IN P R

history

I Barre None JENNIFER HOMANS PRESENTS BALLET’S UNTOLD STORY N by Amy Rosenberg P H

n a 1965 article for Life ry. It goes further than that too: ty”), she says no one hopes she is O T O S

magazine, world-famous The finale of its more than 500 wrong more than she does. As she © T I M

choreographer George Bal - pages is an epilogue titled “The puts it: “I have spent my life de - E & L

anchine wrote, “In ballet, a Masters Are Dead and Gone.” In voted to this art form. I, of all peo - I F E P I

I C complicated story is impos - it, Homans (GSAS ’08), a distin - ple, am going to be standing up T T U R

sible to tell. We cannot use words. guished scholar-in-residence who when I see something worth stand - E S / G E

We can’t dance synonyms.” This danced professionally for many ing up for.” T T Y I may be true, but the story of bal - years, observes that Balanchine’s It’s no exaggeration to say that M A G E let itself—its role in history, cul - death in 1983 marked the start of a ballet has been her life’s devotion. S ; B N ture, and politics, its significance, slow decline for ballet, a collapse Homans, who grew up in Chica - F and its development over time—is into present-day mediocrity. go, began dancing when she was 8 indeed complicated. Now, with “[B]allet seemed to grind to a years old. She liked it and “just the publication of Jennifer crawl,” she writes, “as if the tradi - kept going,” she says. Like most Homans’s Apollo’s Angels: A Histo - tion itself had become clogged and professional ballerinas, she did not ry of Ballet (Random House), that exhausted.” The art, she concludes, attend college immediately. After story has been fully told. is dying. Her remarks set off a fierce graduating from high school, she Named one of the 10 best books debate on blogs and in print, with enrolled in the University of North of 2010 by The New York Times critics, balletomanes, dancers, and Carolina School of the Arts and and called by one Times critic “the scholars all passionately arguing ei - then moved to New York and only truly definitive history” of ther that ballet is dead or that it is studied at Balanchine’s School of ballet, Apollo’s Angels traces the vibrantly alive. American Ballet. She performed evolution of the art from its origins For her part, Homans is just glad with the Chicago Lyric Opera Bal - in the courts of Renaissance that people are talking about it. let, the San Francisco Ballet, and France, through its embellishment Denounced for her grim predic - the Pacific Northwest Ballet, danc - in 19th-century Russia, to its most tions (one critic accused her of ing a range of 19th- and 20th-cen - recent apogee with the New York “living in the past”; another of tury classics. When she was 26, City Ballet in the late 20th centu - “railing against [her] own mortali - Homans suffered an injury that to try to find out more but had biblio file trouble locating compelling ac - counts. “There aren’t many good FORTUNATE SONS: THE 120 While China’s quest to become a books about the history of ballet,” CHINESE BOYS WHO CAME TO major power may seem a recent she says. “The more I read the AMERICA, WENT TO SCHOOL, phenomenon, the authors illumi - more I realized that what I was AND REVOLUTIONIZED AN nate an earlier era of critical re - looking for just wasn’t there, and ANCIENT CIVILIZATION form. In the 19th century, as its maybe I could write it.” (W.W. NORTON) empire teetered amid a brutal civil Fourteen years later, Apollo’s LIEL LEIBOVITZ war and the West’s scramble to Angels is proof of the extraordi - VISITING ASSISTANT “open up China” to trade, the Qing nary effort that went into doing PROFESSOR AT THE Dynasty sent 120 boys to the Unit - so. The same critics who took is - STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF ed States to learn the keys to sue with Homans’s dire outlook CULTURE, EDUCATION, technological innovation. Their praised the depth of her research, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT stories—particularly that of Yung her “piercing intelligence,” and AND MATTHEW MILLER Wing, the first Chinese to gradu - the “heart” and “feeling” in her ate from Yale College—reveal an words. The bulk of her research influential coterie cau ght between took about 10 years, carrying her nativism in America and mistrust to archives throughout Europe— for the newfangled ways they but a large portion of her work brought back home. Nevertheless, took place at the barre, too. “In this cohort planted the seeds of order to tell ballet as an intellectu - modernity, engineering railroads LEFT: BALANCHINE’S PLOTLESS al history, you have to get behind into China’s hinterlands and re - PRODUCTION JEWELS (1967), WITH shaping its methods of banking ITS EXTREME EXTENSIONS AND the steps and understand their or - JAZZ-AGE HIP THRUSTS, WAS EM - ganizing principals,” she says. “For and international negotiations. In a BLEMATIC OF A NEW ERA IN BALLET. many of the periods I studied, I starred review, Publishers Weekly RIGHT: IN 18TH-CENTURY FRANCE, pronounced it a “gripping tale” DANCE FASHIONS FOLLOWED COURT took ballet masters’ notes and frag - DRESS, INCLUDING THIS COSTUME IN - ments I found in the archives and that “reads more like a novel than SPIRED BY MARIE ANTOINETTE. tried to visualize and concretize an obscure slice of history.” the dances, to feel what it was like —Nicole Pezold kept her off the stage and in bed doing them.” for a while. That’s when her focus Getting behind the steps al - began to shift. lowed Homans to place the dances DAY OF HONEY: A MEMOIR OF Annia Ciezadlo’s memoir is a deli - “During that period, I spent all in context—to understand, for FOOD, LOVE, AND WAR cious fusion of literary genres: one of my time reading,” she explains. example, how the movements (FREE PRESS) dash travel guide, one pinch ro - “Having come from an academic changed after the French Revolu - ANNIA CIEZADLO mance novel, and a hearty helping family”—both of her parents tion because new animosity to - GSAS ’00 of Middle Eastern history and food taught at the University of Chica - ward traditional, aristocratic male lore. With humor and honesty, go—“I’d always had reading as a dancers created unprecedented Ciezadlo tells the story of her part of my life. Also, this was in opportunities for ballerinas. This, marriage to Mohamad, a Shiite Mus - the mid-’80s, and the dance world Homans believes, is what knowl - lim from Lebanon, and how the was in an uncertain state. I found edge of ballet’s history should do— newlyweds—both journalists—were that I wasn’t getting the kind of increase our understanding of the touched by the September 11 at - stimulation I’d been getting earli - nuances of history in general. tacks and the Iraq War, which the er on.” Homans made the diffi - That’s why, in her classes on Eu - couple covered from Beirut and cult decision to stop dancing ropean and Mediterranean cul - Baghdad for Newsday, The Chris - professionally. She enrolled at Co - ture, she focuses on dance: “It’s a tian Science Monitor , and The New lumbia University, eventually marginalized subject within the Republic. The author’s entry into earning an undergraduate degree humanities,” she says. “There are her new surroundings is through in French literature, and then went introductory courses for literature, food as she experiments with the on to get her PhD in modern Eu - art, and theater, but dance has not cuisine, preparing such delicacies ropean history from NYU. had a place as a serious academic as Batata wa Bayd Mfarakeh (crum - But she couldn’t move away field.” But the story of ballet, she bled potatoes and eggs) and from ballet entirely. “It was still a believes, is a crucial part of the sto - Yakhnet Kusa (zucchini stew). passion,” she says, “and studying ry of Western civilization. “In Saveur heralded it as a “warm, hi - history made me realize how little fact,” she says, “dance in general is larious, terrifying, thrilling, insanely I knew about its past.” She began part of our civilization.” smart debut book.” —Carly Okyle

NYU / FALL 2011 / 29 comedy WHY WRITE A BOOK LIKE THIS? Ben: We just thought that most screenwriting books are theory written by professors, but there’s COURT JESTERS the other like 90 percent of screen - writing that’s the business and how IN THE KINGDOM OF HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS, A PAIR OF you sell your idea. Tom: You need to cross-reference SCRIBES WRITES FOR THEIR LIVES those books’ authors and the movies that they’ve written because the an - by Renée Alfuso / CAS ’06 swer is almost none. If they know so much about how to sell a screen - play, I assure you from having writ - ten a book that they would not be ack in 1988, a group honesty and sage advice, the book with practical advice on script for - writing books about it, they would of 11 feisty under - has been praised by Library Journal matting, pitching ideas, and the be writing movies. classmen started a as “the first screenwriting manual messy process of arbitration. Bcomedy troupe at that is as entertaining as it is in - NYU Alumni Magazine sat WRITING FOR THE STUDIOS NYU that soon formative.” (Plus, some proceeds down with Lennon and Garant to MEANS HAVING TO transformed into the absurdist MTV from the book will be contributed discuss their journey from vulner - COMPROMISE YOUR VISION. series The State —a superdry, bit - to the USO.) Tales of executives able freshmen beaten up by mug - IS THAT TOUGH? ingly sarcastic sketch-comedy show falling asleep in meetings and om - gers to adults beaten down by the Tom: We always compare our - for Generation X that gained a cult nipotent movie stars are coupled studio system. selves to [court composer Antonio] following and launched the careers Salieri. We’re like the Salieris that of its young stars, nearly all of whom never met a Mozart. So we’re not still work in show business today. tortured; we’re happy Salieris. Thomas Lennon (TSOA ’92) and Ben: As soon as you understand Robert Ben Garant (TSOA non - what the job is, it’s the greatest job grad alum) are two of those now- in the world. We’ve been around grown-up misfits, best known for long enough to work with talent - creating the Comedy Central hit ed people who are a pleas - Reno 911! But the funnymen are ure, and also with also prolific screenwriters—hav - untalented people ing penned feature films together where it’s a nightmare for almost every major studio that crushes your soul. over the past 10 years. So But you keep going. when the self-described “man - That’s the system. ic” scribes needed something Tom: You just have to do during the 2008 writers’ to get over things strike, they turned to a new very quickly, be - medium. cause you’re going In Writing Movies for Fun and to get fired over and Profit: How We Made a Billion over again. You’re Dollars at the Box Office and You going to watch people Can, Too! (Simon & Schus - throw away things that ter), the authors pull back you’ve slaved over writ - the silver screen to reveal ing, on a total whim, be - the elation and ugliness of cause the actor refuses to working in Hollywood, wear a hat. based on their experience with both blockbusters ( Night IN THE BOOK, YOU at the Museum ) and flops ( Taxi ). SAY THAT IT’S With its combination of brutal IMPORTANT TO BE FLEXIBLE LIKE A REED. SCREENWRITERS LENNON (RIGHT) Ben: Exactly. So many people AND GARANT DEMONSTRATE “THE ART OF NODDING” WHILE TAKING with books on screenwriting talk NOTES FROM STUDIO EXECUTIVES. about it like you’re this precious

30 / FALL 2011 / NYU COMEDIAN PENS FIRST MEMOIR— SORT OF poetry P H O T O : L E F T © IP N R O B Y R N V O N S I W A

YELLOW JACKETS – N N K ; R I G T H T © Z A K O R T H protect through venom and candor. Funnily enough, another member of The State made his literary debut this year: Michael Showalter, writer and star of TV shows While timing their own dinners such as Stella and films such as The Baxter and Wet Hot American Summer , brings his wit and wordplay to the aptly titled Mr. Funny to mother’s tray, father’s tongs, Pants (Grand Central Publishing). The quasi-memoir—which The Daily Beast calls “reminiscent of works by Steve Martin, George or baby’s saucer-sized cheeks, Carlin, and Woody Allen”—details Showalter’s struggle with pro - crastination and writer’s block in an intimate, almost stream-of- consciousness style. they can sting any intruder repeatedly The Brooklyn-based comic found trying to write a serious mem - unlike the honeybee’s suicidal sortie. oir too nerve-racking, and soon decided that the book would be about writing the book. So rather than recount his life story, Mr. Funny Pants weaves together random bouts of silliness, occasional I like that. I like X memories, and some harsh dissections of his high school poetry who calls people out at brunch and first head shot. Chapters on “How to Write and Sell a Hollywood Screenplay” align with Showalter’s day job teaching graduate screenwriting at the Tisch School of the Arts, which he says he en - through simple narration: joys more than acting. “It’s almost like doing stand-up because I’m your mouth never stops moving. performing and trying to hold everyone’s attention,” he explains. “But it’s an idealistic environment where you’re just existing in a perfect world unscathed by the business.” –R.A. Or, you eat off other plates as if they’re your own. little Oscar Wilde staring out the and Avenue B, never. window and waiting for a muse— Ben: Yeah, it was like Somalia, Or, you check your BlackBerry when no one but it’s more like ultimate fighting. but now it’s cute. There’s like You roll with the punches be - cupcakes, Hello Kitty stores, and is talking about you. cause, man, you’re going to get ironic T-shirts all over the place. Or, you laugh whenever you insult someone. punched. Tom: Now it’s adorable and we Tom: Maybe living in the Village can’t afford to move back. in the ’80s was just good practice A startling attribute I wish I could emulate because we got mugged so much. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER if only my sting possessed such integrity. Wearing a bright yellow bow tie ABOUT PERFORMING ON my second week in New York CAMPUS AS STUDENTS? was probably the reason I got Tom: Our first paying gig was from Toxic Flora: Poems beaten nearly to death across the opening for Dennis Miller at the by Kimiko Hahn, street from [NYU’s] Brittany Loeb Student Center. NYU Creative Writing Program adjunct faculty Hall. Almost murdered—week Ben: We got paid like $1,000 split No. 2. When we came to New 11 ways and then they asked us if York, it was right after the Tomp - we wanted to eat and everybody kins Square Park riots and the ordered so much Chinese food Village was so dangerous, we that it ended up costing more than Reprinted from Toxic Flora: Poems by Kimiko Hahn would not go to Avenue A after they had just paid us, and they Copyright © 2010 by Kimiko Hahn dark under any circumstances, were so angry. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Co, Inc.

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