kfw

But on a more serious note, I would guess that what Mr Kauffmann is saying is that this is his job, and therefore his duty (rather than privilege) to review films that are obscure, easily missed, not mainstream (whatever--and therefore minority). I've been reading a lot of the "Father Brown" stories lately and thinking about the current political/cultural climate. It seems to me we'd all be a lot better off trying to thing of "duty and mercy" not "rights and justice." Sorry if that got a bit

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Nicely put, dido. I think readers have the right to inform themselves, not the right to have someone inform them. But of course the good critic will feel an obligation to inform.

dirac, I'm all for covering art produced by and/or chiefly of interest to minorities of whatever stripe, for their sake and for ours. And everyone certainly has the right to found a magazine or newspaper or other journalistic organ, to apply for a job to existing organs, to pitch stories, to write letters to the editor requesting coverage, etc. I don't understand why anyone has a right to have someone else serve them. But I'm open-minded.

paolo, how was McKerrow?

And Monique Meunier was Bathilde.

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And I was thrilled to see her. She danced Moyna at the afternoon rehearsal, where Part was an imposing and authoritative and beautiful (as if she could help herself) Myrtha. Moyna’s a small part, of course, but Meunier did get one fine jete into the wings, and I was happy for small favors, especially as it came on top of a larger favor that afternoon: the Wednesday cast (most of them) took the rehearsal, so that those of us who made an afternoon and evening of it were able to see two casts back to back.

McKerrow’s Giselle is the one I would have bought a ticket for if the rehearsal hadn’t been a factor, and she and Stiefel didn’t disappoint, even if they marked or half marked many of the steps and perhaps danced very little of them entirely full out. They didn’t stint on, or at least didn’t mark, the emotion, and I felt like they showed us the story.

McKerrow has a wonderfully expressive face, a face that shows character and hints at suffering even in repose, and from the first scene we could feel for her in her shyness and infatuation and wonderment and joy. For Kent’s part in the evening, she danced beautifully, but -- a Ballet Alerter asked me at intermision, in what I took as an almost rhetorical question, if I was moved – she didn’t have McKerrow's depth of characterization until her mad scene. I found that quite moving and remarkably nuanced, moment by moment, but even there, as Hilarion was exposing Albrecht, we saw for a moment or two the sweet smile and grin that are so natural to her. That may well have been a conscious interpretive choice – “this isn’t really happening” or “everything’s going to be alright’ – but at least for this viewer it didn’t ring true. I was moved, all evening long, by her gorgeous dancing.

When Stiefel’s Albrecht looked at Kent’s Giselle as they first sighted each other, I saw hauteur in his eye. When Carreno looked at Kent, I saw ardor. Both men impressed in the steps, and Stiefel perhaps had slightly more power; I especially remember his second act brise steps along the diagonal between the rows of Wili's. For my money, Carreno’s choice of characterization allows for a richer story. There may be others reading who don’t know what D.C. dance critic Suzanne Carbonneau told us in the afternoon, that while the Soviets naturally wanted to see the rich and privileged Albrecht played as a spoiled cad, Barishnikov -- I guess after he emigrated -- popularized the romantic Albrecht, secretly yearning to break free of his loveless match with the equally privileged Bathilde.

The beautfully danced peasant pas de deux won my heart in each performance. If I’m not mistaken Enrica Cornejo danced in the rehearsal. I didn’t recognize her partner, but as he finished his second (?) solo with the pirouette or multiple pirouttes to the knee, he skidded a bit. I don’t know which way he was supposed to face, but he managed a little extra skid and when he finally stopped, facing the peasant girls upstage, he stuck out his tongue for them – a little interpretive touch they seemed to enjoy! Then in the second act when Myrtha realizes her branch wand is no match for the cross on Giselle’s grave, Part hurled it past the lovers, almost hit them I guess, and engaged in a little quick “oops” tongue action herself. I’ll bet neither of these details made it into Wednesday night’s performance!

Reyes was Cornejo's partner. Wiles was Moyna and Part (!) was Zulma.

cygneblanc, I highly recommend Bruce E. Fleming's collection of essays, Sex, Art and Audience , published in 2000. Many of these essays first appeared in

Alexandra's magazine DanceView. Sample sections headings: Do Real Men Watch Dance?, and Modern Masters.

Can't get to Copenhagen for the Bournonville Festival this year? Streaming video clips of six ballets are available here. I've only taken the time to watch the clip for La Sylphide, but it's several minutes long!

Thanks, GWTW and Sandik. I'd heard about Johnson's feelings, but I was wondering if the Hound and Horn betrayed anti-Semitism. Doubtful, I suppose, given Kirstein's relationship with Edward Warburg.

Reading The New Criterion weblog's (un)Appreciation) of Johnson, I was stopped by the following queasy-making sentence: "He wrote an admiring article on "Architecture and the Third Reich" for Lincoln Kirstein's magazine Hound and Horn in 1933." Before I head to the local university library for their bound volumes of Hound and Horn, has anyone read this article?

I'm also sure Balanchine cast it every which way depending on who he had available. 

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I don't have a copy of Repertory in Review around, but I could swear I've read that Balanchine kept it out of the repertory for awhile pre-Amboise because he thought he lacked a suitable dancer in the title role.

Thanks for the report, Carbro. I find Gomes' remarks endearing but puzzling, given that published dance photos as often as not were taken during a performance, when the dancers are most likely, or so it would seem, to be caught up in the music and the movement and the story, if there is one, and so to be visibly moved. I've only browsed this book briefly -- now I'll have to take a closer look at the Kennedy Center this week. For anyone who has the book, I wonder if you can see what Gomes means.

What a wonderful description, GeorgeB fan. And Farrrell Fan, thanks for the laugh. I've only seen Fayette dance perhaps half a dozen times, but I'll add one thing, something I guess you've said at greater length. He very much looks like the gentleman.

Sandik, the shows are available for listening online here.

Who are great partners of the past or present?  What made/makes  them great?

In a PBS program on American Ballet Theatre several years ago, Susan Jaffe praises her longtime partner Jose Carreno for his confidence and says that it helps her dance better. I can't remember her exact words, but she says something to the effect of "it makes a tremendous difference to me to have a partner who lacks nerves."

Thanks, Treefrog. I hope they bring it to Washington.

Please do post more, Herman. I see that the Joffrey is dancing Apollo. Is that new to their repertory.?

Regardless of the defensiveness and mischaracterization, I find it quite remarkable that Rockwell chose to respond publicly to private criticism. Whatever his reasons, by citing Ballet Alert he effectively invited readers a chance to read Leigh and Alexandra's actual arguments. Hooray at least for that!

Well his first review is up -- the Kirov's Cinderella -- and if it is any way prescient, we can expect graceful prose, a lot of historical filler for ballast, rudimentary technical or choreographic analysis and a heapin' of of exacty the kind of middlebrow sensibility and sentimentality that the Times adores.  He certainly writes well, and on a tight deadline.

Is that middlebrow sensibility or non-balletomane sensibility? Those of us who want a balletomane's sensibility have other places to turn, thanks in large part to Alexandra. It will be interesting to to see if Rockwell is tougher on the home companies than Kisselgoff was.

it can not have been easy for Martin to change his mind about Balanchine, but he did it

Are Martin's reviews collected somewhere? His gradual (?) change of mind might make for fascinating reading.

Giannina or canbelto, could you say more about the documentary? I have a Christmas gift certificate from Barnes and Noble I'm going to use for ballet DVDs.

That's very good news about Ringer, thank you. She's dancing the role with her husband for a local company in Williamsburg, Va this weekend, and she's the reason we're going.

Theodore Dalrymple reviews Bentley's memoir in The New Criterion.

The saddhu of sodomy

I haven't been reading the links and don't have time to plow through them now, but just in case this hasn't been posted, here's Robert Geskovic on the book. Beware, the graphic quote in question is included. The Art of Pleasing

As for me, not at least yet a Fonteyn fan from the one video I've seen, in browsing the book I'm struck by her beauty.

I don't expect much if any new information from a book this small, but when the subject is Balanchine, and the writer is distinguished and had a long association with him, the reading is pure pleasure.

I bought the Gottlieb largely for the wonderfully amusing reprint of a 1965 Life Magazine article printed in Balanchine's name. There is this passage, for example, as Balanchine is insisting, as he would not have to insist today, that ballet boys are not "sissies."

"We used to have no male students at all. But Jacque's D'Amboise started with us at the age of 8. He is now married and has four children. And Edward Villella also started at about age 8 and also grew up to be a man. And both of them are good. So our percentage is 200%. 100% for each."