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I love Friedman's idea, but I've come to agree with his fellow Times columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative "conservative" next to David Brooks' more moderate approximation thereof, that Obama would have been smart to just turn the darn thing down. That he's an egotist, a narcissist, the subject of an early Carly Simon song, has always been one of the opposition's chief lines of attack. Turning the prize down would have been a strong symbolic refutatation of that charge, and, I think, would have been read internationaly as gravitas, not ingratitude.

What a fascinating subject. Thanks, Lucy. I'm trying to understand what you mean here, bart. Are you saying that every culture in every time produces its own classical spirit, and that Forsythe's work is a contemporary expression? I'm not sure what you mean by classical then. What is the classical through line from Petipa to Balanchine to Forsythe? The order and the musicality, or is there a cultural through line expressed here as well? Is there anything classical about besides its use of counterpoint?

chiapuris and perky, thank you very much for your reviews. Nowadays "the next best thing to being there" is You Tube -- hah! -- but you folks are great. perky, I can't speak to how NYCB performs it, but when Farrell's company danced "The Unanswered Question" in D.C. in 2003, the supporting men were all in black. However, Clare Croft, writing in danceviewtimes, complained that they were all too visible, and I remember them as well, so perhaps the lighting has since dimmed. The website AnnArbor.com has an interview with Farrell along with a lovely photo of Clarinade and a short clip of Divertimento #15.

Leonid, respectfully (to use your own fine phrasing), many of us fall into both groups.

Leonid, I'm not suggesting that Obama could have accomplished more, just that the prize should go to someone or some group that has accomplished something concrete, or has fought long and hard for it, or is risking freedom or even life for it. (Brooks suggested the Iranian movement for democracy). It's not that Obama shouldn't be lauded for his efforts. Of course he should be. It's that absent real accomplishment, or at least sacrifice, the prize is just political.

He has indeed done all those good things, Leonid, but he has not yet brought peace anywhere.

The best line I've heard so far came from David Brooks, who before saying that Obama should have declined the prize, said he should have won them all this year, having spoken on physics, economics and biology as well. (What about literature?) I'm one of those people who, as Bart put it, are "deeply relieved" that Obama is President, but I think the Nobel Committee made itself look silly this morning. Still, yes, the hope he won for is a refreshing sign!

Not at all strange to me. As much as I dislike the relative displacement of literature by theory, I have so often been drawn to works of art, and drawn deeper into particular art forms, by criticism that reaches wide and deep. The theory draws me to the work being theorized about, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

Thanks for the tip, Sandy. My solution is just to copy my message before I send it, so I can paste it back if need be.

If you get a lousy steak at a steak joint, you're within your rights to complain. But if you go to some hot new restaurant where the chef is known for his adventurousness, you take your chances, and if your taste doesn't match his, you're not required to compliment him, but only a bad sport would actually complain. The Met didn't hide the fact that this was a new production by an adventurous director.

And even if it were, the adult is the one with the responsibilty to act as an adult, i.e. to act in the interest of the child.

You can find that discussion here on the Who's Your Favorite Odette/Odile? thread. Thanks for your question, Ballet fan.

The It's-been-32-years argument cuts both ways, though, doesn't it? For 32 years he's been evading punishment for a brutal rape (Salon had the details yesterday) of a 13-year old girl. I don't know if he can be sentenced for evasion or not, but that's 32 years of ethical, if not legal, misconduct.

But we have no more obligation to align our standards with theirs than they do to align theirs with ours. Polanski had an obligation to pay for crimes committed here according to standards maintained here. To flee with the excuse that the judge had reneged on an understood agreement is to say that the criminal has a right to determine his own punishment.

The excerpt is fascinating, atm711. Thanks for letting us know about the book, and congratulations to the author's mother!

You Tube has a couple of if the returns. The few photos I've seen of the Bondy production remind me a little of Per Kirekby's set for Martins' Swan Lake.

Daniel Waiken has another piece in the Times on the production and the controversy: For Opening Night at the Metropolitan a New Sound: Booing. I was going to go to the HD broadcast, but after what I've seen and read I've changed my mind.

Just as Google knows everything, You Tube by now seems to have absorbed all of recorded history. Tonight by accident I discovered this from a Stravinsky documentary I've read of but never before seen, of Balanchine and Stravinsky and Suzanne Farrell. Subject, very briefly: Variations in Memory of Aldous Huxley.

Good news about Ms. Farmer, whose recent dismissal from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company was so sad and controversial: writing in today's NY Times, Gia Kourlas notes that Farmer is working with Twyla Tharp in Tharp's new Sinatra piece, Come Fly With Me.

She's no longer listed on the roster. Thanks for the review, Jack.

Is All of the Above a ballet? Just when I was trying to decide between Serenade, Symphony in C, Emeralds and La Sylphide, carbro has to bring up Concerto Barocco. I'm tempted to say The Four Temperaments, my favorite of Balanchine's black and white ballets, but I think I'll have to go with Serenade.

I saw the Joffrey dance "Moves" a couple of times in the 70's, and NYCB brought it to the Kennedy Center -- in 2007 I think it was. What I remember is that once the intial drama of half wondering "can they really pull this off?" passed, the ballet became dramatic in another way. The lack of music threw into sharper relief the cooperation between the dancers, so that the dance did seem, as Robbins originally put it, "about relationships." I loved it!

Wasn't Madeleine L'Engle an NYCB regular? I know she contributed that piece to the the Tributes book. I saw Kent at one of the Kirov's Balanchine evenings in '99. Lovely indeed.

Here's the previous discussion.

Fagundes danced it with Ben Huys in 1999 in D.C. and New York.