dirac

Well, the coroner's report is out, and it's a doozy. Related.

Well, it’s hard enough to find a tenor of any hue who can sing a decent Otello, so the opera houses can’t afford to be too choosy. For centuries Othello was the only major Shakespearean role black actors who essayed the classics could play. (Sidney Poitier once turned down an offer to play Othello for television because it was the designated deserving-black-guy role.) It’s my hope that one day things will loosen up a bit and white actors and singers will be able to don black body makeup to play the role without echoes of Amos ‘n’ Andy, because Othello/Otello really does have to be dark – you need that visual contrast, you need to see him surrounded by whites.

Josette, Adele Astaire was one of the biggest stage stars of the 20s, at a time when being a star of the theater was of a much higher magnitude than the designation means now, and the central attraction of the brother-and-sister double act, although Fred was indeed singled out for his virtuoso moves even then. So there’s no question of “what might have been” – Adele was. She was also regarded as the greater natural talent, as pherank said. I love him, too.

Or to put it another way – ballet companies may realize that there are things in work X that are embarrassingly offensive and which they would rather not present regardless of whether their audience is particularly alert to the offense, and try to acknowledge and address those problems.

Thanks for the quote. I am reminded of the initial critical reaction to Degas' "Little Dancer":

I'd like to think that Ratmansky has better things to do with his time, but it's his call.

I share some of your concerns, but I question whether eliminating the distressing and retrograde spectacle of little children capering in blackface will slide us down that alleged slope that rapidly. I do not know of anyone proposing to ban Mozart, for example. And if it does come down to, "well, we just can't do X ballet any more in its entirety," some may choose to go that route. Others may choose to put the ballet on. This is in no way equivalent to state-sponsored censorship, it seems to me. I also question respectfully the implication of transience or even frivolousness in references to "changing tastes," when discussing concerns and issues that are largely the result of momentous changes in our society such as the civil rights movement.

Thanks, DanielBenton. I have not heard Wang. Do you think she has a particular affinity for any one composer?

My guess is that everyone has a stake in rallying around the flag to demonstrate that the company remains in solid shape and is dancing well, at least in the short run. In the longer term, yes, uncertainty is not good.

It isn't just the romanticizing of prostitution and female masochism and self-sacrifice, although I can understand that might be enough for some. Marguerite is systematically humiliated throughout the piece. I'll always love the music, but it is not easy to watch. (This is particularly evident in the ballet versions, because we are constantly shown the ballerina flinging herself, or being flung down at, the feet of some man or other. At least Garbo mostly stayed upright.) Agreed. And maybe that would work well - performances of the opera would be limited to special occasions for special singers. Everybody wins, including Verdi.

Yes indeed. There's a little bit of film of her in "Giselle" (she has a ponytail) that leaves one hungry for much, much more......

Wonderful idea for a topic, nanushka. It would absolutely have to be Nijinsky and no matter if the passage of time made his feats less obviously dazzling. Closer to the present, and modifying the topic to include individual ballets, I would have loved to see Seymour and Gable in MacMillan’s R&J when it was new.

A good point, abatt, but Perron describes herself as a journalist and Scherr as a writer for newspapers and other general interest publications qualifies as one as well. Regardless, their comments here weren't appropriate, however well-intentioned.

Kirstein tells the story, not naming Watts, in his essay "A Ballet Master's Belief."

I gather you are referring to Michael Fallon, who admitted to multiple instances of “inappropriate” behavior. We don’t know where Scherr and Perron were coming from, although I rather hope it was not the location you describe. They seemed to be confident that Gomes was the victim of an injustice, but it’s impossible to tell on what grounds. As said previously upthread, as journalists they should be able to look into the matter and write about it. If they can’t share in public the basis for their comments, they should not comment.

Also, for a dancer to say publicly, "That wasn't my experience with Martins as a boss or with the company," does not in itself enlist the speaker as a "supporter," in the sense of endorsing everything Peter Martins has ever said or done or accusing those who have spoken out of sour grapes. Such statements add to the current store of what is public knowledge and can be evaluated along with other things we know, or "know."

“You are siding with an abuser” is a pretty strong hint that if you don’t have anything bad to say about Martins, keep it to yourself. You may choose to exempt Fairchild, but I notice Flack did not.

I'm sure she'll continue teaching and coaching, and perhaps one positive out of the crisis at NYCB will be, as others have said, that at some point Farrell will be invited to coach and/or stage there (and she will be willing to accept the invitation, which I gather she wasn't previously).

It’s kind of OT, but I can understand why Deneuve would say something like that. As a Frenchwoman she might not understand some of the niceties of the case – for example, that you can’t just let somebody flee the jurisdiction and then come back without at least going before a judge, and also that defendants with Polanski’s resources usually take care of this kind of thing quickly and quietly. There was a time when L.A. practically promised him that if he just showed up a deal could be done. Instead, Polanski let it go. Also, she made one of her best movies with Polanski, so they go back.

I was simply pointing out what I thought was an interesting omission. Naturally I presume that if Flack had such knowledge, she would want to share it with the public with a view to supporting the accusers she claims the dancers who defended Martins discredited. I think something along the lines of, "While I worked there, the atmosphere was toxic with competition among female dancers who believed they had to sleep with Peter to get ahead" would be perfectly acceptable to write, given the circumstances, and quite damning.

She also doesn't say anything about any sexual harassment or other abuse she observed or heard about, which is interesting since she was with the company recently, is no longer an "insider," and presumably has nothing to lose. She merely points to the NYT article, which was as some noted previously, rather weak tea, and the older claims against Martins. I guess Balanchine didn't provide "a safe workplace for unfettered creation."

Thank you for the memories and the clips, BalanchineFan. Von Aroldingen would have been pleased by the lemon and vinegar simile, I think.

Be that as it may, we know to date of no specifics that any sexual harassment occurred at NYCB and the preliminary results of the SAB investigation have revealed no wrongdoing, according to statements. What we do know is that Martins resigned while denying the accusations and the investigation is ongoing. And of course we may never know the results of the investigation since those are not commonly made public. BalanchineFan writes: I’m not sure why you would assume that a visiting choreographer would do that. I should think it more likely that a visiting choreographer would probably try to avoid the issue as none of his or her business, and select the dancers best suited to make his/her ballet look good. What I would hope for, given that the world of ballet is a small one, is that, for a start, choreographers would avoid companies where sexual harassment is known within the profession to be endemic. That might be a tough decision if the commission is a big one, but we can hope, especially now that the issue is out there.

An interview from 1997.

Well, this is encouraging. Not a single mention of the performing arts. Has this guy seen a play or heard an orchestra live? Write and complain, subscribers, and remind the Times that you're forking over your money to them and you're not dead yet. I hope the Times is getting a cut from Disney for promoting their franchise.