papeetepatrick

Thanks, Martin, these are very beautiful photos indeed. Some of them a little bit like Arpege Chabert's work, who is not, strictly speaking, a ballet photographer, but has included some POB etoiles in a recent show here. I hadn't known about the Lithuanan Ballet, and am wondering if all three Baltic nations have flourishing companies. I see you are our newest member. Welcome.

THAT is perfect!

Thanks, carbro, I fixed it, I wonder if it was the injuries that made me think it was just one, but should have known anyway.

Thanks, Drew. I usually do too, that's why I was surprised on watching this video the other night. It's actually when they're dancing together that I was most stunned in the Tchai Pas de Deus though. I won't get this quite right in words, but they looked both separate and together, perfectly synchronized--there are moments (toward the end, I believe), that it is so perfect that it almost looks like animation, one image being the way she flies into him like a fish swimming or a bird flying, I can't get it right. Oh yes, Patty's Swanilda, there was nothing like it.

Thanks, Deborah! You love them as much as I do. And I'd seen the DVD before too, I don't know why it hit me this hard this time, but if there were ever any complaints of their partnership, I don't think it would be in this piece. i do recall seeing Baryshnikov at Juilliard sometimes during his year with NYCB, there is the big 3rd-floor space for SAB that NYCB uses, of course. How nice that you get to sit there with them, would naturally add to the experience.

I started watching one of the Choreography by Balanchine DVDs again the other night, and this time just stopped in my tracks by the 'Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux' done by Baryshnikov with Patty McBride. I had to keep watching it over and over. I couldn't believe how fabulous paired they were--at least for that piece (I think, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was just knocked out). They both have qualities of the 'airborne' about them. He's well-known for that, and in the many performances I saw her in, I never saw a ballerina who could be more so. There are just moments in this unlike anything I've ever seen. But I never, idiotically, went to see NYCB during that year Baryshnikov was dancing there, or rather, I did go, but not on one of the nights he and Patty were dancing. I think many thought this partnership was imperfect, and it may well have been, although it's hard to say, since a year might not be enough for it to really blossom and develop. Peter Martins talks about it some in 'Far from Denmark'. Would be interested to here remarks on their dancing that year, in other things as well as this, but including this. Sometimes she just seems to float across the floor, it is like a 'walking on water' sensation. I have to say it, there is surely no ballerina I adore more than Patricia McBride. I knew that I always did love her dancing, but watching this again I really did think 'yes, SHE really was made of the same air that Mischa was'. And I had seen this before, at Saratoga, on a balmy night when she did 'Le Baiser de la Fee'. I don't know, Mischa flies, but Patty never seems to touch the ground. I really can't find a single flaw in this performance, though.

Here are two by Martha Graham that others will recognize from the McDonagh book, which I find keen, both of them. She's clearly not afraid of godliness nor nakedness. The first one requires that I type up the whole text, so the context is understood. It was on her Asian tour in 1955 and 1956: "In general, the left-wing press was politely hostile, and at each press conference--in addition to the usually innocuous, "What is 'modern dancd'?" would manage to ask what might have been at least one embarrassing question. At one press conference, with her Company bright and shiny for the occasion, she was asked, "Why are there no dances in your Company in which the subject is universal brotherhood?" Graham paused for only a moment before making her grave reply: "There are no dances in my Company in which that is not the subject. I could not do a single step if I did not believe in brotherhood. But I am not a propagandist. I don't need to make dances that say [emphasis mine] they are about brotherhood. All of my dances are." There was something either Racine himself wrote or a Racine scholar wrote, and the above made me recall it, although I cannot quote it. It had to do with 'being about God' and/or 'what God needs', and that was not to necessarily be talking about God, but to be doing the work that would not exist without human intervention. That sounds like 'God couldn't do it', but it's more like 'God doesn't do those labours Himself', or that was part of the gist of it. The second one is quite startling as well: "Desire is a lovely thing, and that is where the dance comes from, from desire. And the thing that makes you turn, for a dancer, is the desire to turn, first, so that everything comes out in desire; and where does desire reside but between the legs, for most people". Wow. She left room for exceptions, I guess, and even the Desert Fathers seemed to be immersed in fighting those and all other desires off, but that means they weren't very far away, even in those extreme cases.

What I think could be interesting is an interactive sort of theater or dance piece in which the cellphones themselves are one of the main themes. Not that this could be done more than a few times, or even more than once, but we all know that cellphones not turned off are always in the audiences, and even if they don't go off, we are afraid they will. Although that sounds maybe a little more modern dance than ballet--the ballet cellphones would not be the hand-held types, of course, but an interesting piece could be made, slightly improv, although enough delinquent cellphones in the audience would have to be made sure of--wouldn't work if the audience had observed the usual rules.

Oh yeah, I forgot my favourite Truffaut film, 'Baisers Volees', one ot the Antoine Doinel films by Truffaut and Godard. Saw it again a few weeks ago, also with my favourite Delphine Seyrig, glorious as ever, and Claude Jade. Also, you get to get to hear Charles Trenet singing during the titles 'Que reste-t-il de nos amours, que reste-t-il de ces beaux jours...' this is usually called 'I Wish You Love' when sung in English, but sounds wonderful here. I'm sure this should remind people of other great Truffaut films, I'm also fond of 'The Last Metro'.

Yes, Mr. Hulot's Holiday is marvelous; it is like being there, and you just wait for the next 'event' which makes you chuckle contentedly. An English friend of mine and his wife and child stayed in the hotel in 2005, and had the usual halcyon perfect vacation, replete with much summer reading... They ate a dessert from the region called Far Pruneaux, sent me the recipe and I made it--delicieux.

I'm so old-fogey about this sort of thing. I think it sounds horrible for Othello and horrible for ballet too. Oh my god, that 'It's James!' says it all. I've had enough trouble with an internet stalker for several years--nevermind that I was only too happy when I found out recently that it was the only person I'd ever wanted to stalk me, so that maybe we do have a combination of Jane Austen, Sleeping Beauty, and p.c.'s, if not cellphones. So who am I to say, after all, that, if p.c.'s, why not cellphones?

Okay, sorry. Also, for the record, I don't find the rugby players all that 'uber-manly', if you must know. Sweaty, yes, but anybody can do that. I just meant that either uber-manly (anyone's choice, maybe some think Lord Byron) nor uber-womanly (maybe Garbo or Fonteyn) would neither one be terrible, because somebody's got to do it--that's where stars go. I don't think it necessarily means gentlemanly or ladylike either (although these could be), but I definitely don't think some crude professional sports macho jocks would qualify. And although I clearly may not take what they say as seriously as some, because I don't think they are very bright, I certainly don't find them paradigms of maleness--at least not these, God knows.

Oh yes, 'Baby Doll'. Did you know that Tennessee Williams's father, with whom he had an extremely troubled and difficult relationship, finally came through for his son, saying to him (I believe it was at the premiere of it, but not sure after this long time) 'It's a fine film'. I agree, it's very special, and I ought to see it again. But I am sure that that really was one of Williams's most prized memories. I can't for the life of me remember where I read it, though.

That's lovely, a poem really. I wrote a couple of English friends today and thanked them for giving us independence, even though we had to force them to do it! Called them 'turkeys' for giving up so easily, but they're two of my best buddies, so I'm quite sure did even celebrate as I beseeched them to do.

So you saw the original on Broadway, bart? Tell us more if so. I never have seen Tammy Grimes, and would love to have. I bet better than the movie, which is okay, but not great, as I recall. I can't say I'm a big Meredith Wilson fan, but it's pretty good hokey stuff, I guess. I even get bored with 'the Music Mar', even though I know it's a good show. Good lord, I'm getting dizzy, I am mixing up obit links. I'll go back and put the right one on the first post, since it won't matter if it's reposted, but they'll get it mixed up if i don't fix it. Thanks.

Not everybody will know this name, but we musical comedy fans do, especially for the 'Unsinkable Molly Brown', both the stage and the film version with Debbie Reynolds. Wonderful voice, and I think dirac is also familiar with his beautiful singing on the old early 70s recording of Harold Rome's 'Gone With the Wind' show that played London but never came to Broadway. There's a lovely song called 'How Often', that Scarlett and Rhett sing. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/theater/...?ref=obituaries

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/movies/0...?ref=obituaries I remember his in a lot of things, but mainly as Herbie in 'Gypsy'. Others will point out his more famous roles.

Another couple of days of deaths in entertainment and dance (Pina Bausch already posted). I'll follow up Cristian on this. I was a baby when "My Little Margie' was on, but I never missed it. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/arts/tel...?ref=obituaries

Okay.

I was making clear who said 'consider the source'. Is that what you are talking about? That's why I put the quotes down and played with it, just like one of the commenters had played with the quotes. That is legitimate, I'm fairly sure. Maybe you weren't referring to what I said, but I wasn't talking about 'boxers', et alia, 'who aren't sissies' (I'm certain some of them are.). Just wanted to make that clear, although the other part of the partial quote of my own ought to by itself. What's a 'despective glance'? Anyway, this isn't really the kind of board where someone else's quotes ought to be taken out of context and attributed to someone slse, unless subsequent commenters can do it as well. If there is some perception i was trying to make it 'not too politically incorrect', that is not the case. I don't care if it was politically incorrect. You can also just say 'consider the sourec', that's cool...ho ho ho...

Yes, indeed, diane. In this particular instance, as sejacko says earlier in the thread, one must consider the source. Just for the record, I had nothing against 'uber-manly' in and of itself, prior to its violent impingement on the ballet consciousness, nor do I intend doing so in the foreseeable future. Otherwise, we are just going to have to start using 'uber-womanly', and it's unlikely that that will be tolerated exclusively.

Same here, becuse they were NOT there, they were long-gone even by the early 70s. i really have no idea myself why MTV was working this angle.

Great work, Cristian! And I think that's a good question too. It totally surprises me, and must have been one of the usual demographic things that are used to target audiences, but still, it's pretty self-evident that it was still not representative of the fact that black artists by 1981 already had huge audiences. Why they thought their 'format was white rock' I couldn't answer. Because with an outfit like MTV, it has to be commercial concerns at work, not garden variety racism of the old sort. Obviously it took them a while, although not that long, to realize that they'd been shortsighted, but if it was even a little over year, they thought their formula was working to achieve its goal of capturing a big audience. Would possibly have to do with early matters of making music videos, which may have had different audiences than I have any idea about. Because we know that there were enormous numbers of white fans for Diana Ross, Donna Summer, and others you've named in a list that could easiy be continued. And definitely Tina Turner, that beautiful dame, I still absolutely crazy about her FOREVER, from 'Acid Queen' and then 'What's Love Got to Do With It' and 'Private Dancer', she was IT. sorry to be so yet AGAIN...

I don't buy that at all. Did someone say that or is this just an interpretation of a different set of words that someone else said? Frankly, I doubt this rugby coach, and certainly most his players, would agree to "femininity = inferior". I, on the other side, think that yes, the prevalent feeling regarding toughness, speed, power, strength and the like is commonly identified, CONSCIOUSLY AND/OR UNCOUNSCIOUSLY, with the male gender as matters of its supremacy/superiority. Not that everyone agrees with that, IMO... Ashley Montague, way back in the 60s, wrote a book called 'The Natural Superiority of Women'. He said even physically, in every way but MUSCULARLY, that women were stronger than men. But men ARE muscularly stronger. I don't necessarily agree with any of this except that distinguishing muscular strength, which does have its own kind of power, is not the same as many other kinds of physical strength. The rest is probably caca, but I thought that was pretty good. And it doesn't even mean that women cannot use their OWN muscles as effectively as men do, with ballet being the perfect proof, among many other things. It DOES, however, mean, that at this stage of evolution, that men are by far the more important football players...and RUGBY players..and BOXERS. It is not really a feminist issue at all.

Right. Ballet is perceived as unmanly not because it is seen as non-athletic or easy but because it is commonly identified with women, the inferior sex. It is something girls do. The qualities of ballet in the popular mind (in the US, anyway) – grace, beauty, delicacy, – are traditionally associated with femininity. Yes, it's exactly that sort of mentality, pure ignorance and redneckery, it's just that it doesn't mean anything at all if you consider the source, which is light-years away from ballet and doesn't care a fig for it. Probably has no effect beyond this thread. I'm surprised they even knew what it was. But those people don't have any real effect on ballet, which does have real problems continuing to propagate itself; I just don't think that the problem is with the omnipresent rednecks, unless perhaps it is some budding dancer who gets thwarted by them, as in the sticks, a boy who might become a dancer if trained early might as well forget it. This article is just another document of the same old backwoods mentality, what Marx (not one of my heroes, God knows) might refer to as 'the idiocy of rural life'. Oh well, yes, at first I 'threw like a girl', so I had to fix that, but my sister was told by our father that she 'threw like a boy', and she didn't like that either, because she was a beauty queen.