kfw

Thanks, Calliope and Alexandra!

dirac, it seems to me that your example only shows that the Post Office is not alone, not that they're acting wisely. I've heard people argue that postal employees represent the U.S. government, and that of course the government should be neutral. Well if so, I'm confused -- does the government mean to smile and wish me a nice day, or avoid my eye and say as little as possible? And if we prohibit government employees from inadvertently expressing religious views, then how can we fund the production of art that overtly or covertly expresses such views?

In regards to European funding of the arts, I once read somewhere that Holland has a warehouse full of unwanted paintings it's paid for! Perhaps it also has a few master works for its money. But certainly good artists can attract private funding more easily than ever. And again, why does a performance artist need government support?

As for that honcho and the Christmas tree, it seems to me that the appropriate way to counter someone's free expression and free speech is to respond with your own, not censor theirs. And I don't know what that tree looked like, but expressions of faith (if that's what a Christmas tree even is) are heartfelt, not ostentatious.

[ December 28, 2001: Message edited by: kfw ]

About Ansanelli -- I hadn't see her dance in 2 1/2 years, and that was in "The Cage," so I really don't know what she's capable of. But after seeing one principal give an excruciatingly nervous and ungainly performance as Dewdrop recently, I saw Ansanelli in the role the next night, and was thoroughly taken with her warmth and musicality, poise and technical assurance.

Ken, to be fair to the article, I do think that in Washington this is the way the NEA issue is portrayed by both sides.

OK, well, that shows you how much I know. As Emily Latella (does anyone know how to spell "Latella"?) would say -- "never mind." It is interesting that the political sides seem to have switched positions on this issue since the 60's.

I have mixed feelings about this, but that sentence you highlighted stands out for me. Who says that's the question? It sounds to me like the writer is characterizing things in a very self-serving way. I'm all for helping artists develop an art form, and I've attended performance art (once) and see its value. But the issue for those who oppose funding has to do with objectionable content - as we all know. Who's this guy trying to fool?

Also, I'm really not sure just how necessary and appropriate government help is in many cases. Does Finley really need gov. money so she won't have to work a straight job? Why, so she can brainstorm? I think she coulda thought up the chocolate bit at MacDonalds. And if money is an issue when it comes to presentation, she can present the work in her loft, or some such place, instead of a house like BAM, until she attracts patrons willing to pay out of their own pockets, instead of the taxpayer's. Ballet is a horse of a different color. It truly is very expensive to produce, but it also has proven aesthetic worth (and thus moral worth, it you hold the common belief) and a proven appeal to people who could never afford to attend it without it being subsidized.

I have a lot of sympathy for the government-should-exercise more-control-over-grants side. I see a lot of what I think are absurdly simplistic and cliched and uncharitable ideas and presumptions about people like me, and about others I in large measure sympathize with, in what is supposedly cuttting edge, daring work. I also see what looks like gratuitious "hip," intended offensiveness (and de rigeur, "what me?" denials). How much work critiquing society from a socially conservative perspective does the NEA support, and would the downtown crowd go to bat for it? There is good work like that out there.

But once we start making political judgements, how we can we be fair to all sides? How can we possiblly agree on what fairness is? We can try the community standards approach, but what are community standards in say a place as diverse as Brooklyn?

On the other hand, those who cry "censorship" when it comes to the arts are the same people who support, for example, the post office's refusal to let its employees so much as say "Merry Christmas," for fear of "offending" a non-Christian, or reminding them that they're still in the minority, which supposedly intimidates them or something. I'm all for free speech, and I'm also all for respectful sensitivity. I'm not sure all the left of center voices in this debate really are.

Thanks for posting this, Estelle. The quicker it's out of the theater, the sooner it's on video? So we can hope. I once bought a copy of "Cinderella" with Leslie Caron just to see Verdy dance, and then when it came I wasn't even certain I recognized her on our little tv screen.

In "Balanchine's Ballerinas" Robert Tracey lists the following ballets as one in which Balanchine created roles for Verdy: Episodes (Part 2), Theme and Variations, Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux, The Figure in the Carpet, Liebeslieder Waltzer, Electronics, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jewels, Glinkiana, La Source, Pulcinella, Choral Variations on Bach's "Von Himmel Hoch, and Sonatine. In her interview she mentions Gounod Symphony, and Tracey notes that she debuted at NYCB in Divertimento #15.

I felt like I was privy to a little preview of heaven watching my first live Nutcrackers last week -- the courtliness and courtesy of the social dancing at the end of the party scene seemed so richly civilized, and very much in contrast to the way relations between the sexes are often conducted today. If my memory of what I've read and seen on video serves, it also contrasts with the typical Forsythe work. The social dancing in Scotch Symphony this fall moved me too, even though the context and the undercurrents aren't so very innocent as they in the Nutcracker.

Funny, that sort of thing used to bore me. Sitting in the movie theater in '93 or whenever it was that The Nutcracker came out, I couldn't wait for "the real ballet" to begin. I think it was reading Kirstein on the genesis of Agon that first opened my eyes to -- or at least first made me take an interest in -- the fact that ballet evolved from court dancing.

Other than that, ballet often strikes me a heaven on earth, even though I *am* a religious person and what I'm seeing bears no resemblance to any prophecy or dramatized article of faith I can think of. Of the ballets already mentioned, Suzanne Farrell's staging of Divertimento #15 at the Terrace Theater comes to mind. And yes those final, heart tugging lifts to that gorgeous, aching music in the Four Temperaments. And, of course, Mozartiana.

I heard part of a radio conversation on film scores last night, and the guest said that he didn't think a film could be great without a great score. When I heard that I immediately thought of the ballet world and then of Giselle --a great ballet, obviously, but without a beloved score, if I'm not mistaken.

So I'm wondering ... has anyone ever set old choreography to a new or at least different score? An old warhorse like that has has had umpteen choreographical revisions anyhow, hasn't it? Isn't every version a little different, so that a new composer would have some leeway with counts here and there. So is this an awful idea? Has it ever been done? I suppose one problem with composing new music for 19th century ballets is that people don't write in 19th century styles anymore.

And one other unrelated Anything Goes-appropriate item ... I've been waiting for Alexandra to say "hasn't anyone been going to NYCB's Nutcracker? Please post!" So I'll say it myself --"hasn't anyone been going to NYCB's Nutcracker? Please post!" I'm going Sunday night and Wednesday and maybe Tuesday if think I have enough time to scoot across the plaza to the Met before their curtain, and I've been hoping to at least hear how the corps is doing. Thank you.

This sounds like the video I rented a couple of months ago. It's pure delight, with all sorts of footage not in "Cage/Cunningham."

Over the course of three performances of Duo Concertant this month, I grew to love the score. Can anyone recommend a good recording? I'm also looking for a good version of Basler Concerto, the piece Robbins used for The Cage.

If anyone has videos of either of these besides ballets besides the officially released excerpts of Apollo .... I have a couple of things on video to offer, and a whole lotta gratitude.

Who looks more confident, kids who flaunt their sexuality, or kids who present themselves as more than their bodies? Which look like the more interesting people?

[ 10-19-2001: Message edited by: kfw ]

Thanks for the post, Jeannie, and I look forward to your review. Alexandra, of course you're quite right that we judge performances based on others we've seen. I guess for once I'm glad I haven't seen as much as you have. I couldn't have attended the Wednesday Apollo, but there was at least one ecstatic guy in the audience Sunday. (And to think she planned on doing Bolero instead).

To what can we attribute the change in Boal's style between the two performances of that last ballet? Must be Farrell's direction, no?

Also, rereading the Post piece on Farrell (9/26), I noted this quote about Somnambula: "Most productions are already too dark in terms of drama, too macabre, too premeditated." So it'll be interesting to see if she makes changes in response to the criticism that her production lacked a couple of those qualities.

Alexandra, Sunday afternoon may not have been the company's best performance, but I thought it was anything but a fizzle, and the audience seemed to agree with me. I noticed a few regulars; maybe they agreed with you. Well regulars?

I love, just love, the parts of Apollo Balanchine cut. I didn't see Boal's earlier Apollos here, but yesterday's was the most glorious and moving I'd ever seen from anyone, him included. I loved the delight he took in his Muses, and I loved the way his face turned serious when the music began calling him to Parnassus, and I especially loved the power in his solos. I realize I'm not being very specific, but to borrow Jack's phrase, he enlarged the role beyond what I'd ever seen it it. About the expressionistic quality you noticed Wednesay but not yesterday -- I thought I noticed that a couple of years ago in New York. I did think the Muses were uneven yesterday. I can imagine fatigue there, but I sure didn't see it in Huys or Fagundes in Scotch beyond, perhaps, an unclear step or two.

Friday night in Scotch it was obvious the Boal and Goh weren't entirely comfortable with each other. Boal must be incapable of givng a bad performance, but this wasn't a fully inhabited one, and I spent more time driving in to see it than they'd spent preparing for it. Something's not right there, especially when Huys and Fagundes could have handled the roles so nicely. Friday I could see Boal thinking; Sunday I just thought I was seeing Apollo. Still, Friday's was only the second performance of that ballet I'd ever seen, and would have been worth it with almost anyone dancing.

About Runquio Du, I agree he seemed a junior partner to Magnicaballi, especially after seeing her with Huys. At the risk of sounding unkind, Du's over-eagerness bothered me a bit. I don't think it would have with a dancer of similar temperament, it just seemed unreciprocated. I thought Fournier gave a better performance in "Duo" than I thought she might (although she couldn't match Magnicaballi's playfulness), but to me there's something impassive about her dancing at this point. Is it her face?

[ 10-08-2001: Message edited by: kfw ]

Does anyone remember where the Scotch Symphony discusion was? I searched and couldn't find.

Alexandra, thanks for the explanation. I see what you mean, of course -- I didn't catch any of that detail either. Jack, I reread your review and remembered seeing Farrell's production of "Faun" in the Terrace Theater a couple of years ago, as you probably did as well. If memory and the publicity photo serve, Huys danced with Veronica Lynn, and the Magnicaballi performance was with Phillip Neal. Here again I welcome more experienced eyes, but I loved both performances.

I can't decide what I hope to see Boal in this week. Everything!

My wife and I saw the 2nd bill Sunday afternoon, and the orchestra section couldn't have been more than 3/4 full, if that. What a shame. I don't have much to add to Jack and Alexandra's reviews. We see little enough ballet and are easily pleased. So yes, "Slaughter" has been sharper and Fournier is not the most abandoned dancer around, but we enjoyed them. "Duo Concertant" probably received the best performance of the evening, and Magnicaballi almost made me laugh in the opening moments of the duet, as she swiveled her hips. I hadn't seen the ballet in 10 years, but I don't remember Darci Kistler looking quite so frisky! Ben Huys really stood out for us in all 3 pieces he danced. We've seen him several times before but he just seemed to have more energy when called for than anyone else on stage, especially in "Slaughter." In the last minute or two of that, in the little encore section after the murder intrigue business is through, he looked to be dancing for pure joy. I guess that's just the impression one is supposed to give there, but, well, he had us convinced.

Jack and Alexandra, I wonder if you would expand your criticisms of "Somnambula." We especially enjoyed Bonnie Pickard and Christina Fagundes. I do remember that the illusion of the sleepwalker moving past the upstairs window had more power on the State Theater's big stage.

As for "Apollo" not being a closing ballet, I agree. It's funny, I remember Farrell closed one of her bills with it two years ago too.

dirac writes:

> I certainly don't approve of the premature sexualization of kids barely out of their latency period, but I suppose we cannot be ostriches and pretend that teenagers don't have hormones.

No, but we can try to channel those hormonal urges wisely and pragmatically. It's nice to see swing dancing make a comeback.

> (And remember that the tango was once a sexual shocker. Not to mention the waltz -- where the man actually -- yes!-- put his arm around the woman's waist!) <

True, but beside the point IMHO.

> Otherwise you just get the two-tier system where the kids dance politely for their oblivious parents and then go somewhere else to do dancing they actually enjoy. <

Did a ballet fan really write that? ;)And there is world of difference between flirtatious social dancing and the sort of dancing which if translated into words would be unpostable on this site.

[ 09-28-2001: Message edited by: kfw ]

kirovgal, this reminds me my little nieces's dance "recital" (doesn't that word sound genteel?), where the high schoolers did the bump and grind. You'd think that would be an odd move to have sexually mature kids do for their parents, and you'd think at least some of the parents would be dismayed at their under age kids being encouraged to present themselves as sex objects, but the parents seemed to love it. I guess they all watch MTV and think this is how kids can get to be stars.

I'm surprised to hear about it in a ballet studio, but then we do have the example set by "Center Stage." I've always thought classical ballet steps, jazz-inflected or not, can make a dancer much more alluring than today's in-your-face moves. But then I guess mystery isn't what some people are after. ;)

A.C. writes:

Elitism, by definition, means "the sense of entitlement defined by class or grouping." I think most people can agree that this type of thing still exists, ...

I think the problem is that this word is applied to attitudes and behavior that are actually judgments of taste. Everyone makes value judgments, whether they're connoisseurs of high culture or fans (alright, "connoiseurs" ) of the low. It's just that the former come right out say high art is or often is superior, while many of the latter only suspect it's true but can't be bothered to take the time to discover why.

It's ridiculous that we're so on guard against anyone being prejudiced in any way

(classist, popophobist?) that we try to bully them into lowering their standards. Some people are smarter, wiser, more sensitive, better educated, etc. than others. (Than me!)It's a fact of life.

I wish people would recognize that high culture institutions are there to enrich everyone. Even the poor can watch Great Performances or Live From Lincoln Center, or attend free opera and orchestra performances in Central Park, say, or free dance concerts in Damsroch Park. The Kennedy Center has free performances every day.

[ 09-09-2001: Message edited by: kfw ]

dirac, I think Knight confuses things when he writes of elitist *status* and then gives the high standards of Dodger's fans as an example. But I do agree, if I understand him correctly, that the artistic elite and the possession of elite artistic standards in democracies don't always stem from "ancestral bloodline, inherited wealth, genetic authority or established power."

Certainly that's true when we talk about high quality music made from popular or once popular forms, or about American literature. And I get the impression, say from reading NYCB bios, that it's more and more true in the "high" arts too. To go back just a bit, Suzanne Farrell is from what, middleclass -- probably lower middle class -- Cincinnati? (Although perhaps she possesses "genetic authority," whatever that is. It just sounds like natural talent). And many of us balletomanes here, myself included, can't claim any of those privileges or advantages.

Also, though I don't know too much about the current art world, I'd think museums could extend their exhibitions beyond the work of DWMs without displaying the Saatchi collection, Armani "couture," or Harley-Davidsons. So I do think there is a real tendency to dumb down and go for the sensational at the expense of quality. I remember some executive at the Royal Opera House (in the PBS series on the same) talking about how everyone wished that place was less exclusive price-wise, but that at the same time, the exclusivity was a selling point! So, I dunno, can we draw a parallel in the arts world -- is there a point at which those who sniff for quality will turn their noses up at one more expedition to the shopping mall-art museum, Now Showing that hot artist that scandalized the NY Post?

For an interesting piece on a related subject, see Edward Rothstein's "Reading (Gasp) for Enlightenment, Without Snobbery or Shame" --

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/08/arts/08CONN.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/08/arts/08CONN.html://http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/08/a...rts/08CONN.html

[ 09-08-2001: Message edited by: kfw ]

I just ran across a picture book by Debbie Allen called "Dancing in the Wings" with illustrations by Kadir Nelson, copyright 2000. The books seems to concern a girl who wants to be a "star ballerina," and most of it takes place at a ballet school. I only browsed it, but I was reminded of the thread on black dancers and racism -- it's nice to see that all the characters here are black, although for the sake of encouraging kids (I do know about Dance Theatre of Harlem), it would have been even nicer to find a story of a black girl succeeding in a largely white dance environment.

leibling, I believe you're thinking of Rembrandt's "Return of the Prodigal Son" at the Hermitage, which does indeed show the son kneeling in front of the father as the father bends over to embrace him. Rembrandt also did a drawing of the same Biblical scene. All the figures, father and son and bystanders, are different in this one, and we look at the central pair from the side. I wish I could say I'd actually seen either one.

A couple of questions and uninformed speculations --

Regarding the "classical dance is commercial theater" here comment, I wonder if he’s thinking not only of choreography but of audience makeup and dedication, and the much more central cultural role that ballet and other arts have in the former Soviet Union and in, if I’m not mistaken, at least some Central European countries. My impression is that the average fan there is more knowledgeable about ballet and more educated in general. When it comes to the current American audience, I think, for example, of the supposed difference between the intellectuals and artists City Ballet used to attract and the more middlebrow professional crowd that apparently makes up the bulk of its current audience. Doesn't modern dance largely attract the sort of crowd Balanchine and Robbins used to pull in? And is the segment of the audience that only goes to, say, the Nutcracker, smaller overseas? I'm not knocking anyone, but I've always had the impression that Barishnikov is a real thinker, and he'd naturally want that sort of intellectualy involved audience.

And have European choreographers really been creating their own equivalents of “Dracula” and “The Pied Piper”? I don’t remember reading about new European ballets where the costumes, sets, and special effects are more interesting than the choreography.

Given his lifelong eagerness to dance new choreography, and the current lack of good ballet choreographers, I think B’s disillusionment is understandable – not that it excuses simplistic dismissals. Was his falling out with ABT at all related to the “downtown rep” he was bringing in? Didn’t Jane Herman discard it? Wondering, wondering ...

Issue 5 of "Issue," some sort of up-to-the minute,-or-so-it-thinks journal, has a lovely photo essay on 2 School of American Ballet students from Queens, Pralaya, 14, and Lalasa, 11. They sell jewelery in Soho on Saturdays, so I expect some Ballet Alert readers know them.