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In conjunction with NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World’s exhibition Hymn to Apollo: The Ancient World and the Ballets Russes (on view March 6–June 2, 2019), this event explored Afternoon of a Faun in three parts – its classical roots, Nijinsky’s Faun, and Robbins’ Faun. The evening included a screening of Nijinsky’s work and a live performance of the Robbins ballet featuring New York City Ballet dancers Lauren Lovette (CBA ’18) and Joseph Gordon.
A light reception on the second floor followed the program.
Presented in collaboration with NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.
Speakers:
Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen, Post-Doctoral Teaching and Research Fellow, Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute
Barbara Graziosi, Professor of Classics, Princeton University
Alastair Macaulay, Dance Critic
With a performance by:
Joseph Gordon, Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet
Lauren Lovette, Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet
Moderated by:
Jennifer Homans, Founder and Director, CBA
The Center for Ballet and the Arts’ 2019 public programming is made possible by American Express.
Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen (PhD) teaches in the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute. She is currently completing her first book project, titled Posture and the Modernization of Figural Art, Europe circa 1900.
Barbara Graziosi is Professor of Classics at Princeton University; her most recent books are Homer (OUP, 2016), which was shortlisted for the Criticos Prize, and The Gods of Olympus: A History (Metropolitan Books, 2014, with editions in several languages, including Japanese, Estonian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Barbara’s own native Italian). Her main focus of interest is classical literature and how readers from the most distant times and places make it their own. She has recently directed a large research project, funded by the European Research Council, entitled Living Poets: A New Approach to Ancient Poetry, which considers in detail the portraits and biographies of the poets of ancient Greece and Rome. The main contention of that project is that representations of the classical poets tell us something crucial – not about the actual poets themselves, but about their readers who, through the centuries, imagined them, gave a shape to their faces, and told stories about their lives. On the strength of her classical expertise, she regularly contributes to the Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Booksas well as BBC radio and television programs. She is currently working on short book on Sappho – the most famous female poet (and indeed musician and choreographer) from classical antiquity.
Alastair Macaulay has been a critic of, and lecturer on, the performing arts for forty years, in London and New York. He was chief theatre critic of the Financial Times in the years 1994-2007, chief examiner in dance history to the Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing 1987-2002, guest dance critic to The New Yorker in 1988 and 1992, and chief dance critic to the Times Literary Supplement 1996-2006 before becoming chief dance critic to the New York Times in 2007-2018. He is the author of the short biography Margot Fonteyn (1998) and the extended book of interviews Matthew Bourne and his Adventures in Dance (2000, second edition 2011). Currently he contributes dance writing to the New York Times while teaching at the Juilliard School and the 92nd St Y. He is at work on a book on Merce Cunningham.
Joseph Gordon was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and began his dance training at the age of five at The Phoenix Dance Academy. Mr. Gordon began studying at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, during the 2006 summer course and enrolled as a full-time student that fall. In August of 2011, Mr. Gordon became an apprentice with NYCB, and in July of 2012, he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet. In February 2017, Mr. Gordon was promoted to soloist and in October 2018, he was promoted to principal dancer.
Lauren Lovette was born in Thousand Oaks, California and began studying ballet at the age of 11 at the Cary Ballet Conservatory in Cary, North Carolina. She attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet, during the summers of 2004 and 2005 and enrolled at SAB as a full time student in 2006. In October 2009, Ms. Lovette became an apprentice with NYCB and joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in September 2010. She was promoted to soloist in February 2013 and to principal dancer in June 2015.
Ms. Lovette has choreographed two works for New York City Ballet: For Clara (2016) and Not Our Fate (2017).
Jennifer Homans is the Founder and Director of The Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University, where she is also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence in History and European and Mediterranean Studies. She is the author of Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (2010), named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Homans has written for The New York Times, The Guardian (UK), and the New York Review of Books, among others, and was the Dance Critic for The New Republic from 2001-2014. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Modern European History from New York University. Before becoming a writer and scholar, Homans was a professional dancer, and performed with the Pacific Northwest Ballet and other companies. The recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2012, she is currently at work on a new book, George Balanchine: A History (Random House).
