miliosr

Agreed. With bebop, jazz decoupled itself from dance/party music and went off to live in its own esoteric art world. And rock 'n' roll was waiting in the wings to fill the gap.

I missed this last week: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/realesta...1&ref=dance I hope he puts the final amount he receives in a longterm investment fund rather than using it for shortterm operations!

In today's Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout discusses the decline in popularity of jazz. As part of his discussion, he includes the following stats regarding the median ages for "high art" concertgoers: Ballet (46 in 2008/37 in 1982) (Note: I don't know if this includes modern dance.) Classical music (49 in 2008/40 in 1982) Jazz (46 in 2008/29 in 1982) Nonmusical plays (47 in 2008/39 in 1982) Opera (48 in 2008/43 in 1982) (Information courtesy of the National Endowment for the Arts' Survey of Public Participation in the Arts.) Make of it what you will . . .

As I was standing in the supermarket checkout line yesterday, I saw that the print edition of People has a Farrah cover story on the racks with diary entries from her friend Alana Stewart regarding Farrah's battle w/ cancer. Oh brother! She's barely been put to rest and already people are releasing books/diaries!! (And, no, I didn't buy the issue.)

The new Executive Director at Limon is getting things in gear. The latest edition of the e-newsletter has arrived hard on the heels of the July edition: http://www.limon.org/News/Current.html The August edition has a nice interview w/ Limon dancer Daniel Fetecua Soto. When asked what his favorite Limon dance is, he replied: "[The] Unsung, . . . it touches me the most because it relates to native Americans. I especially love the fact that the entire piece is in silence, and the power of the work is accentuated by the male dancers listening to their own rhythms and to mother earth." I'm curious to hear what the Royal Danes make of this work when they perform it next Spring. The newsletter also has a lot of information regarding the company's trip to China in November-December. Interesting programming: Program A -- All Limon 01 There Is a Time (1956) (2009 - revival) 02 The Traitor (1954) 03 The Moor's Pavane (1949) Program B -- Contemporary Tribute 01 Into My Heart's House (2008) (Clay Taliaferro) 02 Etude (2002) (Carla Maxwell, after Limon) 03 Transfiguration (1976) (Susanne Linke) 04 The Edge of Some World (2009 - new work) (Jonathan Frederickson) 05 Missa Brevis (1958) (Jose Limon) I'm not sure what Program B is a tribute to -- Jose Limon? The continued viability of Limon technique?? Contemporary dance itself??? In any event, keep the newsletters coming!

I'm a subscriber to Vanity Fair and I'm dreading the Farrah article already. (It's not that her tumultuous later life is coming as a surprise to me. I just don't know if I want to read the autopsy of said life.) Thinking of her relationship with Ryan O'Neal and, to a lesser extent, with Lee Majors, I can't help but think of the remark a friend of Rita Hayworth's made about her five husbands: "I knew all of her husbands and none of them were good for her." As for the photos from the first season of Charlie's Angels -- she really was a darling of the gods, wasn't she?

New Farrah content from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/200...e-bennetts.html http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features...slideshow200909

Hat tip to Dale for alerting me to this: http://www.nycitycenter.org/tickets/produc...anceNumber=4337 It would be great if the seven guys performed Limon's The Unsung together. But I suspect that one of the ABT-related guys will follow in the footsteps of Baryshnikov and Bocca and perform Limon's great solo for the male dancer, Chaconne. Update: Looks like a Limon work won't be performed.

The idea of Clifton Webb fathering children (let alone fathering them with a "tough broad" like Barbara Stanwyck) does push the willing suspension of disbelief close to its limit!

Fair enough. The 1953 Titanic does feel like it's occurring in the 1920s or even the 1930s rather than 1912. I have to stick up for Cameron's "Titanic," as well. The screenplay is laughable at parts, but Cameron is still an excellent director and I think he does some of his most elegant work on "Titanic." I really like the super-closeups that he does of DiCaprio's eyes while he's sketching, and the tranformation of the wreck back into the brand-new ship is superbly done. And although DiCaprio has done much more heavyweight work since "Titanic," I actually think "Titanic" is some of his best work. (I find most of his work to be terribly labored since then.) DiCaprio's performance has always been a big impediment to my liking the 1997 Titanic. I always felt he was too modern. But then I used to feel the same way about Michelle Pfeiffer as the Countess Olenska in The Age of Innocence. I thought she was too modern and California. But then the day came when I realized that maybe that was why Martin Scorcese cast her. Ellen Olenska was of the 20th century and Newland Archer was of the 19th century and Pfeiffer, whether done intentionally or not, conveys that through her manner. So, maybe one day, I will come to view DiCaprio's performance the same way. My favorite scene in the 1997 Titanic is when DiCaprio and Winslet, after escaping from the bowels of the sinking ship for the second (!) time, encounter Victor Garber. I love the quiet emotion between Winslet and Garber when she realizes he won't try to survive the impending catastrophe.

I happened to stumble across the 1953 version of Titanic on television today and really got caught up in it. Directed by Jean Negulesco, this version tells the tales of several passengers on the ill-fated liner, most memorably Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck as an estranged couple warring over their two children (one of whom is romancing a very young Robert Wagner.) Also along for the ride/voyage is that old trouper Thelma Ritter as a tart-tongued Molly Brown-like character. The 1997 James Cameron version with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet is better in terms of depiciting the actual sinking (inexplicably short in the Negulesco version) BUT the acting and the script are much, much better in the 1953 version. (Don't get me started on the script for Cameron's Titanic.) For the first two-thirds of the movie you forget that you're even watching a disaster movie because the drama between Webb and Stanwyck is so absorbing. (And Ritter is a hoot with her one-liners: "Don't send a baby to delivah the bee-ah!") Even if you don't find the drama or disaster interesting, the camp aspect of 1950s-style, big budget melodrama has it charms. As Barbara Stanwyck watches the ship go down (with -- SPOILER -- her husband and son on-board) from her lifeboat, she is ridiculously well-coiffed, made-up and lit. (Funny, I didn't know they had key lighting at night in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.) Hey -- a sinking luxury liner is no reason for a Hollywood leading lady to look anything less than her best!!!!

Limon's rarely-seen Orfeo (1972) will be seen in Missouri this Fall: http://wylliams-henry.org/home

Answer: I think the clapping is actually part of There Is a Time, specifically as part of the "A time to keep silent, and a time to speak" segment. This part of the dance has no music but a strong rhythmic noise (clapping?) occurs offstage during this segment. Along with the complete A Choreographic Offering (from 1964), the Limon work I most want to see is his very last work, Carlota (from 1972). From the video clips I've seen, it looks very Expressive. In addition, it incorporates various trends that were all the rage in the postmodern dance around that time -- no music and extended periods of spinning (which Laura Dean would go to town with in the 1970s and 1980s.) I'm curious to see how the Limon aesthetic interacts with the downtown New York dance aesthetic.

Gosh, the new Executive Director must be reading this thread! The latest edition of the Limon e-newsletter arrived this week (first in a long time) and the Limon company is now on Facebook and Twitter. In addition, they now have an official YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LimonDanceCompany Not a lot of earth-shattering news in the newsletter but here are the highlights: 1) Artistic director Carla Maxwell talks about the upcoming residency at Brockport and how it gives the company, "a chance to work outside of the usual struggles 'at home'." (Which I took to mean as cost.) 2) Institute director Ann Vachon discusses a recent two-week residency at the Warsaw School of Ballet for 40 dancers aged 14-19. 3) Associate artistic director/dancer Roxane D'Orleans Juste discusses her upcoming reconstruction of Limon's There Is a Time (last performed by the company in 2001) and how this is the fourth revival of this work she has participated in since joining the company in 1983.

Yes.

Well, I think they need to resolve some other issues before they develop a touring strategy: 1) Get things settled at the top. This will be the fourth ED since 2003, when longtime ED Mark Jones resigned. 2) Figure out what they want to be and stick with it. Are they mainly a heritage company whose charge is to preserve the works of Jose Limon and Doris Humphrey? Are they a repertory company devoted to preserving the best works of the mid-20th century modern dance (Limon and Humphrey, plus works by Donald McKayle, Daniel Nagrin and Anna Sokolow??) Are they a repertory company committed to surveying the spectrum of modern/postmodern/contemporary dance??? Honestly, I don't always know what their core mission is. (And that's coming from someone who's a big fan of the company.) The performance I saw in March leads me toward conclusion A (two Limon works plus a tribute to Limon by a former company member.) But then, at the same time, they were touring a program with the tribute piece plus Anna Sokolow's Rooms, which leads me to conclusion B. (And I saw a performance in 2005, with pieces by Limon, Jiri Kylian, Lar Lubovitch and Jonathan Reidel, which leads me to conclusion C.) Rooms is an interesting choice for them to do but you can't blame people if they go to a Limon Dance Company performance and they carp because there's not a single piece by Limon on the bill. 3) Get into the 21st century w/ your communications strategy. The Web site was slick in 2003 when it launched but now it's static and unwieldy. You have a ton of content -- get it on a YouTube page. Regular e-mail blasts as to what the company is doing are a must. I feel like they're coasting too much on Limon's past fame and not targeting new audiences with a contemporary communications strategy. Alright, enough of me playing armchair artistic/executive director!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/arts/dan...=1&ref=arts The comments by Mark Morris in the very last paragraph should serve as a useful reproach to those who say that ballet companies will sustain the unique qualities of the Cunningham repertory in the absence of an actual Cunningham company.

I think residencies can be wonderful things for precisely the reasons you listed, bart. Also, for a company like Limon, which isn't tied to a particular theater and doesn't own property, a residency like the one at Brockport is an advantageous way to work on exisiting or new repertory without having to keep a constant eye on the clock because you're renting rehearsal space. When you're someone else's guest for three weeks, you can slow down and really pay attention to detail in a way that's not always possible in New York. Still, I don't know that a strategy of constant residencies is a strategy I would support unless the residencies result in public performances. For instance, the Limon company performance of Missa Brevis at the University of Minnesota in March was the end result of a two week residency. Missa Brevis requires 22 dancers, a large choir and an organist. This would be totally beyond the company's means in New York but, by partnering with the University of Minnesota, they could field the required number of dancers and use live music so that Missa Brevis is maintained in active repertory.

Time to start a new thread for all things Limon-related . . . Limon Dance Company has a new Executive Director: http://www.limon.org/documents/GabyAppointmentRelease.pdf For those of you in the Rochester, NY area, Limon begins its three week residency at SUNY Brockport on July 19. Public performances will include excerpts from a reconstruction of There Is a Time and Dances for Isadora, as well as a showing of a work-in-progress by company member Jonathan Fredrickson. Limon will be contributing to an Anna Sokolow "residency" happening at the New School in New York (presumably showing parts or all of their reconstruction of Rooms): http://www.newschool.edu/lang/academics.aspx?id=24404 Luna Negra Dance Theater will be performing There Is a Time at the Chicago Dancing Festival in August: http://lunanegra.org/performances/ Kansas City Ballet will be performing The Moor's Pavane in February: http://www.kcballet.org/performancesticket...son/winter.html Royal Danish Ballet will be performing The Unsung in May-June (Note: RDB site link contains partial nudity): http://www.kglteater.dk/Forestillinger/Bal...seur_Noble.aspx I'll update this thread periodically when I spot any interesting news!

Just a clarification: I employed the "dead wood" phrase but it wasn't my opinion of the affected dancers. I was merely trying to articulate a potential mindset on the part of management. Just to be clear Drew -- I think management at City Ballet would have stumbled along with its bloated number of dancers (101!) in the absence of the economic crisis. And I have maintained all along that balancing the needs of the company vs. the needs of the individual dancers was and is a perfectly defensible thing. Where I think management looks shady is by claiming poverty when the decision was announced but then stepping on their own narrative by quietly hiring the apprentices. In addition, emphasizing the economic decision doesn't really protect the dancers because anyone can look them up on the company's Web site and figure out pretty quickly that the firings weren't made on a strictly seniority basis (nor should they have been.) Peter Martins got rid of (in his eyes) the "dead wood" and no amount of casting that as a purely economic decision will change that. I still say -- vehemently -- that the best way to have dealt with this situation would have been to lay out the complicated nature of the firings to the affected dancers and to the press. I think most people (maybe not the affected dancers themselves) would understand the rationale that you can't go a season (or more) without bringing in new blood and you can't have the nightmare scenario where the feeder school's brightest graduates can't find work in the parent company and go elsewhere. (Let me rephrase that last paragraph. The best way would have been to do what ABT did. Failing that, the next best thing would have been to lay out the complicated situation City Ballet found itself in.)

No wonder Miss Flack is confused about why she was dismissed -- we can't even agree amongst ourselves as to why the February Massacre occurred. Was it purely an economic decision brought on by terrible financial circumstances? Was it because the affected dancers stagnated artistically and technically (and the fiscal conditions gave the administration cover to carry out the firings??) Was it because the affected dancers ran afoul of management for things like not realizing an "optional" company class was really mandatory??? I go back to the New York Times story in February. The firings were presented entirely in financial terms -- the picture being so bleak that management had to axe 11 dancers. But then, quietly, we hear about the hiring of apprentices. (The first I heard about it was at the end of a Times review!) This tells me that management saw the economic problems all along as an opportunity to terminate certain employees and do it in a way that wouldn't create a firestorm (until it was too late.) They got what they wanted but they made themselves look shady in the process and I have to believe that the surviving corps members will look at the way City Ballet management handled things vs. the way ABT management handled things and say, "Wow, there is zero loyalty at this company." Preach it Faux! Perversely, some of this pressure the company is experiencing as a result of the logjam at the top should lessen in a few years as some of the principals retire. Just looking at the guys -- Askegaard, Evans, Neal and Martins are all hovering around 40. There should be plenty of room for people like Angle (the younger), Danchig-Waring and Fairchild to advance before too long; thereby opening more soloist spots for corps members. But for now . . . As for the corps member D vs. apprentice A comparison, keep in mind that the comparison was just hypothetical to demonstrate the potential differential between the two. It was about as far away from scientific rigor as you can possibly get.

Bingo! A very real economic crunch presented an opportunity to clear out some dead wood in the forest so that the forest could regrow. This is one area where I actually have some sympathy for Martins. He's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. The new works aren't hip enough for the hipsters who love Cedar Lake but these same new works also alienate the hardcore Balanchine audience members who think they take up too much space in the rep.

I am up for anything, carbro! Really, it's not that hard -- just multiply everything by 4 weeks: Corps member D = $68,220 Apprentice A = $18,288 Difference = $49,932 This gets you into a murkier area. Even before you get to the differential between rehearsal salaries, you have a base salary difference of almost $50,000 in my hypothetical. Are the savings engendered by hiring apprentices (do we know how many have been hired?) so significant that they justified firing the senior corps dancers? Everyone will just have to decide that for himself or herself. I still say that, since the corps dancers can be dismissed without cause (as DeborahB confirms), the best way to approach the situation would have been to explain the complicated nature of the situation (need to economize vs. need for new infusion of talent) to the affected dancers. Yes, it would have been unpleasant but you would have treated them like adults and professionals. As it is, management looks like it was trying to get through the firings without creating the kind of response that Miss Flack now wishes she had employed. At the end of the day, I think ABT got the better of City Ballet in this situation. They took the hit together and, for all the detractors who decry ABT as a "polyglot" company, they look more like a unified company than City Ballet does.

Agreed. All I tried to show is that they won't save a lot in base salary by hiring apprentice A and firing corps member D.

Why thank you, Simon G. You are handier than Thing on The Addam's Family! (A compliment coming from me, I assure you.) Here's a hypothetical regarding the salaries. Let's say we have corps member D (who has 8-9 years of tenure w/ the company) and we have apprentice A (who will be new to the company next season). Let's also say that apprentice A will only make half of what an entry level corps member makes in base salary per calendar month. Finally, let's say that the season is 9 calendar months long: Corps member D = $1,895 x 9 = $17,055 Apprentice A = $508 x 9 = $4,572 Difference = $12,483 Obviously, we can't know what the rehearsal wage differential would be. But at least in terms of the base salary, $12,483 isn't a lot savings between corps member D and apprentice A. This is especially true when you consider that the original reported deficit was $5.5 million. Feel free to correct me if my numbers are faulty!