Balanchine and Kirstein's American Enterprise

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Steichen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Hollywood Cinema ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
Broadway Musicals

George Balanchine is today one of the most celebrated figures in twentieth-century ballet and is closely identified with the two institutions he helped found in collaboration with Lincoln Kirstein: the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet. During the early years of their efforts in the 1930s, Balanchine and Kirstein’s enterprise underwent numerous changes and transformations. The complexity of their endeavors has been misrepresented in many existing accounts of their lives and careers, in part because their activities have not been assessed as a whole. This book chronicles Balanchine’s and Kirstein’s work between 1933 and 1940 in the spheres of ballet, opera, Broadway musicals, and Hollywood cinema. This new account shows the ways in which their collective and individual efforts influenced and affected one another and ultimately shaped the character of the institutions they would eventually found. The work of the short-lived organizations the American Ballet (1935–38) and Ballet Caravan (1936–40) brought together dozens of dancers and collaborators, and the activity of these companies was closely related to work of the School of American Ballet as well as Balanchine’s projects in Broadway musical theater and film.

Nietzsche's Looming Presence in the 1930s Dance Polemics of John Martin and Lincoln Kirstein

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-203
Author(s):  
Rachel Straus
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
Modern Dancers

Some of the most perplexingly antagonistic comments about the differences between modern dance and ballet can be found strewn throughout the works of two pioneering twentieth-century American dance writers: John Martin (1893–1985) –  The New York Times's first permanent dance critic, champion of modern dancers and early supporter of Martha Graham ( Kisselgoff et al. 1988 : 44) – and Lincoln Kirstein (1907–1996), the prodigious author, impresario, and balletomane, who cofounded with George Balanchine the New York City Ballet. Looming behind a significant number of Martin's and Kirstein's appraisals and condemnations of modern dance and ballet are Friedrich Nietzsche's aesthetics, particularly his Apollonian-Dionysian conceptualisations. This essay investigates the reception of Nietzsche in the context of the 1930s writing of these two dance critics, particularly in respect to their treatment of gender. Foundational for this essay's development are the analyses of Nietzsche's reception by earlier twentieth-century dance figures in the works of Susan Jones (2013 , 2010 ), Susan Manning (2006) and Kimerer LaMothe (2006) .

Making Ballet 3

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Harris
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Movement Analysis ◽  
Story Line ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Ballet History ◽  
Choreographic Analysis

Making Ballet 3 provides a choreographic analysis of the ballet Western Symphony, produced by the New York City Ballet in 1954 with choreography by George Balanchine, music by Hershy Kay, scenery by John Boyt, and costumes by Karinska. It brings to light the multitude of intertextual allusions that occur throughout the ballet, playfully intermingling references of “America” with an entire lineage of nineteenth-century European classicism. Although Western Symphony has no story line, it crafts a deliberate message: a long, transatlantic genealogy of Western classicism that, in the twentieth century, has come to rest in America. Drawing on archival sources and movement analysis, this interchapter argues that Western Symphony incorporates parody to present a revisionist ballet history in which the high cultural lineages of Europe and America are intimately entwined. Ultimately, this message reinforced the Atlanticist politics of private and state anticommunist groups in the cultural Cold War, the historical setting for its production and performance.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Harris
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lincoln Center

The Conclusion briefly examines the current state of the New York City Ballet under the auspices of industrial billionaire David H. Koch at Lincoln Center. In so doing, it to introduces a series of questions, warranting still more exploration, about the rapid and profound evolution of the structure, funding, and role of the arts in America through the course of the twentieth century. It revisits the historiographical problem that drives Making Ballet American: the narrative that George Balanchine was the sole creative genius who finally created an “American” ballet. In contrast to that hagiography, the Conclusion reiterates the book’s major contribution: illuminating the historical construction of our received idea of American neoclassical ballet within a specific set of social, political, and cultural circumstances. The Conclusion stresses that the history of American neoclassicism must be seen as a complex narrative involving several authors and discourses and crossing national and disciplinary borders: a history in which Balanchine was not the driving force, but rather the outcome.

Pediatric Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: An Unusually High Incidence of Twinning

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 86 (5) ◽  
pp. 774-777
Author(s):  
PAULINE A. THOMAS ◽  
STEVEN J. RALSTON ◽  
MARIE BERNARD ◽  
ROSALYN WILLIAMS ◽  
RITA O'DONNELL
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Hiv Infection ◽  
York City ◽  
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Pediatric Aids ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
Acquired Immunodeficiency ◽  
Immunodeficiency Syndrome

Surveillance data on incidence of twins among reported cases of pediatric AIDS in New York City are presented. Most pairs are concordant for HIV infection. Three discordant pairs have been described elsewhere. Possible reasons for the association are discussed, including the most likely explanation that twins show symptoms early and are overrepresented in the early years of surveillance of pediatric AIDS.

Cocaine injection and ethnicity in parenteral drug users during the early years of the human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) epidemic in new york city

1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Novick ◽  
Harold L. Trigg ◽  
Don C. Des Jarlais ◽  
Samuel R. Friedman ◽  
David Vlahov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Drug Users ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Hiv Epidemic ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Parenteral Drug

scholarly journals Nueva York 1916. La ciudad sin límites | New York 1916. Unlimited city

ZARCH ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
José Durán Fernández
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
York City ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Siglo Xx ◽  
The City

La Ciudad de Nueva York fue pionera en la aplicación de un sistema de planificación de control urbano que pusiera orden y concierto a una ciudad que rebasa los 5 millones de habitantes a principios del siglo XX. Tal complejo organismo urbano, inédito hasta ese momento, fue objeto del más ambicioso plan urbano sobre una ciudad construida.Este artículo se destina al estudio de este originario plan urbano de 1916, el cual sentaría las bases, unas ciertamente visionarias otras excesivas, de la construcción de la Ciudad de Nueva York en todo el siglo XX. La Building Zone Resolution se creó con dos fines: resolver los problemas de congestión humana en un espacio reducido, la ciudad del presente, y proponer una visión del espacio urbano en las décadas venideras, la ciudad del futuro.El artículo es un compendio de diez textos cortos y un epílogo, que junto a sus respectivos diez documentos gráficos, construyen el corpus de la investigación. El lector pues se enfrenta a un ensayo gráfico formado por pequeños capítulos que le sumergirán en los orígenes de la primera ciudad vertical de la historia.PALABRAS CLAVE: Nueva York; Planeamiento; Visión urbana.The city of New York was a pioneer in the implementation of an urban control planning system that set in order a city that exceeds five million people in the early twentieth century. Such complex urban organism – invaluable until that moment – was the target for the most ambitious urban planning on a built city.This paper focuses on the study of this initial urban planning from 1916, which would set the basis, certainly some visionary yet others excessive, for the building of New York City throughout the 20th century. The Building Zone Resolution was created with two purposes: to solve the issues related to the human bundle in a limited space, the city of the present, and to aim a vision of the urban space in the forthcoming decades, the city of the future.The article is a compendium of ten short texts and one epilogue, which in combination with ten graphic documents, frame the corpus of this investigation. Thus, the reader will face a graphic essay composed by a series of brief chapters that highlight the beginning of the first vertical city in history.KEYWORDS: New York; Planning; Urban vision.

Christopher Wheeldon

2021 ◽  
pp. 735-753
Author(s):  
Rachel Straus
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
The Press ◽  
Michael Jackson

In 2000, English-born Christopher Wheeldon became the first artist-in-residence at New York City Ballet (NYCB). The press compared his choreography to George Balanchine’s. This chapter discusses Wheeldon’s critically acclaimed NYCB ballet Polyphonia (2001) in relation to the “thick narrative” of the company’s history. It argues that Wheeldon’s collaborations with NYCB dancers Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto, in Polyphonia and other works, produced a unique aesthetic, one that transcended Balanchine’s neoclassical legacy. The chapter ends by considering how Wheeldon’s controversial decision to direct the Broadway musical about Michael Jackson is not out of character, but emblematic of his propensity to embrace the role of an outsider, who works to understand the unfamiliar and who surpasses what is expected of him.

Black Song, Dance, and Theater in pre-World War I New York City

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
World War I ◽  
York City ◽  
Musical Theater ◽  
Labor Union ◽  
Symphony Orchestra ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
World War ◽  
Performance Space

Between 1896 and 1915, Black professional entertainers transformed New York City’s most established culture industries—musical theater and popular song publishing—and helped create two new ones: social dancing and music recording. While Black culture workers’ full impact on popular entertainment and Black modernism would not be felt until after World War I, the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age were decades in the making. Stage performers Williams and Walker and their musical director Will Marion Cook introduced full-scale Black musical theater to Broadway between 1902 and 1909; songwriters-turned-performers Cole and Johnson expanded the style and substance of ragtime songs along Tin Pan Alley; James Reese Europe created a labor union for Black musicians that got hundreds of players out of Black nightclubs into high-paying White elites’ homes, eventually bringing a 200-person all-Black symphony orchestra to Carnegie Hall for the first concert of its kind at the august performance space. James Europe’s Clef Club Inc. also caught the ears of Manhattan’s leading social dancers, the White Irene and Vernon Castle, in ways that helped disseminate Europe’s ragtime dance bands across America and, by 1913, became the first Black band to record phonographs, setting important precedents for the hit jazz and blues records of the postwar era. While James Europe would go on to win renown as the musical director of the Harlem Hell Fighters—the most-decorated infantry unit to fight in World War I—his prewar community of professional entertainers had already successfully entered into New York City’s burgeoning, and increasingly national, commercial culture markets. By studying some of the key figures in this story it becomes possible to get a fuller sense of the true cultural ferment that marked this era of Black musical development. Stage performers Williams and Walker and Cole and Johnson, behind-the-scenes songwriters Will Marion Cook and James Weldon Johnson, and musicians such as James Reese Europe’s artistic and entrepreneurial interventions made African Americans central players in creating the Manhattan musical marketplace and helped make New York City the capital of U.S. performance and entertainment.

“Ballet Is a Flower”

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-128
Author(s):  
Anne Searcy
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
York City ◽  
Soviet Government ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
The Soviet Union

Chapter 4 analyzes New York City Ballet’s (NYCB’s) 1962 tour of the Soviet Union and the Soviet reception of NYCB choreographer George Balanchine. Previous scholarly accounts have claimed the Soviet reviews of Balanchine’s works were heavily censored, and that, as a result, the tour undermined the authority of the Soviet government with the intelligentsia. Chapter 4 re-examines this tour, using transliteration as a way of modeling the Soviet response to Balanchine. This re-examination shows that Soviet cultural authorities were not at all hostile to the choreographer or his company. The Soviet critics mostly accepted Balanchine’s ballets, but they reframed his accomplishments within their own debates about drambalet and choreographic symphonism. According to Balanchine’s Soviet critics, his works were successful precisely because they reaffirmed the value of the Russian systems of training, artistry, and meaning.

Balanchine, George (1904–1983)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
York City ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
Classical Dance ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Classical Ballet

George Balanchine (Georgii Melitonovich Balanchivadze), arguably the greatest ballet choreographer of the twentieth century, was at once both modernist and traditionalist. Unlike many radical innovators, in charting new ground he did not reject the past. Virtually all of his major works make reference, even if obliquely, to the classical ballet technique in which he was trained. Although born in Russia and active in Europe in the early part of his career, it was in America that he made his greatest impact, directing the New York City Ballet, which he co-founded with Lincoln Kirstein, from its inception in 1948 until his death in 1983. During this time, the company grew from modest beginnings to become one of the most important ballet troupes in the world. Balanchine is credited with creating a particularly American style of classical dance, one that is characterized by speed, precision, energy, daring, and a rough grace more associated with athletes than with sylphs. His more than 400 dance works include Apollo (1928), Serenade (1934), Concerto Barocco (1941), Le Palais de cristal (later renamed Symphony in C) (1948), Orpheus (1948), The Nutcracker (1954), Agon (1957), Symphony in Three Movements (1972), Stravinsky Violin Concerto (1972), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Ballo della Regina (1978), and Mozartiana (1981).

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