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Hey, no need to feel bad, and thanks for the news about Austin. Vipa mentioned that Balanchine put her in Ballo Della Regina. If memory serves, she's on the Dance in America recording.

What a fine 15 minutes this turned out to be, with brief clips of Mearns in Diamonds and Vienna Waltzes, longer clips of her in Swan Lake, and lots of interview material. See it here at about the 9:35 mark. Martins and Macaulay speak as well.

Yes, but I think we all do a lot better adjusting feelings to facts than defining facts by feelings. It's completely understandable and sad that African-Americans might see racism where only custom and custom-derived taste exist. But I think it's unwise, and it's positively unfair to the accused when they're innocent, to simply agree out of empathy. With respect, Simon, it sounds like you do think there is an element of standard, nasty racism at work here. Or if you really don't , then by using the word "racism" with all its historic potency, you're having it both ways. When you're defining motive, the only thing that matters is that motive, not someone else's perception or misperception of that motive.

Yes, but that isn't racist if, as you've written, I agree that discriminating in regards to body shape and size is not by definition racist. I haven't seen her dance, but judging from photos she has plenty of personality for those roles. Bart, you make a great argument, but if we drop the word "racism," which indicates bad character, I think "unfortunate" is a better word than "indefensible."

OK, I still think the term only adds fuel to the fire in this situation - "Your company is racist. But I mean that in the least offensive way!" - but I appreciate that you have a different view. But if then where is the institutionalized racism?

I think that's a bit like saying that it's a benevolent form of racism for white people to be chiefly attracted to whites, and black people chiefly to be attracted to blacks. Taste and aesthetics play a factor there as well. But preference isn't even a "benign" form of prejudice unless it's accompanied by actual dislike of what's not preferred. African-American bodies are as beautiful as any other bodies, but ballet has evolved to a point where most companies (Arthur Mitchell's unfortunately dormant company is the obvious exception) have an aesthetic that prefers small and medium busts and bums to large ones. We can lament this – or not. But I think it deserves another word than "racism," which inevitably has an ugly tinge. I understand that. I understand that you're not calling particular people malicious and hateful. But there can be no institutional racism without racist people in them, and intentionally or unintentionally, the word "racist" trades on very ugly and vicious stereotypes. "Benign" racism never really sounds benign - in my opinion.

Well, institutions are made up of and directed by people, of course, so what you're doing here is calling all those ADs and their school directors racist. The number of successful dancers of color doesn't tell us anything definitively - we have to look at raw talent. So the best place to look for racism would probably be the schools I think maybe someone who loves the art form and isn't surprised that white roots have produced a white trunk. So you think that this particular aesthetic taste is racist?

Thanks, abatt. Those of us unable to watch on the tube should eventually be able to see it online here. I can't wait!

I see that Bouder's getting another crack at the lead roles tomorrow afternoon. I wonder if she'll adjust her approach to Odette. She wouldn't seem like a natural for that role, but then she drew raves in Emeralds. If she could be lyrical there . . .

You can find short (very short) clips on New York City Ballet's site. Here's the latest, excerpts of and remarks on Jewels.

Thank you, rg! I first saw Prodigal Son during this visit - from the 12th row of the orchestra - and I will never forget Barishnikov crawling home to the Father.

In a post on his Hell Mouth blog entitled "The Original Cast Recording," Adams acknowledges his debt in Nixon in China to Phillip Glass and the latter's use of arpeggiation. And in his autobiography, Hallelujah Junction, he writes that in "parts of the 'Chairman's Library" scene in Act I, and the interlude of the storm scene of the Act II ballet, the debt to Phillip Glass's Satyagraha is unmistakable." I prefer Adams to Glass, but I've never seen or heard Satyagraha and I'm looking forward to the Met's HD broadcast of it in November.

Speaking of "The Exterminating Angel," there is a great moment in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" when the time traveling protagonist is introduced to Bunuel and suggests a film where a bunch of dinner guests find themselves unable to leave, and Bunuel keeps saying he doesn't get it. Pretty funny.

You'd be surprised at the level of denial surrounding events in The Civil Rights movement. We're two generations removed from the Civil rights era and one thing the controversy surrounding this movie brings to light is the profound ignorance of many people about Jim Crow. Some of this is due to deliberate attempts to rewrite history by reactionary faux historians. The rest is probably due to the fact that to many young people, this stuff is ancient history. Who cares? Tapfan ,I don't doubt that young people with little interest in history know little about Jim Crow, but I don't share your view that denial is, if I understand you correctly, widespread. But thank you for replying.

I don't know who would deny this - there is a monument to Dr. King on the National Mall, not LBJ. I haven't seen the film yet, and I read one critic who said that it somewhat marginalized the black characters. But while the book isn't literature, it will help a lot of people better understand black life in the South in the 60's, and that's an important contribution. My 70-year old African-American neighbor bought two copies and made a point of lending them out, and she liked the movie as well.

Best of luck, Ken. I would love to read an Adams bio. Meanwhile,welcome to Ballet Alert!, and please introduce yourself in the Welcome forum!

Thanks, Helene. I admire Malcolm X tremendously and I know the Autobiography is significantly fictionalized and that he was a more complex figure than he's presented as there. You may remember The New Yorker an article some years ago that suggested he even had a hand in firebombing his own house. I also admire Marable for his decades of labor on the book . . . and then to die just before it came out! I think I'm going to read it.

What do you think of it, Helene? I've read the first chapter and considered reading the rest, but it's awfully long.

I've been reading or rereading a number of classic novels this summer: James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain, Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge, and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Also a slim new collection of poems by Richard Wilbur, Anterooms. Also a memoir by the bebop pianist Hampton Hawes, Raise Up Off Me (a very quick read) and, on the Kindle, Notes and Tones, a collection of interviews of jazz musicians by the drummer Arthur Taylor. On the Kindle but not yet dipped into I have Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. Oh, and I read and thoroughly enjoyed David Brook's The Social Animal. And I forgot to mention Mimi Sheraton's delightful chronicle of her worldwide search for authentic versions of the Polish bagel variation, the bialy, The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World. Has anyone read Roger Lundin's Emily Dickinson and the Art of Belief?

I think she already coached her part: Distinguished Professor Violette Verdy to tape video series for Balanchine Foundation.

He's still on the roster for Suzanne Farrell Ballet, and I hope he'll still appear with them in their short seasons.

I've never heard of Wilma Curley, but Google Images has. Here she is with Jay Norman in Afternoon of a Faun. And if Google is correct, here she is in The Concert. Closing the pop-up image for Faun and clicking on the image again makes it larger.

I'm very happy for Villella, but not so happy that I haven't seen the company for five years (googling to find out just how long it had been, I found my own BA post!). I don't see any touring info on the company's site. Are they touring much domestically these days? Or has Villella said that isn't financially feasible? They used to come to the D.C. area every 2-3 years, and they even did a week at the Kennedy Center.

Aha! Thanks, Paul.

They danced it during the Balanchine Celebration in 1993, although the dancers were all SAB students.