Apollinaire: Protocol

I gather from my blogger peers that I'm supposed to let you know when I plan to disappear from here for a time, so you don't keep checking. It's such a comforting thought--that somebody is checking and swearing "Drats!" when he finds nothing new!

So: I hope to resurface from various deadlines and the flus wafting through the balmy globally warmed winter air next week.

On the occasion of Peter Martins' 1991 "Sleeping Beauty" for New York City Ballet, which finishes its two week run this Sunday, I've been thinking about whether full-length story ballets could use a director, apart from and subordinate to the choreographer. Hopefully, my next post.

(Of course, the last time I promised something--thoughts on fairy tale ballets--more timely news kept interrupting me. I'm pretty obsessed with this story ballet problem, though, and now that two megabuck ballets loom--Martins' "Romeo and Juliet" and American Ballet Theatre's "The Sleeping Beauty," both debuting this spring--the issue feels pressing.)