A big day for dialogue in the dance world yesterday.

In response to the New York Times article on patrons who sponsor individual dancers, Dance Magazine editor Wendy Perron writes to the paper:

?Because dance doesn’t get the media support accorded movies, music and sports, dance companies cannot count on box office income and must be resourceful about fund-raising [“How Much Is That Dancer in the Program?” by Erika Kinetz, Aug. 15]. If daily newspapers like The New York Times gave more space to dance ? the actual art of it ? maybe more readers would attend performances and dance companies wouldn’t have to resort to tactics like those described in the article.?

Robert Greskovic and Joseph Carman also pipe up to correct errors and omissions.

And former New York City Ballet dancer and memoirist Toni Bentley writes in apropos Deborah Jowitt?s engrossing new Jerome Robbins bio:

?Robbins was Salieri to Balanchine’s Mozart, and we all knew it. On the Great White Way he was ”Mr. Robbins,” the King of Broadway, but in the elevators and studios backstage at the New York State Theater he was ”Jerry,” just ”Jerry.” Balanchine was the Man. And he was the Man to Jerry too. Perhaps Jerry found it a relief. No one understood Balanchine’s depth better than Jerome Robbins. But unlike Peter Martins, who appears to have drowned in the wake of Balanchine’s enormous spirit, Robbins had the intelligence and humility to embrace it and risk living under its moral reckoning. That took considerable courage.?

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