dirac

I don't see any special bias (?) Of course they are going to say nice things as the door is closing on him. Also SAB have an obvious interest in letting people know that the investigation will continue and so far it hasn't turned up anything that posed or poses a danger to students, something in which parents would be particularly interested.

Hi, diane. I taped it and plan to watch it soon, since I agree it's important to watch on New Year's Day or very soon after. Yes, the program is a bit kitschy but I admit to enjoying that aspect. It also tends to be predictable - marches, polkas, waltzes - but again that's a plus for me; one of the predictable pleasures of the new year, like the Budweiser Clydesdales in the Rose Parade. It's never shown live here as far as I know. Did anyone else see it?

Off-topic: Joan Crawford’s younger daughters did dispute much of Christina’s account but they also tacitly admitted that some of what Christina wrote about life with their mother was true. The twins seem not to have borne the brunt of Crawford’s irrationality, but it’s plain that Christina was not simply making stuff up. In fairness, the dancers who have defended Martins publicly have made very strong statements of support. Obviously they can only speak for themselves and not others. Robert Fairchild, for example, stated bluntly that whatever did or didn’t happen back when, his experience of the company was entirely different. He doubled down on that today. Or perhaps Mearns doesn’t have anything to share publicly just yet, apart from the feelings expressed by the color she chose. Hard to see that snark is called for in either case.

What a nice topic, ClaraFan. During the holiday season I enjoy listening to Christmas chestnuts. As Christmas gets closer our local classical station, KDFC, plays a lot of traditional Christmas music. Otherwise it's mostly classical, and a bit of this and that. I rarely listen to anything new, but that's been true for some time. Others?

The second DUI probably tied it. If Martins can’t refrain from getting behind a wheel while drinking, he’s got another set of problems to deal with. He can take pride in those strong statements of defense from his dancers. I had always hoped he’d write another book. Far From Denmark is a favorite ballet book of mine.

Thanks, Quinten. Wow, indeed.

Hugh Bonneville replaces Julie Andrews as the host of From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2018. Pfui. Muti conducts this year with the Vienna State Ballet appearing as usual.

Thanks for posting the news, harpergroup. Congratulations to Bussell. And arise, Sir Ringo.....

For a prospective employer not to inquire would be less than responsible, potentially opening the employer to future legal action. This would be particularly true if they were bringing him on in a full-time position. It may well be true that European and Russian companies aren’t worried about that. In the case of Ryan Lizza, who was canned by The New Yorker and has vociferously protested his dismissal, he’s been suspended by CNN while that organization undertakes its own inquiry. Ballet companies don’t necessarily have those resources, but at the very least I should think they have to ask.

Joseph Kerman once described "Tosca," famously, as a "shabby little shocker," popular with the vulgarians in the cheap seats. Not, perhaps, the happiest phrase. He later said he regretted the overstatement. (He also predicted that Tosca, Turandot, and Strauss' Salome would fall out of the repertoire. A musicologist of distinction but The Opera Nostradamus, he wasn't.) I saw "The Invitation" some years ago with San Francisco Ballet and I recall that it still had considerable impact. I saw "The Invitation" some years ago with San Francisco Ballet and I recall that it still had considerable impact. It's certainly possible that its time has passed, although it probably never would have arrived on schedule for you. I doubt if Charlotte MacMillan will share your views of her father's work..........

I trust they are acting in full knowledge of events. I wonder what kind of explaining Gomes is having to do, if any. Or they may simply be assuming that the foolish Americans have gone overboard again. I wonder if some sort of postscript will have to be added to the documentary (?)

Moderator note: Everyone, as you all know, we try to avoid discussing the discussion. The giant gap Gomes leaves in ABT's roster, and how that gap might be filled, is relevant to a discussion of his resignation as one of the factors the company would have had to consider in the course of the investigation and also raises the question of how the company will cope going forward in the short term. If anything, the comments here reflect how important Gomes was (so sad to use the past tense, alas) to the company........

The 1995 piece was written by Luke Jennings, not Croce. (Title: "The Czar's Last Dance.") Happy holidays to all and Merry Christmas! Few better ways to spend the time than watching Pavlova in the Rose Adagio, IMO.

Moderator's note: A lengthy subtopic developed in this thread related to ballets that some may find controversial or unstageable because they reflect dated views of gender and race. Most of these posts did not refer to the Martins matter at all, and I have moved them to a new thread here in the Aesthetic Issues forum. Not all could be moved, such as sandik's above, because it refers to the original topic. (However, some sandik's comments there are quoted in a post in the new thread.) If you would like to continue commenting on this very relevant topic, please go to the new thread. Thanks!

Pandora and her box seem precisely the wrong metaphor here. Pandora makes a foolish mistake and releases evils into the world that can never be put back. The recent spotlight on sexual harassment has been for the most part the tale of women and men coming forward to reveal sexual “misconduct” and in some cases a good deal worse, going on for decades, unreported and unpunished. We can hope that some good will come of this, but we can't count on it:

I just saw this, kfw. I did take it differently. Thanks for clarifying. Different cases may require different handling. In Dutoit's case, the original Associated Press story had multiple women coming forward without the shield of anonymity (not knocking those who choose anonymity, for the record), making detailed claims that the AP says it was able to document insofar as such incidents can be documented. In addition I suspect that few of the orchestras involved were stunned by the revelations......

Which would suggest that the information was so damaging ABT did not dare even to risk the appearance of sitting on it and Gomes resigned because the accusation was true and further investigation might potentially do him more harm than good. I'd like to be wrong, but there it is.

Agreed. If Perron, Scherr, et al. have information that vindicates Gomes, let them write it up. If they have it I hope they do. It'll have to be better than "Julie Kent knows for sure!"

My own recollection is that not all the faults of the troupe were laid at the feet of the dancers and the challenges Farrell faced in leading a pickup group.

I have no idea what Vishneva is on about, but “speaking up when someone’s treated unfairly” is exactly what the “current accusation frenzy” is all about. I’m sorry she thinks ABT are being unfair to a friend, and it’s always possible the company have been unfair. But I would think the lives of people we don’t necessarily know personally which have been blighted by sexual harassment and worse are worth speaking up for, as well. Indeed, every voice matters.

There have been a few cases recently in which someone has been fired and details have not been made public – the ones I know of, apart from Gomes, are those of Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker, Tavis Smiley, and Garrison Keillor. All of them have protested their dismissals publicly. I presume ABT didn’t do this lightly. It doesn’t look as if we’re going to hear anything further from Gomes or ABT on the subject. Or by resigning now, possibly Gomes cuts short the ongoing investigation and narrows the risk of details being made public. The New York Times just reinstated a suspended reporter, saying his offenses didn’t justify firing him. It may well be that at some point an employer will overreach out of PR concerns or someone will be unjustly accused. However, as far as we know that hasn’t happened yet, and the stories we have learned so far are truly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exposure of sexual harassment in the workplace. (News media are only just now starting to focus on the stories of working class women facing harassment by men who aren’t boldface names, for example.) I hope Julie Kent knows what she’s doing.

Yes to all of the above. As for the suggestion made elsewhere on this thread that youths and young men are somehow less vulnerable in the face of such misconduct............I really don't know what to say.

As fondoffouettes posted above, there is an existing thread on this topic in the Dancers forum, here. I am closing this thread. Thanks, all.

You are right to point this out, Anthony_NYC. And company/office gossip can be dead wrong.

True. Adding to this that wives, ex-wives, and lovers all seemed to get on fine in the theater, despite the usual competitive tensions in the hothouse ballet environment. Adams and Le Clercq would invite Farrell to play cards. Edward Villella has said that the atmosphere when Balanchine was composing for his current muse tended to be very high. Probably the nearest the company came to a “toxic environment” that we know of to date was in the late period of his Farrell obsession, when everybody seems to have been pretty miserable. But that was because Farrell wasn’t sleeping with him. We do have Frankfurt's testimony about "the girl in Saratoga," etc., which is troubling, but not much to go on. Helene writes: She’s always been in a line -- the great line of Balanchine dancers and muses. Just not that line. I think the simplest explanation was something she says in her book – she “didn’t want to go home with George and be married.” She wasn’t attracted to him physically and did not want to live with him. She also wasn’t the type of woman who becomes the doting and happy wife of a famous older man. (It is curious, and has been remarked on before, that the man she did marry, Paul Mejia, bore a general resemblance to the young Balanchine.) Balanchine was a man who had to start over in his life more than once. My guess is he’d pick up stakes and go somewhere more hospitable rather than have some board tell him who he could and couldn’t sleep with or marry. Or someone with his passion for all women but not necessarily for one woman would simply not go into ballet and his genius would find a home elsewhere.