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The latest New Yorker has a long Joan Accoella piece on Diaghilev occasioned by the Sceijen bio. The article is only available online to subscribers, but there is a summary of it here.

Thanks, bart, Marga, and richard53dog, for those memories and descriptions. They'll make Balanchine's Coffee much richer -- no pun intended, ouch -- the next time I see it.

. . .. Mitchell was so coffee that I was convinced no one else could dance it! I had no idea a man had ever danced Coffee. What did he wear? Can anyone remember other men in the role?

That one is commercially available. And here's a 2005 Danceviewtimes piece on Playhouse 90 and other shows: A celebration of George Balanchine: Selected Television Work.

It's interesting that Macaulay is raising the same issue -- demystification -- we've discussed here in regards to Twitter and the latest NYCB ads and brochure.

It was so nice of you to offer those books here, ViolinConcerto. I may follow your smart lead one of these days, but not for a good long while! In the meantime, I had not heard of the Chujoy book, but I'll be putting in an inter-library loan request for it now. Thanks for the inadvertent heads up.

I agree that there is no excuse because I also agree that the show, attached to a major arts institution as it is, shouldn't be the People's Choice Awards. And I'm going to leave it at that.

You have a point about Thomson, but then that was back in '83, when if I'm not mistaken there was a larger audience for classical music. I'm thinking in particular of television audience members who would have seen Bernstein lecture on TV. As for Carter's early influences, I doubt casual listeners would find Hindemith or even most Stravinsky easy on the ears. I think there are much easier points of access for Balanchine and Farrell (she chose an excerpt from Divertimento #15). Likewise for Bernstein and Copland, and for their bodies of work as a whole. I agree there.

Egregious indeed - are they waiting for him to turn 101? It would be nice if accessibility and the television broadcast weren't factors in the selection, but I imagine they think his music is far too difficult for a CBS prime time broadcast.

You said them better. Thanks. Yes, it touches me too. And anytime you want to fire up the webcam and post a demonstration . . .

Thanks for posting the clip, Simon. From reading the entire interview, I don't think Macaulay would say our understanding is inadequate if we don't perceive all that he does. Whether I agree with them or not, I do very much appreciate the perceptions of those who have seen much more than I have and thought about it much more than I have. I don't read Macaulay and think 'this is the way it is," but "this is the way it can be." He offers me a choice I didn't have before.

In the wonderful interview with Alastair Macaulay that Jane Simpson posted in Writings on Ballet (thanks, Jane), Macaulay describes a favorite moment in Sleeping Beauty: I took out four DVDs and looked for this passage. In the Royal Ballet's 2006 revival of Sleeping Beauty, Alina Cojocaru does all 16 petit développés without pausing. She's lovely of course, but I don't find her particularly moving just here, or see much back "breathing." Neither Alla Sizova in the 1965 Kirov release nor Larissa Lezhnina in the 1989 Kirov recording do more than a few of the steps in the diagonal. I don't own the black and white recording of the full SB (more or less) with Margot Fonteyn, but in An Evening with the Royal Ballet she does all 16, holding her arms lower than Cojocaru at first, not ringing them but creating something of that effect as she looks at her foot. As she raises her arms, she does bend her back. If I'm not mistaken she is considered to be far from her best in this recording, but while I don't find this passage ravishing (that may be my limitation), it is beautiful -- more beautiful to me than the other versions. I'd love to hear what BA'ers think of Macaulay's perceptions. And what do you think of this passage in these and other recordings? What memories do you have of this moment by other dancers or in other productions? What impression did they make?

I can only guess it's because the ballet is accessible at first glance. But I agree with bart -- the pacing, or lack of it on ths program, is strange.

It is indeed, and all the more wonderful to me in that they're dancing "Square Dance," which as far as I know has not been shown on TV before, unlike the other two, and which I've been itching to see again since my one viewing in 1995.

I'm not sure that's the case at all. On the dancers' level, most don't seem to be big readers, and as such aren't likely to know much, or care much, about Koch and his politics; and those who do they don't decide what goes on stage. In regards to those who are making the artistic decisions, movement and choreography, at least in ballet, are largely apolitical.

There is a long profile of the Koch Brothers in this week's New Yorker.

The NY Times has published a piece on Lincoln's influence on contemporary singers: A Style Lasting Beyond a Lifetime.

For what it's worth, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola does serve food, but it's a jazz club. The JALC portion of the building also holds the Rose Theater, the Allen Room, and the Irene Diamond Education Center. Obviously the latter two sound like they're named after donors, and the whole complex is named Frederick P. Rose Hall.

That's an attractive idea in theory, but political considerations will inevitably play a part in the appointment of the members of that umbrella organization. And a conservative like Koch can't be expected to donate if he knows his money might go to downtown dance. Because a rich man is just a man like any other, a man in Joni Mitchell's words, like “a chicken scratching for [his] my immortality.” I hated the name "Koch Theater" from the first, before I knew a thing about the guy's politics. Still, yes it would be wonderful if we could all forswear vanity, but . . . you first.

Isn't it now? I treasure my 1970's memory of Mitch Mitchell in a jumpsuit, backing Hendrix imitator April Lawton. What a sad end he had. It's better to burn out than it is to rust, as another rock'n roller says. Thanks for the laugh, poignant as it is. I'm going to have to watch that film again, speakers turned up to 11!

Thanks for posting, everyone. I've enjoyed seeing the lists, so I might as well post my own. Jack, I notice that you, like me, don't list the "Adagio from Concierto de Mozart," which Farrell revived in 2007. (Actually, you forgot "Pithoprakta" too. ). Likewise, I don't list "The Unanswered Question," because it's all I've seen of "Ivesiana." I do remember now that I've seen "Allegro Brilliante." Ballo della Regina Prodigal Son Symphony in C Agon Vienna Waltzes Mozartiana Apollo La Valse La Somnambula Tchaikovsky pas de Deux Pas de Dix Stars and Stripes Union Jack Stravinsky Violin Concerto A Midsummer Night's Dream Serenade Concerto Barocco Four Temperaments Variations Tzigane Theme and Variations Ballet Imperial/Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto # 2 The Nutcracker Western Symphony Square Dance Donizetti Variations Firebird Jewels Valse Fantasie La Source Clarinade Pithoprakta Symphony in Three Movements Duo Concertant Divertimento from “La Baiser de La Fee” Orpheus Swan Lake Who Cares Don Quixote Tarentella Symphonie Concertante Haieff Divertimento Monumentum pro Gesualdo Movements for Piano and Orchestra Scotch Symphony Sylvia pas de Deux Slaughter on Tenth Avenue Steadfast Tin Soldier Ragtime Raymonda Variations Liebeslieder Walzer Episodes Davidsbundlertanze Kammermusik # 2 Divertimento # 15 Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet Bugaku Chaconne Sonatine Walpurgisnacht Ballet Ballade Meditiation Divertimento Brilliante Allegro Brilliante

"Red Angels" doesn't do very much for me, and isn't the sort of thing I want to see from a ballet company, but I loved "Vespers" when I saw the Ailey company do it in '87, and I love it from them on You Tube. But the work seems so specifically African-American in its recreation of religious ritual -- especially so knowing that Dove was remembering his grandmother -- that I don't think I'd be as moved by a white cast.

What a great observation. Long may it trickle!

Thanks for those glimpses, bart, and it's the latter image I wish I could call to mind myself. I can't remember ever seeing, on stage or in reproduction, an African-American NYCB partnership. DanceActress, do keep working, and keep us up to date! But that's a marvelous list already. As for me, I've been scanning these lists and pulling out old programs hoping to find ballets I'd missed listing. Success! I'm up to 64.

Lar Lubovitch's A Brahms Symphony was created in 1985 and so doesn't fall into this time period, but your description reminds me of the ABT performance of it I saw in 1995, and I had the same reaction. At first the movement was impressively athletic, full out both physically and emotionally. Each succeeding movement was also impressively athletic, full out both physically and emotionally. In other words, for me the piece as a whole wasn't dynamic, and pretty soon I just didn't care.