Do you remember the movie “Cocoon”?
“It is everything you’ve dreamed of. It is nothing you expect.”
That’s according to the IMDB tag line, anyway. The plot summary for this 1985 movie is even better: “When a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find themselves energized with youthful vigour.”
Why, you might ask, are you reading plot summaries for ridiculous Ron Howard films?
Well, holiday weeks demand frivolous posts, and it just so happens that the Culturist went to an American Ballet Theater matinée yesterday. As I approached the entrance of the Met, surrounded by hustling elders (it’s always awkward to be outpaced by folks who have decades on you - the Met lobby isn’t for the weak of heart), I had the strongest feeling that I was in the scene in which all of the old people are streaming toward the swimming pool in search of youth. Only, of course, an afternoon with ABT doesn’t make you young and fabulous again, it just offers the chance to sit in the dark and stare at fabulous young things jumping higher and spinning faster than you ever will (please note that yesterday’s ballet was “The Merry Widow,” in which the ridiculous old baron is made a cuckold by his beautiful young wife). Really, it’s the next best thing.
Naturally, I had been seated next to Francis Mason, who’s been watching dance about twice as long as I’ve been alive - he asked me what I was up to these days. When I told him about this blog, he remarked that he got his start in radio at WNYC in 1950.
Anyone even remotely involved in the arts knows that there is great anxiety over the graying of audiences. Series like Wordless Music are working to reinvigorate classical forms and find new audiences, and there is nothing like a matinée to drive home the need for such initiatives. Energy levels can dip to disconcerting levels, and the unwrapping of hard candy sometimes threatens to drown out the orchestra.
But I sort of love matinée crowds. I love the fabulous oral histories you often get when sitting next to a longtime theatergoer, whether it’s a professional like Mason who has intimate knowledge of such heavyweights as Martha Graham and George Balanchine, or a regular audience member who remembers seeing stars from decades’ past. And I love the weird mishaps with technology, like one incomparable Merce Cunningham Dance Company show at the Joyce Theater in which the audience was meant to listen to the score for one piece via iPods. I was seated behind a couple who had their iPods on during the entire show, and loud, only they didn’t know it because their hearing was shot.
While they kept kvetching about the machines not working, Mark Morris, a choreographer known for his musical ear and short fuse who happened to be seated directly across from them, grew increasingly agitated. In the end, he restrained himself to dark glares, but at one particularly fraught moment I thought, gleefully, that he might spring across the aisle and strangle them with their headphone wires …
And, speaking of dark glares, I am spending the holiday weekend at the Jersey Shore, where I will apparently be pissing off many a native. When an editor at WNYC found out I was going there, she sent me this fabulous segment about tensions between north Jersey Shore inhabitants and tourists from local cities, especially NYC, who are known as Bennys.
Witness the Benny in his natural environment. Or are these the natives?
Southern New Jersey shore residents, on the other hand, prefer the term “Shoobie.”
Culture. Ain’t it grand? Happy Fourth, everyone!
July 4th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I sort of love the idea that for an old man, an ABT performance is the next best thing to marrying a young girl. Too bad you didn’t see Mark Morris go off on a pair of people who probably wouldn’t be able to hear a word he said!
A huge advantage I learned to attending a matinee performance (I was at “Awake and Sing”, the revival on Broadway a few years back) was that as soon as the lights went down for intermission, I dashed out of my seat and raced all the walkers for the line to the bathroom. That was sweet.
July 6th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
It’s the little victories that make life worth living, right Jolene?
July 7th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Always. I have to get my kicks out of little victories in life; there is nothing else.
I agree that it’s not the number of old people that bother me in theaters, but the lack of younger ones. I just hope the solution isn’t a ballet of Princess Diana and Prince Charles, or Judy Garland. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2008/06/anything_but_ballet.html
July 7th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
But imagine if it were amazing, this Princess Diana ballet! The problem, as I see it, is the motivation behind these “reaching out” efforts, coupled with piss-poor execution. I’ll take my art any old way, and in any old company, just let it be good.
Thanks for the link … have you, or anyone else for that matter, ever seen one of these so-called “crossover” thingies that worked? I’m all for ballet telling contemporary stories. I would love nothing else than to see an ABT season full of new tales. And I can’t wait to see how “Brokeback Mountain” works as an opera. But it’s hard to trust the motives behind so many of the crossovers, and even harder to stomach the results.
July 7th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I think that part of the problem with these “crossover” ideas that ballet seems to sometimes embrace (Princess Diana, Divas, Dracula . . . ) is that they’re too literal. To use the Diana one as an example, someone could do a great ballet dealing with some of the themes/issues of her life: fame, class, wealth, etc. That seems far more likely than someone making an artistically successful ballet that’s specifically about her. At least at this point in time. And that’s setting aside the fact that I think it’s a “crossover” far more likely to appeal to someone of my grandmother’s generation than to someone of mine.
I agree that it would be wonderful to see ABT do a whole season of new work on themes and stories that are contemporary. But not if it means being subjected to ballets about famous people and whatnot. Not that you were suggesting that! I just think there seem to be those who hear contemporary and think celebrity. I think in some ways that’s such a conservative decision that it’s unlikely to bring in a younger or diverse audience.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Is it completely my bias that I immediately assumed that more time and effort would be spent on Diana’s wig than the actual choreography?? You’re right - if it was a great piece of art, of course I would swoon all over it. But my gut reaction is that its intentions and motivations for its creation lies elsewhere.
A cross over idea that worked - hm, that’s a tough one. The closest I can come up with is Caniparoli’s “Ibsen’s House”, one of the new works in SF Ballet’s New Works Festival, based on Henrik Ibsen’s plays that challenged feminist roles in Victorian society. It worked in the sense that it captured the struggle of women in a stifling society in many different relationships, and told each story beautifully, although the specifics in each relationship were unclear. For instance, one couple I mistakenly labeled as husband and wife, and I later learned that they were supposed to portray mother and son. I liked how the piece captured the mood of the time period and personal stories, rather than to explain literal specifics.
http://saturdaymatinee.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/program-c-san-francisco-ballets-new-works-festival/
I’m still having a hard time with the idea that it was a good idea to make ballet dancers sing in West Side Story Suite. It sells tickets though, as it brought a lot of newbies into a ballet theater. I liked WSS for what it was; I found it entertaining. The singing, not so much.
July 8th, 2008 at 10:14 am
It’s a sensible bias, though - my first Diana thought was to roll my eyes. I agree with Meg completely - a., Any interest I had in Princess Diana was long ago exhausted and, b., I have a hard time imagining it working if done in literal fashion.
I went to ABT’s “Giselle” last night - it was an incredible performance, danced by Nina Ananiashvili and Angel Corella. But I kept thinking two things: imagine what it would be like to see a set that consisted of skyscrapers instead of trees, and it’s such a shame that two sublime theatrical creatures like Ananiashvili and Corella aren’t allowed to dance more adult roles. Both have mellowed into such mature actors, wouldn’t it be great to see them attack the trials of two contemporary, middle aged people (imagine Ananiashvili as a CEO of a Fortune 500 Company!) instead of playing at being young maidens and princes?
July 8th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I’d love to see Ananiashvili as Carly Fiorina, her rise to power and her downfall being fired as the CEO of HP. I can’t picture it though, with Nina dancing in a suit, surrounded by lots of young yes men in power suits (like male fembots).
Do you think that a modern full length classic with a skyscraper backdrop will be created? Like a Giselle set in Manhattan, a la Sex and the City. Perhaps not on a ballet stage (Broadway, maybe). The best I was hoping for was a recreation of a classic, although from the one review that I read, it doesn’t sound like Morris’ R+J is going to be it.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:43 am
That would be FABULOUS. I am imagining a dream ballet, a la the Kingdom of the Shades, but done by men, and not done for camp or to be ironic …
It has to happen some day, doesn’t it? Either that or the full-length will just die out. Susan Stroman, perhaps, although she doesn’t have such a sophisticated knowledge of ballet technique as a language. But word is she’s going to do a project with Damian Woetzel, so fingers are crossed.
My money is on Brian Reeder - I wish ABT would give him the resources to do a major work for the main company and not ABT II. He has such a flair for storytelling, and he wants to tell new stories. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that he was dreaming of doing Stephen King’s “Carrie.”
I’m going to see Morris’ R&J tonight. We shall see …