dirac

sz originally posted these comments in the Links section:

She was one of Garis' favored dancers, but no, I would not say that she held the same place with Garis as she was with Haggin.

She was really Haggins’ Supreme Goddess, not Garis’, although the latter admired and respected her a great deal and got to know her well.

Thank you for the photo, rg. The posed photos of Adams I've seen are much better than this one as a rule, but it's possible maybe she didn't like posing that much. She seems to have been a shy person in many ways and not everyone is good at this sort of thing. In Balanchine's Ballerinas she's the only one who doesn't have a fancy 'glamour' shot. There is a ravishing Lynes photograph of Adams standing in profile, with one long lovely leg exposed in front. She had a gorgeous figure.

Tell us more about it. What's his take? The last biography I read was the one by Eric Ives, and it was excellent.

The movie gets off to an excellent start and then goes downhill, but it's not awful, just inflated, and some of the flaws were related to the original. "America" comes off well. Natalie Wood tends to get hammered and indeed she is not at her best but considering the ingenues available at the time, they could have done a lot worse. Jerome Robbins liked her; they became very close friends. Chakiris, Moreno, and Tamblyn, are good, too. The real weak link is the flaccid Richard Beymer, for my money. Also, Wood did not care for him and boy, does it ever show.

Adam, hello and welcome. In the "Writings on Ballet" forum there is a thread devoted to her book. I think it should be pretty easy to find. Sorry I don't have the time to post the link myself.

I must apologize for my haste in quoting Mr. Macaulay without double fact checking--and making him sound more decadent and outlandish and absolutist than in fact he was. His whole statement was more limited in reach: Well so much for Richard Strauss. Among others .. Statements like that aren’t criticism, they’re attention-getting devices. In a daily review aimed at the general public, I’ll excuse it.

Huh? I agree with anin's old post, there's very little resemblance.

In a way, Villella and Kirkland had no choice. Very hard to talk candidly about dancing at New York City Ballet in the Sixties and Seventies without discussing Farrell and her effect on the company, even in her absence. Farrell does mention Kirkland briefly, saying that she saw her dance only once, and one gets the impression she didn't approve of Kirkland's book, big surprise. (I think in some ways her book is a response to Kirkland, and deliberately so.) Apart from d'Amboise and Martins (and Jorge Donn), Farrell doesn't have all that much to say about her partners, it's true. I'm not saying the others go entirely without mention, but she tends to say little except things like thanking Adam Luders for his support in her last struggling years.

The late Ms. Bates is mentioned in Suzanne Farrell’s biography also. Farrell mentions something to the effect that when she was born, the whole company was happy for her parents and ‘felt they had birthed her.’ Very distressing news.

Hip Hop artist Big Boi of "OutKast," actually. I find some of his music quite brilliant actually, although I realize that hip hop doesn't appeal to everyone's taste. I don't know from hip hop but I'm told by reliable sources that Big Boi is pretty good. sidwich is also a reliable source so I think we have a consensus.

Thanks for posting, Ray. I haven't read it - has anyone else out there?

That was pretty much my reaction. Sure, there's plenty of more cogently argued stuff out there, but Queenan provides a good springboard for discussion as these pieces written in a testy mood sometimes do. Thanks again, Mashinka, for posting it. You set off quite a discussion!

I think that’s an apt comparison and I’m annoyed I didn’t think of it myself, although even the scampiest Apollo doesn’t constantly tug the back of his pants. That’s a good point, zerbinetta, but it’s possible that the times are different. People have access to a wider variety of music than ever before – it wasn’t too long ago that to hear Balinese music you had to go to Bali – and classical music has to fight for space in a much more competitive market, and without the snob appeal that it used to have.

We don’t live in an era where rich men hide their light under a bushel. Also, the missus is reportedly a social climber of Everest proportions. (Edith Wharton would recognize the Kochs immediately.) Not likely with Koch Industries. The worst thing that could happen, I suppose, is that Koch bumps off a relative in the manner of Frances Schreuder, who underwrote “Robert Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze.” However, I’m sure vetting procedures have improved since back then.

You could make a ballet out of "The Fly," although I can't see why and doubt it would be much of a contribution to the art form. Part of the shock effect of the Cronenberg version derives from the graphic and clinical immediacy of Brundle’s deterioration, as Jeff Goldblum pulls out his teeth and nails and observes his body changing. Watching onstage you know it’s just a guy in a fly suit. Also, I’d miss that hospital delivery room scene. I’d be curious to know what they did in the way of a chorus, as the Cronenberg picture is notably underpopulated – Goldblum and Geena Davis are onscreen alone almost the entire time, and there is only one significant supporting role. How about "Night of the Living Dead: the Ballet"?

It's tasteless, but that's suitable for the new Gilded Age we live in, as bart notes. Fortunately, it could have been worse. The Houston Astros have to play in Minute Maid Park.

I think he means that classical art music can provide pleasures and rewards outside the purview of pop, which seems fair enough comment. ‘Moonlight Mile’ by the Stones is as mysterious and beautiful a song as one could ask for, and I don’t think he was suggesting that those qualities are impossible to find in rock, only that there is more and different to be found elsewhere.

Steel girders - interesting thought. Zellerbach is the worst. The corps de ballet always sounds like John Wayne's cattle herd in Red River.

Just a note, kfw, that I didn't mean to ignore this post when I made my comments, as I see we made similar points.

I don't think they were suggesting that it is simple, or to discount the complexity of Wilkinson's situation. ( I doubt that social pressure alone would have deflected Wilkinson from her goals -- the institutionalized discrimination she faced was a much more significant threat to them.)

I remember reading about that back when, kfw, and it's a shame. Thanks for posting, Kathleen. Queenan is indeed wearing his Joe Sixpack credentials on his sleeve, but I didn't think less of him for admitting that listening to art music made him feel that he had de-classed himself and joined a special elite. Mixed motives are not uncommon in this area, after all, and many a ballet and orchestra has benefited financially from rich aspirants looking to climb the social ladder as well as contribute to an art form. In a way, it's actually an idealized way of looking at the matter - as if lovers of classical music are members of a special club, in that they have access to a 'mystery and beauty' that pop music, however excellent, can't quite provide. It's not 'dissing' the Rolling Stones to say that. His disillusionment sets in when he realizes that his naive concept is in error and the club he thought he'd joined was not the cultivated society of which he'd originally conceived but the frequent flyer program you just described so well. Many articles of this kind are indeed fundamentally about taste. ("I don't like this, so everything's going to hell in a handbasket.")

My point was that Leigh wasn't interested in being 'just a movie star, like Cary Grant,' as Olivier rather tactlessly put it on one occasion. You could certainly argue that this was a blinkered view and careers like Garbo's and Grant's were unique and special in their own way. I meant that none of Garbo’s films were of the first rank with the arguable exceptions of Camille and Ninotchka. (She never seems to have been interested in using her clout to get better material, which is too bad.) Thanks for reminding me of "Nuts," klingsor. You are right, the acting is very good, and Nielsen actually succeeded in scaring me.

Thanks for posting this, Mashinka. I've read some of Queenan's stuff before and he's not so bad. This kind of piece gets written on an annual basis, and although it makes some classical music fans freak out I don't think such articles make a huge impression elsewhere Not in my neck of the woods. My impression is that jazz clubs are much thinner on the ground than they used to be as trends in popular music have shifted, and Queenan may be right to say that some of that state dough could be redistributed. I doubt that, Mashinka. Other comments?