dirac

I fear your are correct. Perhaps Wheeldon needs to find his own version of Lincoln Kirstein, someone who will devote himself to the artist devotedly, selflessly and with great skill. Such people are very rare, unfortunately. Almost as rare as great choreographers. I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about his ability to run a big company in the future from this meltdown. Partners disagree, fall out, split up, sometimes acrimoniously. It happens. The He Said, She Said doesn't look good but again, hardly unprecendented. Excellent points, Drew. Balanchine was great at making do with what was available when he hadn't many other options to look at but Wheeldon's situation is different.

A Q&A with Twyla Tharp in The Atlantic.

A nice article by Anne Midgette to note the occasion. Do any BTers have a preferred interpreter(s) of Chopin? My untutored ear favors Cortot and Ashkenazy.

??? With the camera within kissing distance of Joannie's face? Absolutely voyeurism was intended! The extreme close up is very common in sports broadcasting these days. It was a genuinely stirring moment, I thought, and I was moved. Reasonable people will disagree, of course.

That should be worth the price of the ticket.

I thought the network handled a difficult situation pretty well and no voyeurism was intended. Everyone seemed to be aware of the gravity of the moment. (They did apologize later for showing a fellow in the stands who was not Rochette’s father, although he was a relative.)

Very much so. Yes, there is still a Best Original Score category. The Best Song performances tend to be hit or miss, but when they hit they’re often entertaining - A.R. Rahman’s appearance was a highlight of last year’s show and there was Hansard and Irglova’s rendition of “Falling Slowly” a couple of years back. This year, Marion Cotillard could have stopped the show with “Take It All,” which was easily the best number in “Nine.” On the other hand I won’t miss those Disney production numbers. The Best Song performances really did consistently suck back in the days when they didn’t invite the original performers to do the song but brought in somebody else, usually with disagreeable results.

It is a nice little chat, isn't it? Fun, but enlightening too.

Grand, but not seemingly impossible, not for Wheeldon in 2007, anyway. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming big short of delusion, (although Wheeldon’s apparent fixation on New York probably did not help matters and neither did a colossal economic recession).

Thank you for mentioning this book, Quiggin. I hadn't heard about it and will order it.

The Best Song nominees will not be heard from at this year's ceremony. Mixed feelings about this.

Much obliged for the heads up, abatt.

No, you’re not being a snob. Figure skating is competition, and the music has to suit the rules of the competition and the special requirements involved with sporting arena performance. This doesn’t always make for pleasant listening (or pleasant viewing). It used to be far worse, though. As to where the music comes from, in the days of yore it was usually the coach who chose the music and set the choreography, although there were a few skaters who did for themselves. Nowadays with the larger talent pool and overall high technical level among skaters, music and choreography are more important and there are people who specialize in selecting music for skaters as well as skating choreographers like David Wilson.

Thanks for the recommendation, Paquita. I'll check it out.

There are too many commercials, although I understand NBC has got to find a way to make money. I deal with it by finding something to do during the commercials – flipping through a magazine, reading a book, or switching back and forth between another channel. Towards the end of the night and during particularly tense moments they do cut down on the breaks as well, so that you could see the conclusion of the ice dance competition, for example, virtually uninterrupted. However, I also watch the commercials, too. There are some well made and well written ones out there. When watching cable channels I admit to getting a kick out of the Slap Chop guy. I do get testy when they show the same commercial too often in a short space of time, which smacks of brainwashing techniques, but there is such a thing as the mute button.

Also, Wheeldon has had a charmed career – raised in elite organizations like the Royal and NYCB, showered with critical praise and encouragement until recently, and accustomed to all the resources that the world’s best companies could place at his disposal. I’m not saying he couldn’t take the heat so he got out of the kitchen, but I wonder if he found it tougher going than he expected. That may be hard to do in the current economic climate. I’m sure it was difficult enough in these troubled times with Wheeldon involved and it may be much harder with him out of the picture, even if Lopez scales back the company’s ambitions and venues. It will be too bad if that's the case, because the venture you describe sounds like a promising one.

I don’t think that’s a flaw in the work, though, or that Robbins’ explanation complicated matters. It is central to his conception that the ballet take place in the present tense – those dancers dancing to that music in that space, as he said. But I think that's a feature, not a bug. It's certainly hard to imagine Robbins' countenancing that!

Table talk with Mark Morris and Mario Batali.

There have been complaints over here about NBC's coverage of all the sports, mainly because of the tape delay. (It sounds like you would benefit from some tape delay, though, Pamela.) However, NBC does use its affiliate cable channels for broadcasting as well, so fans can get their fill of as much curling and hockey as they can handle. I enjoy a number of the winter sports, though. I especially like curling, although I probably wouldn't get around to watching it at any other time, and those maniacs on the luge. I'd also say that NBC is doing a pretty good job this year. The proceedings move along at a reasonably fast clip and the soft focus human interest stories aren't as lengthy or as cloying as they have been in the past.

No refunds !?! That's amazing. Well, not really.

I would be happy to have those modest and simple dresses worn back when return in some form, or perhaps have the skaters wear versions of their practice gear, at least in the short program. I am mildly appalled at the amount of real skin and fake skin the women feel it necessary to expose these days. A couple of Olympic cycles ago a sportswriter commented on how beautiful and sleek the women looked in practice without all the junk on and what need for the sequins and the bugle beads? The skaters could save a lot of money, too. The nationalistic bias is still very much operative in figure skating judging, and although I doubt the audience made the difference here, it is generally acknowledged that there is such a thing as home field advantage in skating. Virtue and Moir needed no such help last night, however. Some figure skating habits to be spreading to other sports, however. Lindsey Vonn won gold in camera ready makeup, not something you usually see on female skiers.

Wheeldon was in a position to make the experiment and it failed, as often happens. But I don't think he and his backers were wrong to try. I don't, either. It must be tough for Lopez to see all that hard work go down the drain but without Wheeldon the troupe has no raison d'etre.

Thanks again for the links, volcanohunter.

There are many kinds of performances that might induce a hushed atmosphere that could be disturbed by applause, though. It could be considered a little presumptuous to issue pre-performance directives that what you're about to see is "sacred," so hush up, everybody. I've experienced something similar.

Hi, sandik, that was me. I think I was responding to a post that brought up behavior in church. The point that arenas are used for religious services is a good one and I hadn’t thought of it. The Pope held a mass in Yankee Stadium not long ago and obviously the whoops of enthusiasm or hostile shouts of “Who’s your daddy?” frequently heard in that venue would not have been appropriate, although Benedict seems like the kind of guy who could take them in stride. I think we’re all agreed that if we’re asked not to applaud it’s good manners not to do so. The question is whether performers are entitled to ask for this because they’re performing a work of ostensibly religious significance, and depending on the circumstances I think the request is a tad presumptuous. From what I’ve seen of MacMillan’s Requiem there’s nothing in it that would make it somehow beyond the realm of applause, but if they ask you, they ask you....