Amy Reusch

Tudor considered a career in the Church before he decided he belonged in the theater instead.

I didn't realize Clear Channel was the producer of Movin' Out: (from NY Times artcle):Having Reshaped Broadway, Disney Readies a Second Act I wonder how that plays into this.

I have some non too reliable memories from going to the Edison museum in NJ a few times in my childhood... I remember something about him being home schooled... I believe there was something about his teacher telling his mother he couldn't learn ('too stupid to learn' comes to mind) and his mother refusing to accept that and taking his education into her own hands... I also remember a story about his deafness that when he was working on the railroad... or as a child... or some such thing... that he was running for a train and the conductor picked him up by his ears... and his deafness resulted... Now, admittedly, I heard this as a child, and children can often not quite get right all the details of a story... but I'm sure I was told it... I can almost picture the old lady tour guide (who had worked for him) telling the story.... and I certainly thought about it a lot as a child. There was also something about his liking to take catnaps... and having a cot in his study and ?lab? for that purpose... that he preferred to take short catnaps and work rather than sleep all night... Now my father who was an engineer in NJ had heard from older colleagues that he was a narcoleptic... and that while it might have seemed inspiring that he would work without normal sleep that it was no picnic to work for him because he expected all his key engineers to be awake and working when he was. So I think there may have be something to the theory he was autistic.

So is the Wang saying not so much "we can't afford to give December to Boston Ballet" but rather "we can't afford to give December to Boston Ballet if Clearchannel is presenting The Rockettes" across the way? Any theories yet on how much audience The Rockettes would cost Boston Ballet if Clear Channel were presenting them [the Rockettes]? I've lost track, how much does the Wang get from Boston Ballet for the Nutcracker? Is it a portion of the house or a flat playment?

I think he's overpaid too, but in all fairness, dancers and musicians aren't expected to go out and bring in millions of dollars personally.

Paul, I don't know if it's still the case, but not long ago the Foundation's policy was to make the tapes available "at cost" to any library with a non-circulating collection that wanted them. Frankly, I think every college with a dance department ought to have them in their reference section!

I'm afraid I didn't get the Boston Ballet in-house box office advice until too late... I'd gone to the library and used their high speed modems to crawl through telecharge's multiple screens and charge my card up a small fortune for tickets. Do you think the in-house had any different tickets to offer than what Telecharge had? I gave up trying for a particular night and tried for any kind of good visibility seat prior to 12/24. Found one in row B the Mezzanine finally... unfortunately off to the side, but I figure the closer, the better. Really, the show is very very well sold if the Telecharge site is any indication. I'm going on a Thursday, I hope the cast is enthusiastic. By the way, I do find the seating chart confusing... I went and looked at the Wang's own site and took the 360 degree tour of the theater to figure it out... but... the Mezzanine seems to be the first 4 rows of what I would consider the first balcony, right? And the Dress Circle boxes, although below the balcony are further back than it? So if one tries for the 1st row of the balcony (forget it, not available on Telecharge), one is already sitting behind the rows of the Mezzanine, right? And regarding Ballet Bug's location, you are probably right considering the author is listed on the flap as living in Brookline. The illustrator thanked a dance studio in Eastchester, NY (not too far from New Rochelle, I understand how I got mixed up). I hope the "boy" polichinelles still do cartwheels and catch the girls! They went over this bit in great detail in the book.

Can they see the stage from there????? Were there special negotiations with AFofM to allow this?? Amazing! Interesting! I want to know how often it was taken! I suspect music students might find it interesting... Hey, can we move this to the Arts Administration forum?

Wow... using telecharge's website, it's really hard to get decent seats... do you think scalpers are at work?

I was scanning Nancy Reynold's & Malcolm McCormick's "No Fixed Points" when on page 286 I came across the line I didn't realize she was forced out... I thought she had decided to retire. I didn't realize it was a hostile transfer of power. Was a particular board member pushing for it or was it Baryshnikov's own personal ambition?

I thought in this country, we'd been outsources jobs in ballet from the very beginning? Oh... okay... "outsourcing" isn't the same thing as bringing in foreign labor...

Thank you so very much, that was all very very helpful! I forgot to ask one question... curiosity only, really, ... Is the Boston Ballet's tree 3 dimensional or flat? I've been wishing I could find for her a 3D tree, but have had no luck so far. The flat ones aren't terribly impressive when they grow, in my experience... the 3D ones, on the other hand, are really quite magical. I thought the Ballet Bug people studied dancers in New Rochelle, NY... but it's been a while since I read the credits... maybe that was just where some consultants were located... can't get at the book now without waking her... had to read it again tonight, but it nearly lost out to Pippi Longstocking... that girl in Graduation Ball always reminded me of Pippi!

Do you have a link for that article? I seem to have missed it.

I believe I want to take my 5 year old daughter to Boston Ballet's Nut, but I'm not famliar with the production, the company or the Wang. I'm taking her to Boston rather than to the local one in Hartford because Kirk Peterson's Nutcracker, although very beautiful, is not a traditional production, and she's been having me read her this children's novel "The Ballet Bug" over and over again, which is about a girl getting a part as a Polichinelle, so I'd like her to see a traditional Mother Ginger. I suppose I should take her to NYC to see Balanchine's because it matches the story, but it's so far away, (2.5+ hour drive) and not reasonably feasible as a day trip for a child just to see a show (too much sitting, I think)... it might really be the best option, but I'm hoping Boston Ballet's would fit the bill, particularly as this might be the last chance to see the current production. Is there a Mother Ginger? Does she have polichinelles or gingerbread children? There weren't many Nut photos up at Boston Ballet's site, but it looks like there are gingerbread children at some point, and I assume it's during Mother Ginger? Here in Hartford, it's one of the best parts of the ballet, but they're all bees & flowers, with a giant spider flying in from above (I kid you not). Is the Wang such a cave that it's inadvisable to take balcony seats? I see the Wang & Boston Ballet have very strict rules about children in the theater (the "no lap sitting" rule surprised me, even though I'm one of those who dreads children in the audience, I don't agree with this one). Does the Wang have booster seats available for children? The Bushnell her in Hartford has those molded plastic seats most restaurants use stacked up next to the doors. And finally the trick question: how does Boston Ballet tend to perform? Is Sunday Mat usually better than Saturday Mat? How about that 5:30 Sunday performance? How is the energy during the middle of the run... is there a better time of the month to see the show? I realize it's Nut and there are a myriad of different castings, but given that, is there a recommendation? Curiously, my daughter doesn't seem to want to dance herself, but she keeps up this peripheral flirtation with the art form... choreographing "step patterns", picking out ballet themes at the library... I think she's afraid because me she might have to dance and doesn't want to but is still curious about the subject and why it shoud fascinate some people so. Because I love dance so much, and I know she's ambivalent toward it, I'm willing to go to some lengths to get a good ticket. It's not that I want her to become a dancer, I just want her to "get" it. ~ Amy

No, I haven't read all 743 pages yet, nor studied the additional 150 pages of footnotes/index/etc. after that... (and I'm afraid it will be months of prying rare spare minutes free to do that)... but paging through it, the photos are wonderful... and some of you might be as delighted as I to find it new at Amazon for $35 rather than $50. You might expect it to be mostly about ballet as Nancy Reynolds is Director of Research for the Balanchine Foundation and has written several other ballet books including the coveted "Repertory in Review", which, unfortunately, can't be had for $35... but the title is derived from Cunningham quoting Einstein, and there are some wonderful photos from modern dance and pre-modern dance and post-modern dance... I love the Ruth St. Denis photo on page 22 [Greek Veil Plastique, 1920]... it really captures the St. Denis mystique and helps me understand how her rather simple choreography might have come to life on stage. My book tends to fall open on a Humphrey/Weidman photo "Wages of Sin" from Flickers... a view of Humphrey that we don't usually see depicted in the survey of dance history books... fascinating...

Yes, NJB and it's school still exist, but not their studio in Morristown where I grew up... nor the one in West Orange where I also studied....which is unfortunate because both had nice large studios with a well sprung floors.... however perhaps their new studios in Livingston, Morris Plains and Somerville are even nicer... I don't know... I don't think I've been there since the '70s. Come to think of it, back then Garden State Ballet had a competing studio on the other side of the town square... It was a pretty large town in that part of NJ, and property values in the surrounding areas skyrocketed with the advent of corporate parks... I don't know whether Morristown benefited or not, but the surrounding area should be able to provide lots of wealthy patrons... although NJ always suffered from it's proximity to NYC (why go to a local performance when one could see the best in the world just 45 minutes away?)(also most of the best students quickly went on scholarship in NY as soon as they were able) It's great for busing in talented techers, but difficult in other ways...

How does she run a company in DC from Morristown? I still think I got some of my best training there at NJB from various retired Joffrey & ABT (etc.) solists and corps, ... Joseph Carow, Charthel Arther, Alaine Haubert, Ali Poukfarouhk, Basil Thompson, George Tomal, Caroline Clark, Evee Lynn all did stints there.... but I don't think the studio even exists any more. And God only knows how different the town now is...

No, Alexandra, I was thinking of ABT's artistic director's Joffrey background... and wishing it had enlightened his choice of rep for "family" concerts. If I remember, Agnes de Mille had a fantastic lecture she did with the Joffrey dancers & slides, etc... sort of a ballet appreciation concert... I wish such things were being done for children now.

For some reason, I had been under the impression that the theater was being built by the City... and was worried it was going to be run like the Arie Crowne... Or was that the earlier plan that was scrapped? It is on the pier, isn't it? It must be a union house, no? That will put it out of range of most of Chicago's dance companies, I would think... with the exception of those companies that have already been managing the Chicago Theater's costs... What is that, Hubbard Street, the occasional Ballet Chicago run... Does River North play Chicago Theater? How about Muntu? Is Giordano still a player, or is it still hampered by Giordano's less than inspired daughter?

from Chicago Tribune's article Not the Same Old Song and Dance Any Ballet Alert people go? I've always hated steep rakes when it's meant that everyone but the front row looks down on the stage... corps patterns best visible from the balcony not withstanding, I've usually found looking down on dancers saps the energy out of the performance. How is the new house? Is the stage raised enough that most of the orchestra doesn't look down on the dancers? I was always shocked that sitting in the front row of the Athenaeaum Theater's balcony [where the major Chicago dance festival "Dance Chicago" is presented], offers a lousy view, with sightlines blocked by the balcony railing.

Sounds like the "run away and join the circus" idea had a predecessor.... (meaning modern not Roman circuses, of course). Thanks so much for the Hans Christian Anderson story too... Has anyone choreographed a credible "The Little Mermaid"? (I don't really think the one in the film on HCA counts... even if it had some major players in it)... that ballet wasn't performed outside the film, was it?

Makes you wonder about the etymology of the Broadway jargon calling dancers "gypsies", doesn't it?

I know it's EEB, but I think it's more fun to think of him as iB ...... sometimes we have to go to great lengths to retain a sense of humor

Pamela, I would love to hear your theories! Unfortunately, I apparently am "not allowed" to e-mail you via the button on this page. You could try e-mailing me here, or at my own address: eye4dance@aol.com. Alexandra, Could you explain this? I know fairs are different nowadays, but that doesn't help me picture the above without a lot of artistic license. Folk dances? Or would they pull stunts like break dancers used to on the streets of NYC? Or were there actual 'sponsored' dance competitions (like there are pie eating competitions nowadays, or nail hammering competitions, or three-legged races, beauty pagents, etc.)?

I don't know if it plays into this or not, but in the 1940s, college girls went out for something called a "coke date"... where they'd meet a boy "for a coke"... I'm not sure they actually ordered a coke, but the idea was that it was such a light involvement, as opposed to accepting an invitation to dinner, that it was a preferred way of checking someone out before accepting a more "serious" date. Have I missed something in my quick scan of this thread, or am I the only one who finds ABT's idea of what is appropriate for a "family" matinee truly bizarre? Fancy Free? Three Virgins and a Devil? Pillar of Fire? What ever happened to The Concert? Mel, what was that thing that the Joffrey used to do that ended with a Cakewalk? (or was that it's title, Cakewalk?)