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I didn't see her functioning as that symbol, but thanks for explaining your thinking. Good point. In which case I blame the editor.

OK, but that's a question, not a controversy. And LaRocca did not address it.

Absolutely. Can someone cite examples, either from this site or in the press, of controversy? V. Part and in recent years Kistler have been the subject of much dispute. In regards to Borree, I remember consensus on her faults. I don't remember anyone defending her against her critics, or defending Martins for casting her.

The reader wouldn't have been hurt by a little discretion, and as I wrote yesterday Borree's faults had often been noted and she was not the controversial or consequential figure that Kistler is. In any case, I think this has been a very interesting discussion, and I've enjoyed reading different points of view.

I haven't heard anyone question LaRocca's right to be critical, only the appropriateness of doing so in regards to a farewell. I also understand carbro's argument that not to have done so would have been bad journalism, and I would agree if the stakes were higher. But Borree wasn't a star, wasn't influential as a dancer as far as I know (as opposed to in her teaching capacity at SAB), and won't be appearing on future cast lists for ticket buyers to consider seeing or avoiding. With the stakes that low, I wish LaRocco had praised what there was to praise and let readers read between the lines and notice what was missing. To each his own. I enjoy reading the history and I think it gives us perspective on his judgments.

Pan Am Makes the Going Great

I don't live in New York, of course, but I wonder if "excited" is too strong a word. She wasn't a Veronika Part -- everyone acknowledged and bemoaned her weaknesses, and I don't remember anyone raving about her since the Duo Concertants with Barishnikov. In other words, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember any controversy. She may have been a principal, but hers was not really a major career if one looks at the roles she originated, or the interest her career elicited since its early years. To me that's all the more reason to let kindness trump the reader's supposed right to the blunt truth. And there are soft ways to criticize. Comparing her to other principals in her final performance seems unnecessarily if unintentionally cruel. That said, La Rocco had kind things to say as well.

It sure is. I was really sorry, for her sake, to read that. It's not as if her faults hadn't been noted. A dancer's retirement is a time to praise her for the beauty she did bring to the stage, and to thank her for it, not to repeat old criticisms.

Thanks for posting, Deborah. Although I couldn't be there, I'd been thinking today about Borree's farewell. I'm so glad Boal took the time to fly in. I wish her well!

No apology necessary, I should be thanking you. :blush: Some day when I'm old and addled, I'll have imaginary memories of a wonderful night at the ballet!

I'm so happy you could make it up to Lincoln Center for your beloved Mme. Alonso, cubanmiamiboy. It sounds like a very memorable night. To the best of my own memory, however . . . I wasn't there!

What I want to know is when Betty Carter was ever subdued! (And I'm not even considering the fact that the first time I saw her she was wearing a spiderweb print dress).

The best Indian meal I've ever had was in 2007 at Sapphire, just a little south of Lincoln Center on Broadway.

I haven't heard this composition but I find a lot of his music moving (and I heard him conduct some of it in D.C. last weekend). In regards to Transmigration, Adams writes in his autobiography "Hallelujah Junction" that the recorded soundtrack which "surrounds the audience from all sides" makes it "a problematic piece for concert audiences. Even those disposed to like the work have had a difficult time situating themselves within its peculiar sonic environment." So your reaction was pretty typical!

Not me, that's for sure. I didn't care for what little I heard of Fleming singing jazz, and I don't listen to contemporary pop, and I wasn't even going to read this article until Patrick posted it. But I'm impressed with the clips, with how well she's adapted her voice to the songs and how little she sounds like an opera singer. Lou Reed doing "September Song," yeah, I loved that. It suits his voice and the song sounds like something he could have written. Jim Morrison did "Alabama Song" very well too.

Colleen, I don't know if you subscribe to the print version of Dance View, but it publishes extensive reviews of each and every ABT season in New York. The cover of the current, spring 2010, issue has a beautiful black and white photo by Marc Haegeman of Ashley Bouder as Giselle in Rome There are more high quality full and half page photos inside of Bouder and Eugenia Obraztsova in Giselle. Gay Morris reviews NYCB's winter season, Carol Pardo reviews two repertory programs by Miami City Ballet, Jane Simpson covers London and Copenhagen, Rita Felciano San Francisco, and Horst Koegler reviews Sjenf Scheijen's "Diaghilev: A Life." Like danceviewtimes online, Dance View is published by Ballet Talk founder Alexandra Tomalonis, so subscribing is a nice way to support this site. (Not that anyone will need that motivation to re-subscribe!)

Thanks for posting this, Patrick. I'm sorry I never had the chance to hear Hank live. The Times also published this amazing little City Room piece: A Jazzman’s Final Refuge:

That depends on what one's view of healthy sexuality is. perky is right that

One more thing about Jacobs: as Helene mentioned, she's married to James Wolcott, a heavily mannered writer himself. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when they read each other's stuff.

I too like it more when it's a bit less mannered, but I still find much of Jacobs' writing beautiful, this passage included. Interesting. I read "pregnant dimensionality" as an enchanting sense of possibility, as the sort of presence that makes a dancer as riveting to watch at rest as in motion. Better put, as pregnant dimensionality. To each his own. Style is always easy to mock, as others here have done. Ballet too is easy to mock as mannered and pretentious.

Here's Jacobs a couple of years ago on the Kirov: Vaults and Waters As Helene says, she and her husband love Part, and she has written about her often.

That's for sure. Could the Bolshoi just have taken advantage of their youth and paid them lesser salaries for as long as possible? An article by Laura Jacobs in The New Criterion last fall perhaps offers another explanation.

Yes, thanks Ray. There are many more Denby recordings on that site as well, along with a couple of photos. Ive never before seen the one of him writing.

"Caracole" too for me, because it's Balanchine to Mozart. And "Serenade" in its original version.

Over on the NYCB Opening Night Gala Spring 2010 thread, abatt writes I don't like the title either, or the idea of giving ballets titles that sound like novels or short stories, but I wonder if the practice won't catch on as a way to bring in young audiences.