SHULGOLD: Guys can get point of ballet
View PDF | Print View
by: Guest
Total views: 149
Word Count: 1160
For many guys, going to the ballet is right up there with attending a bridal shower or a Tupperware party as a source of excruciating boredom and self-conscious discomfort. Ballet, they will announce, is performed by sissies for sissies. I don't buy it, and I'm guessing that most men who regularly read this column will agree. If, like me, you're a man who loves ballet and/or modern dance, you're not worried about the macho thing. I think too many guys are afraid of beauty, as if it's some creepy affliction. So, why do most American males blindly bail out of the ballet? Yeah, I know: men in tights. But no one snickers at Robin Hood. Or Lance Armstrong. Or football players. Maybe it's the impression that ballet is all about fairy tales and nymphs, fragile ladies flitting about in tutus. Even the great choreographer George Balanchine couldn't deny it. Ballet, he once said, "is a woman." That quote was included in a recent piece in The New York Times that focused on the number of dance companies run by men. That's a good point, but we're on another subject here. Ballet in America is a woman thing. Stop by a dance school and you'll see 10 young girls for each young boy taking the class. Most of those would-be ballerinas will grow up to be fans of the ballet, which may explain why, at any dance show, you'll see a huge number of women in attendance. Last weekend I was in Vail for the International Dance Festival and its annual showcase performances featuring guest artists from several prestigious companies. I got to thinking about the gender issue as I watched a contingent of five marvelous dancers from the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, due to perform here next season. A gorgeous woman named Dwana Adiaha Smallwood, a former member of the troupe, performed Ailey's remarkable solo, Cry, still compelling after 36 years. But more on that in a minute. What also impressed me were two pieces featuring three Ailey men. Hans van Manen's Solo found the threesome - Clifton Brown, Jamar Roberts and Matthew Rushing - displaying muscularity and understated wit as they took to the stage, one by one, and danced to solo-violin music by Bach, played onstage by Jennifer Koh. The three athletic black men hardly fit the stereotype of dance, which is exactly my point: Art is uninterested in limitations. In the second half, the guys returned to perform the virtuosic Sinner Man excerpt from Ailey's unforgettable Revelations. Its recorded music is the familiar spiritual ("Oh, sinner man, where ya gonna run to?"), and as the singing grew in intensity - changing keys, to underscore the desperation - the men leaped higher and ran faster. Not exactly sissy stuff. I'm betting that a few feminine hearts were beating just a tad faster as the piece ended. Which brings up another subject. You've probably heard the clich : Dance is a vertical expression of a horizontal idea. By chance, I picked up a copy of the Vail Daily while I was in town. Inside was a piece by Cassie Pence that zeroed right in on that very topic: "Dance is sexy," she stated. She pointed to the dancers' "hard bodies," to the fact that their costumes accent every curve, that most ballet plotlines are about passion and romance. Pence even suggested that guys and their dates "will leave the (dance) festival aroused." I'll leave that one alone. Ballet, like most human activities, addresses the relationship of men and women, often quite brilliantly. Balanchine knew women intimately - he married or had affairs with several of his ballerinas - and his choreography shows it. Ailey, too, understood the feminine. Cry, created for his star dancer Judith Jamison, now director of the Ailey company, carries this dedication: "For all black women everywhere - especially our mothers." It is an engrossing examination of what it is to be a black woman; to think it was created by a black man. From a striking, prayerful pose, the solitary dancer, garbed in a magnificent, flowing white dress, captures the despair of a repressed woman forced to scrub floors by hand. A pause, and then the dramatic centerpiece: a riveting ballad by Laura Nyro, Been on a Train. There is unspeakable pain and hopelessness here, punctuated by the lyrics "I saw a man take a needle full of hard drugs and die slow." But then, the mood switches to a twirling ode to joy, danced to a rave-up titled Right On, Be Free. That finale may suggest a quaint holdover from the '60s, but the piece remains timeless in its glimpse into the emotional range of a black woman - or, for that matter, a white male. The point here is that dance, as with other forms of creative expression, attempts to capture the essence of what it is to be human. It explores our emotions, our relationships, our aspirations, our failures. Sometimes there's a story line, sometimes there isn't. Regardless, dance explores our potential for beauty and perfection. And without a word being spoken. Marc Shulgold is the music and dance writer. Shulgoldm@RockyMountainNews.n
About Marc Shulgold Marc Shulgold has served as music/dance writer at the Rocky since 1987. He moved to Denver from his hometown of Los Angeles. A graduate of UCLA, he worked at the Los Angeles Times for 12 years, assisting Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Martin Bernheimer. He has contributed articles to such national publications as Opera News, Dance Magazine and Chamber Music. In addition to his journalistic activities, Shulgold is a frequent pre-concert lecturer at events sponsored by the Colorado Symphony and Colorado Music Festival, and teaches music appreciation classes at the Arvada Center and the University of Denver's Adult Enrichment Program. He is the father of two.
The flower opens, then the flower falls, the star light shine, do not know when put out.This the Earth, the sun, galaxy, and even the whole cosmos too gross there will be the disappeared time, the person s life is to compare for an instant only with those, there for an instant and inside, the person bears, smiling, weeping over, fighting, hurting, gladdenning, sorrow, hate who, like who, all everythings is all that a death in a flash meet by chance , who can not succeed in escaping to die.n
Upstairs is right to say that a layman can see beautiful dogs, I wonder if done right lines wrong, not compound composite standards. In 2006 Chaoyang Stadium match, Kexin wounds on the right or Pichon Korea Mt professors cut which is what we all see. Korea Development beauty how long? Of course, there are shear well, we should learn. But not all!
Related: SHULGOLD: Guys can get point of ballet
Additional information:
From www.rockymountainnews.com:
Rotten Tomatoes discussion forums, the most popular film discussion.
Browse our extensive collection of famous quotations, sayings and quotes.
A collection of Beauty Quotes. All our love quotes are carefully selected. Enjoy from beauty.
Beauty quotes will point out that we must carry beauty in our hearts in order to reflect.
Classic Beauty Quotes, Quotations, We all know that a thing of beauty is a joy forever.
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature.
Contains poems on the topic of Beauty from many famous poets. Also contains a huge collection of searchable poems, literary.
A collection of inspirational beauty quotes and sayings. These quotes, sayings and proverbs are not just about the beauty of appearances.
Rating:
Not yet rated
Comments
No comments posted.
Add Comment
You do not have permission to comment. If you
log in, you may be able to comment.
