tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10525820.post113386876787123669..comments2023-10-18T07:09:20.274-07:00Comments on RatBoy - an online little magazine: A Muse of Blue Flamegrishaxxxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14730729116978062510noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10525820.post-1134097922828217522005-12-08T19:12:00.000-08:002005-12-08T19:12:00.000-08:00I dunno, but I suspect that hanging around with da...I dunno, but I suspect that hanging around with dancers is like hanging around with the instruments of an orchestra when no one is playing them. Beautiful, but critically mute.<BR/>This hasn't anything to do with intelligence, I think. It <I>does</I> have to do with a dancer's physical and technical concerns - matters of personal survival for them, after all - and with their being at the service of choreographers who are, in turn, dependent on their dancers - living instruments - to make dances. Arlene Croce once said that Balanchine's boys and girls could sound like Moonies, and I don't think that's very surprising.<BR/><BR/>It's the most ephemeral of the performing arts. There's no really definitive system of dance notation. the visual record is paltry. Passing the torch is problematic; Peter Martins has gone through hell at NYCB, for example, but many of his old colleagues have fanned out across the country and made some splendid regional companies. As I noted, Farrell has only a part-time company right now, but she <I>owns</I> a big chunk of the Balanchine repertoire - she has formal rights to the works, and she can transmit, in her person, what no one else can, and she has done that around the world. <BR/>You know how Japan has people designated as "Living National Treasures", or something like that? Farrell is like that for us, and even more than most performers because of the nature of the art.<BR/>I highly recommend Paul Taylor's book <A HTTP://WWW.AMAZON.COM/GP/PRODUCT/0822956993/QID=1134097625/SR=2-2/REF=PD_BBS_B_2_2/103-2696182-3173432?S=BOOKS&V=GLANCE&N=283155 HREF="" REL="nofollow">Private Domain</A>. He was a great dancer with Martha Graham, made his own superior company and dances, and he can write.grishaxxxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14730729116978062510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10525820.post-1133970414729513962005-12-07T07:46:00.000-08:002005-12-07T07:46:00.000-08:00Lovely post, and very helpful to me, a dance ignor...Lovely post, and very helpful to me, a dance ignoramous. When I was young I spent many a night in the company of dancers, but I never learned anything insightful or profound about their art. I don't get to many concerts or ballets, but when I do I never know where to look. This was a problem the one time I was called upon to review a ballet. It was a production of The Nutcracker. I used up a lot of space yammering about Freud.Lance Mannionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08063296489181466628noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10525820.post-1133967992901754602005-12-07T07:06:00.000-08:002005-12-07T07:06:00.000-08:00Lovely post, and very helpful to me, the dance ign...Lovely post, and very helpful to me, the dance ignoramous. Even though at one time in my youth I spent many nights in the company of dancers, I never learned anything insightful or profound about their art. I don't get to many concerts or ballets but when I do I don't even know where to look. This was not helpful the one time I had to review a performance of The Nutcracker.Lance Mannionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08063296489181466628noreply@blogger.com