Author Archives: jsl915@aol.com

Yuri Soloviev is infinitely interesting both as a dancer and as a man.  His friend Lisa Whitaker and I are moving ahead with our plans to do a book on him, an idea we’ve considered for the last half-decade.  I met … Continue reading →

I was recently talking to a dance publicist: together we fretted about the continued existence of dance as a viable theatrical concern.  I said that I thought it was easier for the smaller groups to survive, given that they don’t have … Continue reading →

Watching American Ballet Theatre dance Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading in a 1984 performance, broadcast over Japanese television during ABT’s season there in the fall of that year.  I’d forgotten what the full impact of this ballet can be.  It’s not … Continue reading →

In May 2010, Mikhail Baryshnikov gave me what is probably the best interview of his life.  MB is not only a great artist but was a personal fixture during my formative years in dance and ballet. I watched him up close … Continue reading →

Boehner’s latest hissy fit has had, at least for the moment, the effect of saving Obama from himself.  Reading his weasel words today at the town hall–I didn’t have the stomach to watch–about how we couldn’t afford good programs that benefit … Continue reading →

I’ve watched politics since I was a child–we’re talking Lyndon Johnson here–and I cannot quite recall a President selling out his own party as Obama has.  Far-fetched as this may seem, I think that the Dems have two options at this point: to … Continue reading →

Having just come from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Winter’s Tale, I can only say that the folly as well as the venality of what our President is apparently doing can only be called Shakesperean.  To all intents and purposes he … Continue reading →

Some complimentary, as well as some really vile and objectionable comments on Criticaldance.com about my City Arts piece on the Mariinsky Ballet, written by people who, let’s say, prefer to keep their agendas close to their chests. I’m accused of plaigirism … Continue reading →

This Sunday I’ll be in Houston, lecturing on my long interest in Broadway as part of the summer lecture series of the Bayou City Concert Musicals.

I always suspected, reading Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes even as a kid, that Tallulah Bankhead’s performance as Regina Giddens could not have been as unrelievedly diabolic as legend would have it.  The script itself wouldn’t have permitted that.  And … Continue reading →