I'm holding all fiction for this non-fic that I'm reading. It's called Private View: Inside Baryshnikov's American Ballet Theatre. It chronicles an entire year in the life and times of ABT as it was headed by Baryshnikov during it's 1986 - 1987 season. It's soooo engrossing, I'm literally stopping and starting while writing this blog entry because I get lost reading the book when all I'm doing is looking for quotes to post here.
It's not exactly what my thesis is going to look like when it's done - it's juicier than my thesis because I plan to be very bland and just-the-facts-ma'm with my thesis. This book, written by John Fraser, is like a movie, discussing the complexities of a ballet company, jealousies and rivalries and conspiracies and blisters and all. I'm being very inspired by a lot of things in the book, I'm able to relate to a lot of the stuff that's in it.
Some of the stuff in it is riveting, particularly the inside stories about the dancers. It's interesting to read how Susan Jaffe was being built up to be the quintessential Baryshnikov ballerina at that time, only to succumb to injuries and was forced to put off stardom for an entire season. I have a recent video of her performance in an ABT gala, with her looking really old and about to retire - in fact, she retired the season after that particular taped performance. Well, she didn't look that old, but set against Paloma Herrera, ABT's new "star," well, you know what I mean. Anyway, I would have loved to see what she looked like in her prime.
Another interesting thing to read about would be the grief that Martine van Hamel was getting from all her artistic directors at ABT, including Baryshnikov. He was harping about her age (she was 41 in the 1986-87 season) and she was pissed off and asking, What the hell does my age have to do with anything? I've seen Martine van Hamel do Raymonda (the best Raymonda ever) and Myrtha from Giselle and I am such a big fan. By the time this book is written, she's now fighting for parts that Baryshnikov would rather give the new ballerinas, the new stars he wants to push, like, say, Susan Jaffe. When she gets injured all of a sudden, guess who easily slipped into the roles reserved for Susan with the greatest of ease? I love how she gets vindicated in the end, like the universe smiling on her in the best way.
And finally, my quote. I love this, it made me feel so much better about my dancing, well, at least it made me feel less of a freak:
"You get obsessed by dancing. There seems to be no choice. Sometimes, you are miserable, sometimes, you are floating in elation. But you can't leave it alone until the passion is spun out. If you are very lucky, you try not to hate it when you leave."
- Lisa Rinehart, dancer for ABT and Netherlands Dance Theater
1 comment:
I think it was good that you have enough information for your thesis. Some people do have problems researching about their topic and eventually lag behind on the work. If that happened, it is good to have the likes of this website to help ease the problem. Anyway, when did you finish your thesis paper? I bet you can dance with all the information in it.
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