As I have no time over the next couple of weeks to post anything substantive, I thought maybe YOU could. It used to be that people would revise their ballets. Over and over again. In his "Complete Stories of the Great Ballets," Balanchine admits to tweaking "The Nutcracker" every year. I don't know how much that's happening now, but I sure wish it would. It's so much effort to create a work in the … [Read more...]
Another cheery take on the state of dance in America
Terry Teachout, fellow Arts Journal blogger (among many other, illustrious things), has an interesting and comprehensive column in today's Wall Street Journal on the "decline and near-disappearance of dance in America." ("Today" is Saturday November 25.) . Teachout's conclusion: And therein lies the challenge of reviving dance in America: Anyone who seeks to launch a new company, or revitalize an … [Read more...]
The dirt on “underground”
Choreographer David Dorfman's self-congratulatory paean to the Weather Underground finished its run at BAM's Harvey Theater yesterday. "Underground" makes a person exclaim, "What this? I have to check my brain at the door?" Or at least a person who's not a dance critic. When choreographers present wrongheaded reductions of vexing, long-lived political questions, we critics too often give them a … [Read more...]
Odd and ends: comments from readers and a question to readers
Comment from reader Christopher Pelham of dharma road productions on Apollinaire's "How NOT to write, so Dance Will Matter": Your column really hit the nail on the head for me. I find former New York Times dance critic Jack Anderson among the most guilty, always describing literally what he thinks he saw with nary a word of context, much less analysis of what the work might or might not have … [Read more...]
A choreographer comes forward: “I have made a dance to Dylan.”
[ed. note: I received this email last night, from choreographer Janis Brenner] Someone referred me to your excellent site because of your dialogue on Tharp and Dylan. I love the whole conversation. I do want to let you know that in 1995-96 I made a work to several Dylan songs, entitled "What About Bob" (before there was a movie...), which first uses really outrageous renditions of Dylan classics … [Read more...]
Apollinaire: Sweet Dylan Suite
They say, "Dylan never talks." What the hell is there to say? That's not the reason an artist is in front of people. An artist has come for a different purpose. Maybe a self-help group -- maybe a Dr. Phil -- would say, "How you doin'?" I don't want to get harsh and say I don't care. You do care, you care in a big way, otherwise you wouldn't be there. But it's a different kind of connection. It's … [Read more...]
Eva Yaa Asantewaa: Tales of the Crypt
Apollinaire, I'm enjoying your Tales from (in and out of) the Crypt. Just a couple of thoughts to toss off before I head out of town: Prior to your discussion of blackface in "The Pharoah's Daughter," you wrote: People won't discover dance until critics express more curiosity and insight about the culture it's wedded to. Since dance isn't sealing itself off from the world, why are we? When a … [Read more...]
Rachel Howard, regular contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, responds to “How NOT to write, So Dance Will Matter”
Re: How NOT to Write, you nail the problem--and the solution--precisely. Before a GENERAL audience wants to know what a dance looks like or even whether it was sublime or silly, they want to know why they should care. Why they should care = context, and it's what I've been aiming for and achieving only fleetingly in my own reviews lately. It's harder, of course. It takes research; it takes … [Read more...]
Doug Fox: So, um, what about my question? Apollinaire tries harder this time
Doug Fox of Great Dance, whose questions started off my last post, "How NOT to write, so dance will matter," has more questions for me!! Or, rather, he'd like me to answer what he asked in the first place: how might the Internet and other recent technologies help to attract a larger dance audience? Doug, thank you for your persistence and your concern for dance's future. Here are Doug's questions, … [Read more...]
How NOT to Write, So Dance Will Matter
Last week, Doug Fox -- of the web site Great Dance, which works to bring to dance the benefits of technology -- sent me this searching comment: To follow up on your remark that modern dance's intent is "to communicate in a language that you have to construct every time all by yourself -- that is deeply individual even though it belongs to a family of tongues," how do you think dance audiences … [Read more...]