Visions: Ballet and Its Future ed. by Michael Crabb (review)

492 LETTERS IN CANADA 1979 perplexes trouveront leur explication dans Ie Catalogue raisonne qui sOlls-tend cette etude. Les inscriptions qui accompagnent les ceuvres, la bibliographie propre a chaque CEuvre ainsi que les elements biographiques indiqueront probablement avec precision ou commence Ie monde de la legende. II est egalement possible que la version fran,aise fasse etat de renseignements nouveaux issus d'une liasse de lettres du pere et de la famille de Cornelius decouverte tout juste apres la publication du livre. Comme dans Ie cas du Joseph Legare '795-1855 de John Porter, il s'agit ici d'une etude en deux parties publiees separement, ce qui ne va pas sans causer des inconvenients. Bien qu'il aurait ete beaucoup mieux de publier Ie Catalogue raisonne en meme temps que I'etude, la richesse de cette derniere est telle qu'il aurait ete encore plus dommage d'en priver Ie public tant que Ie catalogue ne sera pas termine. Fruit d'une longue experience comme historien de I'art, conservateur et professeur, cette nouvelle etude de Russell Harper profitera surtout aux historiens de I'art et aux collectionneurs. Ce Krieghoff fournit en outre des materiaux inestimables pour une histoire et une sociologie de la culture canadienne. (RAYMOND VEZINA) Michael Crabb, editor. Visions: Ballet and Its Future Simon and Pierre. 189- $8.95 Visions is a compilation of the proceedings of the International Dance Conference held in Toronto in November 1976 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the National Ballet of Canada. In it are recorded the addresses given by several major figures in the related worlds of ballet, music, deSign, choreography, and criticism. Two additional essays on video, film, and television were added for this publication. The longest chapter is devoted, ominously, to funding. It is not difficult to imagine the excitement at the 5t Lawrence Centre during the conference. The partiCipants, all honoured members of their profession, were there to speak about their life's work which, in the dance world, usually implies passionate commitment. It is probably unrealistic to expect the same level of energy to flow from these essays once the words have been separated from their source, but this record does allow us to consider and evaluate at our leisure the conference's many profundities, flippancies, insights, generalizations, prejudices and, yes, even the occasional vision. The book itself, although obviously designed to reflect the prestigious event it commemorates, is, I feel, overproduced. In these days of economic and environmental difficulties it is impOSSible to rationalize the oversized paperback fonmat, the use, for the essays themselves, of a type HUMANITIES 493 size usually reserved for those with eye problems, and paper heavy enough to serve as roofing material. Moreover, the layout design produces , in this relatively slim volume, the equivalent of 33 blank pages! This tends to make us question the editorial statement that 'There was also a problem ofspace, since to publish everything would have required a large book indeed.' With a modicum of restraint twice as much book could have been produced at half the price. The unenviable task of organizing the International Dance Conference into book form has been generally well handled by the editor, Michael Crabb. In addition to presenting the text he has tried to give a sense of the flow of events, nudging us along with insertions, summations, and additions of various sorts. This praiseworthy attempt is, however, somewhat less than ideally realized. Each chapter, for example, is introduced by a rather unnecessary precis of the text to follow. Does one really need to read about what one is about to read? More seriously, a few of the editorial additions, presented for some unfathomable reason in two different type faces, are extremely unclear, as a result, I fear, of careless writing. (See p 54 for some of the worst examples.) While much of the content of the book is appealing and useful, there are a number of questionable assertions and judgments, such as Norman Campbell's totally uncritical evaluation of the effectiveness of dance on television, Brian Macdonald's fitful attempt to define the 'Canadian choreographer: and Dame Ninette de Valois's (and others') difficulties in establishing the distinction 'between...