Resisting: The Assumption of Whiteness and Other Imperialisms

Sandra continued from previous page invention of Balanchine's made Stravinsky frown and slowly shake his head as he sits watching on the bench. . . . Balanchine and Stravinsky are in the midst of a heated argument. Stravinsky is shaking his head, Balanchine is gesticulating. . . . Finally the older man [Stravinsky] gives the least little shrug.... He's not convinced, it seems to say, but he won't argue any more.... Okay, it's in. With further commentary as to the exacting seconds of music, the conveyance of a particular meaning or, rather, essence, through the movement, actually the presage of what followed— she later notes that this portion was ultimately removed from the ballet. Although this is an interesting side note, the reader is left with a major insight into the intensity and complexity of the process and the many aspects it involves— music, movement, poetry, mathematics, and soul. More intimate recollections also abound, such as when Balanchine introduced the renowned Stravinsky to each of the corps members individually to break the ice, when Mr. B discovered the very young (and shy at that moment!) Fisher practicing the piano, which she believes led to his noticing her for demisoloist roles. Fisher also relates the funny chaos surrounding an incident of tutus delivered too late, and the disbelieving horror that swept the company when the great ballerina Tanaquil Le Clerq was struck with almost complete paralysis from polio, but who, nonetheless, continued her life with great courage and creativity. Perhaps due in part to her background, a liberal, socially conscious upbringing by parents who were Russian-Jewish immigrants, and in part to her broad intelligence that included interests in music, choreography , literature, and politics, Fisher very often places her experiences in the dance company within the social context. For instance, during the NYCB's second international tour in 1956, the "German tour," the dancers were in the occupied, already-divided city of Berlin. Not only is a concrete and barbed wire wall about to be erected, rendering the city two separate entities, but the whole world is holding its breath as the two superpowers, the US and the USSR, are "building an arsenal ofnuclear weapons.. .. [AJn invisible wall had already gone up." The restrictions placed on the dancers, and Fisher's little escapade to override them, indicate the incipient atmosphere of suspicion and fear that was inexorably overtaking the world. Other social observations, such as that of the racial tensions in America during the 1950s, exemplified by the extreme difficulties regarding school desegregation, are also depicted as the background for this fertile period in ballet. Fisher sets the scene for Arthur Mitchell's entrance into the NYCB; a brilliant and noble performer, Mitchell became the first black principal dancer in a world-class classical ballet company. Balanchine declares that he will cast Arthur in the ultimate "white" ballet, Swan Lake, and he pairs the New York-bom Mitchell with a dancer from Atlanta, Ginger Rich. Eventually, Mitchell is cast as the lead in the groundbreaking Agon, opposite the tall, pale Diana Adams. Fisher quotes the ballerina Melissa Hayden: "'it was really awesome to see a black hand touch a white skin. That's where we were coming from in the fifties. '" Fisher adds that in his own arena, "[Balanchine] publicly cut through the twisted knot of race relations. And Arthur had definitely arrived. He was in a class of his own." This book is a mixture offact, nostalgia, history, and fun, but most of all it is a salute to artistic, creative lives, which we are most graciously invited to share. Not least is the productive, reinvented, rather amazing life of the author, Barbara Milberg Fisher. Uyrena Sandra is a dancer and teacher. She has written reviews on dance subjects andperformancesfor ABR and Magazine.ART. Resisting: The Assumption of Whiteness and Other Imperialisms Tiphanie Yanique Brief Encounters with Che Guevara Ben Fountain Ecco http://www.harpercollins.com 240 pages; cloth, $24.95 If Ben Fountain is not a spy for the US State Department or a spy for Haiti, he should be. Like his character John Blair in the story "Near-Extinct Birds of the Central Cordillera," who is accused of being a...