dirac

Drew, I wanted to note that I didn’t see your reply before I replied to Kathleen initially, but that is indeed what I meant. I didn’t mean to ignore what you wrote. Kathleen, thank you for the links. I took a look. It's nice that gay actors have made progress, and I never said they haven't, but I saw nothing there that inclines me to take back what I initially wrote.

You’ll note I said romantic lead. Quinto is best known for playing.......Spock. Neil Patrick Harris did have the role of a straight playboy on TV in How I Met Your Mother, but he didn’t come out till after that series was already on the air. Before his late incarnation as a ubiquitous awards show host, he was perhaps best known as Doogie Howser and the Sesame Street Fairy Shoe Person. And a “host” of others? It’s become that easy for out gay actors? It doesn't seem so to me, but I could be wrong, of course.

Off topic -- Couldn't even wait till the baby was born, huh? What a prince. In this day and age – if I were such a pregnant young wife I’d want to punch him in the face and that would just be the start, barring some awesome explanation which I doubt would be forthcoming. Now she's stuck with this guy as the father of her child. What can she do but make the best of it? I hope she took him to the cleaners. Kathleen O'Connell wrote: Career reasons, possibly. Being known as a gay male ballet dancer, or even a gay male dancer generally, is not that big a deal, but even so not many talk about it or are willing to discuss their private lives as many straight dancers do freely. If you have ambitions as a romantic male lead in theater it gets dicier, particularly if you are thinking Hollywood, which I expect has at least crossed the minds of both these gentlemen.

I add my thanks for the details about the DVD extras. I was interested in the surgery footage and thought it was courageous of Whelan to let us see her at her most vulnerable. I cannot speak to the resemblance to medical reality shows because I have not seen any, but I thought the sequences in the film were tastefully handled and not overly graphic. I also liked what the doctor had to say in the operating room about ballerinas.

Jesse Green in the Time noted that in this production Fairchild seemed more comfortable with his mouth open. Progress!

A nice Q&A with Villella and Fairchild about performing in "Brigadoon" and other matters.

Also he doesn't have to worry about getting paired with her again.

No doubt Wiles was difficult. I suppose it's also safe for Hallberg to forgo diplomacy in her case.

On YouTube for now. I can't imagine they welcome people getting for nothing brand new recordings they're trying to sell.

The fine character actor John Hillerman has died at age 84.

"The Turning Point" is currently available for free from Cinemax in HD. (It's usually available to rent, as well.) There's not enough footage of her, but Sibley looks wonderful in "Giselle." Those hands, those arms, those feet.....

I am so sorry to hear this. This is a huge loss. Condolences to friends and family. His Frederick Ashton and His Ballets remains the indispensable work on Ashton, and his Merce Cunningham: Fifty Years is just as essential. RIP.

Some of this is company gossip and company gossip can be spot on, totally off base, or somewhere in between. (When Frankfurt writes of her visit to the hospital and what happened there, she is of course speaking directly about her own experience.) If Homans wants to go there, I’m sure she will --her publisher will certainly encourage it -- and you can certainly make an argument that she should go there. It can be done responsibly, or not so responsibly.

I admire Frankfurt for her candor, but if she was going behind Martins’ back to complain to the big boss that Martins lacked poetry in his soul, it’s no wonder she wasn't around much longer. I don’t see any reason why such details wouldn’t make it into a biography. It depends on the book. Balanchine and Ashton both got away with things that wouldn’t be acceptable today. Who knows, maybe even Petipa copped a feel now and then. Times are changing, fortunately. You know, it is what it is. Balanchine at least has many knowledgeable and committed people dedicated to the preservation of his legacy. I get the impression that what can be done is being done. The testimony of friends and family can be as important as that of dancers and other employees. Some of the most interesting remarks in "I Remember Balanchine" were made by people like Lucia Davidova and Edward Warburg. In that respect Homans is starting late, again depending on the kind of biography she wants to write. When Julie Kavanagh undertook “Secret Muses” she got to a lot of Ashton’s contemporaries just in time. On the other hand, Balanchine was much more of a workhorse than Ashton ever was, so an emphasis on his life at the theater and running the company wouldn't be inappropriate.

I wouldn’t say that even now we know the man better than the works. In some respects he’s still very much “a cloud in trousers.”

The lives of Reed and Bryant, and Reed's writings, will always be of interest to historians and specialists in the period. It's not surprising that the names of a couple of journalists, however well known in their time, would fall out of the popular consciousness. It's lucky that their story made a good movie (well, an okay movie) and that Beatty wanted to make it. Much less likely that a major studio would venture on the project today, even with a big male star pushing it. I add my thanks for the article, pherank.

Interesting. Reviewers have consistently noted that the plot is hard to follow unless you know the movie, so it's good to have another view.

Thanks for posting, pherank. Sorry to hear that Mitchell has been in poor health.

True. I appreciated Whelan's candor, which was refreshing and brave (and made for a more involving and complex film than I initially expected).

I had something of the same reaction, Balletwannabe. Whelan had three decades at the top of one of the world's great companies without any major injury until the very end, she had memorable roles made on her by the top guys around at the time, she had a decade with the legendary Robbins. All through a combination of talent, drive, good fortune, and what I'm sure was good management on her part in a profession that's very tough. Her reactions, of course, are entirely human and understandable. I think, as Whelan said in the movie, Martins was offering her a graceful out and she saw it and took it.

Thank you, Drew, you said what I meant to say and much better. I also am in fundamental sympathy with what Ratmansky is getting at, even if by his e-mail he does seem to be feeling plenty of sympathy for himself. Still, it was very much a man's company. When Farrell joined, Mejia asked Bejart over dinner what she was going to dance since he didn't see much there for her, and Bejart said he wanted to make new pieces for her (which he did).

"Dance" isn't ballet. And women often had little to do in Bejart's company (although Farrell danced Bolero and I think other women did as well). Both Ashton and Balanchine in their time were creatively preoccupied primarily -- not exclusively -- with women.

Thanks for the review, YouOverThere. Curiosity would probably drive me, too, if I were in a locality where it was running. From what I have seen of Bourne, your take sounds like a fair one.

I have not read An Artist of the Floating World, but of the three I have read I would say that The Remains of the Day is both accessible and a great example of how Ishiguro likes to work (with an unreliable narrator, as Kathleen said above and others have observed). Beautiful book.

Thank you for the link. I hope he writes a book. So much fun to read.