Quiggin

Degas' takes on dancers were fairly shocking and unattractive in their time - Huysmans characterized some of his ballet drawings as "cruel and subtle," but: "What truth! What life!" Unfortunately, dance companies are not photographed by photojournalists but instead by company or company-approved photographers, so we never get an outsider's view. It's as if newspapers printed press releases instead of reviews. Regarding Balanchine, lots of the interesting awkwardnesses in his works seemed to have become ironed out over the years, "not spoken of." The late 1970's video of "Divertimento No 15" is full of odd, angular, Degas-awkward positions that have vanished (I think I'm following Jack Reed on this). Degas was attracted to working class pretentionlessness - and this working class, no-nonsense directness of interpretation - but full of character - that used to figure in Balanchine performances, seems no longer to be there... So maybe the photos are true to life.

I'll post the dissenting opinion and say that on the contrary the photograph by Oscar Hildago is a good one, and somewhat in the same character as that of Villella by Bill Eppridge on the second page. It shows a good contrast between the soloist and the corps. Most contemporary dance photography tends to be overly romantic, and as photography, less adventurous than the choreography being photographed. It doesn't report. As a something of an antidote, check out the "shockingly banal" photographs that Walker Evans did for Fortune magazine ("The Boom in Ballet") and which were also published in Lincoln Kirstein's dance journal - was it called Dance Index? Also Alexi Brodovitch's photos in his book Ballet have some bite to them. Here are Evans' outakes: http://www.metmuseum...190029001?img=1 Also a bit unvarnished: H Cartier-Bresson at Magnum: http://www.magnumpho...&PN=2&CT=Search http://www.magnumpho...SH=1&SF=1&PPM=0 http://www.magnumpho...PN=19&CT=Search

Natalia: Also the second soloist, is it Constance Garfield?, is delightful. The New York Times December 4, 1955 review notes that Maria Tallchief was returning to the company after a year away and required a new role, that "there is never enought money to make a full-scale ballet with score and production," so Balanchine "went back to one of the ballets of his youth for inspriation." As much as I love to watch Eglevsky, he does seem to have strange expressions of skepticism on his face from time to time. John Martins' comment on his limitations is interesting.

"Choroegraphy by George Balanchine" (1984) notes that the credit "'Pas de Dix' by George Balanchine, after Marius Petipa" was used in later stagings. John Martin in the New York Times says: "a grand divertissement a la Petipa" "refashioned in his own style until it actually becomes his own" (1955 & 1956). Clive Barnes in a 1967 review of the Joffrey revival says a bit acidly, "Although the choreography is ascribed to Mr. Balanchine, in fact much of it is an adaptation of Marius Petipa's 19c classic 'Raymonda.' (Nowadays Mr. Balanchine even attibutes all of 'Swan Lake, Act II' to himself, a curious conceit probably permissable to genius.)" But earlier he had written that it was a "lustrous realization of a Petipa work." I find "Pas de Dix" to be something akin to a piano reduction of an orchestra score, stripped down in a modernist style. It's also broader and more of a burlesque than the original, especially in some of Eglevsky's moves, such as the in-turned knees. "Choreography" also mentions that for San Francisco Ballet's 1960 "Variations de Ballet" parts of "Pas de Dix" were combined with Lew Christensen's choreography to Glazounov's suite "Scenes de Ballet," Op. 52 (revised 1981). Also that Balanchine had staged the Petipa choreography for Diaghilev in 1925. The 1955 cast included Barbara Tallis, Constance Garfield (solos), Jane Mason, Barbara Walczak, Shaun O'Brien, Roy Tobias, Roland Vazquez, Johnathan Watts. There was also "foursome for the boys" (Martin) that is not in the Canadian film/video. Alternate casts included Erik Bruhn with Maria Tallchief and Patricia Wilde with Eglevsky. In one of Frank O'Hara's books a 1961 menu dejeuner for Bill Berkson features a dish called "Poisson Pas de Dix au style Patricia [Wilde]."

Thanks, Helene. It does look sharper and easier to read - every pixel does help.

The only difficulty for me is that the typeface, though larger, is a little more difficult to read than the older version. It's as if the pixel count is the same as a smaller face, or else it's not black and contrasty enough. Tech Crunch also has a sans serif type but it seems darker and crisper. I seem to have to resort to my reading glasses more often than I did with the old Ballet Alert. Also light grey type on home page and "posted today"s is a bit faint.

I didn't mean to swing the discussion so much in one direction, only wanted to point out that the softening of terms usually works to the advantage of the person who originally did not play fairly – and that splitting everything 50-50 after a 95-05 split works to the advantage of the person who benefited the most in the past. And as far as moving towards the middle, being kind and a moderate about things is concerned, look how much success Obama has had with Congress in trying to do just that. My larger point was that ADs have to jump past the audience and lead them to new combinations of music & choreography ... no more Martins/McCartney/Stroman. No more dry as dust athletic neo-modernism. There were lots of interesting experiments in dance at Judson in the fifties based on interesting venacular "found" movements. These and early Merce & odd Balanchines & twenties Ballet Russes like Socrates (actually MMorris is just doing this) & Parade that could be build upon, and could easily accomodate a mix of body types, and still be based on classical principles, variation form, etc. Don Quixote could surely be opened up and refurbished, much as the Mozart operas have been.

To use euphonisms for racism is really a form of retrospective racism. Rufus Wainwright talks about battles with low level or subclinical homophobia and you might say a kind of low level racism persists in ballet, which is very conservative and not terribly creative these days (and depends on infusions of talent from South America to keep going on – as it did from Russia in the sixties). The ADs have dropped the ball by not jumping ahead of the audience – as Balanchine jumped ahead, giving them some sweet things and then some choreographical spinach. One night here last year the San Francisco Ballet did a ballet called "Haffner," which is a sort of restatement of "Divertimento No 15," and during the slow movement where there are three men and one woman doing odd classical pairings and combinations, I realized halfway through that two of the men were dark skinned. It was not a statement, but the AD did not hold back on the casting. Simon has suggested by letting everyone be who they are – he gave an example of not putting inappropriate wigs and making fools of some of the dancers – and opening up the choreography a bit, you can reinfuse the moribund form of ballet with some real life. I always cite Michael Clark's 1980's work as example, when he was working with Leigh Bowery and The Fall, and with dancers of various body types, as the way to the future no one took. It was very open and heterogeneous, a bit nasty but all embracing. It's done on a very small scale but, in counterpoint and small groups of action, he's much closer to Balanchine than Wheeldon and Ratmansky are. And in use of costumes and bits of sets, the successor to the Ballets Russes of the mid twenties. * This has been a very depressing thread for me – not that I was ever a great activist, but it seems to want to go against the gains of the late sixties. Incidentally, the folk revival which was mentioned above was very white, well intentioned, but sometimes a bit much; and coy and humorless. Its focus was on groups like Holy Modal Rounders, not Robert Johnson who recorded in the thirties. The black audience at the time was listening to Smoky Robinson and the Four Tops or John Coltrance and Johnny Griffin.

It's an assymetrical problem, a one-way street of the dominant culture taking their creative goods from the minority. The aftrican american musical community has long been the content provider for the caucasian community – Elvis Presley, Pat Boone, and Bill Haley all did white versions of the music of Arthur Crudup, Fats Domino and Ivory Joe Hunter; Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell were doing the steps of John Bubbles (which they all acknowledged). The Rolling Stones' first two albums were mostly black american songs and came from the black experience, Under the Boardwalk, Carol, Walking the Dog, etc. So after the 95% - 5% split/robbery, you can't go back and say let's go even-steven, 50-50 from here on out. In the greater Americas, Alejo Carpentier addressed the hypocracy of the denial of black sourcres of the contradanza, the habanera - in Music in Cuba and Concierto Barocco and again and again. "The tango is Afro-Montevidean, the tango has black blood" says admits the ususally Borges against the revisionists. Carptentier: Henri Matisse on a trip to San Francisco in 1931: And look what anxiety about not having white-enough skin caused Michael Jackson.

Financial Times gives it two stars out of five possible: Regarding Gershwin's significance as a composer, Arnold Schoenberg gives a touching eulogy on this clip via Terry Teachout's blog.

That glorious Douglas Fairbanks Jr. cape sold for $1,280 The Versace beaded evening jacket might be something to replace it as an object of curiosity. Highlights

There is a very spirited tutorial on Emeralds in "Violette & Mr B," directed by Dominique Delouche – in a different format than the Interpreter's Archive - focusing perhaps more on the tone and flavor of the originals over technical details. Alonso's "Theme and Variations" Interpreter's Archive video, done with Josefina Mendez, is very entertaining – an event in itself, but it also gives important clues on which parts of T&V are to be presented brilliantly to the audience, and which parts are a private conversation between the two soloists. Tomasson's demonstration of the Baiser gypsy dance to Gonzalo Garcia seems to capture the eeriness of the original, and Bolender's 4T's is very fine – at one point he suggests, "here it's almost as if you're being unctuous". What's interesting about the videos and the value over the written accounts – at least in the five or six I've seen – is to see just how much of the original tone of the choreography can be transmitted to the younger dancer and how much can't. It's as if you're somewhere watching the zeitgeists of two decades having a conversation with each other. VV & Robbins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaCpQzkc1ik Link to Leigh's Dance View reports: Balanchine Archive

Bart: For me "I Remember Balanchine" is really the essential Balanchine book – or Balanchines, because all dancers who are interviewed have different points of view. The Elliott Carter discussion is also included. What I found most valuable about "Balanchine Then and Now" was the "Divertimento from Le Baiser de la Fee: Ghost Stories" chapter about how Helgi Tomasson's solo was built with pieces of the pas de deux out of older versions. Violette Verdy's interview was also good but that may be in Mason. By the way, Artbook also lists forthcoming titles on Michael Clark (Violette) and Merce Cunningham (DAP). (And since Artbook done the curating in this case, it might be more appropriate to order these two from Artbook rather than Amazon, which acts more as a general store / clearinghouse.) Artbook

Thanks for the link - I ended up going through the whole catalogue. There's another Hurrell photo of Crawford in Lot 276 and a book in 277 which she inscribes to "Dodo" "in memory of our first year together," from "your boy." Also a George Bernard Shaw photo autographed "To Douglas Fairbanks the Second from One Who Remembers the First" (196) and a picture of Rex Harrison in a beard looking like Shaw. Lots of other great stuff - an eight day clock, a personalized note from Anthony Eden; suits, jackets, day clothes (from Stovel and Mason and H Huntsman & Sons), all with red carnations in the buttonholes; shoes, shoes, shoes, and very nice scarves, including a black and white that belonged to John Barrymore (273) - "the loosely tied scarf was often identified with Barrymore's idiosyncratic style of dress." A fine opera cape at 412: for the upcoming season.

I too was happy to find the connection between Elliott Carter and ballet when I came across an interview with him in "I remember Balanchine." There Carter talks about often going to reahearsals at the 59th and Madison studios (where he once saw the novelist Celine) and watching Balanchine choreograph. Carter compares Balanchine's onward going continuity with Eisenstein's and says "what was interesting was the process by which these moments came into being and by which they disappeared into other moments" – particularly unique to Balanchine and which he didn't see with other choreographers. Carter thinks that Balanchine's work of 1933, which he saw firsthand, was the most brilliant and experimental of all his work, with the exception of the late Stravinsky ballets, Webern "Episodes,"and "Davidsbundlertanze." In David Schiff's book on Carter there is an interesting analysis of "Minotaur" which Balanchine was supposed to do and ended up with John Taras – how Carter was composing Stravinsky by hidden means and that it incorporated its melodic shape from an ancient Greek musical fragment.

Photography might have had a cumulatively detrimental and denaturing influence on the contours of dance over time. It has certainly influenced architecture – most great buildings are only experienced in photographs – in terms of perspectives and angles rather than presence and the time it takes to move through the space. In some ways you remember the photographs and measure the buildings and dance performances against them – at best against the You Tube highlights. I look forward to reading the new book – Catherine Pawlick's San Francisco Ballet reviews are low keyed and always nicely thought out.

Macaulay also says this just before the repetitions quote: Theatergoers detest restricted views; Degas, when painting, loved them. This great one, recently in San Francisco and now in Australia, has a squeezed out limited view but nice variation of poses. Dancers Climing the Stairs Often though Degas drew the sames poses over and over, and identified with dancers at the barre, and moved them around in his paintings with the banality of checkers than leaps of chess pieces. Macaulay's balletomanes I guess are more easily bored. Degas also is grittier and more realisitic than romantic than even Macaulay allows – more like Zola – and his dancers are not attractive and not in attractive poses.

I haven't seen the movie, but it looks as though they borrowed a lot from William Eggleston's early work – rather than coming up with an original visual style. still from "The Help" William Eggleston's Guide Los Alamos

The difference with publicity in the past and present – if that's a current of this thread – is that dancers like Danilova, Farrell, Villella and Acosta wrote their memoirs after long careers, or after a significant series of events as in Acosta's case – while dancers today are writting their memoirs before their careers have barely started, or while they're going on – through social media – in small bursts of everyday detail. In the past this was stuff that only a few insiders knew. There have been lots of great posts here before on this aspect of public relations, and some of them have suggested that as this line between the privacy of the performer and the privacy of the audience member erodes, the great moments of transcendence on the stage seem fewer and fewer. Added: There is a difference with YouTube which seems to be a primer for what to watch for in a dancer's style – but it does chop things up into small pieces – and you tend to remember the experience in little brilliant clips rather than a part of a whole piece.

Kathleen O'Connell: Schlemmer seems to play with near/far and counterpoint a little more than Wilson, and begins to draw the basis of a new kind of choreography. Schlemmer's work is a real historical moment – it's in parallel to what was happening in Russia, all the great new conceptions of theater space and body movement. It may share some of the same bones or underpinnings that Balanchine brought with him from Russia and which you see traces of in Prodigal Son, 4 T's, Agon, and Rubies. Merce Cunningham was also exposed to these ideas (at the same time Robert Rauchenberg was looking at Kurt Schwitters) at Black Mountain College, where Joseph Albers taught. You can see Cunningham's late work in this clip : Schlemmer Pole Dance recreation I spent my first year at a very serious Bauhaus school, a bit too serious for me – founded by Schlemmer's nemesis – and what I was really fascinated with there were these magical costumes – and later on with what I saw in films clips of the originals or what might have been post-war reconstructions ... In retrospect so much of the New York avante garde of the fifties and seventies seems to be a secret return to what happened in the twenties at Dessau and Berlin, as well as Paris and Moscow.

Oskar Schlemmer. "Dances that only a painter could have choreographed": Jack Anderson Reconstructions in 1984 Bauhaus Dances

Leonid- Yes, and I didn't realize the extent of the revisions until I read David Brown's biography of Tschaikovsky. Where Riccardo Drigo proposes, "...I knew of (Tchaikovsky's) dissatisfaction with the instrumentation of (Swan Lake), and that he intended to take up the matter, but he never managed to do this" & "...it was my lot, like a surgeon, to perform an operation on Swan Lake, and I feared that I might not grasp the individuality of the great Russian master," Brown counters: & Yes, a lost opportunity ... but also because, at least to my taste, Gergiev doesn't let the music open up on its own, he pushes it ahead all the time, from the outside in.

Drigo & Gergiev's Tchaikowski from dirac's snippets: The Telegraph The Arts Desk I've listened to only first part of this performance, but the character is perhaps more Phil Spector than Yevgeny Mravinski. Rushing veils of sound and no time or space for the instruments to question and answer each other and to argue and scamper about. Valery Gergiev is not an intellectual conductor, it's all animal spirits and cumulative effect with him and sometimes it's right and sometimes not. Available for audition in its entirety for a limited time: Swan Lake at the Proms

Tommasini also says: For me super-virtuousity tends to be homogenous and hard - the small scale theatricality and dancer's "touch" is missing. Those dancers don't have any latitude left to make interesting choices, to do the equivalent of throw away lines, plant interesting pauses here and there, etc. * Nice Andrew Clark interview here with Matha Argerich who was a stand out virtuouso of her time. Strains of a Mood Music

Thanks, Simon, for posting the Michael Clark Company clips. That was a brilliant period for him. In choreographic architecture and counterpoint he's the best of bunch after Balanchine, more complex than Mark Morris and more playful than Wheeldon, and hardly ever gets a mention here in the States. Regarding Karinska's horsehair, there used to be all sorts of beautiful and clever tricks seamstresses used in order to make dresses behave and drape beautifully. Someone I met at a party in the California foothills of all places was wearing an old Chanel jacket she had found at a thrift shop and showed me the little chain that ran along the bottom hem and helped make it sit in its signature way.