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Because If Foxman agrees that the opera isn’t anti-Semitic, why is he siding with people who do? As I wrote before, as a group that stands for the rights of an often viciously mischaracterized minority, it should stand by other parties that are falsely accused, or at least not side with its accusers. It’s inconsistent to demand fairness but not give it in return. In other words, they feel it legitimizes terrorism – they feel it’s anti-Semitic. I’m referring to what’s right because it's consistent and charitable, not to their own specific principles, although I could argue that, to borrow a word, legitimizing the equation of Adams’ self-professed attempt to humanize the terrorists with anti-Semitism is inconsistent with Combatting Hate. To equate attempting to understand the terrorists with a taking “sympathetic view” of them - i.e. of their actions - is to give in to the sort of emotions that prevent reasoned discourse, that hinder peace.

We don't have those statements, or communications, because the Met hasn't released them. But again, I fault the ADL not for calling the opera anti-semitic, which it didn't do, but for what it refused to say to the opera's critics, even though it said it in its press release - that the opera is not anti-semitic. Sure, they have every right, and I don't blame them for coming to the opinion they hold. They can't be expected to view the opera dispassionately. The ADL, like any other interest group, can be faulted when it puts immediate self-interest over principle. And as we know, standing for principle is ultimately in one's self-interest.

So do I! As you may know, von Aroldingen wrote about cooking with Balanchine, and shared some of their recipes, in three separate issues of Ballet Review (Winter 2003, Spring and Summer 2004).

Indeed there is. Who needs a biography? Thanks, Neryssa and California, for filling us in.

No, the Met's statement doesn't defame Adams. The statements that made the Met cancel the HD defame Adams and his work by characterizing them as anti-semitic, and the ADL refused to take a principled stand.

From the NY Times: Good grief. Why didn’t they just say “Although we stand for the rights of an often viciously mischaracterized minority, we decline to stand by another party when he has his work and his character defamed.” But thanks for the news, volcanohunter.

1,297?? My wife would kill me.

That's a great point. Liebling already mentioned Of course she also wrote everyone's favorite Balanchine Bible, Repertory in Review. And then there is Nancy Goldner, who has written two wonderful volumes of Balanchine criticism and description, Balanchine Variations and More Balanchine Variations. I'd love to read more about Montero, Pakes and Guest on the Writings About Ballet forum.

Well they deserve thanks, then. Let's hope they advance so far as to become pioneers again.

From a Merce Cunningham Trust email: The 4:30 p.m. showing on Friday, June 6 will be livestreamed at Dance and New Media. An archived performance of a January 30 Event can be found here.

Of course it's to be expected that most new work will probably fall short of being masterful, but of course there is only one way to get new masterpieces . . . In the years since Balanchine's death, NYCB has had whole festivals devoted to new choreography, specifically the six Diamond Project festivals, funded by the late Irene Diamond. Wheeldon's first NYCB work, the 1997 Slavonic Dances (with Monique Meunier, if memory serves!) was a Diamond Project ballet. The American Music Festival in 1988 also presented new work. If I'm not mistaken, few of these pieces have had a life since.

Oh, that's right, and it's still up. All you have to do to run across it on their site is to hit the little, faint blue Library tab, then hit the little Library tab on the bottom of the Library page, then hit the little Ballet Dictionary (not even Ballet Video Dictionary) on that page!

Is it accurate to say that the flip side, so far, of this egalitarianism is sometimes relatively weak - perhaps less intimate - pas de deux? I'm thinking of criticism I've read of both Wheeldon and Peck. It wouldn't be surprising that a choreographer engaged by egalitarianism, which is currently a very popular concern, would be less engaged and stimulated by a tried and true, go-to, standby, other form of relations. And what about same-sex partnering, or same and opposite sex partnering in the same work? Isn't that fairly common in contemporary work? Macaulay writes that He goes on to write that the art "to some extent transcends gender", although That seems a bit like having it both ways to me, but it's an interesting thought. Anyhow, there is more on contemporary ballet at that link, but I want to observe our rule of not quoting large chunks.

They also had the world's dullest and most useless app.

OK, good points, but you don’t think the boards decide who to accept though, do you? I would think that, just as people of good will (and, for their time, enlightened minds) would have been happy to see Mitchell with Adams in Agon, a high proportion of today’s audience would be happy to see more minority dancers. And ADs (and boards) must know that, so, even if they had an unconscious bias against Asians and other minority members, they’d have a conscious bias for them. Racism is so demonized today. Standing up for minorities is so celebrated. I would think that would have effect here as well, and that SAB and NYCB would be happy to get Asian dancers.

Tapfan, I'm glad you mentioned Michaela DePrince, since I just this past weekend watched First Position and was wondering about her career, and you reminded me to google her. I found this quote: I think that's the ideal for audiences too - not to think of dancers, or to think of them only incidentally, according to their skin color. I imagine you share that goal. We disagree about how to get there.

The arts world is by and large pretty liberal though. Liberals, if anything, go out of their way not to be racist or give reason to be thought so. So much so that here SAB and NYCB are being presumed guilty because they haven't gone out of their way to seem so. We want a society free of racism, but we want it to be a society where minorities recognize it's free of racism, not where they suspect or presume it because of "anecdotal evidence" that will keep them from applying to SAB in the first place. Secondly, racism tends to be bound up with class prejudice. African-Americans and Hispanics, who are disproportionately poor here, might face some raised eyebrows as they attempt to enter elite institutions, but Asians are already well-represented in elite cultural and economic circles, Alan Gilbert being a good example. I'd be surprised to find people in the ballet world uncomfortable with Asian-Americans in the arts. Probably no one's free from bias, but many people recognize their biases and correct for them, and not everyone is susceptible to the same biases. The southern racists found refuge in the Democratic Party, yes, until Johnson came along and then Nixon ran on “law and order,” all during Balanchine’s lifetime. Kirstein marched for civil rights, but as we know he didn’t do the casting. I knew Balanchine was, for obvious reasons, anti-Communist. Where are his views on race documented – “I Remember Balanchine”?

Where is the evidence that dancers of merit are being ignored? That argument equates not actively seeking out with ignoring. It equates passivity with activity. All the evidence I've run across has been anecdotal. Unless someone does a scientific study, there will be no hard evidence. As to diversity being political, well, what's wrong with that? Since when does art have to be free of political content? I'm sure Balanchine could have cast Agon with a white male dancer. Surely he was trying to make a statement or many statements. If there are stories of good dancers not being accepted into SAB or NYCB, those stories should be told. Anything less is just rumor. Art doesn't have to be free of political content. But artists and artistic companies that don't have political agendas and don't make political statements are not for that reason irresponsible, failing in their duties to society. In a free society, people are free to be political or not. I'm sure Balanchine knew that casting Adams and Mitchell together would get him press and good will (and that they'd be great together). But if he ever paid much attention to civil rights issues (he supposedly voted Republican), I believe that's been lost to history.

Where is the evidence that dancers of merit are being ignored? That argument equates not actively seeking out with ignoring. It equates passivity with activity.

I don't doubt it, but prioritizing diversity when the incoming stream of good dancers is already strong - when SAB and NYCB already have more dancers to choose from than they need - would be a political goal, not an artistic one. In the absence of that goal one reads, here and there, allegations of unconscious racial bias. In the absence of what are in essence racial quotas, racism, an ugly charge, becomes the default presumption (I'm not saying it's yours). Evidence is rarely if ever presented. That I didn't know. Thanks.

Two reasons have been noted on this thread for why NYCB has relatively few dancers of Asian ancestry: SAB's policy of letting dancers apply instead of recruiting them, and the fact that schools which emphasize Balanchine training are hard to find outside of New York. No evidence of racial bias has been presented.

Granted the lack of Asians, I'm not sure how well the prep school comparison holds. I remember reading an interview with Jennie Somogyi where she said her father was an auto mechanic. I get the impression that many dancers, like her, come from families which are comfortably middle class - they can pay for ballet classes, after all - but aren't highly educated.

I remember seeing an interview with Natalia Magnicaballi in which she said of Farrell, "I love her." Someone lacking in empathy would not have Farrell's reputation as a wonderful teacher and stager.

Heh, good luck! The one time I tried that, crossing to the State Theater after Apollo and Bruch Violin Concerto #1, NYCB had switched the program order, and instead of T&V I saw that interminable Martins/Schubert thing.

What about The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School? I see listed among its graduates four of the six corps members Gia Kourlas singles out for praise in yesterday's Times, as well as a bunch of other company members. No principals (or soloists?) yet, it's true.