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Looking at today's dance section in the Times, I see three separate New York City Ballet-related features by Roslyn Sulcas at the top of the page: An April 28th retrospective marking the 50th anniversary of the Stravinsky festival. A May 2nd article about former City Ballet principal Janie Taylor. A May 3rd article discussing Silas Farley's new ballet for the company. All of this in addition to the (admittedly unflattering) article about Abi Stafford from May 3rd. I realize none of these are reviews but a lot of smaller companies would love to get that much coverage in the Times.

Last thought: Isn't it wonderful that this jewel box of a company still exists at the 75th anniversary of the company's founding in 1946-47 and 50th anniversary of the founder's death? By all rights, the company should have passed into history given that no successor was in Limon's place upon his death, no administrative structure existed and no one even knew who owned the dances. (The dances aren't mentioned in Limon's will.) When I think of the choreographers who were born shortly after Limon was (Erick Hawkins, Alwin Nikolais, Anna Sokolow) and how difficult (if not impossible) it is to see their work, I have to think of the Limon's company continuing ability to present the founding choreographer's work as a small miracle.

The second half of Program A consisted of Jose LImon's great solo Chaconne and a world premiere by the Burkina Faso choreographer Olivier Tarpaga, Only One Will Rise. Chaconne (1942) The program note states: "The Chaconne as a dance form originated in Mexico during the Spanish occupation. Bach employed the strict musical form of the Chaconne but enriched it with powerful emotional implications. Limon has tried to capture in his dance both the formal austerity and the profound feeling of the music." The dance begins with the soloist and a violinist (Johnny Gandelsman) standing side-by-side on stage. As Gandlesman plays Bach's Chaconne from Partita #2 in D Minor, the soloist performs Limon's austere - but beautiful - evocation of Bach's music. As part of the 75th anniversary celebration, artistic director Dante Puleio invited dancers from outside the company to perform Chaconne in addition to various Limon soloists. I saw Donovan Reed from Kyle Abraham's A.I.M. (evening) and Savannah Spratt from the Limon company (afternoon). Of the two, my mild preference was for Reed, whose muscular body made for an interesting counterpoint to the formal, "classical" intricacies of Limon's movement. Spratt performed it beautifully - perhaps too much so. Her Chaconne was seamless but lacked the element of counterpoint that made Reed's performance so intriguing. Also, Reed's Chaconne, while more segmented and rougher than Spratt's, had the advantage of suggestion - one could imagine what Limon himself would have looked like in this part after watching Reed. One more note: There was a nice bit of symmetry to the two halves of Program A as Air for the G String and Chaconne are both set to compositions by Bach. Only One Will Rise (2022) When Jose Limon died, Ruth Currier, who became the company's 3rd artistic director after Doris Humphrey and Limon, instituted the policy of commissioning new works from inside and outside the company. Carla Maxwell (the 4th director for 38 years) and Colin Connor (the 5th director for 4 years) continued this policy and ventured far and wide amongst modern, postmodern and contemporary choreographers regardless of whether or not the commissioned choreographers had any connection whatsoever to the Limon aesthetic. For his first New York season as artistic director, Dante Puleio has also continued the policy but instead of trying to forge strained connections to alien traditions, has commissioned choreographers who have looked to Limon himself for inspiration. Only One Will Rise is one result. Specifically evoking Psalm, Olivier Tarpaga's dance also has a central figure who is both part of the various vignettes that follow in succession and alien to them. The movement combines a kind of controlled frenzy (like Psalm taken to an outer limit) with elements from Limon's own works. (There is a moment, when the dancers are in deep squats looking up at the light, that is straight out of the opening in Limon's Missa Brevis.) As for Only One Will Rise, the results are often arresting. But the attempt to create symmetry between Limon and Tarpaga is perhaps unfortunate for the latter. Limon was an experienced craftsman of nearly 40 years experience by the time he made Psalm and that experience shows in the "tightness" of the variations. Tarpaga's creation is considerably looser (by design?) than Limon's and that looseness makes it difficult for the viewer to sustain the through-line of what Tarpaga is trying to say through the dance. I could see where Limon was going with Psalm even if he didn't get there entirely by the end. But I was hard pressed to sustain a through-line for Only One Will Rise; intriguing as the individual segments were.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of its first season (1946-47), the Limon Dance company has been performing for two weeks (April 19 - May 1) at the Joyce Theater in New York. The season consists of two programs featuring four works by Jose Limon, one by Doris Humphrey and two new works by Olivier Tarpaga and Raul Tamez. I was able to see Program A on April 23rd (evening) and April 24th (afternoon). First Half: Air for the G String (1928) Program A began with Doris Humphrey's Air for the G String. Humphrey, who was Jose Limon's great mentor and first artistic director of his company, composed Air for the G String not long after she had decamped from the Denishawn company. Set to Bach and lasting only 5-6 minutes, Air for the G String is more of a stately processional than a dance. Five women walk and bend while draped in voluminous robes. The piece is slight but suggestive for within its brief running time Humphrey sets out her burgeoning ideas about the body and its interplay with gravity. The seeds of what would achieve full expression as Limon Technique were planted with this walk-dance. Psalm (1967) Flash forward nearly 40 years to Jose Limon's Psalm, which represented the Humphrey-Limon aesthetic at its fullest flowering. One of Limon's large scale works of the 1960s, Psalm is based on Andre Schwarz-Bart's 1959 novel The Last of the Just. The Schwarz-Bart novel focuses on the idea that there are 'Just Men' in history who bear the weight of the world on their shoulders. Limon's danced version of the novel contains a 'Burden Bearer' dancing alone and in counterpoint with a massed corps of 'Psalmists' consisting of the entire Limon company and members of the second company. Set to Eugene Lester's highly percussive score with alternating sung sections (the Burden Bearer sections) for a baritone, Psalm's greatest attributes are in its full-throated (bodied?) expression of the Humphrey-Limon dance ideas of fall, recovery and suspension and its revelation of Limon as an ingenious craftsman then at the height of his creative powers. Whether in the numerous danced sections for the Psalmists or in the solos for the Burden Bearer, the complexity and diversity of Limon's variations are almost overwhelming - the movement was pouring out of him at the point. I saw two different Burden Bearers: Nicholas Ruscica at the evening show and Joey Columbus at the afternoon show. Both were wonderful but very different from one another. Ruscica is leaner and lither than Columbus and so his solos had more of a quicksilver element to them. But Columbus, with his greater frame and height, came closer to what Limon himself would have looked like in repertory. Watching him made me think of the modern dance choreographer Cliff Keuter's comment about Limon that, "seeing his large body fighting against gravity took you half-way to theater already." Psalm is often spoken of as a late-period Limon masterpiece. As much as I admired the extraordinary variations, I would confine my ranking of Psalm to semi-masterpiece status. The reason being is that too often the Burden Bearer and Psalmist sections alternate with one another. Even when they do intersect, they remain oddly in parallel. It's as if Limon choreographed a masterly solo set to sung music and masterly group sections set to a percussive store and then tried to create a pivot between the two using Andre Schwarz-Bart's thematic material. But the pivot never truly occurs and so the audience is left with a literary dance that doesn't cohere entirely but is extremely impressive nonetheless as a species of choreography. In other words, you can watch Psalm abstractly. Will review the second half of the program in another post!

The person whose status intrigues me is Arthus Raveau (formerly Pierre-Arthur). He was promoted to premier at the same time as Alu but he doesn't dance a lot any more. When Raveau does appear on stage, he's increasingly cast in character parts. I know he's had injuries but he's not that much older than Alu. Thibault said years ago in an interview with either Dance Magazine or Pointe that the company management thought he looked like a peasant!

I am!

Artistic Director Dante Puleio discusses the company's two-week New York season, which begins tonight at the Joyce: THE DANCE ENTHUSIAST ASKS: Dante Puleio, Artistic Director of Limón Dance Company, about Limón's 75th Anniversary Season | The Dance Enthusiast (dance-enthusiast.com)

I was reading the article "War Brings Iron Curtain Down on Russia's storied Ballet Stages" in today's New York Times and there was an incidental mention of Nicole Cornell as "Director of the George Balanchine Trust". A quick look at the Trust's Web site confirms this. Did Barbara Horgan retire or resign?

Reading some old issues of Dance Magazine from 1969-72, I noticed some small items about what Nijinska was doing at the end of her life: Stages Aurora's Wedding, Les Biches and a revised version of Brahms Variations for the Ballet Center of Buffalo in December 1969. Returns to Buffalo in July 1970 to stage Chopin Piano Concerto for the Ballet Center. Stages Les Noces for Teatro La Venice in December 1970. Prepares to leave Pacific Palisades at the time of her death in 1972 to stage Les Biches in Dusseldorf.

Their Own Desire Cast: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Lewis Stone Production Credits: E. Mason Hopper (director), Cedric Gibbons (art direction), William Daniels (cinematographer), Adrian (gowns) Premiere: December 27, 1929 Synopsis: Lally (Shearer) finds 'Mr. Right' in the form of Princeton hunk Jack (Montgomery). But complications ensue when Lally discovers that Jack's mother is the "other woman" for whom Lally's father (Stone) threw her mother overboard. This is more like it. Shearer was more in her element in a Roaring Twenties romance than she was in an English drawing room. She also had a very congenial partner in Montgomery, who was in his first year at M-G-M. (He had already starred with Joan Crawford earlier in the year in Untamed.) Shearer's "light" playing is her best playing; "heavy" dramatic scenes not so much. The passage of six months between the release of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney and the release of this picture meant that "talking pictures" were becoming "moving pictures" again. Their Own Desire has some well-staged action sequences including Shearer and Montgomery swimming in a pool and getting caught on a "lake" in the middle of a storm. Best of all is the glimpse this picture provides into late-period Roaring Twenties clothes, automobiles and design (Art Deco). Shearer wears Adrian's designs superbly and it's no wonder that Adrian delighted in designing for her. The downside to Their Own Desire is that it is very short - 64 minutes. I suspect that the original cut of this film was longer but tested poorly with audiences. Also, while Shearer and Montgomery get their happy ending, their problem -- her mother and his father are still together and her mother is still depressed and suicidal -- remains at the fadeout; Grade: B (The drama is merely OK but the Roaring Twenties vibe is great.) Postscript: Montgomery is supposed to be a Princeton undergraduate in this and Shearer is supposed to be younger than him. In reality, Shearer was 27 when this was released (but looks older) and Montgomery was 25 (but looks younger). So, a certain suspension of disbelief is required.

Barbara Stanwyck was still speaking that way on The Colbys in the 1980s! Here's a newsreel clip from the Grand Hotel premiere in Hollywood in 1932. You can hear what Joan Crawford (7:00) and Norma Shearer ("You know being a fan is hard, darling") (8:14) sounded like. Lilyan Tashman's voice (4:38) is the best. though, considering she was "from Brooklyn".

What curious programming . . . By my count, you have five contemporary evenings (Bausch, Carlson, Oyen, McGregor, Smith). The Maurice Bejart tribute evening is welcome and features some of his finest pieces but his is a crossbred repertory between the classical and the contemporary. The choice of Who Cares? on the George Balanchine evening is almost as peculiar as the choice of Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free several seasons ago. Excepting the evenings with the students and the homage to Claude Bessy (never thought I would see that under an Aurelie Dupont directorship), only Rudolf Nureyev's Swan Lake, Balanchine's Ballet Imperial and the Patrick Dupond homage evening (especially Harald Lander's Etudes) are there to uphold the "white tights and tutus" end of things.

I've started a deep dive into Norma Shearer's Pre-Code period, which ran from 1929 to 1934 when full enforcement of the Code began. First up . . . The Last of Mrs. Cheyney Cast: Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, Hedda Hopper Production Credits: Sidney Franklin (director), Cedric Gibbons (art direction), William Daniels (cinematographer), Adrian (costumes) Premiere: July 26, 1929 Synopsis: Fay Cheyney (Shearer) is the front woman for a gang of jewel thieves. While planning to steal a pearl necklace, she meets Lord Arthur Dilling (Rathbone) and becomes romantically involved with him. M-G-M released The Last of Mrs. Cheyney early in the sound era and it reflects all of the problems that beset early sound films. Derived from a play of the same name, The Last of Mrs. Cheyney is filmed like one. The camera is incredibly static and, as such, the film lacks visual interest. The source material is in the English "repartee" vein, and I don't know that the material and Norma Shearer were meant for one another. She and Rathbone bat the dialogue back-and-forth but the sense I got was that Rathbone was playing down to her. Shearer is much better at the film's end when she is exposed as a thief and is not particularly repentant about it. Her 'Pre-Code' persona was born here but would come to the fore much more forcefully the following year in The Divorcee. Shearer's voice is perfect for sound films but more than a tad affected. She looks wonderful in Adrian's gowns, though, and it's easy to forget that, at the time of the film's release, the Shearer/Adrian duo would be setting fashion trends. Rathbone is charming as Shearer's love interest but it's strange to see him in something other than a villainous part or as Sherlock Holmes. Hopper provides light comedy relief but, obviously, better things were in store for her. Shearer's gang of jewel thieves are best of all, and their singing "Carefree and Happy" adds some liveliness to a somewhat stale production. Grade: B- (Interesting as an early species of sound film and Pre-Code but creaky overall)

Miles Colby!!! A little Dynasty shout-out there . . .

Can anyone recommend a good hotel near the Joyce? I've stayed at the GEM hotel in Chelsea in the past but I think it might be closed/closed for remodeling. I'm hoping to see the Limon company in April so any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

Several Old Hollywood feeds I follow on Instagram mentioned that today is Jean Harlow's birthday. (She was born on March 3rd, 1911.) In that period 1932-37, she was arguably M-G-M's biggest female box office star - bigger than Garbo, bigger than Shearer, bigger even than Crawford. One of the Instagram posts talked about how Harlow was the bridge between Clara Bow and Marilyn Monroe. I had never made that connection before but I can see the truth in it. A little pre-Code Harlow from Dinner at Eight:

The bit about "Rojo is worried that Mateo will have an American accent" may not be the most tactful thing to say in your new home.

Time for ABT to make like the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1957 and relocate permanently to southern California. 😉 Does ABT's presence in the LA area impact Colleen Neary's Los Angeles Ballet at all? Los Angeles Ballet is a small company as it is. (It's most recent (pre-COVID) form 990 filing shows revenues of $3.63 million against expenditures of $3.37 million.) Or is the LA metropolitan area so big and sprawling that there's room for both?

The latest from San Francisco: As SF Ballet Enters a New Era, Calls for Diversity Reemerge | KQED Quote: "Nikisha Fogo’s recent appointment as principal dancer means there are two Black-identifying dancers in the company instead of one."

Alastair Macaulay has published a long interview (more like a debriefing, actually) with David Gordon on his blog: David Gordon (1936-2022) speaks of Merce Cunningham, James Waring, Valda Setterfield, Paul Taylor, Yvonne Rainer, Steve Paxton, and more — Alastair Macaulay

How was the chapter about the collapse of his original Los Angeles Ballet? If you read John Clifford's Instagram feed, he's always blaming Nancy Reagan and/or the Los Angeles Times. But if you read contemporaneous accounts from the Los Angeles Times and Dance Magazine, there were very real problems in terms of funding, management and repertory (largely Balanchine and Clifford).

It was brave of Baryshnikov to commission those two Gordon works - Field, Chair and Mountain (1984) and Murder (1986) - for ABT. They certainly delighted Arlene Croce but they died a heavy death with ABT's audience, which was already exasperated with Baryshnikov because of his "non-star turns" policies.

I found this news somewhat surprising at first as Bonelli is/will be 44 this year and is still performing at a high level. But his leaving now, even though he could have continued on as a principal at the Royal Ballet for several years to come, shows that he's an adherent of the old saying: "You want to leave things just a little before they leave you."

Lynn Garafola discusses her new biography of Bronislava Nijinska, La Nijinska, with Marina Harss: The Eternal Struggles of Bronislava Nijinska - Fjord Review Garafola on the state of the Nijinska repertory: How many ballets did she make in total? About 50, 60. And how many are extant? Two, “Les Noces” and “Les Biches,” in authoritative productions. A few other ballets have been reconstructed, such as “Le Train Bleu” by Frank W. D. Ries and “Bolero” by Irina Nijinska and Nina Youshkevitch for the Oakland Ballet. The “Three Ivans” from the last act of “The Sleeping Princess is also extant.” But that’s about it.

By this standard, would Helgi Tomasson's old company, the Harkness Ballet, be considered a meaningful one and Rebekah Harkness be considered a successful company director? Rebekah Harkness commissioned plenty of new works but those works (and the company itself) disappeared without a trace. The same could be said for the Lew Christensen-Michael Smuin iteration of the San Francisco Ballet. So, did the art form benefit from these failed experiments or not? I would say 'no' because they neither produced lasting new repertory nor performed the canonic works to a high standard (the latter of which could be said of Tomasson's San Francisco Ballet). But I think this is an area where we'll just have to agree to disagree.