dirac

Alas, the right choreographer, Kenneth MacMillan, is no longer with us. Given the weight standards for today's dancers, I do not think a woman dancer of the requisite pulchritude could be found to assume the role of Monica, and in this case it is crucial to casting the role. We'd need a robust lady one could imagine flashing her thong at a fellow. Elssler would be right for it. (Also Lynn Seymour, by which I don't mean to imply that Seymour was as chubby as the dancers of Elssler's day, only that she had the sauce and daring for the part. And she could also do Monica's more vulnerable moments splendidly. What she and MacMillan could have done with the scenes where poor Monica is shut away in the hotel room with a bunch of threatening government agents and no lawyer!) A similar problem appears when casting our former Fearless Leader. After all, there is that important moment when he sucks in his tummy for Monica's benefit and she assures him that she likes a pot on a guy.

I'm not sure if hurt feelings would be justified for parents who saddled their daughter with the moniker Tula Ellice Finklea. It should be noted that Cyd didn't go out of her way to hurt her parents' feelings, however. Her girlhood nickname was "Sid" and Sid happened to marry a Mr. Charisse....

I didn't see it, but my understanding is that it's one of Balanchine's few genuine turkeys, done in the early seventies during his post-Farrell doldrums. I believe he choreographed it to the commercial's music.

For those who are interested, a contemporary view: Edmund Wilson discusses the score of "Petrushka" and Stravinsky for The New Republic: http://www.tnr.com/classic/wilson040125.html

The three part movie is "Story of Three Loves" -- Ashton did something for her, for the same music he used for "Rhapsody." James, prepare to be weirded out by "Peeping Tom." Moira does a spirited little unclassical dance, and then she gets offed, very early on in the movie. I can't remember if he hits her on the head, or if she's the one who gets throttled with the tripod..... I purchased "Tales of Hoffmann" from moviesunlimited.com. Couldn't find it on Amazon at the time.

And maybe a reconstruction of something he did for the "Balanchine Girls" of Charles Cochran's revue for #3. And "Balustrade."

I do not know if this recording is still available, but I have a two CD set of Stravinsky's chamber music, including Duo, recorded by Olli Mustonen and Isabelle van Keulen. I recommend it highly.

I'm going to be totally cynical and say that ice dancing is a sport because it adds to the skating coverage and thus gets high ratings and ratchets up the number of women viewers for winter sports. Well, it beats the luge. If Plushenko doesn't watch out, his absences will begin to be greeted with the same reception meted out to those of the Williams sisters....

I think singles and pairs definitely qualify as sports, but ice dancing....I dunno. There's no question that it takes a high degree of skill and the competitors are held to high technical standards, but is that in itself enough to qualify it as a sports event? And the judging is, as Colleen noted, weirdly subjective even by the subjective necessities of skating judging in general. Aesthetically, I find ice dancing follows its landlubbing forerunner, ballroom dancing, a little too literally for much genuine inventiveness to show itself. However, I'll watch it anyway.

I'm not sure about a pure 50/50 ratio. This is a sport, not an art form, and finally it must be judged primarily, although not exclusively, on athletic terms unless it wants to lose credibility as a sport. Isn't that part of the reason for the emphasis on jumps in recent years? Maybe Hughes' slight awkwardness and lack of polish is largely owing to growing pains, as Victoria suggested, and she doesn't have the elegant slender line that Kwan exploits with her Vera Wang camisoles, and that natural grace that never seems to desert Kwan even when she's down on her butt. Hughes does smile too much, but then many skaters do, or so it seems to this non-expert. I used to enjoy watching Kwan throw her arms open and beam during her spirals, but now it's starting to look like a shtick. ( Maria Butyrskaya is not necessarily my favorite skater, but at least she's not always grinning like the village idiot.) To go by the behavior of American judges, I don't think it really matters how well Hughes or Cohen do. Kwan has a lock on the top spot, unless she does something really disastrous. (I'm not saying she doesn't usually deserve the top spot, but there have been times when I've gotten the feeling "the fix is in.") They'll just have to wait until she retires or gets injured or something. (Of course, the Olympics are another matter, as Tara Lipinski knows.) Jeannie, I saw their "Meditation" program and thought it was OK. I was just listening to Anne-Sophie Mutter's recording of this warhorse, and reflecting that she plays it as passionately if she'd never heard it before. So I suppose it is possible to breathe new life into the familiar. Are the pairs skaters actively encouraged to put the romantic stuff into their programs? It would be interesting if skating choreography used the pas de deux format in different ways. I'm thinking of the Agon pas de deux, for example, where yes, it's a man and a woman and it's sexual, but there are other meanings tucked away in there as well. Christopher Dean has made a few attempts in this direction, I think.

Hmmm. Shouldn't the company's own usage be the determining factor, pretentious or not?

In the Fanfair (I think that's how they spell it) section up front, there's a couple of paragraphs on the Kirov, with small photos of Nioradze, Lopatkina, and Part. This is the latest issue, with the Annie Leibovitz photograph of White House foreign policy honchos on the cover. (Politically oriented types note: Colin Powell placed at far left, thus squeezing him onto the cover with Cheney and the Prez, while Rumsfeld is relegated to the fold at.....far right......

Shostakovich. I was afraid of this. Arrrggghh! Thanks, Manhattnik.

Shostakovich. I was afraid of this. Arrrggghh! Thanks, Manhattnik.

Well, I checked out Todd and Tim last night and I have to say although Eldredge was not at his best he still beat Goebel all around. Goebel's trying, he really is, but he just doesn't seem to know what to do with his upper body. It's not easy to watch him, and I suppose one shouldn't be prejudiced by this, but it may be unavoidable. (I read somewhere that he is taking some ballet lessons, but they don't seem to have sunk in yet.) The choreographer tried to work with this by giving him some shrugs and offhand what-can-you-do gestures, and he couldn't manage even those gracefully. And he still can't relate to the music. Maybe Tim should just skate to bells ringing and whistles going off. His jumps are beautiful once he's up in the air, but his telegraphed preparations seem to go on for about five minutes. Re: choice of music. While I agree that you can skate an exciting program to familiar music, I don't think that any skater who tries skating to something that requires a subtler relation between music and movement than we often see should be encouraged and rewarded for doing so. (In other words, all skaters currently doing a "Don Quixote" program will be allowed to continue, but anyone who creates a new one may be shot on sight. I'm also starting to feel the same way about "Meditation" from Thäis.)

I don't think even Balanchine would go so far as to cast von Aroldingen in the second movement -- or did he? (Also, I wonder if the amiable relations among his spouses and exes is really attributable to good nature, or the possibility that Balanchine just wasn't the kind of consort women were inclined to engage in fisticuffs over? Tallchief's memoir didn't make him sound like Mr. Romantic.) I second the Heavenly vote for the original cast of "Le Palais" in Paris. Just to see what it looked like.

I don't think even Balanchine would go so far as to cast von Aroldingen in the second movement -- or did he? (Also, I wonder if the amiable relations among his spouses and exes is really attributable to good nature, or the possibility that Balanchine just wasn't the kind of consort women were inclined to engage in fisticuffs over? Tallchief's memoir didn't make him sound like Mr. Romantic.) I second the Heavenly vote for the original cast of "Le Palais" in Paris. Just to see what it looked like.

Even in death he's better copy than most. Well, he was the first ballet star to become a mainstream celebrity, so it may be more appropriate than it appears at first glance. I suppose Baryshnikov became just as famous, but I wasn't around for Nureyev's peak years, so I can't offer eyewitness testimony. However, Baryshnikov has never gotten busted in the Haight, nor do I recall him appearing on talk shows in leopardskin outfits....

I think that when Kisselgoff used the phrase "came from operas" she intended simply to indicate that the music from the Balanchine and Robbins pieces wasn't derived from orchestral or instrumental works. It's a good idea to clarify the distinction as you do, however, since the music from "La Sonnambula," for example, is from the operas of Bellini, but the music was adapted by Rieti from various works and not composed by Bellini for the customary ballet-within-the-opera. I myself was struck more by the way Kisselgoff used the review as an occasion to reaffirm full-throated support of the Martins regime, not to mention a striking note of defensiveness, e.g., "Mr. Martins must be doing something right." (I'm not saying she's right or wrong -- it just seemed unexpected to find the remarks as prelude to a routine review. Maybe it's just me.) By Verdi's time, the ballet-within-an-opera custom seems to have degenerated from its respectable state in the Gluck era to an opportunity for male operagoers to ogle the ladies in their scanties. Wagner was practically run out of Paris for refusing to put a ballet into "Tannhäuser," I believe it was, but he stuck to his guns, even it meant no production. It would indeed be interesting to see someone have a crack at the music from "Otello" or "Macbeth." "Il Trovatore" is another possibility, and I think it's the only time Verdi used themes from the body of the opera for the ballet music.

In Croce's defense, her main complaint was not only Horiuchi's height per se as his height combined with his shape -- she was bothered by what she saw as a lack of a good line, which deprived his movements of impact. I don't know that she was actually "scathing" (although I do recall a reference to Mighty Mouse), but she was, well, forthright.

There does seem to be an expectation that modern audiences want All Dance All the Time and none of that silent-movie stuff, and it becomes a vicious circle because the more brief and perfunctory the mime, the less meaning and interest it carries, leading to the cutting of even more mime since it's so boring, and on and on.....

I don't have the tape but I recall the original broadcast -- it was very funny to see the tiny Kate Johnson leaping around a flummoxed Adam Luders.

Meaning Fanny's sexy, Marie is not?

This was fun to read. On the subject of costuming, I'd also like to take the opportunity to plug Toni Bentley's "Costumes by Karinska," a beautiful and instructive volume.

I thought that Tobias was not ignoring the international scence so much as using ABT and NYCB as exemplars of the argument to come; I don't think she intended to plow through each company of prominence one by one. I don't think Tobias is wishing for the good old days, she's just identifying and analyzing a current issue. The "ballerinas-are-gone-forever" aspect of her discussion may be overdone just a bit, but I see her point -- are we looking at a fundamental change in attitude and not just the recurrent reasons (no choreographers, no directorial guidance, etc.) responsible for past fallow periods? Peter Martins, of all people, may have put his finger on something when he remarked in his autobiography that Suzanne Farrell's perspective on her role as ballerina was crucially different from the younger dancers coming up behind her; "she has the grand style," he said, and the newer girls did not think of themselves in those terms. (He may simply have meant that Farrell could be a pain, but it's an instructive observation just the same.) I think also of what Maria Tallchief says in "Six Balanchine Ballerinas" about the responsibilities of a ballerina and how the first dancer must assume responsibility not just for herself but for the ballet; she must symbolize something larger than herself. Maybe this is what is missing? (As for actresses -- we still have the glamour, but it assumes different forms. Depends on what you prefer. I'm a big Grace Kelly fan, but I'm also grateful that we're past the era when movies were so fearful of reality that Claudette Colbert could do a touching deathbed scene in "Boom Town" with no other cosmetic alteration apart from some gray lipstick. It is true, however, that there were some things they did better way back when. Compare "The Women" dressed by Adrian and "The Women" dressed by Isaac Mizrahi. I rest my case.