On Pointe

What's amazing is how much it resembles the Black American "Hambone". Here's an example:

What's amazing is how much this authentic Roma dancing resembles Black American "Hambone". Here's an examp!e: v=PLmySQ5CuY0

What people will cringe over in the future is a popular subject in creative circles, but I don't think we'll have to wait a hundred years. I love the musical Hadestown, but much of its music definitely falls under the "quasi-ethnography" umbrella, as does Once on This Island, a show I actively dislike. The same with The Little Mermaid, with Calypso songs like Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl. These are not mediocre songs. In fact they're brilliant. But I was surprised by how ambivalent they now make me feel, because I know that their composers come from privileged white backgrounds far removed from the worlds they seek to portray. Then I remember the minority actors who get a good payday performing this "inauthentic" material, which isn't demeaning on its face. Imagine a Black actor today singing When I See an Elephant Fly from Dumbo. A great song, but oh my God!

Was it the company that changed Tzigane to Errante, or was it the Balanchine Trust? There must have been some discussion In all the years that I watched this ballet I never connected the title to anything negative. Of course that doesn't mean that others didn't find it offensive. A few years back, Actors Equity changed the name of the iconic robe that is passed from show to show on opening nights for good luck. "Gypsy Robe" actually referred to ensemble dancers who have the good fortune to go from show to show, and had nothing to do with the Roma people, and I was unaware of any complaints, so maybe there was a bit of overreach on the part of someone. We were never given the option to put it to a vote, which was not how Equity operated. ( I was a long time Councillor for Equity and we deliberated long and hard on far more trivial matters. ) I believe that at least one current NYCB dancer is actually of Roma descent, so perhaps the change began there.

Lorraine Graves, dancer and rehearsal director for Dance Theater of Harlem, has passed away. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/arts/music/lorraine-graves-pioneering-harlem-ballerina-dies-at-66.html?ugrp=u&unlocked_article_code=1.hE0.6KS1.QmKwWe9Kr2TL&smid=url-share

The NYCBallet opened with a dinner and a six o'clock performance tonight at the Harris Theater. The Harris is a unique venue with only the box office lobby at ground level. From the outside it looks like there's no there there, but the large theater is underground - you walk down to the second balcony. The early curtain worked out well for me, although I felt a little shortchanged. The program, with pauses but no intermissions, ended at about 7:40. My Lower Balcony ticket was $155.00 before tax. The opening ballet was Serenade, with Sara Mearns, Emily Gerrity, Indiana Woodward and Taylor Stanley. It has been years since I've seen it live and I found it thrilling, especially the Waltz. The orchestra sounded fantastic. The quality of the string playing was at a very high level, far better than in years past. Next came Christopher Wheeldon's Liturgy. While it was beautifully danced by Unity Phelan and Chun Wai Chan, I didn't find it particularly engaging, and the lighting was so dark it was hard to just see it. The last piece was Justin Peck's Partita. I'm not the target audience for a sneaker ballet, even one as well danced as this one. I was impressed with Indiana Woodward's ability to knock off double outward pirouettes in attitude in those clunky white shoes, and India Bradley and Alexa Maxwell also stood out. But the old dance captain in me was preoccupied with what a nightmare it must be to teach and maintain this piece. I was thrilled to see the company again here in Chicago. I'm sure it could play here for a much longer run, even with just one ballet, like Jewels or Midsummer Night's Dream. The audience reception was rapturous.

I became a fan of Shakirova through YouTube videos. Besides her outstanding musicality, precise placement and technique, she expresses such joy in her dancing. I hope we get to see her live in the near future, although given the current political situation that seems unlikely to happen.

I have to confess, I'd kind of want to hate watch that! There are now plenty of dancers of color (not my favorite term) on NYCB's roster. No need to bring in outside talent to virtue signal. They just need to develop the dancers they have.

I'm genuinely curious - what is it about this article that you like? Because if I'm being honest, as a Black American, the optics are terrible.

Unlike the Great Men of the past, Leonard Bernstein left behind a wealth of recorded material as a conductor and a television performer. Future generations won't have to wonder what he was really like (publicly). In last year's film Tar, where Cate Blanchett portrayed a sort of venomous female version of Bernstein, one of the few moments that depict her as vulnerable and human was when she returned to her childhood home and caressed her collection of videos of LB. Bradley Cooper did a great job in my opinion, but his performance isn't going to supersede the actual image of Bernstein.

Roger Ebert often said that it was the obligation of the critic to review the film that the writer and director made, not the one the critic wished they had made. Of course viewers whose opinions aren't going to appear in print or on a website have no such restriction, but I've read so many opinions on Maestro written by specialists who can't accept that, like it or not, Bradley Cooper told the story he wanted to tell. Before this film, I'd never heard of Tom Cothran, and now that I have heard of him, I wouldn't necessarily have been interested in his relationship with Bernstein any more than what we see in the film. Maestro is about Lenny and Felicia. I am left wondering why the Bernsteins married each other in the first place. Lots of women find out their husbands are gay years after the wedding, but Felicia knew that from the jump. The Fancy Free/On the Town sequence indicates that they found each other dazzling and irresistible. At first. Maybe that was enough at the time.

I can't take credit for it. The lack of recognition for a three time Tony winner from the NYTimes was a hot topic of discussion on Broadway boards, especially because there were three articles on the great Chita Rivera. The two had careers that followed the same trajectory - the Jones-Haywood ballet school, SAB, unexpected big break on Broadway.

Hinton had had some years of ill health prior to his passing. Hinton was a Broadway star, the recipient of three Tony Awards. He also appeared on television on occasion. But I will always remember him as a dazzling ballet dancer, with impeccable technique, extraordinary musicality and ease of movement. I am not exaggerating when I say that he could have held his own with any of the great male stars of the recent past. But as a darkskinned, unambiguously Black American, Hinton was born too soon. We'd already had Arthur Mitchell, and then as well as now to some extent, there was only room for one at the top at a time. Hinton was an Army Brat, born in Germany, but growing up in DC. Like Chita Rivera, he was trained at the Jones-Haywood school and received a scholarship to SAB. (Not many ballet schools can boast of alumni like that.). I first met him when I was in a pre-Broadway run of a show with his sister. He was around fifteen, goofing around in his street clothes, and tossing off turns, leaps and sky high extensions that left me open-mouthed in wonder. Who was this kid! I later did two shows with Hinton, and "this kid" was such a gentleman, unfailingly polite and considerate, an absolute pleasure to work with and be around. I can't claim to have been a close friend of his, but I'd like to recognize someone who was - Leah Bass, who cared for Hinton through years of illness, including the cruel loss of both legs to diabetes. Leah is what we call "a real one". Apparently the New York Times has not published an obituary for Hinton, which is an outrage. Hopefully they will do so in the near future.

Interesting interview with the Bernstein children, mainly because of what they don't say. They present an image of idyllic family life, with parents who "adored each other", and never fought in front of them, although they did " sense some tension" at times. No mention of LB leaving their mother to live with a male lover, which had to have been painful for them.

No need to apologize. Dancers in the big ballet companies are paid decently, enough money to live in the cities where their companies are located. They supplement their incomes with side gigs dancing with smaller companies as guest artists, or modeling. Increasingly dancers are getting endorsement deals, which can be quite lucrative, and running their own businesses. Many dancers come from wealthy families and aren't solely dependent on what they earn dancing. Conversely, there are some notable dancers who come from low income backgrounds who probably are the highest earners in their families. At any rate, professional ballet dancers make a lot more money consistently than actors or writers.

As a member of SAG, I can assure you that members nationwide had to scramble to make ends meet during the long strike, as well as members of other professional unions that don't get paid if actors aren't working. The general public has no idea how little most actors, writers and yes, athletes, make. (Just a pet peeve of mine, but I hate it when dancers are referred to as "athletes".) You hear about big stars making millions per film, but not much about Oscar winners like Hilary Swank who didn't make enough one year to maintain her union prescription drug coverage. A Go Fund Me for " rich" performers is a non-starter. Many New Yorkers make a lot less than ABT dancers.

A bit of disambiguation - I post as On Pointe, and have done so for a number of years, but I have no connection to that website and/or publication. I read the Tiler Peck interview a few days ago when it first appeared, and I had concerns about it then, but I hesitated to bring them up here because I thought maybe it was just me. I'm glad to see that it wasn't.

I've been impressed by Tiler Peck's choreography and I'm eager to see what she can do with a large cast. But I didn't think it was necessary to include a discussion of her leading dancers' perceived shortcomings. They are professionals, not students, and presumably they got where they are in the company because of what they can do, not what they need to work on. It puts the dancers in an uncomfortable position before the audience even sees the piece.

Mitt Romney has no Latino heritage. His parents spoke English, and they kept their American citizenship, which came in handy when their colony was run out of Mexico. It would be phony for him to celebrate his non-existent Latin ethnicity. Penelope Cruz is Hispanic but not Latina. She's completely European. The first Mexican woman to win an Oscar is Lupita N'yongo, born in Mexico and Spanish speaking, but with Black African parents, she would never be cast as a Latina. (Even though there are millions of Black Latinos.). And of course race as a concept varies from country to country. Many people who consider themselves white in Latino countries are not white in an American context. But no need to get all tangled up in semantics. The fact is that most American ballet companies have a healthy cohort of Latino and Brazilian dancers. Not NYCB. And there's no clear explanation why.

NYCB has had a number of Asian dancers, for example Edwaard Liang, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Gen Horiuchi, who was a principal. It has also had a few dancers who are half Asian, like Allen Peiffer. But South Korea, China and Japan are now producing such wonderful classical dancers it's unusual to see a company roster without multiple Asians. NYCB has also had very few Latinas compared to most American companies. I can only think of Lourdes Lopez and Monique Meunier.

What did I miss - how was Felicia arrogant and dishonest? She came across to me as a bit brittle, with her sleek updos and mid-Atlantic accent. But that was an accurate depiction of Felicia Montealegre and typical of wealthy white women in Manhattan at the time. (I was around a lot of them in the 70s and 80s.). What was atypical was her devotion to left wing causes, which wasn't touched upon in the film. But there was no way that Bradley Cooper could include every aspect of the Bernsteins' life and marriage in a two hour film. I must have been under a rock because I don't recall anything about Bernstein coming out at that time. I didn't know that he moved to LA with a male lover, none of it. I am perplexed by the heated discussion of whether he was gay or bisexual. Apparently he cheated on Felicia with women as well as men, and he had three children. Seems like a bisexual to me.

Bradley Cooper's Maestro is a portrait of the complicated marriage of Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre. It's playing now in theaters and on Netflix and I highly recommend it as a character study and for its great acting performances from Cooper as Bernstein and Carey Mulligan as Felicia. But anyone looking for a deep dive into Bernstein's creative process will be disappointed. There is an excerpt from Fancy Free, staged by Justin Peck, assisted by Craig Salstein, and danced by NYCB's Sebastian Villarini-Velez, Harrison Coll, and freelance dancers, including Jeannette Delgado. The ballet materializes in an empty theater, then expands to a fantasy that includes Lenny and Felicia in the ensemble. That's the only dance in the film. Bernstein's great success West Side Story is barely mentioned. But I did enjoy Michael Urie as Jerome Robbins, or "Jerry" as they call him. He only has a couple of lines, but Urie brilliantly conveys Robbins' prickly personality and kinetic energy. I had to dig through the IMdB listing to find Peck's credit. Choreographers used to get more respect in Hollywood. I beieve Balanchine introduced the term when he worked in the movies. Before him they were called dance directors.

I found the other podcast, but while IB talks about her early training and her mother's influence, like the other interviews, the mother's name is not mentioned.

Thank you for the information. I was starting to think it was a state secret!

Wendy Whelan seems to be the balletic equivalent of Kamala Harris - a vice president who is a heartbeat away from being the actual power figure in the organization, but not an actual equal partner. Her remarks about India Bradley would likely be a lot more problematic if they came from Jonathan Stafford. It's a minor quibble, but I've read a number of articles about Bradley, including the new one on the NYCB website, and while they all mention that her mother danced with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, they never mention her name. Does anyone know the name of Bradley's mother? I've followed the Ailey company for many years and I'd like to know.