november-2012

The Nutcracker
New York, 23 November-30 December, nycballet.com
diary
The New York City Ballet have staged a seasonal run of George Balanchine’s The
Nutcracker every year since 1954, and it’s as much a part of Christmas as the dazzling
window displays on Fifth Avenue and the ice rink at Rockefeller. All 90 of the company’s
dancers take part, along with 62 musicians and two 50-strong casts of young dancers.
Balanchine’s choreography is sublime, and the sets deliciously extravagant –
not least the sugar-frosted Land of Sweets, presided over by the Sugarplum Fairy.
Tchaikovsky’s enchanting score, the flurries of crystalline snowflakes and Marie’s
wonder as the Nutcracker comes to life have lost none of their magic over the
years. Not bad for a ballet that met a frosty reception when it was first performed
at St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, on 18 December 1892 – “quite amateurish”
being the verdict of one curmudgeonly critic.
Dennis Hopper: The Lost Album
Berlin, until 17 December, berlinerfestspiele.de
When he wasn’t making films
(Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now
and Blue Velvet among them),
extricating himself from ill-fated
romances (he was married five
times) or living up to his hell-raiser
reputation, the late Dennis Hopper
was also a gifted photographer.
After the actor’s death in 2010,
his family discovered five crates of
“lost” prints, exhibited in Texas in
1970 then packed up and forgotten.
“It was a treasure trove,” says Petra
Giloy-Hirtz, the curator of a new
exhibition at the Martin-Gropius-
Bau museum in Berlin. “Over 400
small photographs, mounted on
card, with marks and fingerprints
from Hopper’s own hand.”
They were taken between 1961
and 1967, when Hopper was out of
favour in Hollywood after clashing
with the director of From Hell to
Texas. He turned to photography,
taking pictures of everyone from
Paul Newman and James Brown
to Ike and Tina Turner.
The resulting images are
extraordinary, in terms of both
content and composition. “Of
course Hopper had an amazing
visual talent; we know that from
his movies,” says Giloy-Hirtz. “His
photographs are intimate and
poetic, but they’re also sharply
observant.” In one, an insouciant
David Hockney puffs a cigarette
while hanging out with Andy
Warhol; in another, Martin Luther
King addresses the crowds at the
Freedom March of 1965.
But Hopper was also interested
in documenting ordinary people
and places, from glimpsed Harlem
street scenes to Mexican bullfights.
“He had an eye for the ordinary
and neglected things of everyday
life, which he transformed into art,”
says Giloy-Hirtz.
“Guy with 5 Hogs” (top left),
meanwhile, foreshadows Easy
Rider, Hopper’s cinematic road trip
through American counterculture.
Released in 1969, it marked an
end to his photography: in the
wake of its success, as he wrote
in 1986, he “never carried a
camera again”.
30% off b.light economy fares*
Book 16 November-6 December;
travel 7-10 December; promo code
MTXLDHOP
14 november 2012
fly to berlin five times daily; new york jfk daily. brusselsairlines.com
THE NUTCRACKER: PAUL KOLNIK. DENNIS HOPPER, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: GUY WITH 5 HOGS, 1971-67; JAMES BROWN, 1966; ANDY WARHOL, HENRY GELDZAHLER, DAVID HOCKNEY AND JEFF GOODMAN, 1963; PAUL NEWMAN, 1964
©THE DENNIS HOPPER TRUST. *DISCOUNT ONLY APPLICABLE FOR RETURN FLIGHTS FROM BRUSSELS, BOOKED ONLINE AT BRUSSELSAIRLINES.COM AND NOT APPLICABLE ON AIRPORT TAXES AND OTHER SURCHARGES