Word: idealize
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...deep impression on him, though he says he had been fascinated by ballet ever since he was a child and saw Rudolf Nureyev in a filmed version of Romeo and Juliet. "His grace impressed me so much that I came to think of that as a sort of physical ideal." After just a few weeks at Yale, Ron began to take dance classes, then decided he wanted to make dancing his career. He called his father to tell him the news. "I was a little frightened," he recalls. "What was he going to say? Here I was proposing to leave...
...better than a headache. And if their backs aren't bothering them, they can avoid sex for fear of triggering back problems." There is no small irony in such excuses. As it happens, the pelvic movements of conventional intercourse are regarded by some orthopedists as an ideal preventive exercise for back pain...
According to the dogma of Socialist Realism, all art and literature must conform to the triple standard of partinost (party character), ideinost (socialist content) and narodnost (closeness to the people). For Stalin, this ideal was most faithfully reflected in the work of his favorite painter, Alexander Gerasimov, whose portraits of the dictator in various noble poses hung in museums, offices, factories and homes everywhere. At the same time, in the '30s and '40s, Stalin used every kind of coercion to apply the Socialist Realism doctrine, destroying the avant-garde and the contacts with Western artists that it needed...
...some of Grigorovich's problems appear to be backstage ego jostling, many others involve fundamental questions of policy. A former character dancer, he came to the Bolshoi in 1964 from its great rival, the Kirov, bringing successful new works with him. Then as now, the Kirov exemplified the ideal of a pure, classical style. The Bolshoi, by contrast, championed a more soulfully Slavic style, often bold and gaudy. Grigorovich seemed to offer the hope of synthesizing the best of both companies. In 1968 he created a hit, Spartacus, with its surging mass movements, virile male roles and a long...
...world, but in the U.S.S.R. the popular medium of exchange is vodka. Want a repairman to make a house call to fix the TV set? Pay him with a half-liter of vodka. Need someone to paint a room? Offer him his wages in bottles. Vodka is also the ideal gift for minor officials from whom a small favor is needed. Since vodka flows as freely as the Volga in the U.S.S.R., why do so many Soviet citizens welcome it as either pay or present? For the regular drinker, vodka is expensive at $5.50 a half-liter. And the better...