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Sandy McKean posted this in the thread on the Sarah Kaufman article:

Old Fashioned suggested in another thread that we have a new one on this question. Are you waiting for the next great genius of classical ballet? If not, why not? Where do you think the new GG might take the art form? Or do you think he's already arrived? If you vote in the poll, I offer the perennial plea that you post the thoughts behind your vote as well to enhance the discussion. Thanks.

I think there is a related topic on the Next Big Thing in choreography somewhere, but it might have come up on one of the Wheeldon threads we've had in the past. It would most certainly be for new thread. The post on hierarchy and structure Quiggin mentions was put up in this forum a day or two ago, and I do urge BTers to take a look, please.

I think it's fair to say that all successful summer blockbusters are overrated these days. It used to be they didn't get enough serious appraisal and these days they get rather too much. One summer everyone is hailing the latest pop masterpiece and in a year or two the next one comes along. Fond as I am of the old Star Trek, this year I placed a personal moratorium on going to see pictures based on old teevee shows or comic books, so I won't see it any time soon. I would say the original "Star Wars" is overrated. It also had the baneful long term effect of causing Hollywood to come down with the blockbuster-itis that afflicts the industry to this day. ("Jaws" is also responsible, but at least it was a better movie.) I think that was Gene Hackman, wasn't it? Actors like Rowlands and Hackman can put anything over, even Woody at his most mannered. I'll have to see the movie again. I think Vanilla Sky got a very mixed reception, GoCoyote. I can't say I loved it but it was an honorable effort by Crowe and Cruise, I thought.

miliosr, it seems to me that Kaufman is suggesting that Balanchine’s example is too limited and limiting; Croce is saying almost the opposite. (There’s a story about Jackson Pollock throwing a book of Picasso reproductions to the floor and saying, “Damn it, the guy missed nothing!” That’s closer to Croce than Kaufman is.) She may not have intended that, Hans, but in the context of her article and references to “.....the sinewy style he favored, his preference for plotless works on a naked stage, his taste for fast, skinny, emotionally guarded dancers” and all those wholesome American types he kicked off the stage to make way for Bach and Stravinsky, it sure sounds like it.

Anne-Marie Duff talks about the dance requirements of the role:

You couldn’t really hope for a perfect match, just one that is close enough. Maybe Nicolas Le Riche, whose performances I know only from video.

I love the book and I like the 1939 version of Wuthering Heights for its own sake and for the reasons mentioned above. Despite its flaws it has not been supplanted by any other film version, even those more faithful to the original story line (the 1939 film more or less ends with the death of Cathy, moves up the timing of the death of Heathcliff, and omits the next generation altogether, for reasons of length no doubt). I did see a Masterpiece Theatre version recently that wasn’t bad.

The last couple of seasons were kind of blah for me, too, which is why the series fell away from my to-watch list. I'll have to have another look. sidwich, have you been watching?

Co-sign: Dorati delivers the 5 star performance. Ditto, ditto, ditto. Marvelous recording.

Thanks for posting, GoCoyote. I’ll check out the Ager links when I have a chance. I admire Kubrick, although mostly from a distance. I’m one who doesn’t think the first two Godfather movies are overrated, though. They’re not perfect but I find them endlessly rewatchable for some reason, perhaps because I grew up with them. I didn’t much care for the first Godfather film when I was younger but it’s one of those pictures that got better as I got older. (Diane Keaton really sucks in both of them, though.) I don’t think ‘Another Woman’ really registered on the radar screens of anyone who wasn’t an Allen fanatic, Patrick, so you can probably call it underrated. I did see it when it was first released and and my extremely vague recollection is of one of those middle period Allen movies with a stunning cast of A-list actors where everyone stands around listening to classical music in rooms with nice furniture while wearing tastefully color-coordinated Jeffrey Kurland separates. Perhaps I should check it out again. About Allen's oeuvre in general I have mixed feelings. He's no Bergman but to his credit he knows that, and he has had a remarkable career - it's very tough in the American film industry to do exactly what you like with exactly whom you like, and for many years Allen succeeded in doing that. He gets maybe too much love from the Richard Schickels of the world, but I'd not call him overrated. He's accomplished a great deal. (Thanks for reviving this thread, BTW.)

The Ashton work that may well be his greatest is an abstract ballet but I don’t think that’s what people mean when they suggest looking to Ashton as an example of a different kind of approach to the art form. ADs love new full evening story ballets but smaller-scale ones somewhat less so. Thank you for pointing these things out, Quiggin. (Kaufman’s article reminded me of that little book Tom Wolfe produced some years ago about the Bauhaus where he also had some blinkered things to say about Balanchine.) Good point. I'm glad so many BTers are putting in their two cents. There are still a few precincts to be heard from, however, and you know who you are.

Great post, Sandy, but I don’t think that those here who are questioning the omnipresence of Balanchine are suggesting that. No one is saying that the next great genius of ballet, assuming there is one, will be unable to cut his way out of the forest raised by Balanchine’s heirs. The concern is that over-emphasis on the work of one man and one aesthetic limits the vision of contemporary choreographers, who may not be geniuses but might be doing more varied and interesting work if ADs and other lesser beings were more open to the different approaches represented by Ashton and Tudor.

Thanks for these updates, miliosr. I haven't been able to keep up with the show this season, so it's nice to be able to come to BT to find out what's going on.

I don't really have a question to ask about the foregoing, but I wanted to pluck this quote of Kathleen O'Connell's from the Balanchine thread so it doesn't get lost, because I think it speaks to something that is missing from some ballets today. (And I hope Kathleen will share with us whatever she works out. )

I had the same thought. The Soulless Balanchine Ballet is like that Purist Balletomane of John Rockwell’s that Leigh used to talk about. Couldn't agree less. As you say, Hans, different tastes. Nice to see that we're getting so many different points of view here.

I tend to agree with Amy. With regard to toeprints' question: It's an even tougher casting job than Nijinsky, I think. Thanks for telling us about the film, toeprints. It sounds as if it will air in Canada first, so I hope our Canadian readers tell us about it. (Just curious, toeprints - which dancers from the past did you have in mind?)

Thanks for telling us about the documentary, MakarovaFan. I hope someone can answer your questions.

I take some of Kaufman’s points, but it was depressing to see her exhuming ancient criticisms of Balanchine as being abstract, remote, and lacking in good old human feeling. (“Ballet needs to get its humanity back,” etc.) It became harder to take the article seriously when Kaufman offered up the notion of hiring Matthew Bourne as “thinking outside the box.” I will allow that I haven’t seen any gas station attendants or ranch hands on the ballet stage lately, but I don’t often meet them in real life, either, unless I’m filling up the tank at one of the rare places where full service is available or attending the rodeo. I suppose if ballet were to reflect truly the realities of contemporary American culture, we would have ballets about life in office cubicles (“Dilbert: the Ballet”? Maybe somebody could have a go at “Office Space”?) Thanks for the comments, everyone. Keep talking.

Obligatory link to Sarah Kaufman's complaint about the dominance of the Balanchine aesthetic in contemporary ballet. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...9050704620.html

I also posted a link to the article the day it was published in the Orlando Ballet forum.

There don’t seem to have been any updates regarding the cause of death, which was not reported. I do recall reading years ago an article that said Maximova had once attempted suicide. I hope that did not happen here. (Not intended to encourage speculation, please note, just a comment.) Lovely dancer. Rest in peace.

The movie is out on DVD this week.

bart, it looks as if you edited your post to add a reference to the 1998 Act - I was responding to the first post. Sorry for any confusion.

I’m no expert, but as one of the commenters notes, if they were seeking a copyright on the name “Disney’s Princess Aurora” or something along those lines it would indeed be narrow enough. But “Princess Aurora” alone seems unnecessarily broad and potentially troublesome, especially since Disney plucked name, character, and story out of the public domain in the first place. The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which contributed to those obscene amounts of time, earned the sobriquet of the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, owing to the hyper-aggressive lobbying efforts of Disney in getting it passed.