FWIW, I believe I heard that in the HBO Lebowitz/Scorcese documentary “Public Speaking” (2010).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Speaking_(film)

I can’t find the quote after light googling.

Liebowitz is incorrect. I think I’ll write a post on the subject rather than deal with it here.

However, that doesn’t explain the change in the female dancers, unless the choreographers and teachers were also disproportionately AIDS fatalities. And just how large would the “knowledgeable gay audience” have to be in order to have that pronounced an effect?

But, accepting the premise, I wonder if there was a similar effect on films, given the number of top tier male movie actors who were also affected. The audience would not have been as depopulated, but there may still have been some ramifications in technical areas other than the box-office stars.

“a great audience is an important ingredient for great art”

Which may explain most of the decline in the movie offerings lately.

–AesopFan

Fran Lebowitz, an arty, social commentary NYC writer, sometimes funny, once observed that AIDS had not only wiped out much of the top tier of American male dancers, but also its large, knowledgeable gay audience.

Which meant, by Lebowitz’s reasoning, that the still living dance audience couldn’t hold the current dancers to a high standard, because that standard for dancers and audience had been lost to the AIDS pandemic.

I don’t know that’s true. But it strikes me as plausible and it has long seemed to me that a great audience is an important ingredient for great art.

Nine minutes of demonstration, with entertaining and informative commentary: barre exercises in 1820, 1880, and “today” (2016).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EjfGgvsldM
Ballet Evolved: How ballet class has changed over the centuries

That said, I never had the privilege to see her in live performance.

If anything, Ulanova probably had fewer physical pluses than many other dancers. It was her musicality, her acting ability, and her spirit that enabled her to do what she did.

Thanks for the info on the Janis Joplin song. 🙂