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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
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“IVe never understood before why he liked to study ii
the library!”
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Liberalism urged
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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
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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;
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