Moments !

[altongrimes]

   Lately, I have been riveted to an old interview that I have been watching with Jimmy Stewart. In this fascinating encounter, he says the following: "There is a theory that I have always had that creating "moments" in movies is the important thing. Nobody knows exactly how it happens. What you should do is prepare yourself the best you can to make those moments happen. Because in a movie, it's really not so much about the performance; rather there are these "moments". Now when I heard him say this, my memory took flight and immediately began to race back to ABT'S "Light Dancer" -- Zhong-Jing Fang ! -- that I experienced and later identified in an unforgettable Romeo and Juliet performance in New York or the burning and searing revelation of Poina Semionova's iron technique and extreme delicacy in a Swan Lake production that left me completely overwhelmed for days. More recently, I will never forget the way Marcello Gomes supercharged Stanton Welch's CLEAR so that I wandered to the backstage door in a kind of hypnotic trance. Performers on this level would seem to be in possession of some extraordinary quality -- some divine quality, perhaps -- so that at any moment they can attract "the lightning". And you just never know when that "lightning" might strike. And in the light of this interview,  I realize more than ever that I fly to New York to experience those "moments". And there have been many .... Thank you, Jimmy !