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What a beautiful story, Oberon. Thank you.

I'll bet we can all think of work we used to love and have now lost interest in or positively dislike. To argue that if you don't share my likes, you must not get it, is to argue that my taste is perfectly formed, and if I can assume that's true for me, no proof required, then you can assume it's true for you, and there is no such thing as bad taste. I think bad taste is a reflection of misunderstood reality.

How do I figure out what the problem was? That's easy. I read Ballet Alert!

The reference to Alessandra Ferri in Leigh's Multinational Ballet Theatre thread makes me wonder. I just checked this board for Italian ballet companies and found not a single post. How is it that a country with such rich visual arts, and such a love of opera, has no strong ballet tradition? Any thoughts?

Treefrog, I guess I don't have a problem with people preferring art from their own culture, however widely or narrowly defined, as long as, as you say, they've sampled and keep sampling other forms. I don't see this as prejudice, anymore than an American's preference for burgers over sushi is prejudice (I'll take the sushi, thanks). The more thoughtful and educated person, the person with the better taste, will love a wide variety of cultural forms, yes. It's a pity some people have narrow taste. And the art of minority cultures should be well represented, for the majority's sake as well as the minority. But those are separate issues.

I assume you're right, perky. But as for me, something mindless and not worth my mind is exactly what I don't want when I have only limited time to refresh myself. It's then most of all that I want something thought-provoking, moving, and inspiring -- something I can feed on while I work. In fact, I'm deeply conscious of the fact that life is short, and that I'll never have time to experience/soak in/master half of the good stuff out there. So while I do attend to some pop culture, I don't attend to what I think is merely amusing and disposable.

Amen. Or to put it in PC terms . . . I'll drink to that!

I saw Orpheus in 1988, and with the right casting it would be high atop my wish list. Does anyone remember who was dancing the ballet 16 years ago?

I expect you're right dirac, although I'd rephrase it slightly -- misreading my post could certainly leave that impression.

Eland (and dirac), you might be making the common mistake of letting your expectations shape your perceptions. Eland, where did I say that black dancers aren’t as good as whites? “For the sake of argument” means “as a thought experiment,” and I was taking on your claim that ballet companies should be integrated. When I spend $60 and upwards for a ticket, whether for Dance Theatre of Harlem or New York City Ballet, I don't want to see black dancers or white dancers, I want to see the best dancers. Choreographers and directors should use integrated casting when and only when it makes for the highest quality of dancing. King dreamed of a world where color would not be an issue. So yes, African-American dancers should certainly be encouraged to succeed. But I applaud affirmative action in the arts when (and only when) the particular white and minority dancers in question have equal talent and equal dedication. When African-Americans make up a relatively small proportion of the American population, and when for a host of other reasons (some unfortunate, yes) a significantly smaller proportion even take beginning ballet classes, it's to be expected that few will so much as make it into professional companies. So no, it's not a matter of shut up and dance, but perhaps it should be a matter of demonstrate your claim if you have a case to make, or else re-evaluate your presumptions. What contemporary acclaimed minority dancer has been passed up for promotions given to lesser white dancers? I'm sure there are isolated cases of racism, and I'm sure that in the light of past discrimination, those loom all the larger emotionally to those who witness or experience them. And I understand why minority dancers might perceive racism where none exists. But Trent Lott doesn't own the New York press, and the dance world, from all indications I've seen, is socially liberal. If there is a scandal here, why haven't we all heard about it?

Dirac, I think stereotypes are only a problem when they’re false. In any case, to say that African-Americans have been the major jazz innovators is not at all to say, as in your paraphrase, that African-American jazz musicians are simply better at jazz than whites. The latter implicitly attributes quality to nature, never mind nuture. The former looks at individual achievement in this field and notes that it has has fallen along racial lines. It doesn't say one race is better, it says one race has achieved more in this particular field. But in regards to your skepticism, if I may ask the question Saul Bellow was pilloried for: who is the Proust of the Papuans? Just a different people have different strengths, so do different cultures (how could it be otherwise)? so there is one obvious reason that African-Americans dominate the history of jazz in almost every telling. Today we recognize diversity as beautiful, but the flipside of what we celebrate is that my culture may not excel at something my neighbor’s excels at. C'est la vie.

I'm afraid you have it backwards, eland. The promised land King dreamed of is one in which race wouldn't matter, not one in which we would presume racism in the absence of racial representation in every field and in every place. Hal may be correct that if you go by the numbers alone African-Americans are actually overrepresented at the highest ranks, but let's suppose for the sake of argument that they aren't, and that for whatever complex of reasons (class privilege would surely be one of them), there simply aren't as many talented African-American ballet dancers proportionally today as there are talented white counterparts. I have no idea if this is the case or not, but my point is that while many would view such a claim as racist presumption, racism will not have been entirely overcome until we can accept it as a posibility -- until we're comfortable with the fact that racial equality means that all races are of equal value, not that they're all equal in all ways in all places and times. Do the Irish have a gift for words, as is widely recognized? Ah, but then who are they more gifted than? African-Americans are acknowledged to have been responsible for all or most innovation in the jazz world. Translated, that means they've been better than whites. "Diversity," in other words, is another word for difference.

How about Balanchine? I never laid eyes on the guy, but I've seen that clip of his Drosselmeyer, and the delightful pictures of him rehearsing and dancing Pulcinella at the Stravinsky Festival. I wonder how others who saw him in Don Quixote and Firebird would rank him.

The New Yorker published the first chapter of this book awhile back. From the Washington Post's review -- "Other admirers of Alma Guillermoprieto's reportage from Latin America may well be as surprised as I was to learn that the title of this memoir is literal. Nearly three and a half decades ago Guillermoprieto went to Cuba to teach at the National School of Modern Dance, "about eight miles from the center of Havana in a suburb once known as Marianao." It wasn't a lark, and it wasn't an exercise in fellow traveling. It was a job pure and simple, though of course it turned out to be a good deal..." Dancing with Cuba

eland, I understand your concern, but aren't you contradicting yourself here? I can't remember how Lincoln Kirstein used to put it, but -- to use a word considerably more modern than he did -- ballet is, or at least should be, a meritocracy. Skin color shouldn't hold anyone back, and it shouldn't give anyone a, uh, leg up either. If the ballet world does have a race problem, perhaps it's in the schools. I would think it's only a matter of time before someone comes out with a study of how many non-white dancers enter dance schools, how many graduate, and how many find work.

My homemade tape of Edward Villella's Kennedy Center award ceremony shows Miami City Ballet doing a wonderful job with the final section of Rubies.

Bonnie Pickard, with Suzanne Farrell Ballet and a group in Dayton whose name escapes me.

BW, are you really saying that attractive dancers are sometimes cast in the place of less attractive but more accomplished dancers? Good grief.

Perhaps it's only the happy memories, but I've warmed up the the Kennedy Center's looks over the years, and it does has great views of the water. It also looks impressive -- well, striking -- as one drives in from the highway. The flags and states-nations concept don't do much for me, but I think they're appropriate for obvious reasons, and must please many visitors. And of course Kennedy was the president who created that wonderful national organization with international outreach, the Peace Corps.

Not much Farrell Fan, and most of it you know from reviews here and Jack Reed's posting of what she actually said. Otherwise, Homans writes: "Farrell never dumbs the ballets down, and she does not try to make them fun, easy, or glamorous. She simply asks audiences to look, think, and engage with the text of a great work." (Isn't that refreshing of her). I'm sorry you couldn't catch those performances.

Thanks, Ari. I came to the theater Saturday night with diminished expectations, but was thrilled by every ballet. Even Borree, in Serenade, seemed to relax and just dance, and I liked her. This past December SFB gave the most moving performances of this ballet I'd ever seen. I don't know that this one was as well danced overall, and Kistler and Bonnie Pickard are in very different places in terms of technique and acting ability, but I loved this one just as much. I'd seen Boal's Apollo in New York in '99 and with SFB here, but I saw lots of detail here I don't remember before. Ansanelli struck me as an unusually flirtatious Terpsichore (although I think I remember a similar approach from the Kirov in '99), which fits what little of seen of her in the past. I prefered the other 2 muses, although Bouder seemed to begin her solo cautiously after she almost fell out of the arabesque tableu with the other muses. They all inhabited their characters well; I especially remember the serious looks in their eyes when Apollo heard the call Parnasuss (?). Fairchild and de Lux were a whole lot of fun in Symphony in C, but then the whole ballet was a lot of fun, and I'm becoming a big van Kipnis fan. Sunday afternoon's Jewels wasn't on Saturday evening's level, but was enjoyable nonetheless. From the first balcony, where the dancers were visible against the stage floor, I loved the gorgeous green's in the Emeralds backdrop. The baubles above didn't bear a moment's glance. Quinn could have conducted this a little slower; I didn't think the dancers had quite the time they needed to luxuriate in the movement, especially in the solos, but they were beautiful anyhow. Hubbe had lots of style but not explosiveness in Rubies. I liked Weese a lot, and I hope to see more of Lowery next year, but I prefer MCB's more emphatic way of moving here -- what Sarah Kaufman in the Washington Post calls "vulgar," I guess. I call it playful. I've never cared much Diamonds, and usually don't even the pas de deux with Farrell and Martins on video, but Kowrsoski involved me more here than in Symphony in C the night before. Ari and others, I'd love to hear more from you.

But isn't it weird that she both chose to showcase the ballet and chose to have it mocked?

Thanks, dirac. I was mistaken about the subject of the article, however. It's another piece about how dull the Balanchine rep is at NYCB these days, how exciting it is at SFB, and why. "Under the direction of Peter Martins . . . the New York City Ballet has turned its sights toward an aesthetic that is androgynous, glamorous, and visually opaque. In the hands of . . . Wheeldon, this new plasma-age style has opened new possibilities and yielded interesting results. But for the work of Balanchine . . ."

Jennifer Homans reviews Suzanne Farrell Ballet's recent innovative program in the March 8 issue of The New Republic. The article is not online.

Thanks for your comments, Alexandra. But I'm not sure I understand you -- the smoothness is positively Martins' intention? But as opposed to what? Because of course Balanchine was known for grooming musical dancers, and I've never thought of them as lacking lyricism as opposed to the current crop. I forgot to mention that I was struck by the makeup indicating wounds and bruising on Woetzel's torso in the final scene last night. Have I always missed this, or is it a new practice? I'm also puzzled by Sarah Kaufman's refrence to the dancers' "swoop in the spine." I think of especially flexible backs as a Kirov trademark, not something City Ballet is known. Is that something else I've missed observing all these years? To be able to ask questions like this and get answers . . . what a dream this place is!