It was a hell of a week for ballet. Our most brilliant male ballet dancer, a true wunderkind, a homegrown wonder, David Hallberg, got a job offer from the Bolshoi Ballet, better, obviously, than his current gig with American Ballet Theatre. So off he goes. Hallberg’s young, 29, he doesn’t speak the language, and Russia provides a challenging culture and lifestyle, so it may not last. But the fact that it happened is distressing. Then we learned of the immanent retirement of Miami City Ballet’s founding artistic director, Edward Villella, an arts hero if ever there ever was one. This guy has devoted his entire life to building American dance — full stop. My god, there’s no one under the age of 50 who is remotely Villella’s equal — either in his humanity or his experience. Finally, sodden reviews are doggy-paddling across the continent about Peter Martins’s underwater hoo-haw, “Ocean’s Kingdom,” a project, to my mind, doomed from conception — with a score by Paul McCartney, costumes by daughter Stella, so distasteful, and middle brow that it may belong elsewhere (Vegas?) but not in the house of Balanchine. Why am I even hanging onto the memory of Balanchine? It just brings misery. Here’s Macaulay.
We take zero joy in a failed new ballet. Oh my god, it’s so painful. So much money, so much effort, so much hope, so much investment. And resources are so precious.
We need a real woman to sort this mess out. Take it away, Liz Taylor! We love your tutu, it’s too too much.
Changing subjects: Liz Taylor Collection show opens at MOCA @ Pacific Design Center October 13-16. Information here.
Happy Weekend! To next week, which must be better!
thank you for the share, susan davis cushing @morphing