dirac

I'm afraid Mr. Pollard sounds to me very much like the sort of person Calvin Trillin refers to as a "baby bigot." (And perhaps another kind of bigot, to judge from his charming description of Afghan refugees. What a nice man.) While I'm no fan of obstreperous kiddies whose parents don't teach them to mind their public manners, it is a fact of life that children don't gaze at art objects in silent contemplation – but that doesn't mean it doesn't benefit them to be there. (And others as well. I like seeing kids at museums, myself, even if they are pulling faces at the naked ladies. It's worth it to see their reaction to something they really like.)

Thank you for the post. They seem to be a nice couple, and a very cute one also, in spite of Kurt's issues with male pattern hair loss.

Very interesting story – thank you. Although I wonder if it's proper etiquette, strictly speaking, to ask for autographs under such circumstances? After all, the dancers do have to stand there and wait in line, and while many might not mind signing a program or two, it might get annoying after a bit.

Yes, Elite Syncopations is new to the repertory.

The Old Vic has been at death's door more than once in recent years. I quite agree that attending Juilliard and having a stage background doesn't qualify one to run a company, or there'd be throngs of suitable candidates, but it does help to show that the choice of Spacey isn't ludicrous. He's acted there, and he seems to know and like the place. My impression is that he's a pretty sharp guy, and there's no reason to think he won't do a decent job and in any case the theatre is running out of options. If Spacey and Elton John are willing to devote time, money, and energy to the project, more power to them. The Old Vic could do a lot worse.

I suspect the program was more in line with television programs of the past such as Gene Kelly's "Dancing is a Man's Game" and one on Edward Villella called, I think, "Edward Villella: A Man Who Dances" or something like that. They're meant to showcase dance, and secondarily ballet, as something that it's okay for (straight) guys to do. This is well-intentioned, but it's certainly not ideal if you're hoping for a show on ballet dancers that showcases their art, which I think most of us were. It's not an attack on Morris to say that he isn't a choreographer ideally suited to the latter purpose (or the former, as some have pointed out). (I also wonder if modern dance choreographers work with ballet companies not only for the opportunity to work with dancers with those special skills, but also for access to the larger opera-house audience they might have more difficulty reaching otherwise?)

Excellent idea, Old Fashioned, but we'd need another title to go along with it. "The Wild and the Mild"?

Caution: if you find someone's dancing annoying for whatever reason, that's a suitable topic for discussion, but anything close to "I hear So-and-so is an annoying person" is not. This isn't aimed at you, Medora, it's just a general health warning.

That really is an idea for the history books, Manhattnik. Strictly speaking, this isn't a tag team concept, since there's no opportunity to tag, but I suggest this, for companies with fouette-challenged ballerinas: During the Black Swan coda, have several principals waiting in the wings as Odile goes into her 32 big ones. At the first sign of wobbling/traveling/slipping, send out a relief pitcher, who will tactfully bump her colleague to the side with a fast pop of the hip and assume her place, and so forth.

While I agree that sexual orientation has no relevance to one's macho quotient, Morris will have to tell Mizrahi not to compare him to Lillian and Dorothy Gish for the benefit of reporters before he can be accorded the title of Most Macho. I voted for Malakhov, because Russians are always more macho (Nureyev owns the title in perpetuity, for my money). Of course, as we figure-skating fans know, a Russian man will wear anything. Who can forget Alexei Urmanov in his Swan Lake outfit, or Ilia Kulik winning his Gold Medal in an outfit that made him look like a tall, skinny bee? I notice that people are voting and not backing it up with action, i.e., a post. Come on, 'fess up.

I don't think a personal connection would be a factor here, even if it exists – many people seem to feel as Frago does. No need for sleuthing, I imagine.

Barnes seems to feel pretty strongly about this. Perhaps they received a lot of anti-Martins responses, and Barnes chose to respond to one? I note he reiterated the point that it isn't so much Homans' opinions he's objecting to, so much as the forum and manner in which they were offered. As he observes, Frago is entitled to her views, but gratuitous insults to Kisselgoff don't help her cause, IMO.

I had much the same thoughts as pumukau and NancyHJohnson. I was drowsy and didn't catch everything, but it did seem odd to follow up all of that heteroprop with a piece in which the boys partner each other in pretty blouses, and not a girl in sight. I would agree, however, that the Real Men stuff is geared toward all potential audience members and not us degenerates in NY and the SF/Bay Area. What may seem like Too Much to us may be worth repeating elsewhere. (This is not intended as a knock on the heartland, I should note.) I must say, however, that you'd think public television, at least, would be enlightened enough to avoid certain kinds of crude gender stereotyping. I rather doubt a profile of four ballerinas would be called "Born to Be Wild" and feature a dancer saying something like, "I just love being handled by all these strange men."

You're very welcome.

Ballet dancers have some things in common with athletes, in that their instruments are their bodies, for example, and both require special training regimens, the advice and direction of coaches, and so forth. However, dancers and athletes have different goals. Aspiring dancers hope to become artists, and, with great luck, artist/stars. Athletes try to win games and competitions. (I should note that I am not saying one goal is better than the other, just different.) Often athletes are beautiful to watch, and that is part of their appeal. Likewise, part of what people like in ballet is the pleasure of watching dancers perform athletic feats such as jumps. But for dancers, physical virtuosity is a means, not an end. People often think that because ballet dancers are trained not to show effort, that they're not making any! Those people are, of course, wrong.

Hmm…hundreds of people looked at this thread, and only 14 had an opinion on the matter. I find this to be an implausible ratio. It's an interesting topic, let us know what you think! I put "Elusive Muse" into the VCR again recently and noted that Suzanne Farrell's mother had her own take on this issue. Under normal circumstances she might have been expected to object to a sexagenerian displaying erotic interest in her teenaged daughter, but in this case, "He was a genius!"

The Dark Ages generally refers to the early Middle Ages – about 500 A.D. to 1000 A.D. (I am not good with dates, these may be slightly off!) – the period immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire, when the Vandals overran Europe and things were, well, confused. As one who would have ranked socially with the 99%, I cannot say that I feel much nostalgia for the period. However, I can see how illiteracy, punishing manual labor, drinking bad water, living in distressed circumstances, and dying at a young age of disease or complications of childbirth might conceivably lessen one's interest in illuminated manuscripts. Back to the topic, more or less -- has anyone read Frank Augustyn's book? He wrote one a year or two ago, but I never came across much about it.

SFB has "Elite Syncopations" for the first time this season. I am looking forward to it.

Out here in the Bay Area, Nureyev's Don Q was on once, NYCB's Diamond Project show not at all, and "Born to Be Wild" will be shown tonight...at 11:00 p.m. I don't mind Antiques Roadshow. It's not a bad show in its way, although I'm not a regular viewer. I find the constant rebroadcasts of Royal Family documentaries and brown-nosing Jackie Onassis specials -- hey, she's gone, you can stop now, people-- far more annoying.

Sorry. I was trying to describe and not appraise. When sex is the concern, beds do tend to come in handy. And having a dead woman or two about doesn't exactly constitute foreign ballet territory. For some reason, I'm reminded of the bedroom scene in "Love and Death," in which Diane Keaton, as Woody Allen's unenthusiastic new bride, rebuffs his advances with "Please – not here." Totally off topic.

I wondered about "lushly romantic" also. I don't find romanticism to the fore in either R&J or Manon – the sensuality is more naturalistic than romantic. I guess you could call them romantic in that there's not a lot of groping in the pas de deux, and to me it's not a real MacMillan duet unless the ballerina gets seriously felt up at least once.

Briefly: I see the fine hand of Lady MacMillan has been at work again, so Washington will see an obscure MacMillan one-acter instead of "Monotones." Perhaps Ashton should have made a strategic marriage to a Much Younger Woman, if only for the sake of his repertory. I was amused by McKenzie's "we're not eclectic -- we're all-encompassing." But that begs the question of whether "all-encompassing" is a Good Thing. I just don't see that a ballet company has any business doing Martha Graham. Kaiser says, "National style has become more of a romantic notion than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Ballet has become more athletic. The idea of the blushing British ballerina doesn't really exist anymore." I applaud Kaiser for what he's accomplishing in Washington, but this seems just a tad condescending to me ("romantic notion," "blushing British ballerina").

A look at the history of the goose-step, by Mark Scheffler for Slate: http://slate.msn.com/id/2077384/

It is very moving, even on video. Arlene Croce wrote a piece on the ballet when it premiered which is collected in "Going to the Dance" and may be in the most recent anthology as well, I don't recall. She brought up Tudor as well, although not in the same detail.

Dear old Tim Benzedrine. ("Melts in your brain, not in your hands!") And let us not forget the lands of Twodor and Fordor, as well as Sorhed and his "loathsome squeeze play." At the risk of being pedantic, the Lampoon spelled it Legolam.