one of her regular NYCB partners - in addition to the others mentioned above, Robert Weiss danced with her frequently in earlier years. However, Meehan had good and interesting things to say as did Ashley's husband Kibbe Fitzpatrick. The NYT article is here. I have the impression from interviews that Ashley is franker than most about the frustrations of coaching and teaching as well as the rewards, and it takes some courage to speak your mind that way, even if you're a prominent retired principal like Ashley, because as a freelance coach and teacher you are not where the power is.

A preview of some U.K. dance events scheduled for 2021.