dirac

Thanks so much for posting this. The article is a good read. As Acocella mentions, Egorova also taught Zelda Fitzgerald. Zelda was a more persistent pupil than poor Lucia, however. (Egorova said in response to inquiries from Zelda's shrinks that she could have been a soloist in a small company. The docs didn't tell Zelda. Bad for her, don't you know.)

I'd suggest that sometimes the old can't be recaptured, and even when it's recaptured "successfully" it's not what it was. Sometimes this is "damage" and sometimes it's just the way of the world. (I should note that this is not meant as a license for wholesale disregard of the past, or that attempts at preservation should not be made.)

I wonder if we're comparing two dissimilar situations, however. Isn't joining a new company and gradually assimilating its different stylistic demands another story from dancing roles in a new ballet unique to the repertory with different stylistic demands? (And when Croce talks about McBride's turnout and ballon, she's not talking about differences between Balanchine and Bournonville so much as characteristics peculiar to McBride, I think.) I remember Farrell talking about that ballet in her book, saying firmly that she danced it with the same energy and focus she gave to everything else (she wasn't taking down that leg for anybody, buster.) That approach was right for her, I imagine – indeed the only practicable one given the circumstances.

I don't think she was too hard on Redick. She wasn't calling him incompetent, merely noting that he wasn't up to the task, a formidable one. I suppose it's possible for the reference to "masterful [sic]"coaching and "disparate" dancers might be taken the wrong way -- as if to say, "Gosh, she'd just be so great if she wasn't saddled with Those Dancers."

This link is definitely not dance-related, but it has a nice discussion of how a fan site is affected by the entry of Official Persons into message boards, and how sometimes informed online chat is an improvement on what you see (or don't see) in the papers. As some of you may know, next season Curt Schilling will form the second part of what the Red Sox hope will be a one-two knockout pitching punch, and pave the way for perhaps another confrontation with Mystique and Aura over in the Bronx. During his recent contract negotiations with the Sox, Schilling took to posting updates and clarifications about his intentions at the Sons of Sam Horn website, with consequences wittily described below by Seth Stevenson for Slate: http://slate.msn.com/id/2091927/

I am disposed to agree with the "publishing insider" quoted in the last paragraph. Good news -- for now. And I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the next Britten.

Thank you for the report, BalletNutter. I'm sorry they didn't do Mozartiana when they were in my vicinity. Far be it from me to encourage anyone to miss school and class, but it sounds well worth it.

Funny Face, T&D did NOT get shafted at their second Olympics. I can offer particulars, although I don't want to start a board food fight. (You should have seen the brisk debate we had over the last Olympics pairs competition - I don't think you were around for it.)

Well, the pro shows are not really where you go for classical music choices. The late John Curry, as you probably know, used classical music almost exclusively. It was right for him, but it doesn't fit all skaters. (David Santee used to do a great routine to "Rocky" that suited him very well – the classical stuff didn't look right on him when he joined Curry's show, I thought.) Sorry I missed the show, though. As for the competitions, I'm ready to declare a moratorium on all "Swan Lake" programs for a minimum of five years......

Gorey is for grownups. There are a few stories here and there you could read to kids without having to explicate too much, but there are many little children who come to bad ends and sexual references, some covert, some not, that would leave Mom and Dad with quite a bit of explaining to do. Gorey did illustrations for a book, Donald Has a Difficulty by Peter Neumeyer, that my niece quite liked – I had to read it to her at least once whenever she visited. There may be others out there. But I didn't even think about reading her Gorey's own things.

As I recall, Denby was less than enthusiastic about Shearer's Cinderella but I doubt her comments were payback, although her book has its problems, to say the least. She's no dummy, though. But dancers in general don't always use quotes from critics very well in their books even when their view of them is positive, IMO. It's not a question of intelligence or grasp of the subject, however -- I think other factors come into play.

Funny Face, thank you for the heads-up. It's always a pleasure to see Yamaguchi -- she was the best woman skater going, amateur or pro, for a long time back when. Wylie was a favorite of mine, too. Can't say the same for Bobek, alas -- last time I saw her on tour she was looking as if she had just come from flagging down cars on Hollywood Boulevard. Even her spiral, probably the best ever, was looking feeble.

"Major player" and "tenacious competitor" are far too polite terms for Clear Channel and hardly begin to describe the monolithic position that CC holds in radio and is working on in concert promotion. See Harper's magazine -- I think it's the December issue -- (articles not available online) for some of the gruesome details.

Forgive the pedantry, but A is for Amy, actually. Amanda doesn't quite scan.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies. B is for Basil assaulted by bears...........

When I was a little girl I was infatuated with the Lipizzaners, as I was with pretty much all horses (Secretariat and Seattle Slew were my first pinups). There was a children's book about them, by Marguerite Henry, I think. They were beautiful to watch, although I was always worried about whether or not the horses were getting any fun out of it. Whenever I see animals doing tricks or pictures of same, even Balanchine's Mourka, I'm always reminded of the Monty Python skit in which Graham Chapman tells television show host Eric Idle (this is from memory) that his cat can fly across the room into an empty bucket. Idle marvels: how is this possible? "I fling her," Chapman explains cheerfully, whips the cat around his head by the tail like a lasso, and throws her across the soundstage.

This is brief, but a nice read. Practical questions, practical answers. Interesting to note that her favorites are all story ballets, and she also mentions Onegin and Manon as ballets she would like to do.

Very interesting idea! I would put down Adams for Aurora, just to see how she would do it. And Erik Bruhn's involvements with NYCB were short and none too sweet, but we have to fit him in as Désiré somewhere. And Farrell has to be a Sixties Aurora!

Frank Rich discusses the HBO production of "Angels in America." From last Sunday's Times (registration required): http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/arts/16RICH.html David Ansen and Marc Peyser interview cast members and Tony Kushner for Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.com/news/990683.asp#BODY May I burble about how much I'm looking forward to this (premiere next month)? Dream cast: Pacino (on his best behavior, let us hope), Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, et al., Mike Nichols directing – should be wonderful.

Quiggin is spot on about the music. I thought for Divertimento that another recording, the Karajan one for example, would have sounded better and maybe worked better for the dancers. The other pieces on the program had music with beefier orchestrations that didn't suffer quite as much, although the blare factor was ever-present. I agree that Serenade looked better than anything else on the program, but I thought even there the dancers were having difficulties with the tempi and occasionally one had the impression of indeterminate dashing hither and thither as opposed to a continuous flow of movement. (I liked Magnicaballi as the Dark Angel very much.)

I remember reading that the National Ballet of Canada was trying to acquire it for Karen Kain (pre-retirement, obviously). I'd be curious to know if they did, and if so, what the production was like.

I was there for Friday only, so it's hard to generalize from only one performance. Helene, you haven't said anything I passionately disagree with, although I liked the performance of the corps in Divertimento – they had a lot of spirit even if the steps didn’t seem to be quite all there – hard for me to tell as this is my first viewing of the entire ballet. I'm pressed for time today and will be brief. There were several moments in Divert that made one uneasy for the dancers, but all performed honorably. I did not care for the costumes, which seemed a trifle loud and a trifle rustic, not qualities I associate with this music or this ballet. Joining the amen chorus in praise of April Ball. Her dancing was clear and pretty and in addition she had that something that catches the eye – ("Who's that girl?" asked someone sitting nearby). I greatly preferred Ritter to Du or Mladenov – he was the only one of the men who looked really comfortable in Divertimento. Next up was the Waltz of the Flowers. There is something to be said for presenting this out of context as a study in Balanchinian composition, but I missed the context all the same (I'm going by the video of the film). And this choreography definitely needs tutus -- as Helene mentions, the chiffon shifts make you think of "Serenade" and there's no reason to think of "Serenade." (It also made for a rather chiffon-intensive program.) Gotta go, but echoing Helene yet again, Chan Hon Goh's acting in Serenade was indeed somewhat alarming – in the finale, just as she was about to be raised aloft, her expression seemed a bit I'm-ready-for-my-closeup-Mr. DeMille, if you catch my drift. More later, I hope.

"Perfume" is an excellent choice of words, IMO. Danilova often used it, if I recall correctly.

Garafola reports on an arts festival honoring Diaghilev in Perm, his hometown, and also comments on the general state of ballet and dance since the fall of the Soviet Union. She also talks about the city's opera company and art gallery -- plenty of cultural activity in Perm, evidently. (The Perm State Ballet performed an all-Balanchine program consisting of Apollo, Ballet Imperial, and La Sonnambula, in addition to Chopiniana, Le Spectre de la Rose, Les Sylphides, and The Sleeping Beauty.) A fairly long piece, well worth looking up.

These are fascinating. So difficult for me to imagine the ballet in these costumes, though.