Word: ballets
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...First Lady, she gets 600 letters a day, answers some 300, and insists on signing each reply herself. She has taken over some of Jackie Kennedy's commitments, such as visiting hospital children's wards or arranging a White House ballet performance for 150 underprivileged kids. Making endless lists and dozens of phone calls, she supervised White House Christmas preparations, helped arrange a score of working suppers so Lyndon could meet quietly with Congressmen or Administration officials. She completed the complex transaction of divesting her control over nearly $5,000,000 in real estate and broadcast properties...
When the Ford Foundation announced last week that it was blessing the future of American ballet with a staggering grant of $7,756,000, the major share of the blessing seemed to be brightening the career of Choreographer George Balanchine. Of the total amount, nearly $4,500,000 is going to the two cradles of Balanchine's art-$2,000,000 to the New York City Ballet, $2,425,000 to the School of American Ballet. The grants indeed entrust Balanchine with the future of classical dance in America. But though the honor may be Balanchine...
Kirstein is almost as intimately involved with the hopeful results of the Ford grants as is Balanchine: he is founder and director of the school and general director of the ballet company. Kirstein always intended the school to be national. "That has been my dream for 30 years," he says. Now, with its munificent grant, the school can pick and choose among the best students. "This almost approaches the Soviet system, which subsidizes not only the student but the student's family," says Kirstein. "It won't produce instant ballet, but it will give the ballet stability...
...grants caused a flurry of pouts elsewhere in the dance world. The American Ballet Theater got nothing; nor did the entire field of modern dance. And though the foundation patiently announced that a grant to ballet did not preclude future grants to modern dance, this did not smooth the ruffled fur. "People stop me on the street," says Kirstein, "and tell me I'm taking bread out of their mouths...
Since his opera Peter Grimes brought him to world prominence (TIME cover, Feb. 16, 1948), Britten has turned out a varied and impressive body of work, including nine other operas, a ballet, and everything from songs to symphonies, Masses to metamorphoses. Beyond composition, his talents sparkle with equal virtuosity. He is a gifted conductor, and when he accompanied Cellist Mstislav Rostropovich on the piano in the premiere of a Britten cello sonata, one critic called him "the compleat musician, a perpetual challenge to the age of specialization...