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It seems to me that even if Balanchine's ballets had always been well danced since his death, no AD concerned about the company's legacy would have ever barred the door to Farrell and other of Balanchine's own principals and all they have to offer, and how much better the ballets might have looked with their help. For that alone, in my opinion, Martins has been a poor steward. dirac wrote: Having seen every program in the company's history, I'd say far more ups than downs, and downs only because of those limitations. But can you refresh my memory? On whose word had she not always been up to par when Martins let her go? I find that very hard to believe.

How I wish I disagreed with your second sentence. But whoever takes over, whether it's soon in response to these accusations or some years (please not too many!) down the road, I hope he or she scours the hills for every one of Balanchine's own dancers still living and willing and able to help and finds them someone and something to coach. I'm dreaming I know, and even if that were practical it probably wouldn't be ideal. But all those stagers for the Trust - I wish they'd all be invited to work in New York. Farrell most of all.

I agree, but I'd expected a different ending, one in which during his enforced time off he'd gained some perspective on his drive for excellence and come to distinguish between David Hallberg the person and David Hallberg the dancer, realizing the second was not absolutely necessary for the first. I fear for him a little if he experiences significant injury again.

I once saw Peter Martins rehearse Nilas and Kistler in Apollo. At one point in the pas de deux, Peter took Nilas' hands and put them lower on his (Peter's) wife abdomen. It was all in the job.

Thank you Kathleen, Sandik, and Helene. The next time a Fortune 500 company comes calling, i'll know the lingo.

Is that a standard business term? If not it's just bad writing. A subordinate by definition reports to the supervisor, so the company could have omitted the phrase.

Wasn't that a wonderful show? I saw it in Baltimore last year, and John Elderfield spoke.

I'd love to see this too, and I've been eagerly awaiting more reviews. I'm surprised the NYT hasn't run one yet (and I'm surprised they didn't review opening night of NYCB's Nutcracker). In regards to the LA Times review, this seems a little ironic in light of this. Would that we could all go back again and again with press tickets.

I'd heard he was in hospice so I'm not surprised, but I'm sad nonetheless. I didn't even know who he was when I first heard him speak, at a seminar when the Cunningham company was at the American Dance Festival in '95 (?). Since then I've loved his Cunningham history both in print and digitally. I had the pleasure of speaking to him briefly a few times - once at my request he named the dances we'd just seen excerpted at an Event - and I envy those who knew him.

Certainly the work was more important if we're talking about ballet, but I don't think the two are in competition. While I wonder how there is to left to discover about the man at this late date (especially now that Elizabeth Kendall has discovered so much about his life in Russia) with so many of his friends and associates gone, there are times when I want the work analyzed, and times I want the life examined, and of course each illuminates the other. Jack wrote: I don't remember reading those replies, so thanks. They're also consistent with what a lot of other creative people say when asked about their work, refusing to shrink it down to a definition, insisting its meaning is up to each viewer/reader/listener. That said, I do like to understand as much as possible what it means or might mean to the artist - so bring on the bio!

Was anyone at the rehearsal this afternoon? I haven't followed the company for years and didn't hear the dancers announced during the commentary before I turned it off. The closest I can come to matching faces onstage to official portraits is Makhalina for Nikiya, but she looks 10 years older in the portrait than whoever was onstage!

That Dylan-Petty tour was the one time I saw Petty. Not that I haven't always loved his hits, and appreciated his integrity too, but my favorite Petty moment remains their duet on the Davis Sisters classic "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know."  

Speaking as a Dylan fan, perhaps they should just retire the prize,

Trump and Melania will not participate in this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, “to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction.”

I suspect "she's fine" just meant "I don't want to talk about it." Which is perfectly reasonable.

I don't follow baseball and maybe Strawberry leaves a mistaken impression, but the 12-step programs which have helped untold number of addicts have, as most participants have "understood" them, a religious or, if you prefer, spiritual aspect. It's also interesting that while susceptibility to addiction is not a moral fault, and there but for the grace of God or whatever go those of us who don't struggle with it, recovery through these programs does have a strong moral component. Here's wishing all the best to Talicia and her family, and that they'll emerge from this stronger and closer.

Sunday, November 5 and Monday, November 6 at 7:30 pm at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum This is pretty cool. Now if someone would only re-release that cookbook. With all the publicity she received after the film and the novel, I can't believe it wouldn't sell well.

True West was the first Shepard I ever encountered - the original, Steppenwolf Theater production with Malkovich and Sinise, but on a little black and white TV. It's on YouTube now and it's still my favorite, but Fool for Love and Paris, Texas aren't far behind. Shepard lived (and drank) around here for quite awhile and I saw him a couple of times, but I've never been one to approach celebrities and he didn't exactly exude approachability, LOL. RIP. I hope he's found it.

I wish I could remember. FWIW, she's listed third. Is there a standard procedure for listing the leads in that ballet?

Checking my programs, I see she was in Serenade on the first night of the Balanchine program, and danced Terpsichore and the second movement of Symphony in C the next night.

It's up now: "Agon" at Sixty/

Macaulay posted a ton of photos on Instagram this morning (alas, nothing of what was said).

Right, and that shouldn't need explaining. Further, "fake news" has become a propaganda term, which is to say one which obscures the truth. Calling something fake suggests it was made to look like the real thing. It’s to imply not just that something is false, but that there was intention to falsify. Everyone makes mistakes, critics included. Making a mistake and falsifying are two very different things.

As a point of logic, what it shows is that people disagree about that bias, and whether there was or might have been bias in this case in particular - not who is correct about it.

There weren't even other black dancers eligible for those roles. Every single dancer she was competing against was non-black, isn't that right? She was outnumbered, but she still sees the outcome as racial. Pity the other dancers who didn't get the role Copeland wanted either, who lacked her convenient scapegoat.