What really matters is that 'Black Swan' deploys and exaggerates all the cliches of earlier ballet movies, especially 'The Red Shoes,' another… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
One of the eternal mysteries of ballet is how untalented choreographers find backers for their work, and then find good dancers to… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
As for the once-revolutionary 'Agon,' after more than half a century, its lessons and revelations have been so absorbed into the language… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
The early giants of modern dance - Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis - barely left traces of their art. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
'The Sleeping Beauty' is the greatest, most challenging and most vulnerable of classical ballets. Everything can go wrong with it, and all… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
After all these years of saying the same thing about the Alvin Ailey company - terrific dancers, awful repertory - I'm finally… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
The mystery of Christopher Wheeldon deepens. Yes, he's the most talented of the younger ballet choreographers - indeed, where's the competition? Yes,… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
The eternal and uneasy relationship between ballet and modern dance endures, but radically altered in tone and intensity. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Nothing is harder to create than brilliant comic ballets, except maybe brilliant full-evening comic ballets. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
What guarantees - or at least semi-guarantees - good ballets is good choreographers, and they are thin on the ground. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
I can't claim to 'understand' 'Byzantium,' if any dance work can be 'understood,' but whenever I see it, I sense that it's… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
The Kirov is a great ballet company because it has so many terrific dancers, but it doesn't always know what to do… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
The heart of the classical repertory is the Tchaikovsky-Petipa 'Sleeping Beauty,' and no ballet is harder to get right. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Ballet companies have their ups and downs, just like the rest of us. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Diana Vishneva is not only a magnificent dancer but a magnificent actress - no one works harder or understands more. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Paul Taylor's 'Offenbach Overtures' has lots of zip and charm, and its pair of dueling soldiers in red, who end up starry-eyed about each… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Jodi Melnick is hotly self-absorbed. Her onstage musicians are much too loud, and like so many narcissistic performers, she goes on much too long:… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Increasingly, editing means going to lunch. It means editing with a credit card, not with a pencil. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
'Porgy and Bess' has never been thought of as a dance show, and yet it's filled with dance. It uses dance to punctuate the… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
We know how Merce Cunningham works and how he thinks - we've been told, over and over again, by him and by others. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
When I was at Cambridge in the early fifties, there was a school nearby for training Army officers in Russian, and some imaginative genius… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Many people say to me, particularly about my dance writing, 'It sounds just like you.' But it sounds just like me after I've made… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
Schumann's 'Quintet in E flat for Piano and Strings' is one of the sublime moments in Romantic music. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
What makes a publishing house great? The easy answer is the consistency with which it produces books of value over a lengthy period of… — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
For me, the real pleasure in writing is in having an excuse to pursue my curiosity about people who have meant something to me. — Robert Gottlieb Copy Share Image
