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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1983)
■BBBBMnilHHI wmmoMnMKMMmnuuum wwwOTjiSH Page 2/The Battalion/Wednesday, May 4, 1983 opinion NYC Ballet founder mourned Genius. The word frequendy has been used to describe George Balanchine, probably the most famous and most pro lific choreographer of the 20th century and founder of the New York City Ballet. Thanks to Balanchine’s genius and guidance, the New York City Ballet has become — in the words of author Linda Doeser — “a major influence on the art” and one of four or five “world leader” companies. But the New York City Ballet — and the world — suffered a great loss Satur day. Balanchine died of pneumonia at the age of 79. Many people who have no interest in ballet may not know or understand why Balanchine’s death is a loss. But Balanchine had a major impact on American ballet and American dancers, and he will be missed. He came to the United States in 1933 and founded the School of American Ballet with Lincoln Kirstein in 1934. Kir- stein, a dance enthusiast with enough money to start a company, had a vision of a truly American ballet company combin ing talents of American painters, musi cians, dancers and choreographers. From the humble beginnings of the School of American Ballet, Balanchine helped Kirstein make this dream a reality with the founding of the New York City Ballet in 1948. . The New York City Ballet, under Balanchine’s direction, has become one of the best ballet companies in the world — using American dancers and Amer ican style. He brought his Russian training in teaching and creating ballets to the Un ited States, but he was entranced by the American freedom of movement. He used this style of movement in his dances and broke from the stylized and often bravura dancing of the grand Russian traditions. He combined the athleticism and high- kicking show style of Americans with the elegance of the Russian Imperial Maryinsky Theatre, at which he trained in the early 1900s. Believing in the potential of U.S. dan cers to be every bit as good in classical dance as any European or Russian dan cers, Balanchine gave them the chance to prove it. Balanchine also believed in the purity of dance and would let nothing detract from the dance itself. To achieve this purity, he revolutio nized ballet choreography by leaving opulent scenery behind. He also created ballets so that music and dance enhanced and complemented each other. Previous ly, a choreographer often would write the steps and hand the composer a list of how many bars of various kinds of music he needed. Balanchine was able to work so music ally because he studied music as a student at St. Petersburg (now Leningrad). He closely collaborated with composer Igor Stravinsky. The two created some of the most well-known ballets performed today — The Firebird, Apollo, Concerto Barocco. Balanchine’s ballets often are musical ly abstract works with subtle emotional approaches to various topics. Dance critic Marcia B. Siegel, speaking about the bal let Union Jack, says Balanchine “once again launched on a seemingly undance- able idea, through which he succeeds in showing us new things-about dance.” And Balanchine was versatile. Along with ballets, he also choreographed num bers for Broadway musicals. He choreog raphed the dances for the 1936 musical On Your Toes that is being performed now on Broadway — as American a dance institution as one is likely to find. A genius and mentor for American ballet has died. We owe him much for giving so much to American ballet. No finale. No encore. We can only offer a grand reverence to his memory and his work. Farewell to a great man. YOU BOTH ARE MV TWO BEST EMPLOYEES.. SO BILL „IM PROMOTING YOU TO PRESIDENT.. Letters: Salvadoran issues continue ( Editor: This is in reference to the letter to The Battalion on the Central American situa tion. First of all I would like to thank you for your letter to The Battalion in which you tried to realize the “full scope of the situation in El Salvador.” This shows that at least somebody at A&M cares about foreign affairs and U.S. policy towards foreign countries. I am an international student from a small country called Guatemala, which happens to have a common border with the Republic of El Salvador, and where Berrys World DATtE ro ee SQUARE the problems are similar to those in that country. This shows you, Mr. Graybill, that I am not U.S. media-influenced. I do not demonstrate a 50s but an 80s mental ity, for I have learned something from the United States’ poor strategy in the 60s and 70s in Vietnam. But let me point out your lack of infor mation about El Salvador. First, El Salva dor’s population is not 1.5 million, rather it consists of more than 4 million people. Second, El Salvador is not a “Banana Republic,” as you disrespectfully called it, since it does not produce bananas at all. Third, to think that El Salvador does not face Cuban-trained and supported Marxist terrorists who seek to impose upon the people of that country the tota litarian system under which Cubans and Nicaraguans now suffer, is not only naive but too optimistic. The “heroic” Civil War between the “progressive” insur gents and the elected government and its army is pure nonsense. I would like to invite you to visit my country to have a better understanding of what the problems really are. They are not linked with the Anglo-Saxon idiosyn crasy, but are deeply rooted in the men tality of its people. Finally, while such guerrilla wars nib ble at and progressively destroy the civi lian and military infrastructure, your “backyard” is being lost to the Soviets. Your security is being jeopardized, and the willingness of the Central Americans to live democratic and free is gradually being buried under the so-called Amer ican passivity. Aldo C. Lopez ’86 More on El Salvador Editor: This letter is in response to Gregory Graybill’s letter of April 29. First of all I want to point out that I disagree with most of what you said. I think that your overall knowledge of the subject is suspect, if not null. You pointed out that the issue of the Salvadoran guer rillas being Soviet-supported is a debat able issue, and I think that this is a petty remark. Any military expert will tell you that the Soviet Union is involved in the Salva doran affair via Cuba and Nicaragua. This is a well-known fact, and a way of supporting this is by looking at the his tory of the U.S.S.R. getting involved in Third World revolutions. The fact that the guerrillas carry American-made guns rather than Soviet guns doesn’t tell you anything. Strategic ally thinking, the U.S.S.R. would not send their own weapons to the area — the involvement will be too obvious. The Soviets send money so guerrillas can buy weapons on the black market. I agree that El Salvador has had a bad military rule, but this is not a good enough reason to let the country fall into communist hands. The work has been set to correct this problem, and with the close scrutiny of the United States, you can expect the problem to be improved, if not totally corrected. How do you expect the reforms to work overnight? And then again, doesn’t El Salvador haye a costly war going? Doesn’t this deplete any economy? The only answer for any successful reforms to be consummated is the end of the war. The price is worth it to support this nation. The domino theory is a well sup ported theory because of the close econo mic ties of the countries in this region. If the United States doesn’t act quickly and effectively, the day will come when Mexico will be threatened by communist hands, and therefore the red hand of communism will be closer on threatening the United States’ freedom. I suggest that you do a little more re search on the subject, and most impor tant of all open your eyes. The Soviet threat is real. Rafael F. Fortin ’84 R\/ .lim FarlsM r r “IVe never understood before why he liked to study ii the library!” Belevisi ill dicta n|versit) Igan he ga nksgi' ed tiled Liberalism urged lag Sa le was vise th Conservative Ag; |Associ irles 1 Editor: Richard Fosberg writes in an April 29 letter to the editor that Texas A&M should remain a conservative institution since the introduction of liberalism into the University community would mean the reduction of A&M to a state of mediocrity. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would first ask Mr. Fosberg to de fine, precisely, the terms conservative and liberal. Both terms are vague and have changed in meaning throughout history. When Mr. Fosberg claims that liberal ism has debased the public schools, I would like to know what type of liberal ism he means. Is it liberalism in the poli tical sense, or is it liberalism in the educa tional philosophy of the public schools? The implications of Mr. Fosberg’s sen timents are frightening. Would Mr. Fos berg, by advocating uniform thought at A&M, extrapolate his philosophy to soci ety as a whole? It seems that a little man with a black mustache held a similar view as leader of the German Third Reich. No Mr. Fosberg, what A&M needs is more liberalism. With a more thought- provoking academic environment, fu ture conservative Aggies would be better prepared to venture into the real world of intellectual and political discourse. Moreover, if A&M is to become a world- class university, it must adopt the tradi tions that characterize any world-class university — one of which is the belief that a university should be a place where in the free exchange of ideas can occur. Richard C. Braastad, ’83 to do with his personal charactei Ted Kennedy is hardly represent all liberals. How about John Kent Franklin Roosevelt? Were thev too? During the colonial era, there' ^ bu r by St he d” has “tradition” of revolution. The fa of our nation were some of the mM’Disco ward thinking leaders in histonje' mag the conservatives of that timewl tinued to support King George,a the budding nation in the backlij economic and military subversion The ability to accept varied view, no matter how different tin should be an important attribute great universities, includingTexai; We, the students, are the ones win make it happen. Keven Doug Robei Mark Mi John Mi Jinforn In and re phi a fol bphlei anizat ‘We’d encyc stude a Colonial viewpoint 1 The ate wi I'ght [eater. sp< an, a Riding ry an ord p Don’t close mind Editor: This is in reponse to Richard Fos berg’s letter in Friday’s Battalion. It is not necessarily the conservatism or liberalism of Texas A&M that is its weakness. It is the closed, narrow minded thinking of people such as you, who think that only one specific view point is right and all others are detrimen tal, and who are unwilling to allow this institution to change as it should, that will keep it from becoming as great as it could be. The reference to Teddy Kennedy as “scum” strongly reflects just such closed mindedness. Your personal disagree ment with Kennedy’s views have nothing Editor: This is in response to the It Richard H. Fosberg that appearedj Friday’s Batt. While I sincerely hope that have historically believed in thep 1 t ^ le pies set down by great men likejefir 1 a M>( Franklin and Washington,” I real der what it is that makes Mr. Fosl these men were conservatives. 0 have been their ideas of all men created equally, of life, liberty am suit of happiness? Maybe it was lief that the power of a govern! sted in the people, not in the king' Parliament. Maybe it was their freedom of speech and press, or gion. Or it might have beenjel belief that each generation had to change the social institutions that they didn’t have to accepttl because they were there. Thenofi there was his belief in a bill ofri| the constitution. Yes, these ideas certainly mart| men as conservatives. Especial you consider the fact that thest were voiced over two hundredyei when the world hardly knew the ing of the word democracy. Tab blinders off Mr. Fosberg, and try things from a wider angle instead narrow tunnel you seem to be down now. Michael Pal; The Battalion USPS 045 360 Member ot Texas Press Association , Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Hope E. Paasch Managing Editor Elaine Engstrom City Editor Beverly Hamilton Assistant City Editor Kelley Smith Sports Editor J°hn Wagner Assistant Sports Editor John Lopez Entertainment Editor .... Rebeca Zimmermann Assistant Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra News Editors Brian Boyer, Kathy Breard, Tracey Taylor, Kelly Miller Photo Editor Eric Evan Lee Staff Writers Brigid Brockman, Ronnie Crocker, Scott Griffin, Christine Mallon, Robert McGlohon, Michelle Powe, Ann Ramsbottom, Stephanie Ross, Karen Schrimsher, Carol Smith, Angel Stokes, Joe Tindel, Kathy Wiesepape, Wanda Winkler Cartoonist Scott McCullar Graphic Artist Sergio Galvez Thompson, Photographers Michael Davis, Guy Hood, Irene Mees, Barry Papke, William Schulz paper operated as a community service to Tent University and Bryan-College Station. 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