Quiggin Posted June 25, 2018 Share Posted June 25, 2018 A friend recommended a new John Haskell book called "The Complete Ballet," which I did enjoy a great deal and thought others here might be interested in reading. The subtitle is “a fictional essay in five acts," or rather five essays each based around a romantic ballet, and each used to help solve for a, or perhaps the, crisis in the narrator’s life. Like many before him, narrator has ended up in Los Angeles down on his luck, all his possibilities on the east coast used up. As the novel moves on, or fulfills itself, the narrator’s life begins to merge with that of the Cassavetes movie he is also retelling. All of it seems to come together, in a vanishing act, with the story of Petrushka and perhaps, just barely hinted, with that of Professor Rath in the Mann / von Sternberg "The Blue Angel." The ballets amply discussed are La Sylphide, Giselle, La Bayadere, Swan Lake and Petrushka. There are also references to Nureyev and Fonteyn’s performances and a fascinating recreation of the meeting of Joseph Cornell and Tamara Toumanova at City Center. Some quotes: The story of my ballet begins in a large house … When I say the story of my ballet, I am referring to what they call Romantic Ballet. Balanchine said to be romantic about something is to see what you are and to wish for something entirely different. Unlike [Arnold] Haskell, I’m not interested in writing a guide to dance. I’m trying to find for myself a version of life that expresses itself like dancing, like the moving body thinking itself into existence. Inside the crystalline purity of love there's a crack, and as the story unfolds the crack is revealed, and the Romantic part isn't the romance, it's the attempt to stop the crack or hide the crack or glue it back together. The tragedy of Petrushka is the tragedy of us all. Link to comment
sandik Posted June 26, 2018 Share Posted June 26, 2018 I've been hearing references to this all over -- thanks for the update here. Will see where I can find this. Link to comment
Recommended Posts