Good news:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><B>NY Public Library of Performing Arts Returns to Lincoln Center Oct. 15</B><P>David Lefkowitz, Playbill On-Line<P>For three years, the vast holdings of the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts have been held in temporary midtown locations and storage while the NYPL's Lincoln Center home underwent mega-renovation. Begun July 20, 1998, the remake is finally being completed, and the Library will return to Lincoln Center Oct. 15, following a free public open house Oct. 13.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/playbill/20010629/en/ny_public_library_of_performing_arts_returns_to_lincoln_center_oct_15_1.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A>

NYPL Performing Arts was one of my favorite "haunts" when I lived in NYC. I could sit and browse there for hours. And there was an extensive video and film section too. I will be back in that area in August, but will miss the grand re- opening...boo..hiss!

Trina, let me know when you'll be in NY. Perhaps I can arrange to be there then, too?<P>I also spent much of my youth in the Performing Arts Library. It is a marvelous place. During my senior year in high school, I arranged for almost all of my term papers to be on dance or dance-related topics, so I had an excuse to spend hours every weekend at the Library.<P>Renovation is the name of the game at Lincoln Center in general these days. The whole Plaza has been torn up, and there are supposed to be changes made at the Met as well. But at 40, I guess it's time for a face lift (and more ladies' rooms in the Opera House...yes!!!...).

Nancy, I will be there from August 28-September 4. I will be spending most of my time in NJ with my parents, but I do plan to be in NYC. I HAVE to!! Yes, I'd LOVE to meet. Is that big restaurant still there?It's on Broadway and like 64th.I can't think of the name; it has really high ceilings, lots of big windows, right across the street from Lincoln Center and kitty corner from O'Neals' Balloon (I'm not sure if that's still there either)Is "The Ballet Shop" still there on Broadway..yah know, that ballet bookstore?

Trina, I'll e-mail you. As for the restaurant, I'm smiling, because that's where my husband and I had our wedding reception. Back then it was called the Magic Flute; they gutted and renovated it, and now it is known as the Saloon. The waiters walk now; at some point in the past they were on roller skates. And the Ballet Store is now called the Ballet Company, or something like that, but it's still there in the same place on Broadway. O'Neals' Baloon is no longer called O'Neals' Baloon, either. Don't worry though -- you'll still recognize the area. I look forward to meeting you!

Do you mean the Saloon? They have tables outside in the summer. It's on the East side of Broadway and 64th St. If this is what you mean, yes, it's still there. Actually, O'Neal's is still there too - just not where the Baloon was. It's on 64th St., north side, just down the block a bit from the Saloon. The mural from the Baloon is in there. BTW the reason it was called the 'Baloon' in the first place was because Lincoln Center didn't want anything as "crass" as a "saloon" just next door.

Yup, that Ballet Bookstore is still there, as is O'Neal's. And don't forget the hotdogs at Gray's Papaya. <P>Looks like we won't see you in NY, Trina. We're making reservations for the last week in September...

ARgggg! We're going to just miss you Azlan. No chance of your coming to NYC a little earlier? <BR>Nancy-New York has sure changed, yes? When I was back a few years ago, they had completely "redone" 42nd st. It looked like Disneyland, (in fact that whole block is now owened by Disney, I think) rather than the black hole of Calcutta, which is what it was like when I lived there. <BR>I wonder what the new NY Performing Arts Library will be like? Just thinking now, I wonder how many dance books, theses and dissertations were researched in that very building. Quite a few, I'll bet, due to the extensive dance archives, video and film colletcion, probably unparalleled in the world, in terms of combining modern, classical and jazz/Broadway collections.

Can't help it, Trina. It's <I>her</I> schedule, not mine. You can bug her if you like! <P>I am really looking forward to the new library, what with its well-lit loft-like look and modern technology, not to mention all those materials being brought out of storage.

Oh, I forgot to credit my dear friend, surrogate sister, and ballerina extraordinaire (retired) for introducing me to Gray's Papaya.

Yes, Gray's Papaya is definetly a staple of the NY diet. That and pizza! Oh dear Azlan...you've gotten me started on my "NY food nostalgia trip". Italian pastries down in Little Italy (Ferrara's are the best!), all those places in Chinatown, borscht (cold Russian beet soup) at this little "hole in the wall" place on W54 (I think?- which actually caters some food to places like the Russian Tea Room), the Indian Restaurants on E 9st (is that right, or is it 6th...someone correct me)..the list goes on ......yum!!!! Whatever gripes one migtht have about NY, there's no beating the food!

Borscht on West 54th? Are you talking about the "Soup Nazi" place that inspired that hysterical episode on the Seinfeld series? But that place serves just soup, I think, so perhaps you are referring to someplace else.

Oh, dear, did I say was going to NYC in September? What on earth made me say that? I don't need all my fans knowing my travel plans. No wonder I've been getting all these invitations in my mailbox. I get tons of email everyday as it is (my in-box is up to about 1,000 messages yet to be replied to, many from people I don't know)!<P>And while I am at it, let me also refute the rumor that I will be flying down to Orange County for La Scala next week!<P>Now, how did we get from library to food?

How do we ever get from ANY topic to food? teeHEE!<BR>Does anyone know of any comparable such libraries in other cities? San Francisco, London?<P>

Just another visit to the library folks …

The people of New York City have an amazing resource in their Performing Arts Library. Located at Lincoln Center between the Metropolitan Opera House and the Vivian Beaumont Theater, the Library houses circulating and research collections for classical and jazz music, opera, drama, and dance. If knowledge is power, then the Performing Arts Library is a truly formidable arsenal.

The ACCESS Program

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division is one of the several research collections. Starting June 24, to get access to any of the research collections will require registration for an "ACCESS" card. Its free of charge and only takes a few minutes to register.

The application is made online via the ACCESS Card link on the NYCPL's webpage. The form can be filled out before coming to the Library or even done at the Library itself. You complete the registration by reporting to the Copy Center on the 3rd floor (same floor as the Dance Division). Sassy copy center staff will check your ID and take a digital photograph that gets imprinted onto the ACCESS card. Theoretically, come June 24 you present a call slip w/ what you want and your ACCESS card and the staff will issue your requested material.

On the afternoon I visited, I registered using the old paper form. Since my aim was to view dance on tape, the Librarian guided me to a computer terminal. You click on the icon for the Dance on Tape CD-ROM. Then, you type a query in the search menu box.

For example, "Slaughter Tenth Avenue and video" returned about 17 matches. Hit "Display" and your choices appear. I chose footage from the 1993 Balanchine Festival. "Tombeau Couperin and video" returned about 10 choices and again I chose the Balanchine Festival. Call numbers get written down and then presented to the Librarian.

The Librarian checked the call numbers and assigned me a video station. When the video was ready, the video terminal's laptop display showed the familiar video playback controls (if you don't see anything on the laptop at first, jog the mouse to turn off the screen saver).

On the laptop screen, I hit "play" and "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" appeared with Maria Calegari as the Strip Tease Girl and Robert LaFosse as the Hoofer. Delectable. The video was the "close shot" version where the camera zoomed in a little and followed the main action. The "wide shot" as I found out soon has an essentially stationary camera about the location of the camera that shows you what you're missing in the theater in case you come too late to be seated and have to watch by the coatcheck.

I thought that though not quite ready for a national broadcast, the video was well done and not amateurish at all. There is a numeric counter and pause/rewind/repeat commands which would be essential for anybody wanting to do a close reading of a passage. The sound however could use some work as it passed through every miscellaneous noise from the pit including voice clearings, whispers, and things falling down or over.

"Tombeau de Couperin" was also taped during the 1993 Balanchine Festival. I don't remember that the Balanchine Festival was available for public viewing when I was by last year. Perhaps it was only available to bona-fide scholars and dance professionals but has become available to the interested public (me).

Personally, I believe that material preservation issues aside, the ability to view archival footage of 70+ Balanchine ballets of the Balanchine Festival (and other such research footage) to potentially represent a veritable goldmine for dance scholarship at all levels, particularly the undergraduate and graduate levels. IMHO dance must be seen in a repeatable and quotable form if it is ever to be studied as music, drama, and literature are studied. How far would Shakespeare studies have gone without readily available scholarly additions. How far if all we had were a handful of PBS tapes and our memories of live performance?

For dance scholarship to be taken seriously, there must be enough of it participating in and contributing to the intellectual and artistic currents of our times -- take your pick of 'isms -- historical, genre, biographical, Leavisite, Marxist, New Historicist, psycho-analytic, structuralist and post-structuralist, etc. Judging from the number of book shelves devoted to dance versus that devoted to literature and music at my local university library, there are simply not enough people writing about dance or not getting what they write into print. For heaven's sake, there must be more written about obscure medieval or Renaissance what nots than about dance (w/ all due respect to the study of whatnots). Ok, editorializing (ravings) over...

Back to “Tombeau.” With all due respect to the choreographer, I think I preferred the rehearsal piano's accompaniment to the performance's orchestrated score. The solo piano retains a concentration yet a delicacy that fits the mannerly ensemble better. The "wide shot" showed the entire stage while the "close shot" focussed on the left quadrille.

As before, I found the Library staff to be very knowledgeable and helpful. A trip to the NYCPL is like a visit to your personal treasure trove which offers much to a dance enthusiast like me. The library is open Monday through Saturday 12noon to 6pm except Thursdays when it is open to 8 pm though the research collections are closed on Mondays.

NY Public Library for the Performing Arts Research Collections

<small>[ 02 June 2003, 05:02 AM: Message edited by: Jeff ]</small>