Foot in Mouth

Among the books and flowers Wood engraving by Raoul Dufy from my namesake's bestiary poems, subtitled "Procession of Orpheus" (1911) Notes on ballet events long past William Forsythe's "Impressing the Czar," performed by the Royal Ballet of Flanders at the Lincoln Center Festival in the company's U.S. debut, late July. I was particularly struck by the choreographer's deftness at fomenting … [Read more...]

Merce Cunningham dancer Daniel Madoff has constructed a very nifty website for touring dancers and their fans. He explains: Touringdancers.com is targeted specifically at touring dance companies and their audiences. It features a combined company calendar in which the viewer can see multiple company calendars side by side. The benefit for dancers is that they can locate their fellow dancers … [Read more...]

Among the many absurd and badly paying jobs I've had--ghostwriting a mail-in Ph.D. on economics, wrapping holiday Crate and Barrel purchases in enough paper to have kept little Jesus warm, translating Richard III  into easy English--one I recall without shuddering is as an all-purpose office assistant to some all-purpose Israeli émigrés in the Bay Area. Their various schemes included buying … [Read more...]

Foot in Mouth invited dancer, dance teacher, and writer Theresa Ruth Howard to reflect on Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater's fiftieth anniversary, which the company is currently in the middle of, from the inside out. Here she is: In history books, memoirs, and biographies, the subjects of the photographs--peering out from so very long ago--appear to readers as we have come to know them: at home … [Read more...]

I know, I know, Foot in Mouth has been experiencing a time warp lately. Here, for example, are some thoughts on a ballet I saw more than two weeks ago.   In his "Goldberg Variations," to the complete Bach score, Jerome Robbins concludes most of his own variations with a flock of dancers rushing in from the wings as the dancers already there finish up. It's a nice touch, a little joke about … [Read more...]

"It's so internal!" my friend Amanda says with admiration about Neil Greenberg's "Really Queer Dance with Harps," which premiered a couple of weeks ago at Dance Theater Workshop. One move--a series of changements on half-point--reminded her of a schizophrenic she'd seen outside a hospital in Rome jangling his insides with stiff little jumps. The insides of Greenberg's dancers are not at risk: … [Read more...]

I should have mentioned Neil Greenberg's show at DTW already, as I've never seen anything by him I haven't liked, if not been deeply moved by. (I'm going Friday, tonight--and may have more to say later [UPDATE: here is that more]). Thankfully, Foot in Mouth contributor Eva Yaa Asantewaa reminded me, with this rave on her blog: Everybody's thrilled by and writing about Neil Greenberg's new Really … [Read more...]

I try not to resort too often to the common blog tactic of letting other writers do the work, but I won't be able to get anything up until next week and my colleague Joel Lobenthal, of the New York Sun, has written a wonderful tribute to the exceptional Wendy Whelan, of New York City Ballet. So I can't resist. Enjoy! Whelan and retired principal dancer Jock Soto in Christopher Wheeldon's … [Read more...]