miliosr

papeetepatrick -- I've seen the version of The Moor's Pavane you're referring to and it's best avoided. The filming technique and outdoor locations kill it stone dead. The best commercially available version of The Moor's Pavane is found on the Jose Limon: Three Modern Dance Classics DVD. This DVD features televised performances of three Limon dances from the 1950s -- The Moor's Pavane, The Traitor and The Emperor Jones. The performance of The Moor's Pavane features the original (and classic) cast from the 1949 premiere -- Limon as The Moor, Lucas Hoving as The Moor's Friend, Pauline Koner as The Friend's Wife and Betty Jones as The Moor's Wife. The filming took place on an extremely small stage but the claustrophobic conditions actually work to the benefit of this performance. You might also want to check out YouTube as someone posted a very good performance of this work by French ballet dancers. Unfortunately, only the first half of the pavane is posted. Still, half of The Moor's Pavane is better than none at all. The Limon company itself performs this work with no set at all -- just the four dancers (in those lavish Pauline Lawrence costumes), the music, the lighting and a bare stage. It's all you need, really. The Moor's Pavane was a repertory staple at ABT throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Limon himself staged it for Bruce Marks in 1970. Among others, Marks and Erik Bruhn essayed the part of The Moor, Royes Fernandez and Ivan Nagy played the Moor's Friend, Toni Lander and Sallie Wilson danced the part of the Friend's Wife and Cynthia Gregory and Martine van Hamel met their makers as the Moor's Wife. I don't know if Rudolf Nureyev ever performed the role at ABT but it was a fixture on his Nureyev&Friends programs during the 70s (the most notorious one being the performance(s) with Nureyev as The Moor, Paolo Bortoluzzi as the Moor's Friend, Karen Kain as the Friend's Wife and Margot Fonteyn as the Moor's Wife.) I would disagree with Mel's assessment of this work -- I think it is a brilliant abstraction of Othello.

The audio commentary for The Best of Everything is quite good. Both Rona Jaffe and the film historian (sorry -- can't remember her name) who participates have very interesting things to say about the genesis of the book, the making of the film and the cast members. Sadly, the commentary for Valley of the Dolls isn't up to the same standard. Barbara Parkins (who played Anne Welles) is not especially illuminating -- either her memories have dimmed after 40 years or she was being deliberately circumspect about the people involved in the making of the film. Her co-commentator -- E! gossip columnist Ted Casablanca (named after a character in the film!) -- is even worse. Unfortunately, Patty Duke either couldn't or wouldn't (probably the latter) participate. Alas, with the Valley of the Dolls commentary, you'll have to plant your own tree and make it grow!

ITA dirac that the "three girls in the city" genre is an exceedingly durable one. And, trust me when I say that your life isn't any the worse off for having missed The City!

I read it in the print edition. I'm assuming they have a Web site but I don't know if current articles are available on it.

Very interesting article by Gerald Dowler in the November 2008 issue of Dancing Times regarding the increasing "sameness" of repertory among the major international ballet companies (and even some of the not-so-major ones). (He says everything in two pages that I've tried to articulate on this board and failed to do!) Dowler posits that, by trending toward the same repertory, these companies are losing their distinctive stylistic approaches as they ignore the legacy works that are/were peculiar to their original artistic successes. In other words, the move away from a "local" repertory toward a perceived international repertory standard has the (unintended?) effect of diminishing the distinctive company styles that go hand-in-glove with the original, "local" repertories. (He levels particular fire in the direction of Copenhagen [no Bournonville this season] and London [only one Ashton/only two MacMillans].) My own feeling is that the trend toward a global mean is here to stay. But be careful what you wish for -- once certain works (and their corresponding styles) are gone, they're gone for good. (Cue ominous horror movie music . . . )

Let me take your questions in reverse order, bart. In terms of preserving The Winged in its "silent" state, Jon Magnussen's liner notes to the Music for Limon Dances CD states that he learned the dance by watching two films of it. (One was from the American Dance Festival and one was from the National Cathedral in Washington DC.) So, it will always exist in that form but, as Mindy Aloff has written, dances don't have theoretical realities -- they only have performance realities. That being the case, the "silent" version of The Winged is most likely a dead version given that the Magnussen version is now the performed version. As to your other question regarding the ethical/philosophical issues related to tinkering with the creator's works, I have no easy answers. I don't believe that the followers of a particular choreographer should tinker pell-mell with the surviving works. But, on the other hand, I think the followers have a responsibility to maintain as much of the work as they can. If that means revamping and recontextualizing the works (without making them look like something else) so that the works can survive, then I'm all for it. In Limon's case, he didn't want his works to become mausoleum pieces that were cast in concrete. (For the same reason, he never codified the technique during his lifetime because he wanted to leave the door open for further innovation within it.) In any event, he left no clear directions as to what to do with his dances after his death -- his will didn't even mention the dances! What complicates this even further is when a choreographer keeps tinkering with a dance to reflect his or her shifting thoughts about a dance or to accomodate a particular variation to a particular dancer's talents. In instances like this, can you even say there is a "definitive" version? For example, in Limon's case, there were three separate reconstructions by three different dancers of Limon's Mazurkas at one point. (You might say that Jerome Robbins' Dances at a Gathering was the fourth reconstruction but that, as they say, is a different topic.) Maybe they were all the same but, if they weren't, what is the "definitive" version? (My understanding is that the Balanchine people have a particular problem with this given how George Balanchine tinkered endlessly with his dances.) At the end of the day, I think Carla Maxwell made the right decisions regarding The Winged and Psalm. I don't think there's a 21st century audience for a 50 minute version of The Winged danced in silence any more than I think there's an audience for an hour-long version of Psalm. And, as she told the New York Times some years ago, it's not like she can call Jose Limon and ask him. She has to do what she thinks is best and see where it leads.

Daniel Nagrin, the modern dance choreographer known for his estimable solos, has died at the age of 91. Under Carla Maxwell's patronage, four of Nagrin's dances -- Spanish Dance (1948), Strange Hero (1948), Dance in the Sun (1951) and Indeterminate Figure (1957) -- have found a second (and hopefully permanent) home in the Limon company's repertory.

Perhaps these "Russian sponsors [who are] ready to dip their toes in the pond" can spare $2 million to reconstruct Antony Tudor's Romeo and Juliet, which, in terms of its creation date, is now closer to Petipa's time than our own.

Don't know where else to put this so I'll park it here . . . The Fall 2008 issue of Ballet Review has an interview with Monica Mason and I found some of her answers exceedingly curious. For instance, interviewer Kevin Ng asks her if she thinks the Royal's male dancers are the equal of its female dancers. Mason says yes but then only mentions Carlos Acosta. Ng also asks Mason about why there has been such a (relative) paucity of Ashton since the 2004-5 centenary and her answer is that they did a lot in 2004-5 so they're not doing a lot now. But . . . shouldn't they be? (This is one part of the interview which really cried out for a follow-up.)

I watched the premiere episodes of The City on MTV on Monday night and I was struck by how much it was an updated, 21st century version of the "three girls in the city" genre which gave us The Best of Everything. The City, of course, is a spinoff of the popular MTV reality series The Hills and follows supporting "character" Whitney as she moves to New York from Los Angeles. The City also features socialite Olivia Palermo (she of Socialite Rank and Tinsley Mortimer feud fame) and Whitney's childhood friend Erin. If I had to compare the young women The City to the young women in The Best of Everything, here's how they would compare: Whitney = Caroline (Hope Lange) Olivia = Gregg (Suzy Parker) Erin = April (Diane Baker) There's no Fabian Publishing but Whitney and Olivia "work" at Diane von Furstenberg's beautiful new headquarters in Chelsea. (The interior stairs scare me!) No redeeming artistic, intellectual or social qualities to this at all but a lot of fun to watch!!!

New Year, new thread for Jose Limon-related musings . . . Recently, I came across a CD featuring two works by the composer Jon Magnussen titled Music for Limon Dances. In 1996 and 2002, the Limon company commissioned Magnussen to create new scores for two Limon dances, The Winged (1966) and Psalm (1967), which the company had devoted itself to reconstructing after the works had mostly fallen out of repertory. During Limon's lifetime, the company danced The Winged nearly in silence while Psalm featured a score by Eugene Lester (who Limon commissioned after an existing Stravinsky score proved beyond Limon's means.) During the reconstruction process, Limon artistic director Carla Maxwell decided that The Winged would benefit from having a score and Psalm would benefit from having a new score. In the event, the reconstructed The Winged, which had clocked in at about 50 minutes in length, now had a Magnussen score/running time of about 40 minutes. And Psalm, which was almost an hour (!) in length, now had a Magnussen score/running time of just over 30 minutes. Putting aside any musical comments (I prefer the score for The Winged to the one for Psalm) for the moment, what intrigued me about this process (and Magnussen's very interesting liner notes) is this: Is any other heritage company, ballet or modern, performing quite the same "editing" function that the Limon followers are performing for Limon's late-period works? Here is what I'm getting at. When Limon's great mentor Doris Humphrey died in 1958, a critical consensus developed and still holds fast (Tobi Tobias being a particular martinet in this regard) that the works Limon made during the post-Humphrey period (1958-1972) were generally too long. (The thinking being that, without Humphrey's critical eye, Limon didn't know how or what to cut.) But since Limon's death, there appears to be a trend among the Limon dancers who actually knew him and worked with him to provide the editing function that Humphrey could not provide and Limon would not provide. So, A Choreographic Offering (1964 running time: nearly an hour) is almost always seen today in suite form, The Winged has lost 10 minutes, Psalm has lost 30 minutes and The Unsung (1970), which originally had eight variations for men, now is featured mostly with 6 or 7. I'm not criticizing this effort, which I actually think is the right one if the works are to survive. I'm just trying to think if any other heritage companies are engaged in quite the same process. The only things that come to mind are the Graham company's recent efforts with Clytaemnestra and Suzanne Farrell's efforts with Balanchine's Don Quixote. But even these efforts seem small in scale compared to what the Limon company is doing with new scores and fullout editing.

I'll play . . . My dream ballet takes place in the Muslim kingdom of Granada on the night of December 31, 1491. On that night, the last ruler of the kingdom -- Muhammad XII (Boabdil) -- contemplates, with shame and sorrow, that he must turn over the kingdom and its fabled palace the Alhambra to their Catholic majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, on the following day. Alone in the throne room of the Alhambra, he dances a dance of despair as he confronts the reality that Muslim rule in the Iberian peninsula is ending after 800 years. Soon, three individuals confront him in succession: 1) The father, Abu 'l-Hasan 'Ali, who he betrayed and displaced as ruler of Granada; 2) The mother, Zoraya, who encouraged his mad ambitions but now reviles him for allowing the kingdom to fall into Catholic hands; and 3) The ghost of Muhammed I, the founder of the kingdom in the 13th century, who haunts him for failing to preserve the kingdom. Boabdil dances with each of these individuals until, left alone, he continues his mad dance of despair . . . My title? The Last Sigh of the Moor My Boabdil? Ed Watson (And, before the posts start rolling in that Ed Watson would make for an unlikely Moor, the founder of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty in al-Andalus (Spain) had red hair.)

Going against the pretty boy grain here: Ed Watson

Eartha Kitt has left us at the age of 81. Ironic she died on Christmas when you consider that "Santa Baby" is her best known song. I guess the old Hollywood saw that "death comes in threes" is true -- Eartha Kitt, Van Johnson and Bettie Page all died within weeks of each other. 2008 was also a bad year for former villains on Batman -- Van Johnson (The Minstrel) and Eartha Kitt (Catwoman) both died. (I would put Eartha Kitt in third in the all-time "great portrayals of Catwoman" rankings -- behind Julie Newmar (1st) and Michelle Pfeiffer (2nd) but ahead of Lee Merriwether (4th) and Halle Berry (5th).) She was certainly a courageous lady -- speaking out at a White House luncheon against the Vietnam War and social injustice and getting blacklisted by the Johnson administration for her trouble.

As FauxPas notes, The Best of Everything is clever in the way it uses fashion to denote the hierarchy among the female employees at Fabian Publishing. As the Hope Lange character Caroline rises in the company, her wardrobe becomes more sophisticated -- hats, pearls, etc. In fact, even if you watch the movie with the sound off and know nothing about the characters, counting the strands of pearls around the necks of the female employees will give you a great understanding of who's who in the company firmament.

Probably the model for what you're talking about dirac is someone like Olivia de Havilland who eased gracefully into retirement (unlike, say, her friend Bette Davis) without becoming a recluse like Garbo, Crawford or Dietrich. de Havilland recently accepted a National Medal of Arts at the White House and received a big standing ovation. So, it can be done! (Still don't know if she and her sister Joan Fontaine are speaking to each other again at ages 92 and 91, though!)

I think the point Johnson was trying to make about Garbo, Crawford and Dietrich was this: Once they made the decison to stop, they were ruthless about it. Crawford and Dietrich, in particular, became virtual recluses toward the end because they didn't want to undermine memories of how they looked at their peak with paparazzi photos of how they looked in old age. In that way, they preserved that sense of mystery which surrounds the very greatest of movie stars.

Reviving this old thread (which probably needs a new title) . . . Van Johnson has died at the age of 92. He was a huge box-office draw during the 40s but very few of his films are screened today. Probably the ones seen the most are the ones in which he wasn't top-billed -- Brigadoon (w/ Gene Kelly) and The Caine Mutiny (w/ Humphrey Bogart). His obituary was interesting (and surprisingly long.) He is quoted as saying (at age 80) that, "maybe Garbo and Crawford and Marlene [Dietrich]did it right by bowing out before they became relics." Also, the obituary is interesting for what it doesn't say about him as much as for what it does. Ah well, he was a gentleman of a certain era and I suppose I had best leave that alone.

Thanks for your insightful remarks leonid. In regard to your question of "I wonder why?", I think you answered your own question in the paragraph preceding the one containing your question. If the company programs more Balanchine or McGregor than Ashton on a regular basis, then the Ashton style (and the company's ability to accurately render it) fades away into oblivion. On a separate note, what would the order of appreciation be for the top men in the company?

Is there a consensus opinion in London as to how well Ansanelli is faring overall at the Royal?

Thinking out loud here . . . I don't mind commissioning new works IF they (a) reinforce the underlying technique, style and philosophy, and (b) don't "crowd out" the core repertory. Of the three new works (Susanne Linke's Extreme Beauty [2004], Lar Lubovitch's Recordare [2005] and Jonathan Reidel's The Ubiquitous Elephant [2005]) I've seen since I started going regularly to see Limon in 2004, none has accomplished (a) but all have contributed to (b). Since summer of 2004, I've seen four separate rep programs -- none of which has contained a Doris Humphrey piece. Doesn't the Limon company have a greater responsibility toward preserving the works Humphrey made for the company between 1946 and 1958 than it does in presenting news works which seem alien to the core ethos and are quickly abandoned? Limon's works are faring better in rep than Humphrey's are but I have to wonder why Carla Maxwell would start the season in New York with a bill consisting of a despairing Anna Sokolow piece (whose ethos was very different from Limon's) and a new work by former Limon dancer Clay Taliaferro (who is a gifted performer and teacher but is not know for his choreography.) Our old friend Oberon wrote a nice review of the all-Limon Program B on his blog in which he said the Limon pieces weren't museum pieces at all. But if you lead with the Sokolow/Taliaferro Program A, it's small wonder that a reviewer might wonder if the company is less-than-confident in the founder's work. And, if reviewers are only going to the first night, then the impression left may be similar to the one left with Claudia La Rocco. I don't know . . . I guess the old saying is true that you can chase after failure just as much as you can chase after success.

Thanks for replying sandik. I feel churlish regarding what I'm about to write but I wonder if Limon is almost being too ambitious with their goals. For a chamber-sized company that (a) isn't all that much bigger in 2008 than it was at the founding in 1946 and (b) is primarily a touring company which doesn't perform for long stretches at one theater in one city, I have to ask whether or not their attempts to be all-things-to-all-people just ends up blurring their identity. I don't know . . . but I do think the La Rocco review raises some thoughtful questions about how much a small(er) company can take on before the core identity starts to blur.

In today's New York Times, Claudia La Rocco reviews Program A (Anna Sokolow's Rooms and Clay Taliaferro's Into My Heart's House) from the Limon company's current stand at the Joyce. Her mixed-to-negative review gets at something I raised earlier in this thread -- why make Rooms the centerpiece of a season coinciding with what would have been Jose Limon's 100th birthday instead of presenting wall-to-wall Limon dances? She also raises the related question of whether or not the company knows what it wants to be 36 years after Limon's death. Based on the rep I've seen since 2004, here are the different trends fighting for prominence at Limon: 1) Preserving and presenting the works of Jose Limon 2) Preserving and presenting the works of Doris Humphrey 3) Preserving and presenting works from the Silver Age (?) of the classical modern dance -- Post-World War II to early 1960s (including works by Donald McKayle, Daniel Nagrin and Anna Sokolow) 4) Preserving and presenting works from the post-Judson Theater international contemporary dance repertory (including works by Jiri Kylian and Lar Lubovitch) 5) Commissioning new works (including works by Susanne Linke, Lar Lubovitch and Jonathan Reidel) It's hard to read this list and not come to the conclusion that a smaller company like Limon may be trying to move in too many directions at once. This is especially true when you consider that the new works have been mediocre-to-bad and have the added impact of "crowding out" Limon and Humphrey works from repertory bills. Any thoughts? (Is anyone still reading this thread? Am I just conversing with myself??)

Week Ten Ratings: Performances -- 1st -- 21.1 million viewers Results -- 2nd -- 20.6 million viewers

No -- unfortunately! The combination of a week-long head cold, Thanksgiving and life generally has defeated my best intentions in this regard. However, I'm leaning toward Purple Noon. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a pretty face!