Nanatchka

I like the more specialized shout-outs, like" Brava La Prima." On rare occasion, I've been known to yell it. (Note:I grew up hearing my father yell it, so it feels nostalgic and appropriate to me.)There are two choreographers whom I greet with "Bravo" when they walk on stage for bows. For one of them, I rise to my feet at the same time. I don't give a xxx's xxs what anyone around me thinks about it. But my enthusiasm is nothing compared to Mark Morris's--he really whoops it up when he likes something, as does his company member Guillermo (Didi) Resto. It's very pleasant. However, my all time favorite is a dancer and later choreographer named Keith Young. (You may remember him from Twyla Tharp--he danced the first duet in Sinatra--Strangers in the Night, swooping onstage carrying Shelly Washington over his head--too fabulous, but I digress.) Keith used to give utterance to amazing wolf howls at curtain, perhaps because his then wife was in the company taking the bow. It was a kind of mating call. Clapping is always good, though. If you do it right, you can kind of exercise your upper arms. (Hey Manhattnik, instead of leaving for drinks, how about isometrics in our seats???!) How about a thread on booing and hissing???? So many dances, so little time....

Today is the great chreographer's 83rd birthday. This summer will begin a year of celebration of his company's 50th anniversary.

"You need technique to free your spirit." Martha Graham

"You need technique to free your spirit." Martha Graham

Or so what'll it be, a blind date or a long term relationship? Even when, as Arlene Croce said of late career Patty McBride, the ballerina is powered "by desire," that's the performance I want to see. As for the gentlemen, I'd rather, to continue on in the same vein, date Sean Connery than Brad Pitt. I admit it's possible that a mother of teenagers might be especially immune to the charms of youth, but we all have our prejudices.

Or so what'll it be, a blind date or a long term relationship? Even when, as Arlene Croce said of late career Patty McBride, the ballerina is powered "by desire," that's the performance I want to see. As for the gentlemen, I'd rather, to continue on in the same vein, date Sean Connery than Brad Pitt. I admit it's possible that a mother of teenagers might be especially immune to the charms of youth, but we all have our prejudices.

I happen to adore the Goldbergs, I listen to them very very often (Glenn Gould, early and late, and a fabulous Wanda Landowska harpsichord version, my current passion).I cannot understand how the ballet manages to make them seem so tedious. Next time you go, close your eyes and listen to the music. The whole experience improves.

It isn't off topic if Myrthe is the Dairy Queen....

It isn't off topic if Myrthe is the Dairy Queen....

They will wear jester suits, if they are jesters. Nothing else will do. But for the others,why not have the men wear feather pants? Or even the women? Why not have Myrtha dresssed as a giant iguana? In other words, let's just borrow the costumes from other productions, not neccessarily of Giselle. That would be soooooo obvious of us. Mouse Willis, anyone? We can also borrow from the plots, while we are at it. Just think: The Nutcracker Giselle. Les Giselleurs (that's with snow scenes and "skating). Romeo and Giselle. And my personal favorite, Willi Lake.

They will wear jester suits, if they are jesters. Nothing else will do. But for the others,why not have the men wear feather pants? Or even the women? Why not have Myrtha dresssed as a giant iguana? In other words, let's just borrow the costumes from other productions, not neccessarily of Giselle. That would be soooooo obvious of us. Mouse Willis, anyone? We can also borrow from the plots, while we are at it. Just think: The Nutcracker Giselle. Les Giselleurs (that's with snow scenes and "skating). Romeo and Giselle. And my personal favorite, Willi Lake.

But Alexandra, Manhattnik: you left out the primo additional element(s) to complete your hellish scenario(s). I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me before. I can summon it up in a sentence, but first a warning to Cargill to put down her cup of tea: Enter Albrecht, accompanied by JESTER(S).

But Alexandra, Manhattnik: you left out the primo additional element(s) to complete your hellish scenario(s). I don't know why it hasn't occurred to me before. I can summon it up in a sentence, but first a warning to Cargill to put down her cup of tea: Enter Albrecht, accompanied by JESTER(S).

I now just loathe Romeo and Juliet. I think the monk/priest and nurse/nanny are deplorable busybodies.How dare they encourage those children to sneak around like that? In a climate where kids are out swordfighting and fraternizing with hookers , it would behoove the clergy and the household staff to be more responsible. It those kids would just have listened to their parents....

Choosing between Cunningham and Taylor is like choosing between Cezanne and Manet. One doesn't have to, does one?

Choosing between Cunningham and Taylor is like choosing between Cezanne and Manet. One doesn't have to, does one?

We can dream can't we?

The scene in Balanchine's Midsummer when Titania offers the ferns (or hay, or whatever that stuff is) to Bottom.That always gets me. Still on the Shakespeare front, I must say R&J (anyone's, except the movie Shakespeare in Love) does not. I am always very busy being vexed by that busybody nurse and interfering monk (or whatever he is), and thinking that if those annoying teenagers had only paid attention to their parents things would have turned out fine. That notion makes me weep, actually, but in a different way.

The scene in Balanchine's Midsummer when Titania offers the ferns (or hay, or whatever that stuff is) to Bottom. I also get kind of tear-stunned at Merce Cunningham a lot, but that's not ballet or opera....Paul Taylor, too.

Alexandra, that isn't winning the lottery, that is ruling the earth. I can hardly wait! If I win, I am going to build a time travel machine, so I won't have to worry about revivals at all.... [ February 16, 2002: Message edited by: Nanatchka ]

Yes, Leon Weiseltier edits the back of the book. He has always had a lively interest in dance, and once wrote a libretto for a ballet called Mr. Worldly Wise (for the Royal Ballet, choreographed by Twyla Tharp. He is in that vanishing tradition of Lionel Trilling-style intellectuals, and I hope no matter who owns the New Republic, he will continue to write and edit there.