Monday, Interrupted

How does it get to be Friday?  Amidst running errands and having meetings and trying trying trying in very un-Yoda-like fashion to finish this manuscript, I don't know whither Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday, I only know the (working) weekend is upon me.

In a moment of weakness and frustration last night, I put on the cable where I'm staying and stumbled upon The Turning Point.  This is one of my FAVORITE 70's movies!  Ballet, Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft, Misha -- what's not to love?  Melodrama at its finest with a healthy dose of the best dancers and choreographers of the time.  Even then I knew I'd be Anne Bancroft and not Shirley MacLaine.  Bancroft is stunning in this movie, and tiny - tinier than tiny Shirley MacLaine.  How she and not MacLaine ends up being the one with the dance solo is odd -- MacLaine is the dancer between them.  Seeing James Mitchell (Palmer Cortlandt to you AMC fans) playing a choreographer was amazing.  Mitchell was a dancer with ABT, on Broadway, worked with Agnes DeMille, he had a real legacy in that world.

I like this version of a poster!

I would love to make this film again - I'd love to make it into an opera!  It is so operatic, my friend Thomas and I were talking about it.  It's so good and so bad at the same time - so dated and so current.  Two strong women exploring the sacrifices they had to get to get some of what they wanted.  That dilemma hasn't changed.

Watching Baryshnikov in this, I was reminded of his gloriousness.  I've seen him dance live - both classical and with White Oak - but you forget.  His technique is so high, there is no technique.  He is the Bruce Lee of dance!  Roger Federer is the Baryshnikov of tennis!  You hold your breath when he leaps, forgetting you're alive while you are watching him.

Okay, with a little help from a friend, I may have solved two, but created one new problem with the manuscript.  Back to the real work at hand.

Click on this link for the dorky original trailer!