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It’s roundup time again

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) Dream on, Newt:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says that the January 6 Select Committee has broken several laws, and its members could face jail time should the GOP take back Congress in November…

Gingrich accused the committee of “running over the law” and “pursuing innocent people” without justification.

“It’s basically a lynch mob,” Gingrich said.

“I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down. The wolves are gonna find out they’re now sheep, and they’re the ones who are, in fact, I think, going to face a real risk of going to jail for the kind of laws that they’re breaking,” Gingrich added.

I think Gingrich is way out over his skis on that one. It’s not that I don’t think they’ve probably broken the law. But who would prosecute them; the DOJ? Nope.

(2) I had wondered what was going to happen to WalkAway founder Brandon Straka, after I learned he’d been arrested for his participation in January 6th. Now the news is out: three months’ home confinement, three years’ probation, and a $5K fine.

(3) I haven’t quite kept up with wokeness in ballet, but this statement by the Princeton University Ballet doesn’t surprise me. Before quoting it, I want to add that ballet at most colleges isn’t very good, although there are some (when I last checked: University of Utah, Indiana University at Bloomington, and a few more) that have very good ballet and dance departments. It’s somewhat of special thing, as might be expected in a university setting. Nevertheless, many colleges and universities do have some dance, which is often part of the physical education department. Here’s Princeton:

Ballet is rooted in white supremacy and perfectionism. We are all entering this space with a mindset that what we see as perfect is a white standard. Unlearning that will be difficult but rewarding. Before we begin detailing our action plan, we want to acknowledge that our leadership and those who composed this plan are all white.

No, it’s not the Babylon Bee. It goes on for quite some time, including this:

We would also like to open a conversation about body image and take steps to heal and deconstruct the harmful and racialized ideas about body image that many of PUB’s members enter the company with just by virtue of being a ballet dancer. Historically, PUB has been neutral on this issue, and while body neutrality is something some may strive for individually, it is not realistic or helpful for a group of ballet dancers who have internalized damaging ideas about how they should eat and what they should look like.

There are actually quite a few well-known black ballet dancers these days. But yes, body image is a huge issue in dance – and I might add an inescapable one that is inextricably tied into ballet itself. When the body is the instrument, the way that body looks is the bottom line. Duh! Anorexia has been rampant in ballet for many decades, and it really is an issue. But so is everything about the body and the way it looks: length of legs and arms, for example, or of neck, and of course weight, and just about anything else. It cannot be escaped, because there are esthetics that are most pleasing in ballet and create the most elegant and beautiful line, plus one cannot even achieve any expertise in ballet without certain physical characteristics such as turnout, which tends to go with a certain hip structure.

(4) Dartmouth caves to Antifa’s threats of violence by canceling a scheduled event on left-wing violence. Left-wing violence? Does not compute.

[ADDENDUM to #3: This woman was not the least bit troubled by the “whiteness” of ballet. Amazing story.]

Comments

It’s roundup time again — 75 Comments

  2. Rod Dreher (at TAC) has also addressed the lamentable case of Princeton’s succumbing to madness (“Hateful Whitey Binds Her Feet”). One of the most distressing and dispiriting elements of the tsunami of “wokeness” which has inundated the entire nation is that no part of the culture has been spared devastation. Last year, PBS (funded, at least in part, by the long-suffering taxpayer) showed a three-part documentary on the magnificent Met in NYC (far and away the greatest collection of treasures in the Western Hemisphere, although now run from the top by incompetent charlatans). The series, entitled “Inside the Met”, devoted more of its time to issues of “social justice” (the blessed martyr Floyd, diversity, the “racial reckoning”, etc) than to matters aesthetic or historical.

  3. In the name of justice let us have many more slobberingly obese ballerinas.

    Who needs Suzanne Farrell when you can have Lizzo?

  4. What is the deep hidden subtextual, systemic message in item (4)? White fragility, white supremacy, racist, and shut up Nazi!

    The other “n” word, now with 100% less content.

  6. White ballet dancers lecturing themselves and others on how not to be so white. How stupid.

    In addition to the aesthetics to which Neo refers, it seems to me some female body types would make it physically harder to achieve the balance and line ballet requires — specifically, a large, heavy bust (and possibly heavy buttocks) would make the moves that much harder.

    I took a ballet class for a year in college, to satisfy a PE requirement. At 5’10.5″, I was never going to be a ballerina, but I tried hard, attended every class, and got As for effort. A couple of years ago, the college published an essay by a dance instructor who choreographed a “Hands up, don’t shoot!” routine. Letters to the bulletin editor pointing out that the episode was apocryphal were not well-received.

  7. Justice for the more despicable members of J6 is unlikely, but so is the Bengals being one win away from the Super Bowl. If there’s that 70 seat flip some consider on the edge of possibility, watch the fur fly.

  8. Did you catch this:

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/397562.php

    You would think a career politicians with one of those JD degrees (one who remains a notional member of the DC Bar) would be alive to the necessity of respecting rules of administrative procedure. Kathy Hochul reminds one that electoral politics is a great collecting pool of lawyers who are not adept at making a living practicing law and usually only put in a few years at it. Have to re-read that ‘Rule of the Midwits’ article.

  9. I took a few minutes to draft a statement for the percussion discipline in Princeton’s Music Department. They have my permission to use it in their literature, on their website and in any other media form they choose.

    Percussion is rooted in American Indigenous and African supremacy and perfectionism. We are all entering this space with a mindset that what we see as perfect is an American Indigenous and African standard. Unlearning that will be difficult but rewarding.

    and…

    We would also like to open a conversation about timing and rhythm and take steps to heal and deconstruct the harmful and racialized ideas about timing and rhythm that many of PUM’s members enter the percussion department with just by virtue of being a percussionist. Historically, PUM has been neutral on this issue, and while timing and rhythm are something some may strive for individually, it is not realistic or helpful for a group of percussionists who have internalized damaging ideas about how they should percuss.

  10. Question for Neo about the differences between male and female feet when it comes to dance. I remember that she posted a video a few years back about male Georgian folk dancers who dance en pointe, and she included some comments about the difficulty of that technique given the structure of the male foot. Here’s a video about a young woman who designs custom-made pointe shoes who has just completed fitting a transgender dancer. Neo says, ” . . . there are esthetics that are most pleasing in ballet and create the most elegant and beautiful line.” Can a transgender dancer’s feet create that beautiful line? I’m genuinely curious.

    Pointe Shop video here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KK_pmf7N510&ab_channel=ThePointeShop

  13. Kate– I always liked the fact that Nureyev had a sense of humor as well as outstanding talent. I’m glad you enjoyed the clip.

  14. As a guy who grew up loving pro wrestling and comic books it is hilarious to see the “wages of wokeness” run rampant through the extremely white world of the fine arts.

    Mike

  15. “. . . there are esthetics that are most pleasing in ballet and create the most elegant and beautiful line, . . . . [Neo]

    The criticism would be that this is precisely the “white supremacist” component that Princeton battles against.

    The rejoinder should be “So what?” The reality is that ballet is a development of Western civilization and, as such, should be replete with western sensibilities of elegance, movement, and form. Other forms of dance may well include elements of primitive (yes, I said it!) or non-western cultures. Again, so what? It doesn’t make them better, worse, superior, or inferior, just different. That a person might prefer classic ballet to, say, the choreography of Bob Fosse does not make one a white supremacist, much to the dismay of the left.

  16. The exception that proves the rule is Wayne Sleep OBE, who stands 5’2″ and became a star at the Royal Ballet (doing character parts).

  17. Well, the short description of events is true:
    “Everything WOKE touches turns to shit”
    I have cancelled membership and attendance to LA Phil, LA Opera and LA Chorus because of (1) lawlessness in LA due to our criminal Soros backed DA and (2) the Wokeness of the performances — opera being the worst.
    We got the warning with the homosexual Swan Lake (I am not referring to Trockadero, which is hilarious; I am referring to the serious full length adaptation).
    Finally…we have now moved into the realm of FARCE:

    https://viewfromthewing.com/tsa-now-accepts-arrest-warrants-from-undocumented-immigrants-as-id-for-airport-security/#:~:text=The%20Transportation%20Security%20Administration%20says%20that%20undocumented%20immigrants,their%20identity.%E2%80%9D%20According%20to%20TSA%20Administrator%20David%20Pekoske%2C

    TSA Now Accepts Arrest Warrants From Undocumented Immigrants As ID For Airport Security

  18. tcrosse:

    Not really an exception, because the aesthetic is different for male and female dancers, plus I didn’t say ballet dancers had to be tall. In fact, in generally ballet dancers are shorter than most people think. Barishnikov, one of the greatest male dancers of all time – and not a character dancer – was barely 5’4″. Character dancers have even more leeway (the men, that is).

    When I spoke of length of leg, by the way, I wasn’t meaning absolute length, I was referring to proportionate length. Body proportions are key.

  20. T:

    Ballet esthetics are not arbitrary. If there was a company made of fat ballet dancers, for example, or ones with short legs (for example) or who were not turned out, they would not be able to do the choreography. Whatever they would dance, it wouldn’t be ballet. Also, I doubt very much they’d get anyone but their families to come and watch.

  23. “Biden”/Soros prosecutor “par excellence”:
    “Soros-backed prosecutor ordered to turn over concealed records to Just the News;
    “Documents concern St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner’s alleged misconduct in botched prosecution of ex-Missouri governor”
    https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/soros-backed-prosecutor-ordered-turn-over-concealed-records-just-news

    Key grafs:
    “…The open-records request sought documents related to Gardner’s failed 2018 prosecution of Greitens, a former Navy SEAL and rising Republican star who was forced to resign less than two years into his term.
    “Gardner accused Greitens of felony invasion of privacy for allegedly threatening to release a picture of his scantily clad girlfriend if she talked about their affair. The Soros-funded prosecutor had to drop the case, however, after admitting she didn’t have the photo or other evidence to sustain the charges.
    “Last year, Missouri’s chief legal disciplinary officer accused Gardner of rampant misconduct in her prosecution of Greitens, saying she lied to judges in court filings and testimony, withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense, misled her own prosecution team, and violated the constitutional right to a fair trial.
    “In a 73-page memo, Chief Disciplinary Counsel Alan Pratzel alleged Gardner engaged in 62 acts of misconduct that resulted in 79 false representations during her prosecution of Greitens.”

    And she’s just one of ’em.

  24. PA Cat; tcrosse:

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen a male dancer, even one dancing on pointe such as the Trocks, who has the highly arched flexibility of the female ballet dancers’ feet.

    “Try” is the correct word. That guy in the video posted by tcrosse – who isn’t transgender as far as I can tell – is on pointe, but his feet are not anywhere near as arched as female ballet dancers’ feet.

  25. Brandon Straka is a native of O’Neill, Holt County, Nebraska. O’Neill is on the eastern edge of the Sandhills.

  26. For what it’s worth, I attended the Huntsville (AL) Symphony last weekend and before they got under way playing Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme and Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre the audience rose while the orchestra struck up the National Anthem. Huh? I’ve never experienced that at a classical concert!?!
    Leave it to those Southerners to remember ‘who brung ’em to the dance’. And they’re the ones that wanted to leave the Union in the first place. I wonder how long it will be until wokeness outlaws this pleasant tradition.

  27. Copied from my post at PowerLine:

    In general, “ballet” can be performed by anyone; pointe, however, requires not only training, discipline, and practice but also a specific skeletal type, especially in the arch of the foot. Serious pre-professional schools have girls’ legs and feet X-rayed prior to puberty in order to access whether the girls’ continuing pointe training is reasonable given her eventual development, including her height.

    Physics is an essential factor in pointe as well. In order to dance on her toes, execute turns, and be lifted by a partner, a ballerina must have a certain weight-to-height ratio.

    I took ballet for years, including a year of pointe. I did not have the dedication (or, honestly, body type) required to be any good at it, but I did earn the highest grade on the written test. 🙂

  28. “Three months’ home confinement, three years’ probation, and a $5K fine” for Brandon Straka. (Is it okay to slip in a gratuitous “let’s go Brandon” here?)

    How similar might that be, the way things are playing out in some jurisdictions, to the penalty for being caught in public unvaccinated? (With or without the $5K fine?)

  29. Buddhist monks and certain others had a more spectacular way to protest imperialism, gain public attention for their cause, and deconstruct their own existence, back in the 1960’s

    I suggest that to prove their sincerity and atone for their earlier hypocrisy and complicity in a system of oppression, that these Princeton ballerinas do likewise. That they decamp to the quad – any quad will do – phone the local news, and on the news crews’ arrival douse themselves with the most effective igniter, and strike a match while chanting “Hail Satan”; or if they prefer, the academic version of it: “Down with Logo(s)-centrism”

  30. By the way, I care nothing for ballet, for preserving it as an art form, or about the inside baseball as to ideal body types.

    My comment addresses the broader issue of the pernicious social effects of the politically sublimated masochism of the pussy hat and progressive brigades.

    On the positive side, we have reached a point where their rhetoric is actually indicative of their psychological migration outside the circle of the nomic into the realm of dissolution and chaos masquerading as “care” and identification.

    Quite bracing and liberating to see it come to this, really.

  31. 1) Agree as long as the DOJ is in the hands of the Marxists there will be no cases on their comrades
    2) Political prisoners are going to pay, see #1
    4) Fear of the Left is the biggest motivating factor in the country

  32. Many here would appreciate David Epstein’s book, “The Sports Gene.” “Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance.”

    He looks at the question of nature vs. nurture with good, real world examples of individuals who took both paths to excellence. However, in many sports the elite all have identical, or very similar, asymptotic genetic (ab?)normalities. It’s a good read well written.

    There are many, very interesting investigations, but one example, a female, British marathoner who is exceptional (top handful of female marathoners worldwide), but simply cannot win when the temperature climbs above a certain level. Her body adapted for excellence on the cold, damp British isles. No matter how much “heart,” “drive,” “motivation…” she’s still British. The chapter on the two high jumpers is also very interesting.

  33. Funny, but I have no desire for anyone to burn to death for any reason. I’m odd in that way I guess.

  34. That guy in the video posted by tcrosse – who isn’t transgender as far as I can tell….

    Would his feet be different if he were transgendered?

  35. Neo my wife has extremely high arched feet and was a ballerina before matriculating to college. Did this anatomic feature aid her ability to perform in this artform?

  37. Regarding ballet, the short answer is Vonnegut’s, “Harrison Bergeron.”

    But no one’s ever accused me of being brief.

    Almost all entertainments people pay to see, or give medals or trophies for, center on other people who are often genetic freaks devoting absurd amounts of time perfecting otherwise useless skills. Every culture does it. Calling it “whiteness” is not only incorrect, it’s culturally insensitive.

    Every guitar picker, pianist, marathoner, NBA player, spelling bee finalist, portrait painter, actress, stand up comedian… Spent absurd, ridiculous, nonsensical amounts of time robotically repeating scales, dribbling, running, jumping, memorizing word definitions, practicing brush strokes, telling jokes to their image in a mirror, memorizing and repeating lines while varying intonation, timing, facial expressions, posture… Step after step. Year after year.

    And then we take the group that labored anonymously for years and pit them against one another until only those willing to sacrifice beyond most people’s levels of tolerance break through. Or until competition selects out only those outside of three standard deviations of the mean of human genetics.

    Greatness means uniqueness. For ballerinas that means uniquely determined, uniquely, physically gifted, and uniquely willing to control diet. For a stand up comedian it means uniquely determined, uniquely able to handle rejection, uniquely able to maneuver the human fear of public speaking and a unique sense of humor.

    All former members of my Undergraduate University’s marching band are invited to come back and play in the “Fossil Band” and march on the field at the football Homecoming game. Four years ago I did just that. Along with the marching band the school has cheerleaders and also dancers. Back in my day the dancers were all female, getting in was as competitive as getting on the cheerleading squad or marching band, and there were requirements for weight based on height. They were weighed weekly and if you missed weight you were drummed out. Mene mene tekel upharsin.

    Well, you know where this is going… Upon my return I quickly noticed some of the dancers were putting a lot of stress on their sequined, lamé outfits. But the one guy in the group (who was also wearing the women’s unitard) actually seemed thin-nish. Some of the young ladies were beyond zaftig. They were unhealthily large. Their routines were nowhere near as polished and well executed as the troupe did when I was an Undergrad. In other words, the thing had become a joke. They couldn’t perform to a standard of excellence because they were no longer selecting to an excellent standard. I’m happy to report the band is still a meritocracy and the musicians were every bit as good as back in my day, but how much longer until we decide it’s not fair that someone doesn’t play piccolo well, and is not afforded the opportunity to march?

  39. DNW:

    It comes as zero surprise that you don’t like ballet. But your suggestion that they immolate themselves is one of the most repugnant comments you’ve ever made here.

  40. Ballet and Justice, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion;

    I just keep thinking of Harrison Bergeron

  41. “DNW:

    It comes as zero surprise that you don’t like ballet. But your suggestion that they immolate themselves is one of the most repugnant comments you’ve ever made here.”

    It’s always difficult to read a comment we view with repugnance, dispassionately and thus accurately; but let’s be clear as to what was said and what was not said.

    To start with the second first. That comment was to reinforce the point that I had no dog in the ballet fight on any grounds relating to the practice, preservation or performers of the dance form. Threats to ballet per se or disputes over the field’s standards and participants, therefore, are in no wise triggering to me.

    The first comment second: as I emphasized in my second comment regarding the first, “My comment addresses the broader issue of the pernicious social effects of the politically sublimated masochism of the pussy hat and progressive brigades. ”

    Thus,

    “Buddhist monks and certain others had a more spectacular way to protest imperialism, gain public attention for their cause, and deconstruct their own existence, back in the 1960’s

    I suggest that to prove their sincerity and atone for their earlier hypocrisy and complicity in a system of oppression, that these Princeton ballerinas do likewise … while chanting “Hail Satan”; or if they prefer, the academic version of it: “Down with Logo(s)-centrism”

    Incendiarism seems to be the metier of the woke and progressive class. Part of their core psychology, or “souls” if you will allow the metaphor. We see them acting out in this way regularly … attempting to “cleanse” society – i.e., inoffensive others who have the misfortune of crossing their paths or coming within their reach – with the fires both ideological and literal which they have ignited.

    I’m suggesting that they keep their nihilism local. Very local.

  42. To something lighter than philosophy. No other comment on that is needed.

    After reading many informative and interesting comments about ballet, physiology, and perserverence in development of an art or athelitic talent my mind went to comedy and film.

    Specifically the character Gerry Fleck (Eugene Levy) from the film Best In Show. Gerry was born with two left feet which somewhat limited his dancing abilities.

  43. I for one, second DNW’s Modest Proposal.

    The woke nutters are welcome to act out their issues far from the rest of us and in such ways as they bear alone all the consequences of their depravity and insanity… Projecting them onto the rest of society and taking it down with them is undesirable.

    Unpleasant are always with us. A civilized society exists to minimise net repugnance and suffering; not to abolish them which is an impossible dream. Shrinking from them is a trait of Eloi-in-waiting.

    Doesn’t need to be a gibbet at every crossroad… but every county seat should have one at a conveniently-located crossroad.

  45. On Straka, he’s a good guy that really is fighting the good fight. Also the J6 protestors have been wrongly defamed and persecuted as “insurrectionist”. However, if he was actually inside the Capitol and he received this sentence without all the other BS, I think it is fair. Except none of the Kavanaugh protestors or Jan21 2017 protestors got this much.

    As for ballet, form follows function. If your function is ballet, then you will have a certain form. In other news, fat people don’t do high jumps despite any level of being body positive.

  46. 1.) I rather doubt it as well but not because the means might not be there. If the GOP gains a decisive enough majority, impeachment of Garland becomes possible. Prosecution then becomes a bit more possible if the GOP follows through with Garland’s successor. But of course, it’s not the means but the will that is in question.

    2) While understandable, I’m not impressed with his groveling before the judge.

    3) In response to the statement by the Princeton University Ballet, the dancing hippos scene from Disney’s Fantasia arose in my mind.

    Rather than stand in the right, they committed cultural murder.

    4) Ah the irony, in caving to threats of violence, Dartmouth confirmed Antifa’s violent nature.

  47. Rufus beat me to it, but Harrison Bergeron, indeed.

    We are 4-5 years away – MAX – at getting our own handicapper general (I picture Kamala Harris being the “perfect” candidate), unless this woke train is somehow derailed before then.

  48. Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo principals Miguel Terekhov and Yvonne Chouteau were teaching at the University of Oklahoma where I met my first, now ex, wife who was a great dancer until her toes gave out, she has long thin bone fingers and toes and she was in incredible pain with toe bones an ortho doc told her were like 50 year old feet in the x-ray and one more year on pointe they would be 80 year old toes. She had been dancing in Houston since she was seven and had a beautiful neck and shoulder line and that was hard for her to give that dream up and later go on to become a CPA, oh well life goes on.

    In the mid-60’s the ballet dancers, male and female worked at their craft most every day, I would stop by after class and wait for her and got to know some of the male dancers who seemed like nice guys who mostly liked guys. I was there one afternoon when Miguel Terekhov came over and gave the guys a lecture about not doing weight work to pump up their muscles, he told them they were to have swimmer type strong male bodies and bulging muscles were not acceptable and I guess they paid attention because both the male and female dancer did some nice performances and I guess they looked like they were supposed to look.

    By the way there was diversity in Ballet years ago with at the Five Moons, The Five Moons were five Native American ballerinas from the U.S. state of Oklahoma who achieved international recognition during the 20th century. The five women were Myra Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief.

  49. Z, necklacing was a punishment in South Africa.

    It seems that some philosophies can lead to particularly cruel and repugnant practices.

    Let me guess, that is talk unicorns and rainbows, not your “wisdom” from the “real” world.

  52. The vision of Harris as Diana Moon Glampers is amusing, but we all know somebody else would be wielding the shotgun.

  53. OldTexan:

    If you do a search for “ballet dancer ugly feet” you will get some really scary images.

  54. neo on January 25, 2022 at 8:43 pm said:

    DNW:

    No less repugnant.”

    That is fine, just as long as the point is clearly understood.

    As you broached the subject, I noted that I cannot get worked up over what they are potentially doing to ballet. Nor, can I get very worked up over what they are doing to themselves. You say To-may-to, I say To-mah-to; you say “misled poor things”, “I say, either cynical zombie simulacrums of soul bearing humanity – or frauds who need to be called out”.

    Again, I do not really care what they do in their world. I just prefer that insofar as they emerge into society at large – as they have – they dispense with the fake breast beating and the woke theatricality, and the attempts to distribute guilt to unwilling parties; and if serious, get on with the business of proving their hysterical bona fides. by draining the cup of their ideology completely – to the last, bitter, dregs.

    Zaphod if you are reading this I have a book suggestion for you. I had forgotten what a big deal it was when I was in college about 10-15 years after it was written.

    Peter L Berger was alive just a few years ago, and I recall being astonished that he had a web site up and was active up to that time.

    https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Canopy-Elements-Sociological-Religion/dp/0385073054

    The study of sociology of knowledge may seem to be identified with relativistic ontologies; but the work of Berger provides many insights which are relevant to the discussions that are being had here regularly. In particular, they set the stage clearly for an appreciation of the virtual deification of the state and of collectivist ideologies by anomic and anxious individuals who eventually end up seeking self-inflicted pain as a way of affirming their meaning in a universe without any.

    You may laugh with glee for a moment … but you will almost instantly realize that that blade has two edges and that it swings both east and west.

  55. @Neo:

    I’ll settle for being an Addled Addison, thank you very much.

    Who here is a devotee of Sir Roger de Coverley?

    Although I did find his musings a trifle, you know, Moderate.

  56. DNW:

    And I don’t care if you don’t care about ballet, so that’s fine.

    But I care about crazy woke stuff in our society wherever it emerges, because it ends up affecting us all. And of course I have a special interest in ballet and am sad to see that particular insanity take hold of it, or areas of it. But ballet has been getting worse and worse in other ways in the last four decades or so. I’ve written about that elsewhere.

  57. Thanks DNW. Purchased.

    If you can’t imagine me laughing with insane glee whichever way the blade swings, then you misunderestimate me, My Good Sir.

  58. @Neo:

    The question is what are you going to do about it? And the answer is pretty much Nothing.

    Say what you will about the man, but Stalin straightened out the Constructivists and other post-1917 culture-shredding nutters and ensured that the Bolshoi and Mariinsky survived and didn’t degenerate into Pina Bausch on speed hooked up to a theremin backwards.

    Being all Nice has a price. So of course does being a Big Bad Meanie. Tough job, but someone has to do it.

  59. Zaphod:

    Ah yes – Stalin made the Mariinsky run on time. Makes the gulag worthwhile!

    And of course there’s nothing I’m going to do about woke ballet. Ballet was already disintegrating and turning into gymnastics with turnout starting some time during the 1980s and that disintegration has continued to the present. Wokeness is only the latest manifestation, and actually it’s not all that rampant in ballet compared to many other cultural institutions – which have also been ruined.

  60. Just a shill for Xi and Vlad for everyone knows Americans bad.

    Big Bad “Weenie,” fixed it for you Z

    The Society of Sand Packing Philosophers; a mutual admiration society of immense profundity.

  62. @Om:

    The problem, as someone (alas not me) just brilliantly expounded over at American Digest is that you’re beset by Maoists… from top to bottom of your poxed polity.

    Probably might come as a revelation to you, but Emperor Xi is the Very Chinese Opposite of a Maoist (– he had to see off a challenger Bo Xilai ca. 2012 who *was* a populist Maoist throwback). Putin of course is a Tsar. And what’s not to like about that?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Horseman

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bronze_Horseman_(poem)

  63. @Om:

    Have you perchance read Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard Commencement Address? By winning, you lost. It’s funny.. weird… I know… But Gnon has his sense of humour.

    Perhaps you should.

    Russia and China have gone through the fire. Wouldn’t wish that on anyone. But that’s how their cookies crumbled. They’re both now LESS BAD for having been through it.

    Meanwhile you (figuratively) lived well and safe and secure.. and as a consequence grew degenerate and bred a race of Woke Insane Radical Ingrates and are now about to head feet first into your Nice Big Fire. Same for Rest of the West to varying degrees.

    Good news is that 100 years hence, things will be looking up.

  64. Z, still shilling for Xi and Vlad.

    The Soviets and CCP did it to their own societies That was more than a few eggs to break for sorry no omelet. And in your wisdom they are better for having murdered hundreds of millions of their own people. If that is less bad in the world of Z I shudder to think what in the world of Z is worse.

    Ah yes, American non leftists are responsible for wokism. Because America is the root of all evil. That is Xi propaganda. Funny that it is also your refrain.

    Hong Kong will burn first Chappie, so keep your Nomex nappies handy.

  65. Z:

    Solzhenitsyn’s 1978 Harvard Commencement Address, what has happened since it was given and I read it? Soviet Union fell, Berlin Wall fell. Roosia became a third world economy run by a gangster former spook, but with nukes. China decided to replace the Soviet Union as an empire. VHS beat Betamax. Anything I missed? Oh, America is still the root of all evil.

    And Z got kicked out of South Africa. Saved the most significant event for last.

    Cheers chappie.

  66. Can we make “woke” a verb?
    Princeton is free to woke themselves. Not my problem. It’s when they forcibly woke others who wouldn’t be interested that there’s a problem.
    To resist being woked, one must resist being shamed. That someone else calls you a name in the service of manipulating you doesn’t mean you need to cave.

    I recall seeing some kind of Russian dance where the male dancers’ version of en pointe involved having the toes curled under. If I recall the discussion, the step was called something which sounded like “Kazatke” and was referred to as “bone crushing”.

    I can’t dance, due to an injury whose characteristics vary by audience: Jump school, football, and for more upscale applications, lacrosse. Worked for fifty years. But from time to time a conversation follows in which somebody says that serious dance is worse for the body than football. I can see gymnastics, almost certainly. But dance?

  67. Goddessoftheclassrom on January 25, 2022 at 4:43 pm
    “but I did earn the highest grade on the written test. ”
    So the point is that at least your pen was on pointe. 🙂

    And from TR’s “arena” quote: The credit belongs to the [wo]man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly…

  68. Find this talk of dance interesting. My wife and her younger sister went to college on dance scholarships (their mother was a choreographer in Las Vegas and taught dance – she had them dancing 4 hours a day from the time they entered middle school). Sister blew out after a semester, very likely due to the Freshman 20 (now often 30). Wife was far more dedicated, and claims to never having failed her weekly weigh ins. She preferred the precision of ballet, while the younger sister preferred Jazz (and the older sister preferred tap, but was never college material). She was rated the top ballerina in her class, but was never the prima, for a couple reasons. First, she hated being the center of attention (also the fighting involved) plus she hated with a passion being hauled up by a guy into the air above him. What she loved about ballet was the precision and control, and she lost control over that with a guy hauling her up over his head. Plus, one screwup on either of their part could mean never dancing ballet again. She trusted herself, but someone else?

    But what do you do with a college degree in dance? Obviously, maybe law school. But for her, it meant teaching PE in schools, and dance with her mother. When my ex wife put my daughter in dance classes, my current wife commented that that was what she hated – teaching young girls with no talent who were only there because their mothers wanted them to be there (that wasn’t my daughter’s forte – which is STEM, where she got a PhD). Besides, after college, she did what she really wanted to do – have a family.

    To this day, she has problems buying shoes, and esp boots, due to her very high arch. Cowboy boots, in particular, have been a problem, esp with her ex owning a ranch in MT. In any case, the problem might stem from being put in toe shoes too early. When she was really young, she was put in braces because she was duck footed. Didn’t work. So her (dance instructor) mother threw the braces away after a year or two, and put her in toe shoes, at maybe 3-4. Much younger than is supposed to be good. That worked, or at least as far as straightening out her feet. But that may be why her arch is still, 60 years later, so high.

  69. They can eject them out of Congress thus cutting them off from the gravy train, meaning they have to actually get a job.

  70. You don’t go to college to be a great dancer.

    The Princeton dancers seem to be into “dance equity.” Good luck to them.

    Regarding black dancers … Alvin Ailey has produced quite a few. Judith Jamison was a magnificent dancer and is director of the company now.

    I hope Princeton finds its way eventually. One of our kids went there and got a wonderful education. That was during their grade deflation era.

  71. Jeanne:

    Alvin Ailey’s dancers are not ballet dancers – although some of them have probably had some ballet training along the way. Interestingly enough, even though Ailey’s company is overwhelmingly black, they usually had a few white and/or Asian dancers in the interests of diversity. The place where there are a great many black ballet dancers is Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded in 1969 by Arthur Mitchell, the pioneering black male soloist with Balanchine. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, Dance Theatre of Harlem only has black dancers and that was always its policy.

  73. Faoth2014,

    What a crazy story! Someone will make a movie or TV mini-series about that!

  74. Neo –

    Judith Jameson always struck me as queenly and with great clarity of movement that felt somewhat balletic to me. I’ve always felt that ballet and modern dance have a lot of overlap. Could be wrong. My few forays into modern dance were not good! It’s great fun to chat about dance here.

    Thank you for reminding us of Arthur Mitchell.

  75. Jeanne:

    I loved Judith Jameson. She was great, but her greatness wasn’t very balletic at all. But I don’t doubt that she, like many or even most dancers in genres other than ballet, had at least some ballet training.

    She was a revelation in “Revelations,” like she could touch the sky.

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