On Pointe

Also Myrna Kamara, who went on to have a big career in Europe. I saw her perform many times. While I never saw her with NYCB, long ago Mary Hinkson from the Martha Graham Company was a guest artist, dancing a pas de deux with Arthur Mitchell.

I did not find the ABT class especially interesting, which is fine. Company class isn't a performance. That said, considering that this was for World Ballet Day, seen around the world and some viewers first glimpse of the company, the apparent lack of preparation was surprising. Susan Jaffe appeared to be making it up as they went along, which is a common practice, but her barre and center exercises were a bit disconnected and even dull. Her teaching outfit however was not. It was, as they say, definitely a look. I've never before seen anyone teach class in clogs. Jaffe seemed to give the men a lot more personal attention than the women. Whole groups were ignored while she gave detailed corrections to one dancer at a time. But maybe that was just this class. Lots of diversity of size and body type in the current company. All in all, they looked quite good, although they didn't put much effort into accurately performing the combinations as given.

It drives me nuts when dancers smile throughout an entire solo, with no artistic context. Dance Theatre of Harlem's dancers used to grin so broadly and so constantly that they sometimes looked positively demented. (One thing I love about Sara Mearns' performing is how seldom she smiles.). At the other extreme, I notice that the ballerinas of the Maryinsky Ballet hardly smile at all, except when they take a bow. There's got to be a happy medium, pun intended.

What is neater than a cleanly shaved bald head? Some men are more handsome bald than they are with hair. No one ever referred to Stanley Tucci as "sexy" until he went bald. Yul Brynner had a full head of hair, but after shaving his head for The King and I on Broadway, he decided the bald head enhanced his looks and kept doing it. It could be distracting in classical roles like the Nutcracker Cavalier, and it's inappropriate for young characters like Romeo. But for most of the Balanchine, Robbins and Justin Peck rep, a bald head would work out fine. It does take confidence and a bit of swagger to pull it off.

I do not understand why any ballet company would allow the public to watch company class, and I don't understand why anyone who isn't a ballet professional would want to see it. It seems so intrusive. It's designed to get dancers ready for their working day, not to show off. It isn't really "class" anyway - once there's an audience it becomes a performance, whether or not it seems like one. It's pretty hard to pretend that hundreds of people are not watching you, as you pin up your hair or fall out of turns you never fall out of during the show. Opera singers and concert pianists don't warm up in public, and I don't think dancers should either. Or maybe it's just me.

Considering that there are several women well over six feet tall on pointe in NYCB, and a number of tall men, I think that interpreting "larger" to refer to people who are overweight, at least in ballet terms, is reasonable.

Bouder was not under discussion. The dancers on Wayne Sleep's show were fat, not "not in their best shape". It took two men to briefly lift their Swan Queen. They never attempted to dance on pointe.

Of course there are lots of terrific dancers making YouTube videos. I was referring to the claim that the world was full of fantastic "larger" ballet dancers and many with less than ideal bodies who could perform NYCB's rep if only given a chance. The fact is that there are not a lot of overweight women who are competent en pointe. And, like it or not, ballet is a classical art form with a definite aesthetic. I just watched the wonderful new commercial for NYCB's 75th Anniversary season, which features their wide variety of dancers of different heights, body types and skin colors. But nobody is overweight, and they all look like ballet dancers. A few years ago in the UK, Wayne Sleep produced and starred in a reality series featuring overweight people who always wanted to be ballet dancers. While they may have realized their personal dreams, even the best of them are barely competent. Ballet is not for fat people. Okay, I give. What is this self-evident answer?

There are not enough positions at NYCB for the many good dancers in the world who are not "larger". If there was a "massive untapped world of fantastic ballet dancers" out in the world, they'd be all over YouTube. Somebody somewhere would have seen them.

I don't like seeing Black men in tutus, red lipstick and pointe shoes. Not unless they're performing with the Trocks and everybody presents that way. (And especially because ONLY Black men in PNB are allowed or encouraged to be cast and photographed that way. That's suspect as hell.). But while I am curious as to how Ashton Edwards handles his long braids when he isn't dancing female roles, my comment wasn't primarily about him or Zsilas Michael Hughes. It was aimed at the insulting notion that minority dancers should ask themselves if their hiring is about filling a quota. Why? If white dancers have the privilege of assuming that they are hired because of their abilities, black dancers should be able to feel the same way about themselves.

I give Peter Boal and PNB no props whatsoever. Up until a year ago or so, there was only one Black male dancer connected to the school, and one Black female dancer with very light skin. All of a sudden they "discover" all these talented Black dancers who should have been in the system years ago. Two of the Black male dancers are so gender non-conforming they are virtually unemployable in most classical companies, and their sudden appearance in PNB is essentially stunt casting. (I'd bet they would not waste company resources on two similar white male dancers, but America has a sick fascination with unmasculine Black men who are way over-represented in the culture.) However my comment initially was in response to the notion that ANY minority employee should waste even one second wondering if their employment is because of some imaginary quota system, because of course "white" is the default setting for all that is good and competent, and they couldn't possibly be hired because they are actually talented and prepared. What arrogant nonsense.

By that logic, if you are white, you should ask yourself how many minority employees were passed over so that you could help maintain the majority status at your job. Your assumption is that ALL minority dancers are hired according to some grand numerical scheme. Please be reminded that for most ballet companies in this country, until recently, there were NO Black dancers, at any level. Apparently the "QUOTA" was zero.

I saw Barbie at a matinee showing in one of the larger theaters in an AMC multiplex. The theater was full, mostly women, of all ages, primed for a good time. The film works on several levels, as comedy, social commentary, fantasy, but it's essentially satire, and it mostly hits the mark. There must be a lot of good sports at Mattel, because rather than glorifying the corporation's leadership, they're portrayed as clueless, money grubbing buffoons. But there is one scene at Mattel headquarters that I found quite touching. The world building is fantastic. I never played with Barbies as a child, but who wouldn't want to live in Barbieland, even with all that Pepto Bismol pink? The actors give wholehearted, unironic performances, especially Ryan Gosling, and that's the main reason the film works. The situation is ridiculous, the angst of self-awareness descending on to plastic dolls, but the actors commit. It's not a perfect film, but it's a personal triumph for Greta Gerwig, who has written and directed a huge box office winner that vaults her to the top of the mostly all boys Hollywood A list directors' club. It's easy to forget that there was a concerted effort to sabotage Barbie with negative review bombing and Twitter trolling before it was released, as there is for every female-led project. (The hatred of women in today's society seems off the charts.). The gamers and fan boys started it and now it's right wing pundits who decry its supposed feminist messaging. (It even passes the Bechdel test!). I think Barbie is a massive hit because it unabashedly plays to its target audience, and that audience finally has a big screen movie without a comic book superhero in sight. There are a lot of solid laughs. It's very entertaining. For me, Oppenheimer is what's known in Hollywood as a "tough sit". I really don't want to see this movie, but I feel obligated. I could be surprised - I actually enjoyed Tar, a long film that a lot of people loathed. But movie ticket prices are high, and rather than paying for Oppenheimer, I will probably wait for the screener that SAG members are sent before voting opens for the SAG Awards.

I wonder, why did the august New York Times gift its platform to someone who is basically just a disgruntled employee? A low level employee in a private company at that, not some governmental whistle blower. It makes no sense.

I tried to see Barbie this past weekend, but there were simply no tickets to be had at any theater. (As a struggling would be screenwriter and member of SAG AFTRA, I try to see everything.). As it is, Barbie has broken this year's box office record for an opening weekend. This is tremendously important to the film industry which is still in recovery from the pandemic. And this success really boosted the career of Greta Gerwig, Barbie's director and screenwriter. Thousands of Barbie fans bought tickets to Oppenheimer for the same day, the so-called "Barbenheimer" effect. So the rising tide lifted both boats. Because of my need to see everything, I will also see Oppenheimer, even though I am not a fan of Christopher Nolan's films. I know I'm supposed to love them but I just don't.

During the pandemic, I was intrigued by the streaming of the ballet Broken Wings, about the life of Frida Kahlo, choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. Perhaps not a perfect piece, but to me it conveyed a strong Mexican sensibility, even though the choreograpber is only half Latina (and that half is Colombian, a very different culture). It was visually stunning, although I wasn't moved by the score. After setting ballets in cultures that are foreign to him, maybe Wheeldon will choreograph a piece set in a cozy English village. As for a Giovanni's Room ballet, in their brief Chicago run, ABT presented Touché by Christopher Rudd, a male pas de deux which seems to fit that bill. Although he didn't dance it in Chicago, Calvin Royal III did premier the piece. I found it a bit boring and not that sexy, but the audience reception was enthusiastic.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/arts/music/american-ballet-theater-chief-resigns.html?unlocked_article_code=TEYq1k8UeyLCp7HghF7nwvi7IQbGhUKUqOtjvvZBxaLc_1EjuSFS3ztCNEWNoKC2qGSLKHXIoeMQwMaRjpWHeIe8gWaP3oQsgzIxU1iUevoQ4TFURrtxuh5JZA-8P8C8syfy0zYTyadLebK6QM4hc5qKSsPGrM0AkkMpz5yCmJLyuvnmQSrzT7bl11ckfO1PO5AXzLnGsUu8hwv4QB-ICRIhihvi6vdYlENvrduc-QXPs2wKrNmNRTVZnZvh0ZD7gbNcmtlXWJw3UL-xvKCJ2LXWNAX0NenfqMJjfOcKlXXWuRuj41pW8hasFL0kIrHuWUCwHonpmpZ3JBhmHfBFsDoyIFcLyECEAAjNOHzhFA13GQ&smid=url-share

I attended ABT's Sunday matinee at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, with a program of short, newer pieces, with not a tutu in sight - Ratmansky's Songs of Bukovina, Christopher Rudd's male duet Touché, a blast from thd past, Clark Tippet's Some Assembly Required, and Jessica Lang's ZigZag. There was piano and violin accompaniment played live, and Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga on tape (more likely digital), but no orchestra. It appeared that less than half of the company's dancers were present. Nevertheless, the audience reception was rapturous. It was sad that ABT only performed in Chicago for three days. For years they have played the Auditorium for a full week. (Despite its plain Jane name, the Auditorium is an exquisite grand house, more than one hundred and thirty years old, with excellent sightlines for dance, the perfect venue for big ballets.). I got my Dress Circle ticket for just $38 online at Hot Tix and it was a great bargain. I feel that ABT is dropping the ball regarding merchandizing. There were only a few dull black hoodies for sale, and no souvenir program. The free program was a couple of folded pages with a QPR code, very difficult to access. The television spot they ran was bare bones too. I did overhear an interesting exchange from an attendee. The woman next to me told her seatmate that she came out to see ABT because Misty Copeland was her favorite ballerina, and since this was Misty's home company, they must be good! These were white audience members, in case you were wondering.

My favorite Dolly Parton line, when asked how long it takes to do her hair - "I don't know, 'cause I'm never there when they do it!" I think Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Lee Curtis look their age, although they were both drabbed up a bit for EEAAO. Hard to believe that Angela Bassett is older than Michelle Yeoh and the same age as Jamie Lee. Eight of the ten female nominees in the acting categories this year were over forty years old, which is unprecedented. Hollywood has always treated "aging" women very differently from men. One of my favorite films is Hitchcock's North by Northwest, where Cary Grant's mother is played by Jessie Royce Landis, who was only seven years older than Grant. Angelina Jolie was one year older than Colin Farrell when she played his mother in Alexander.

For me, EEAAO was what's known in the film business as a "tough sit". In my opinion it was messy, depressing, absurdist and ultimately more trivial than profound. But it wasn't a sequel, a prequel or based on a comic book. And it dared to have as action lead a sixty year old woman. There has been nothing like it for years. The "Daniels" swung for the fences and found their audience. That's why it won Best Picture. As for Angela Bassett's "pout", check out Kerry Condon's reaction on not winning. Bassett gets criticized for not faking joy over losing to Jamie Lee Curtis, who didn't even give the best supporting performance in her own film. There were other " losers" whose disappointment was evident, but critics single out Bassett because they know she was robbed. I enjoyed Tár more than I had anticipated, but I felt that every big scene went on too long. The film tries the viewer's patience right at the start with an interminable credit sequence, so at least there is a forewarning for what's ahead. The film was very Kubrickian, which one might expect since the writer-director Tod Field was an actor in Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. The scene that has been praised so much, where Lydia puts a "woke" student in his place, really annoyed me. Nothing about it rang true to me. As a member of SAG-AFTRA, I vote for the SAG Awards and I take it seriously, which means I watch a lot of films and television shows that don't necessarily appeal to me, which is a good thing. It allows me to discover some absolute gems and expand my artistic horizons. But a lot of it is a tough slog.

ABT should hire François Alu. He has the imprimatur of the Paris Opera Ballet as a former Etoile, he can deliver the goods as male lead in the story ballets, and he's got a unique and powerful physicality, bald head and all. I've only seen him on YouTube and I'm a big fan. In my opinion NYCB should go after him if ABT doesn't.

Amazing, isn't it - Ms. Robb studied at SAB for three years as a child, and now she's a published authority on an artistic giant who died almost twenty years before her first lesson. She didn't leave ballet, she was never in it. Balanchine might have said "don't think, dear" to somebody, but he didn't say it to Alice Robb. This woman, like so many failed dancers, has an unhealthy obsession with ballet. She couldn't make it so she tears it down. I was struck by her biography - Dalton, Brearley, uber expensive private schools, Oxford University, an internship at the New Republic. She's a spoiled rich girl. It's a shame Mummy and Daddy couldn't buy her a career. Maybe she should take a few voice lessons and tell us what's wrong with the Met.

I've never seen Jonathan Fahoury dance live, but based on the excerpt attached to his profile on the NYCB's website, and the short interview, he has the screen presence and the looks to be a successful film actor. Hopefully he is taking acting lessons to take advantage of those qualities. I did wonder about his very noticeable tattoos. Full disclosure - I personally hate tattoos on anybody, but they seem a really bad idea for a ballet dancer, like graffiti on a classic painting. Does anyone know if NYCB has a policy regarding body art?

There seem to be more and more young people studying ballet seriously, and while they won't all make a career of it, hopefully they will remain fans in the future. I did find it really sad that, according to the series on SAB on Disney+, the parents of the little girl from the Bronx who was cast in Nutcracker could not afford tickets to see her dance. We get lots of Broadway shows in Chicago and while I was watching my YouTube feed this morning, there were ads for the next batch, Cats, Annie and 1776 (pretty dreary lineup if you ask me!). All of them had kinetic scenes from the shows. The one for Annie managed to squeeze in both Tomorrow and It's a Hard Knock Life in less than thirty seconds. There were no abstract shots of flowers or fabric. These are old shows that have had numerous productions and have already been made into films. Everybody into Broadway is already very familiar with them, but the shows took no chances with their commercials. It could be that the ad agency and its market research working for NYCB are "too cool for school". Do those ad campaigns really bring in new audiences? We already know that they alienate some of the old audience.

What attracts people to ballet in the first place? For me it was the dancing, not the art direction. The first ballet I ever saw was NYCB's Nutcracker, with Maria Tallchief as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Nutcracker still largely sells out each year, with the same choreography, the same music, the same costuming it has had for decades. The audience for Nutcracker doesn't get older and then die off. I don't think NYCB is going to junk Balanchine's Nutcracker production in favor of some hot new choreographer's high concept version. (At least I hope not!). The biggest mistake any business can make is to take their customer base for granted. If you want to attract new audiences to ballet you have to show them ballet dancers dancing in your advertising, not flowers, not dancers walking outdoors in street clothes. People actually like dancing - two of the biggest current pop culture hits, Wednesday and M3gan, became breakouts because of their entertaining choreography. Then you make performances accessible. The biggest Broadway hits have low cost tickets available for every show - you can sit in the first row of Hamilton for a Hamilton - $10.00. If you could see NYCB for about the same price as a movie ticket, some people will attend out of curiosity, and some of them will become hardcore fans.