On Pointe

I only intended to watch the opening of Sound of Music and of course,  for the umpteenth time,  I watched it to the end.  The great mystery is why this film that has no Christmas scenes or even winter scenes,  has somehow become associated with Christmas?  There are a couple of wintry lines in the song My Favorite Things,  but that's it.  Otherwise it has everything - nuns,  Nazis,  big opulent house,  big opulent wedding,  cute blond kids in sailor suits.  Maybe Rodgers and Hammerstein thought adding  a Christmas tree would be over the top.

If you love the original,  or if you're curious to see what Spielberg and Kushner bring to it,  you should see their take on West Side Story.   But I tend to agree with those who say that Spielberg is a critics' darling who gets the benefit of his reputation when his new work is assessed.  That said,  there are factors working against this WSS which have nothing to do with the quality of the film. 

The audience skews old,  and older people are reluctant to return to theaters while we're fighting the pandemic,  so they may prefer to wait for it to go to streaming.  Younger filmgoers are waiting for Spiderman and The Matrix.  Spielberg and Kushner's decision to not subtitle the considerable Spanish dialogue,  and their public declarations about it,  which came off as somewhat arrogant,  alienated a chunk of the audience.  But the elephant in the room is the sex scandal involving their star Ansel Elgort and his interactions with young girls.  Even delaying the film's release by a year didn't cool it down.  So the teenage "theater kid" community that would have supported this film enthusiastically has been splintered.

I expect that WSS will still do well when it streams,  but Spielberg was expecting a blockbuster and that's not going to happen.

Megan Fairchild was on The View this morning,  dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy's solo,  minus the coda.  The Nutcracker Prince and Marie were on as swell,  although they didn't dance.  Fairchild looked terrific - hard to believe she has given birth to twins recently.  That's  the good part.  The bad part is that they were introduced as "dancers from the New York City Ballet"  and not credited by name.  The lighting and the camera angles weren't the best for ballet,  and Fairchild was crammed into a tiny space.  The ugly part is that they were shoehorned into a commercial for Pandora jewelry.  But they got ballet on the air.  (The Covid-era Marie and Prince were as tall as the SPF.). I hope they have Fairchild back as a guest host,  especially since she has a new book out.  With any luck,  or showbiz savvy,  her reps should be working that angle.

I saw Spielberg's West Side Story on opening day and frankly,  I was underwhelmed.  I wasn't alone - the film did not do well at the box office,  and the trades are full of articles from film business pundits as to why,  especially given the rapturous reviews it got from critics almost across the board.  My main disappointment was with the pacing - the first third of the film is flat,  more like a play with incidental music than a musical,  and Tony Kushner's screenplay is overwritten and too "on-the-nose".  The Jets are awfully suburban looking - one critic called them " an Abercrombie and Fitch gang" - while a lot of the Sharks look kind of mature to be involved in gang nonsense.

That said,  David Alvarez as Bernardo,  Ariana DeBose as Anita,  and Mike Faist as Riff were terrific,  in their dancing,  singing,  and acting.  Faist in particular lit up the screen.  He's a throwback to the kind of wisecracking,  tough guy sidekick character actor that was a staple of B movies in the forties and fifties.  The main deficit in my opinion is the lack of chemistry between Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort as Maria and Tony.  They are mismatched,  and not just because he's easily a foot taller than she is.  She's full of fire and passion and he has barely any.  Elgort sings well,  but he doesn't express himself well through song.  Zegler does her own singing,  which is an improvement over the original,  I guess.  (Mine is probably a minority opinion,  but I wasn't blown away by her voice.). As expected,  Ariana DeBose and David Alvarez danced up a storm,  especially in America.  But Justin Peck had them dancing in unison with what looked like a cast of dozens,  which struck me as an ineffective decision - you have two outstanding dancers and don't give them their own moments?

Peck's choreography is very good but it won't make you forget Jerome Robbins' work.  He is most innovative in Cool,  repositioned in the story as a fight between Tony and Riff over using a gun in their rumble with the Sharks.  Faist's dancing is particularly good.  He manages to pull off difficult steps while looking like an untrained street kid.  (He is highly-trained,  of course,  with an impressive Broadway resumé.)

I think that the film is more appealing to cineastes who swoon over the cinematography more than the story.  But they aren't buying enough tickets to make it a hit so far.  When I saw it,  most of the audience looked my age,  and I'm old!  The first West Side Story changed the arc of my life,  and even though Spielberg's version is not great,  no doubt there are kids out there whose lives are going to change because of this one.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Michael Nesmith's  life,  besides being the only Monkee with considerable experience as a musician,  is that his mother became a multimillionaire after inventing Liquid Paper.  He inherited half of her $48,000,000 estate,  and felt no need to continue on with the Monkees on their tours after the show ended.  He also made a considerable fortune on his own from various ventures.

I have never heard of the Rosie Kay Dance Company,  but it is apparently a well-regarded British modern dance company based in Birmingham,  England.  Or rather it was - Rosie Kay herself has been driven out of her own company because several dancers made charges against her of "transphobia".  They were upset with Kay because she used the words " penis" and "vagina",  described her new work based on Virginia Woolf's Orlando,  and at a party in her home,  she showed the dancers around her home,  including her child's bedroom.  They harassed her to the point that she required psychiatric care.

https://archive.ph/mPC4Y

I don't understand why she didn't just fire them.  At any rate,  Kay retains ownership of her intellectual property,  so the Rosie Kay company can't perform any of her work.  Meanwhile she's been cutoff from the company bank account and social media.  I'd liken it to the Salem Witch Trials,  except those women at least had a day in court before they were condemned.

By the way,  NBC Nightly News had a feature on NYCB's Nutcracker tonight,  with an emphasis on how they had to cast taller,  older children this year,  because when rehearsals began,  children under twelve couldn't be vaccinated.  I thought that the little girl who played one of the Maries was especially good in her interview.  But even though NYCB has more Black dancers than any other major ballet company,  not one was visible.

3 minutes ago, Helene said:

Here's a photo under stage lights, and there may be some shimmer in Morgan's tights:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CW9oZwdhmjD/

Amanda Morgan is also lightskinned.  The video of Precious Adams,  where she's dancing in a white boxlike stage setting is more illustrative.  Perhaps it's just my personal taste,  but I don't think it looks good.  

18 hours ago, tutu said:

Well it looks like Amanda Morgan’s Dewdrop was a debut!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CXFRtV2BRZv/?utm_medium=copy_link

Morgan’s Instagram post caption notes that this is the first year that Dewdrop in Balanchine’s Nutcracker has ever been allowed to wear flesh-colored tights — a watershed moment and a step forward.  

I'd be all for flesh-colored tights if the colors were more flattering.  In every instance I've seen,  the shades are too dark.  For example,  in the photo of Amanda Morgan,  her legs look about two shades darker than her arms.  There's also the issue of visibility.  Dark tights and shoes,  in my opinion,  obscure the dancer's line.  There needs to be a lot more tinkering with materials and shades before flesh colors look good.  When white dancers wear light tights,  their natural skin tones come through and add dimensionality.  Dark tights on dark skin look flat.  Maybe the solution is to use tights that are a couple of shades lighter than the dancer's skin,  perhaps with some shimmer added.

3 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Taller NYCB ballerinas have danced Dewdrop over the years—Karin von Aroldingen, Kyra Nichols, Heather Watts, and Sofiane Sylve, off the top of my head. 

ETA - and more recently Maria Kowroski, Sara Mearns and Teresa Reichlen.

I've never seen Heather Watts described as tall.  Height can be deceptive from the audience's view.  I believe that Tanaquil LeClerq was about 5'6".  I'm pretty sure Watts is around 5'5" at most.  I did two shows with Ann Reinking,  who had exceptionally long legs,  and was definitely thought of as tall,  but she was average height.

22 minutes ago, Helene said:

If PNB were to mount a ballet for a man on point, that would be one less woman on point in it.

But it would be a new role.  A woman would not be displaced by it.  And one would hope that even though it is danced on pointe,  it's a man's role.  Casting Edwards in Snow and Marzipan is female impersonation.

1 hour ago, sandik said:

No one is pretending anything.  Edwards has been training to dance roles on pointe, and PNB looked at them and thought they were good enough at that particular skill set to be cast. 

PNB could mount a new ballet for a male dancer on pointe.  But have any men ever been cast as Snowflakes or Marzipan before Edwards?  If not,  one could fairly call them women's roles.  So an opportunity in an extremely competitive field that should be for a woman goes instead to a man,  even though men are coddled and cosseted in ballet companies to an extraordinary degree.  How is that good (for women),  how is that progress?

10 hours ago, sandik said:

I was so pleased to be at the performance this evening, especially because Ashton Edwards made their debut as an apprentice with the company, dancing Snow and Marzipan.  Honestly, it was remarkable because it wasn't remarkable.  They did a lovely job with both parts, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

 

Apparently PNB is just going to pretend that Ashton Edwards is a woman and cast him accordingly?  I honestly would like to know why anyone would find that laudable.  

It's totally unfair to Liam Scarlett,  and cruel to his parents,  for the continued obfuscation of the charges against him.  What exactly is he accused of having done?  It's really concerning (to me anyway) that the Royal Ballet mentioned "sexual behaviour out of the workplace".  If it was criminal,  then they would have had grounds to include it in their decision.  Otherwise it's none of their business.  Calls to a hotline are also problematic.  Scarlett could have been a victim of character assassination by a disgruntled associate.  His parents should be given the opportunity to defend his reputation.

Here's an article from the New York Times about the pressure on female track and field athletes to be "fit",  which really means to maintain dangerously low levels of body fat:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/06/opinion/body-shaming-fitness.html?searchResultPosition=1

One would think that the coaches'  main concern would be how fast the women were,  not how lean they look on the track.  There is body shaming in ballet,  but these athletes are body scanned frequently and berated if they don't meet arbitrary targets for leanness.  If they don't meet the numerical targets,  it doesn't matter how slim they look or how fast they are,  which is nuts.  Apparently male athletes are not subjected to the same rules.

22 minutes ago, Helene said:

They either all don't, or they are coming from other gigs where they are in shape, or they get into shape ahead of time doing other things.  Ringer said -- maybe in her book or maybe in the interview she did with Peter Boal on her book tour -- that the way she got into shape was through rehearsals and performances at the beginning of the season.

 Martins knew he had a dancer with a history of not being ready that early by her own admission, yet he cast her anyway, and he didn't withdraw the casting with her in less than optimal shape at the time.  It doesn't matter what his intention was: the buck for casting stopped with him.

If that were the case, men in dance (and judged sports like gymnastics and figure skating, aside from those where making specific weight is required) wouldn't have eating disorders.

I mean needled in print as a common thing.  Sure,  some men have eating disorders,  including men who work in offices and on construction sites and are never subjected to public discussions of their bodies at all.  But it's still far more common in women.

I still don't get why Martins was wrong for casting Ringer,  unless you feel that her idiosyncratic method of getting into shape for the season should have been accomodated.  Presumably she was paid from the first day of the season,  so why not expect her to be ready?

6 hours ago, Helene said:

In this particular situation, we had a dancer who herself said it took a couple of weeks of active class and rehearsals at the beginning of a season to be in proper shape and weight, and an Artistic Director who cast her for Opening Night of the run, when there would be critics, instead of giving her the two weeks to get back into shape.

And Macaulay was far more critical of her partner Angle's weight, than hers.

I don't understand - wouldn't all the other dancers have the same challenges as Ringer in getting into shape at the beginning of the season?  You seem to be suggesting that Martins deliberately set her up to be ridiculed by Macaulay.

No one remembers the critique of Angle because women get needled about their weight,  not men.  I remember that Jenifer Ringer even appeared on Oprah,  where Oprah expressed surprise that Ringer had small children.  She was probably not interested at the time,  but Ringer could have finessed a high profile media career out of all the exposure she got from Macaulay's bitchy offhand remark.  She did very well for herself on the show.

My reaction to the piece can be summed up by the title of a Johnny Mathis - Deniece Williams song:  Too Much,  Too Little,  Too Late.  The world has moved on.  (So many song titles are apt here - Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places,  Who Cares?,  Let It Go.)

6 hours ago, GB1216 said:

Really nice piece on Maria from the Times

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/arts/dance/maria-kowroski-retires-from-new-york-city-ballet.html

Even nicer are the comments,  from the stage crew member and the public.

7 hours ago, vipa said:

 Personally I thought Abi Stafford should have retired a while ago. She hadn't carried a full principal load for quite some time. Seems like she did Kammermusik and Concerto Barrocco, maybe some Ratmansky and not much else. She attended law school and managed to stay on the roster until she graduated and was ready to enter the job market as a lawyer. 

I have worked with a number of lawyers, some straight out of law school,  and some with a few years under their belts.  Stress and anxiety are constant factors in their work.  And they are expected to put in as many hours as a NYCB principal.  I think it's wonderful that Abi Stafford has a law degree.   But if she was plagued by crippling anxiety in the dance world,  it is unlikely to get better at a New York law firm.  (Luckily there are many other positions in the business world where a law degree is an asset.)   The kind of treatment she advocated in the Dance Magazine article is beyond the purview of an employer.  Those suffering it require intensive therapy.  In reality people of artistic temperament are prone to suffer bouts of anxiety about their work. They aren't the only ones.

12 hours ago, Helene said:

Mackay Productions posted this to YouTube back in May:

 

 

Two strikingly attractive people who can actually dance,  yet this little film doesn't let us really see them. What a waste of talent and resources.  Fred Astaire laid out the instructions for filming dancers decades ago and no one has bettered them yet.

Best wishes to Ask La Cour on his retirement.  I have wondered how he managed  personal relationships within the company as the quasi-stepson of Peter Martins.  Apparently he did just fine. 

5 hours ago, California said:

Scott Joplin's music is such a treasure - I hated  seeing what they were doing with it.

To be accurate,  only about half of the music used for the ballet is by Scott Joplin,  including the title piece.  And some is by white composers.  But ragtime is definitely American music,  rooted in Black American culture.

20 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

It's one thing to send up your own culture, whether in Scherzo a la Russe or Stars and Stripes. Doing it to someone else's carries a high probability of causing offense. 

For me,  best illustrated by the Royal Ballet's Elite Syncopations.  MacMillan's choreography with its twee little steps, set to Black American music,  is not just bad ballet,  it's insulting.  The hideous costumes don't  help,  and neither do the orchestrations and the incorrect tempos.  Why they decided to revive it this year is truly a mystery to me.

Here's that solo by Nureyev.  I remember him doing it on the Ed Sullivan show:

That Balanchine quote is  very old.   What's considered appropriate for male dancers,  beautiful if you will,  has changed a lot.  If you look at short ballet videos on Youtube and Tik Tok,  there are endless examples of male dancers with extreme high extensions that they never would have employed in the 60s and 70s.  Ports de bras is much more expansive,  with deep bends of the back.  There are many videos of men on pointe,  which isn't quite mainstream yet.  But men are working higher on demi-pointe,  with much more articulated feet than what you see in old clips on Classical Arts TV - Andre Eglevsky barely rose up in relevé at all.

I remember when Nureyev was criticized for the long adagio solo he added to Swan Lake.  My ballet teacher thought it was scandalously feminine. Balanchine might have been working overtime to be quotable.  He created plenty of expressive solos for men.

As for men in tights or out of them,  I discovered to my astonishment that there is vast number of videos of serious,  accomplished male and female dancers performing totally nude available on the internet.  Be careful if you look for them - they are often on porn sites,  although they are not particularly salacious.  But I don't think we'll be seeing that at Lincoln Center anytime soon.