Bad form in ballet

Maybe it’s their therapists’ fault. The oh-so-sensitive artists run off to therapy to make the case how they feel victimized by the employer, society, or the world. 

The artist cries, "They’ve done this to me. I didn’t fall out of shape, lose technique, get injured, grow older, become distracted, or start coasting because of my own doing. It was their fault.” 

 

The therapist says, “Life certainly should not be this unfair to you. Stand up for yourself. You’re strong enough to do that. That will be $200. Let’s continue our sessions three times per week.” 

 

The artist exclaims, “I feel so much better after our sessions. I’m empowered!” 

 

The therapist baits, “Of course you are empowered - that will be another $50 - assert yourself. Blow your horn. Go after what you want.” 

 

The artist asks, “Blow my horn? You mean, create a kerfuffle?” 

 

The therapist says, “If that’s what you need to do. Actually, I hate to say this, but - your time’s up for today.”

 

The surprised artist whines, “My time’s up?”

 

The therapist says, “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

 

Oh, good lord, what is there to say about these few obnoxious, over-entitled dancers who think that life owes them fairness and that they have every right to cat-scratch anyone who gets in their way. In the past few weeks, we have seen such ugliness from artists who we once admired for their dancing. They can’t currently dance, so they have to find some other way to grab the spotlight. It is and always has been a matter of grabbing the spotlight - any way they can get it.

 

In a week when a new brightly talented soloist stepped in to carry all of the performances of Firebird because other artists were injured, did the injured artists offer support and encouragement? Hell, no. Instead, they resorted to microaggressions by posting pictures of themselves as the Firebird on Instagram to remind everyone that they are the true owners of role and to try to dim enthusiasm for the debuting dancer. One injured artist, in particular, posted a mugshot of herself in Firebird headgear with a menacing expression, purportedly to convey unhappiness about the political climate, when in fact she wanted everyone to know how pissed off she was at not being the center of attention on stage as the Firebird.

 

In a week when the brilliance of the Balanchine/Stravinsky collaboration is being celebrated at NYCB, an injured dancer reaches out to the New York Times to convey how he is uncomfortable with the choreography and with playing the role it requires. Imagine this scenario. The veteran line worker at the Pringles factory in Podunk walks into the supervisor’s office and says, “You know, I’m not comfortable making Pringles any more. They are full of fat, sodium, and artificial ingredients. They can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer if people eat them. And, they can be addictive. I’m just not comfortable making these Pringles any more. What should we do, Boss?” We imagine that certain NYCB dancers would answer that Pringles manufacturing should be halted or the recipe should be changed. In their world, their sanctimony is just as important as their saut de chat.

 

In a week when New York City Ballet’s artistry has soared under its new leadership and new generation of dancers, a retired artist whose dancing should have required her to retire years earlier decided to air her gossipy, Page Six type family drama in The New York Times where the catchline All the news that’s fit to print has become All the views that are fit to skip. At her final performance, the complaining dancer's conditioning and technical level were mediocre. Regardless of the number of years that she may have chalked up as a dancer, she did not at that moment possess the qualifying skills to stand on New York City Ballet’s stage. But she was determined to celebrate herself, and New York City Ballet generously allowed her to do so even if it made the audience cringe.

 

What dancers do best is dance. We admire them so much when they present their best feet forward. Microaggressions, self-pity, ugly anger that can’t mask the underlying selfishness, and striking out at those who made their careers possible is damaging way beyond their chosen words. The end of a career should not come as a brutal fight to the finish line or an “I’ll die on this hill before giving it up” battle. Class counts for a lot. Every dancer should remember that.

 

Class counts.

 

Comments

[Shawn]

Very well-said, as always. These birdbrains should try to figure out the difference between a right and a privilege, and then try further still to identify which of the two categories applies to being a professional dancer.

[Rachel Perez]

This NYTimes story was not received by this balletomane as it was likely intended.

"How dare he take dance! It's my thing" -age 6
"But it's my THIRTY-FIRST birthday" - age 31
"A dance company should be about the dancers and not the ballets" - age 40ish
"But class wasn't mandatory!" - age 40

Give me a break. Grow up. Accept the consequences of the decisions you are privileged to make.

[yukionna]

The lack of self-awareness some dancers display is really something.

I did find it ironic how an ex-ballerina-turned-associate-director is now finds herself on the other side of a situation she used to complain about.

[Rachel Perez]

I honestly believe the NYTimes arts section (my autocorrect ironically corrected to "MY"times) may have an agenda, but its message is not hitting with me.

"Ballet was supposed to be MY thing" -age 6
"He did it on MY 31st birthday" -age 13
"Class was optional for ME" -age 40
"Ballet companies should be about the dancers/ME, not the ballets" -age 40

Grow up. And let go of the ego a bit.

[Haglund]

Good points, Rachel.

You know, the NYTimes didn't bother to cover Abi's farewell performance. Wonder why.

[Haglund]

Yukionna -- excellent point. The best thing that the associate director could do would be to say that she now understands that her director was right and she was wrong to have a sense of entitlement to the role of Sugarplum Fairy.

[Abi Lillo]

Hi, Haglund, can we have a conversation?

[Rachel Perez]

I meant 31 years of age when she felt the childish need to have an adult birth date be all about you..... 13 would be possibly understandable, though not enough to shatter a sibling relationship.

The Stravinsky Violin Concerto this afternoon was a site to behold!!!

[Haglund]

Abi, not useful.

[Eulalia Johnson]

Performers, share your joys and joy with us! But if you cannot transmute your woes into Art--if you cannot make them non-personal and larger than your self--it's wisdom to not disclose them. To turn suffering into something that exalts both artist and audience is a sacred task. Dido's grief ennobles our current experience and history of grief; anyone who plays her is also ennobled, if only in passing. One reason to go to the opera, the symphony, the ballet is to discipline the ego by cutting it down to size and reminding the soul who's boss. A performance of sufficient magnitude can shock the ego silent for days. Now that's effective therapy!

[Haglund]

Exactly.

Thank you, Eulalia.

[pennsylvania]

Stafford should have retired YEARS ago. But the lack of self-awareness as one commenter mentioned above is astounding.

ABT and NYCB both need to bring in outside hatchet men to trim the fat as they do in Corporate America. Because clearly the managers and artistic directors don't want to do the dirty work of telling these company "lifers" that they need to go.

[Melissa]

I am not a Whiteside fan by any means, but I appreciate a quote I heard from him in a free class he hosted for children during the pandemic. "Always take ballet seriously but never yourself."

I feel like some NYCB dancers could stand to hear that - much like my 12 year old needed to hear it. It's sad that adults need the same advice as a middle schooler.

[Gerry]

Bouder is irrelvant now and she knows it. Next!

[ELizabeth]

Ballet is an aesthetic artform and everyone pursuing a career in ballet knows this. While I have deep empathy for those with eating disorders, as I have battled with my own, part of the job description is being very lean. If a dancer cannot make the time to keep their body in top condition, then they do not deserve to dance certain roles. Especially if others could be injured from having to partner them.

[Jamie W]

I see nothing wrong with what Ratmansky said to her. He was protecting the men that would have to partner her. Their health and safety is important too. Ditto Whelan, although I find it very amusing that now Whelan has to be the one to delicately take dancers out of roles after she castigated Peter Martins for doing that exact thing to her.

It's unfortunate for Abi that jealously of her brother ate at her. Therapy would do her good.

[Eva M.]

My issue is with the NYTimes. It is hard to fathom why they decided any of these two issues were worthy of such attention. While I sympathize with dancers’ struggles as they are human like the rest of us and not perfect, and sure they need to find their place in their roles and that may not always come easy; and sure sibling rivalries are real hard things to navigate in life, yet it remains: none of this content was of a relevance in the field of dance as an art form to deserve such journalistic attention. 
The NY Times continues to be an enabler of the distortion of boundaries between the self and self-entitlement. As they fail to make these nuanced but important distinctions, too much of what they publish feels like indoctrination.

[Eulalia Johnson]

Eva M writes, "...too much of what they [NYT] publish feels like indoctrination." Hear, hear!

[HHfan]

Yes I agree when The NY Times publish this kind of gossip articules, does not make any favor to Abi, the leadership of NYCB and the dance community.

[Krystin]

Cringe. No other way to describe my feelings after reading the Stafford sibling profile.
I wasn't just cringing at Abi's odd comments about her childhood jealousies - I think I was more embarrassed that a NY Times reporter put them in the paper. I used to be a newspaper writer. It's normal to get gather background information to color your story. Not all of that color needs to go in the piece, and this is an example of that. But if the only goal was click bait, I suppose it worked.

[Haglund]

It seems like the NY Times relies on its clickbait trash to bring in readers that its dwindling journalism fails to entice. Unfortunately, anything about ballet has now been re-categorized from journalism to clickbait trash -- mostly because there just isn't anyone at NYT who can professionally review ballet anymore.

Just look how its "front page" online has devolved during its existence. Today "above the fold" online is an OPINION piece about why there are so many shampooers in New Jersey and bartenders elsewhere--an OPINION piece. And what is author Peter Coy's OPINION about all of his front page worthy critter shit? There seems to be no hint unless he's being so coy that his opinion is invisible to everyone but himself and the clickbait-clique at NYT.

[Diana]

We must thank The NY Times for giving Misty Copeland the opportunity to review Toni Bentley's book on Serenade.

After all, Ms. Copeland's is a voice that has been throttled by racism and misogyny. The fact that she has never danced the ballet is also a factor in her favor: we need diversity.

There are too many people who actually worked for Balanchine available to review the book (one, Allegra Kent, is a pretty good writer) - but why should they be the only ones we hear from? Shouldn't we hear from people who never worked for him, who have no expertise in Balanchine's technique, and no real relationship with his repertoire?

What would we do without The New York Times? I shudder to think.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/books/review/serenade-a-balanchine-story-toni-bentley.html