GLR May-June 2023

G L R k

May–June 2023

The Impresarios

M ARTIN D UBERMAN How Lincoln Kirstein Got

E MILY L. Q UINT F REEMAN Léonor Fini, Impresario of theSelf A LLEN E LLENZWEIG How Diaghilev Reimagined Ballet

George Balanchine A NDREW H OLLERAN Arthur Laurents’ Bait & Switch

$6.95 US, $7.95 Canada

f newtitles from

hidden

Q K IN THE QUEER ART OF H I STORY

hist t

ori

es

UEER SH I P FTER C I SM Y

and black ait th k f

Amanda Lock Swarr

A FASC

N I NVISIONING NTERSEX E AFRICA

N AN

esbia a esbi i moultr ni u p mo q l

n an

l

eadershi

rie ue

Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies

in South African Medicine

JENNIFER V.

EVANS

Raving MCKENZ I EWA Practices Running L I NDSEYA. FR Practices Psychoanaly M I CHELLERAD An issueof diffe e F i i tC lt l i F emin st Cultural Envisioning Challenging Colon in South A rican M AMANDA LOCK iff r f u g T The Science BENJAM I NKA GRETA LAFLEU a An issueof GLQ: A and Gay Studies ( PutaLife Seeing Latina o JUANAMAR Í A D ssident Acts t i s,W Hidden Histo Faith and Black Les RV TheQueerA Queer Kinship a ft e JENN I FE . E MON I QUEMOU

ARK

REEMAN

W ysis and Solidarity DA, issue editor ences: A Jou na of Studies (33:2-3) African I ntersex nial and Racist Legacies Medicine KSWARR r l o

r l o eofSex I tself AHAN and UR, issue editors A Jou na of Lesbian 29:1)

ATINAS, ORKINGSEX ALIFE RODRÍGUEZ W SEEINGLA PUTA JUANA MARÍA

r orkingSex ARODR Í GUEZ

ories sbian Leadership ULTR I E

V Art of History r Fascism VANS

dukeupress.edu

The Gay & Lesbian Review May–June 2023 • VOLUME XXX, NUMBER 3 WORLDWIDE

Editor-in-Chief and Founder R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R . WORLDWIDE The Gay & Lesbian Review ® PO Box 180300, Boston, MA 02118

C O N T E N T S

The Impresarios

Literary Editor M ARTHA E. S TONE Poetry Editor D AVID B ERGMAN Associate Editors S AM D APANAS P AUL F ALLON J EREMY F OX M ICHAEL S CHWARTZ Contributing Writers R OSEMARY B OOTH D ANIEL A. B URR C OLIN C ARMAN A LFRED C ORN A LLEN E LLENZWEIG C HRIS F REEMAN P HILIP G AMBONE M ATTHEW H AYS A NDREW H OLLERAN I RENE J AVORS J OHN R. K ILLACKY C ASSANDRA L ANGER A NDREW L EAR D AVID M ASELLO

F E A T U R E S

How Diaghilev Reimagined Ballet 12 A LLEN E LLENZWEIG

The Russian impresario forged the dance as an integrated art form

The Way Things Were 15 A NDREW H OLLERAN

Arthur Laurents based The Way We Were on his own (gay) amour

Lincoln Kirstein’s Greatest Get 18 M ARTIN D UBERMAN

He brought George Balanchine to America, and the rest is history

Léonor Fini, Impresario of the Self 22 E MILY L.Q UINT F REEMAN

The pansexual painter was a major force in the Paris art world

The Skeleton in the Old Left’s Closet 25 V ERNON R OSARIO

The U.S. Communist Party has a history of LGBT exclusion

Absconding to Arcadia 30 W ILLIAM B ENEMANN

How two ’49-ers in search of California gold found true love

R E V I E W S

Michael Anesko — Henry James Framed 33 D ANIEL A. B URR Voyage to Destruction: The Moroccan Letters of Alfred Chester 34 D AVID B ERGMAN LauraLee— Wilde Nights & Robber Barons: The Story of Maurice Schwabe 36 N ILS C LAUSSON Ann Wadsworth — Libretto: A Novel 37 R OSEMARY B OOTH Hervé Guibert — My Manservant and Me 38 P HILIP G AMBONE Elias Jahshan, editor — This Arab Is Queer 40 A NNE C HARLES Scott Herring — Aging Moderns 42 F ELICE P ICANO Selby Wynn Schwartz — After Sappho: A Novel 43 C ASSANDRA L ANGER Prince Shakur — When They Tell You to Be Good: A Memoir 43 C ARY A LAN J OHNSON B RIEFS 44 David Jenkens, creator — Our Flag Means Death (HBO series) 47 V IDAL D’C OSTA Coyote Park: I Love You Like Mirrors Do (art exhibit) 49 T ANNON R ECKLING Under Cover: J.C. Leyendecker and American Masculinity (art exhibit) 50 D AVID M ASELLO

F ELICE P ICANO J AMES P OLCHIN J EAN R OBERTA V ERNON R OSARIO Contributing Artist C HARLES H EFLING Publisher S TEPHEN H EMRICK Webmaster B OSTON W EB G ROUP WebEditor A LLISON A RMIJO ____________________________________ Board of Directors A RT C OHEN ( CHAIR ) E DUARDO F EBLES R OBERT H ARDMAN D AVID L A F ONTAINE J IM J ACOBS A NDREW L EAR R ICHARD S CHNEIDER , J R . ( PRESIDENT ) M ARTHA E. S TONE T HOMAS Y OUNGREN ( TREASURER ) S TEWART C LIFFORD (C HAIREMER .) W ARREN G OLDFARB ( SR . ADVISOR EMER .)

P O E M S & D E P A R T M E N T S

G UEST O PINION — Inside Ukraine: An LGBTQ Leader Speaks Out

5 F INBARR T OESLAND

C ORRESPONDENCE

7

I N M EMORIAM — Doris Grumbach, Storyteller 8 M ARGARET C RUIKSHANK BTW 10 R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R . A RT M EMO — George Cecil Ives: Out Poet, Lover of Bosie 28 R EBECCA B ATLEY P OEM — “At 50” 38 B ILLY C LEM P OEM — “Heaven” 42 J AMES D UFFICY C ULTURAL C ALENDAR 46 A RT M EMO — Algernon Swinburne’s “Sapphics” 48 E MILY R. Z AREVICH

C o v e r A r t : Léonor Fini’s Figures on a Terrace , 1938.

The Gay & Lesbian Review/ WORLDWIDE ® (formerly The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, 1994-1999) is published bimonthly (six times per year) by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc., a 501(c)(3) educational corporation located in Boston, Mass. Subscriptions: Call 847-504-8893. Rates : U.S.: $41.70 per year (6 issues). Canada and Mexico: $51.70(US). All other countries: $61.70(US). All non-U.S. copies are sent via air mail. Back issues available for $12 each. All correspondence is sent in a plain envelope marked “G&LR.” © 2023 by The Gay & Lesbian Review, Inc. All rights reserved. W EBSITE : www.GLReview.org • S UBSCRIPTIONS : 847-504-8893 • A DVERTISING : 617-421-0082 • S UBMISSIONS : Editor@GLReview.org

May–June 2023

3

Pride Issue: ‘The Impresarios’ FROM THE EDITOR

W E ARE EVERYWHERE, of course, but LGBT people are famously well represented in the arts. And among those who make things happen in the performing arts, “the impresarios,” the LGBT presence is unmistakable. This is certainly the case for the period covered in this issue, essentially the Modernist era of the early to mid-20th century. It was a period in which the prevalence of gay people in the arts was so pronounced that it even earned an epithet—“the Homintern,” a play on Lenin’s “Comintern.” While this label im plied a conspiracy on the part of homosexuals to dominate the arts—a dubious proposition—what can’t be denied is that they played an outsize role in a number of areas, not only as creative artists but also as founders of arts institutions. Evidence for the Homintern resides in the dramatis personæ of this period. Figures like Proust, Forster, and Auden towered over their fields of endeavor. Years ago, in this magazine, the late Ned Rorem set out to enumerate the truly great composers of the last century, and he concluded that at least half were gay (Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem, Virgil Thomson, and Ralph Vaughn Williams). Among women artists, figures from Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf to Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde have played similarly prominent parts. If there’s one individual who personifies the term “impre sario,” it has to be Sergei Diaghilev, who started in Russia as an art curator for great museums and went on to found the Ballets

Russes, in Paris, in 1907, which launched the careers of nu merous dancers, including the great Nijinsky, who was also one of his many lovers. Allen Ellenzweig argues here that Diaghilev reimagined the dance as an integrated art form involving music, story, costume, décor, and choreography. Lincoln Kirstein was America’s answer to Diaghilev, co founding a great dance company, the New York City Ballet, along with George Balanchine, who was Diaghilev’s last major choreographer. Martin Duberman tells the story of how Kirstein brought Balanchine to the U.S., and how they created what would become an American institution. A piece by Andrew Holleran tells the curious tale of writer producer Arthur Laurents, who, when writing the screenplay for the Redford-Streisand vehicle The Way We Were , based the love affair on his own relationship with Tom Hatcher. But Lau rents, who wrote West Side Story and numerous other plays and screenplays, not to mention directing and producing many plays and films, certainly merits the term impresario. Someone else who qualifies by the sheer breadth of her artistic reach is Léonor Fini, an Impressionist painter who worked in set and costume design for theater, opera, ballet, and cinema, even publishing three novels. Emily L. Quint Freeman traces Fini’s move from Argentina to Paris in a widening arc of artistic interests and accomplishments. R ICHARD S CHNEIDER J R . New Paperbacks from Reaktion Outrageous! The Story of Section 28 and Britain’s Battle for LGBT Education Paul Baker

’s 154 sonnets anagramm Shakespeare’ TREVO AGR THEWILDHUN

an be “[A med into wildly new poems about queer de RKETNER RIMOIRE ATIONS NTDIVINA nd the subversive the etween the traditional A] radical intersection S is Artfulness mprovisational. ear-mathematical and the nd the subversive, the

esire

“A timely reminder that the old demons of bigotry and exclusion are never far away.”— Scotsman Paper $ 16.00

th m un po th im ne

es re tic so Ke “S fra ~D onnets reinvent Shakespear etner’s thrilling anagrammat Sexy, queer, and contempora ank: sonnets Diane Seuss, author of hemselves.” managing to be entirely ncloset Shakespeare while oems that honor and ffers . he key The result of herent in the combinatorial hile exploring the possibilitie in w Travesty Generator author of ~Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, game of language.”

Exist Otherwise The Life and Works of Claude Cahun Jennifer L. Shaw “In Shaw’s telling, Cahun

ary,

models how to practice radical art and action during politically fraught times like hers—and our own.”— Wellesley Review Paper $ 27.50

$16.95 paperback

ess.org Visit weslpr Call 800-537-5487 our favorite booksell Order from y

ler

Distributed by the University of Chicago Press www.press.uchicago.edu

TheG & LR

4

Inside Ukraine: An LGBTQ Leader Speaks Out GUEST OPINION

impacted LGBTQ rights and the community itself? AK : It has dramatically worsened our everyday life but defi nitely improved the political and legislative situation of the Ukrainian LGBTQ community. I’m sure you understand all hor rors of the war which we’re experiencing. However, obtaining the candidacy to the EU enabled the Ukrainian authorities to adopt two symbolically important documents protecting LGBTQ rights: the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the law “On Media.” The war drew public attention to the problems of same-sex partners fighting for Ukraine and undermined all efforts of Russ ian homophobic propaganda. The public trust in the ultracon servative Ukrainian churches has decreased sharply, while the stance towards LGBTQ people has improved. The most important issues facing Ukrainian society are the global changes that are happening. We are part of a globalized world. Of course, we have open communication [unlike Rus sia], and therefore free access to the internet and global infor mation. Ukrainian civil society is also quite strong. I’m proud of this, because I’ve met with many activists from Eastern Eu rope, and Ukrainian civil society is one of the strongest. Ukraine is one of the most progressive countries in the eastern part of Europe. Understanding the necessity of European inte gration for Ukraine and the global changes towards LGBTQ is sues has influenced this change.

F INBARR T OESLAND S INCE RUSSIA’S WAR of aggression began on 24 Feb ruary 2022, the lives of everyday Ukrainians have fun damentally changed. Many people in Ukraine’s LGBTQ community are fighting in the military to repel Russian forces and liberate their homeland. Andrii Kravchuk is a Ukrain ian LGBTQ activist, one of the founders of the Nash Mir (Our World) Gay and Lesbian Centre, Ukraine’s leading LGBTQ ad vocacy center, and is currently working to support the coun try’s LGBTQ community, which is under siege. We met at the open-air café next to Termen’s Fountain in Kyiv and discussed the current situation for LGBTQ people liv ing in Ukraine, how the war has altered the lives of Ukraini ans, and the likelihood that same-sex marriage will become a reality in Ukraine after the war ends. The interview, which was conducted in English, has been edited for length and clarity. Finbarr Toesland: What is the Nash Mir Gay and Lesbian Centre, and how did you operate before the Russian invasion? Andrii Kravchuk : The Nash Mir Centre is one of the oldest Ukrainian LGBTQ organizations. We started 25 years ago. For a year after we began our activities, we fought with our local De partment of Justice because they didn’t want to register us as an openly LGBTQ organization. When I talk about “us,” it was just some friends who started the center as a group of young gay guys. It was during the first years after Ukrainian independence, and we saw opportunities to improve society for LGBTQ people. Since then, we have set up a monitoring network for anti- LGBTQ violence, discrimina tion or other violations of rights in Ukraine. Until 2014, we never cooperated with the Ukrainian gov ernment. They rejected all of our proposals and did not want to speak to us. After a better person became president of Ukraine, the situation changed. We are currently cooperating with our government in some areas. For instance, they invited us to work on some important policies around civil rights. Even in 2015, when the first LGBTQ action plan was adopted by our gov ernment, it was absolutely unexpected for us. They included all our proposals. Not all became law, around one-third did, but it was still very good. Before the war, we had a series of trainings with local po lice forces around sexual orientation and gender identity. They were quite effective and well-received in most cases, but we couldn’t manage to finish a session in Vinnitsa. Those meetings were disrupted by local anti- LGBTQ organizations, and even the police could not protect themselves from this attack. Lviv was the only city where we tried to organize such a meeting with police, but it failed, because we were of no in terest to the local police. Lviv is a major center for far-right nationalism, and they see LGBTQ people as enemies, not just on a political basis but also on a national basis. FT: With the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine coming up, could you talk about how the events of the past year have

➙

May–June 2023

5

FT: A number of openly LGBTQ people have fought for Ukraine against Russia. Do you believe this is one reason why attitudes have improved towards LGBTQ people? AK : Definitely. Iryna Sovsun MP, the only active supporter of the LGBTQ community in the Verkhovna Rada, said that some of her homophobic colleagues changed their minds towards LGBTQ people when their real par ticipation in the war became known. FT: Could you talk about some of the main projects the Nash Mir Centre is currently working on for the community? AK : Given the current situation, we cannot provide substantial financial assistance to the community, so we have focused our activi

marriage? AK : Beyond any doubt, it will eventually happen in the mid-term prospects. The task to adopt a law on civil registered part nership has been already included in ac tion plans of the Ukrainian government, and the recent decision of the ECHR [Eu ropean Court of Human Rights] in the case Fedotova and Others v. Russia left no place to evade this for the Ukrainian au thorities. The question is not whether, but how soon, same-sex couples will be al lowed to marry, and the trends are only be coming more favorable. This war attracted public attention to the problem around same-sex marriage, be causemany LGBTQ people are serving in the

Andrii Kravchuk. Photo by Finbarr Toesland.

ties on the advocacy of political and legislative change. This year, the Ukrainian parliament is to discuss two bills of crucial im portance: one on the criminalization of hate crimes, including on LGBTQ grounds, and the other on making civil-registered part nerships available for same-sex couples. Last May, my organization completed a survey on attitudes towards LGBTQ people in Ukraine. We repeated the questions we asked about six years ago, and it showed that current atti tudes of LGBTQ issues have improved radically. FT: When the war of aggression is over, do you think that LGBTQ people will gain equal rights in areas such as same-sex

Ukrainian army, and they have absolutely no protection. It’s quite understandable, for the general public, that you should protect the rights of your defenders. We try to use these possi bilities to work for the adoption of same-sex marriage—it’s one of the most important tasks. So we are working with our Minister of Internal Affairs on this. To make a donation to the LGBT Human Rights NASH SVIT Center, please visit the following link: https://gay.org.ua/en/donation/ Finbarr Toesland is a UK-based freelance journalist who has written for TheTimes , The Telegraph , BBC, Reuters, and other outlets.

7=4(!5)&' 1>61?( =& 413%6&%8. &'1 65<, 3?%6=&14 ?5#1 91&!118 2??; =84 :%8618&- &!5 0$11) 6'=)=6&1)( !'5(1 %8&%<=6; %( #%#%4 =84 =$&'18&%6+++ 2 ?1%($)1?;- <5#%8. &=?1 5/ %8&%<=6; =84 =)& !%&' = ?5#%8.?; 4)=!8 *&=?%=8 (1&&%8.+ *")!'( $#&"#%(

<&0 "0(295% ;952'4910 3. 405%(9; )%9;7 1(3"$20' %&0 '0%%$5- .3( %&$' 310(9%$49;;7 $5.#'02 53"0; $5 !&$4& %&(00 /#00( 0:+19%($3%', 2(9!5 %3-0%&0( 67 %&0$( 8#%#9; 19''$35 .3( 310(9, 0:10($0540 %&0 10('359; 4&9;;05-0' 3. ;3'', -($0., 952 19''$359%0 ;3"0*

2#=%?=9?1 9; (316%=? 5)41) /)5< ?56=? 955"(&5)1( 5) 58?%81

TheG & LR

6

Correspondence

his travels to Spain intersected with an event that had large ramifications for two countries in particular: the Spanish-Ameri can War. Evidently, as a Belle Époque painter, Sargent, like Sorolla, seemed to be above the fray. Still, there were many “in scrutable” social issues of the day that didn’t seem to register in Sargent’s work, or that of Sorolla for that matter. Ken Borelli, San Jose, CA A Different Take on a Protagonist To the Editor: In the November-December 2022 G&LR , Dale Boyer wrote that there is a problem with The Dove in the Belly , a new novel by Jim Grimsley: “Ben never quite emerges, the narrative treats the character in such a detached and distancing way.” On the other hand, Boyer considers this character to be “possibly violent, so often abusive.” I, on the other hand, found the bisexual Ben to be real, fragile, tender, loving, sexy. This Ben needs to play football, accepts the help of his boyfriend in difficult moments, and naturally wants to sleep with him. I was satisfied by this portrayal and think Boyer’s review was unduly harsh. Patrick Viau, Montréal, Québec Remembrance of Richard Howard To the Editor: This is to thank David Bergman for his “In Memoriam” for poet Richard Howard [in the Jan.-Feb. 2023 issue], and to add a reflection or two of my own. Back in the late 1970s, at Johns Hopkins, there weren’t many openly gay men on the faculty. Richard Howard and Edmund White were two exceptions. Over the years, as both a poet and videographer of New York’s underground sex scene, and, later, the AIDS epidemic, I felt Richard’s and Ed’s influence not just on an artistic level, but on ethical and moral levels. I remember James Merrill once saying that both Richard and Ed were “ dangerously out and proud.” Also, I remember one critic saying that Richard Howard’s work was often about the “immediacy of contact—vocal, erotic, so matic, sensory contact”—and how writing about contact ironically often voided its im mediacy in the work of other poets, but not in Richard’s. Richard was all about touch. John Sakowicz, Talmage, CA Correction In the March-April 2023 issue, in a review of HomoNovus , by Gerard Cabrera (page 43), the correct name of the protagonist is Orlando Rosario (not “Rosaria”).

biography, and a review of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco’s retrospective of lesbian artist Bernice Bing. So it seems there’s a lot happening in the Bay Area. Always enjoy your magazine,

An Overlooked Notable at the Benedick To the Editor: William Benemann’s extremely enlight ening feature on The Benedick, a late 19th century apartment building for bachelors in New York City (in the March-April 2023 issue), is a worthy addition to the Review ’s histories of gay and homosocial life in America. I’d like to point out, however, that the longtime partner of sculptor Fran cis Millet was no ordinary Army officer. Colonel Archibald Butt, a graduate of the Episcopal Church-affiliated Sewanee: Uni versity of the South (Tennessee), served as military aide to President Theodore Roose velt after wartime service overseas. At the time he perished as a passenger aboard the Titanic , Colonel Butt was military aide to President William Howard Taft. I hesitated to write this because I think William Benemann’s Unruly Desires: American Sailors and Homosexualities in the Age of Sail is an important, ground breaking work documenting our “family history” on the high seas. I trust him as a historian and don’t want to be a nitpicker. On the other hand, my late partner was also a graduate of Sewanee. There’s a me morial plaque to Colonel Butt in the uni versity chapel. The weekend I was at Sewanee to ceremonially scatter George’s ashes in Lost Cove, I got into an argument with a staff member who tried to straight wash Colonel Butt’s relationship with his partner. And so it goes. Elliott Mackle, Atlanta, GA Sargent Piece Dovetailed with SF Exhibit To the Editor: I just immersed myself in John Singer Sargent for my Bay Area Reporter write-up of the Sargent and Spain exhibit now in the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, having traveled from the National Gallery in Washington. So, I welcomed Andrew Holleran’s excellent review of the Sargent biography by Paul Fisher [in the March April 2023 issue]. However, Holleran errs when he states that Sargent never managed to paint Albert de Belleroche, producing only a preliminary sketch. The portrait below, loaned by the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, is fea tured in the exhibition. Some years ago, I sent you a write-up of my late artist friend, Richard Caldwell Brewer. More recently, along with the Sar gent review, I’ve produced for BAR a review of the San Francisco State nonbinary show, a book review of the George Platt Lynes

Robert Brokl, Oakland, CA

To the Editor: Andrew Holleran’s article, “The In scrutable John Singer Sargent,” came won derfully alive for anyone who had the opportunity to see the Sargent and Spain exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Fran cisco. As noted in the article, the show was originally mounted at the National Gal leries in Washington, D.C. The San Fran cisco exhibit came with a series of lectures and discussions, including a kickoff visit by one of the organizers, London-based Sargent scholar Richard Louis Ormond. It turns out Sargent made seven trips to Spain. The exhibit shares the works that were inspired by his regional travels and adds a whole new dimension to the range of his art. His formal portraits of the rich and famous were set aside in favor of the street scenes, the landscapes, and the other sights of Spain. The Spanish experience also contributed to a very passionate palette of light and movement, especially with his Gitano sketches and the famed action pieces of the Spanish dancer “La Carmencita.” I don’t know if Sargent ever met the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863– 1923), who was a close contemporary [Sar gent’s dates are 1856–1925]. Their use of color and fluid brushstrokes employed a similar style of light and movement. Many of their subjects were celebrations of the day-to-day life of the people of Spain. At this point, I am not so curious about Sargent’s sexuality, preferring to let the sub ject matter speak for itself, but I am curious as to how Sargent interacted with the Span ish society of the times, particularity since

May–June 2023

7

IN MEMORIAM

Doris Grumbach, Storyteller M ARGARET C RUIKSHANK D ORIS GRUMBACH, a long-time resident of Maine, died on November 4, 2022 at the age of 104, at her home in the Kendal retirement community of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Preparing to teach a summer school course on lesbian stud ies at the University of Maine, I wrote to Doris many years ago saying that I would like to meet her. After consulting with local lesbians, she invited me to dinner in Sargentville, a coastal vil lage near Blue Hill, and we became good friends, though not close ones. Doris’ partner, Sybil Pike, ran a wonderful used book store, Wayward Books, in a converted garage next to their house. Doris wrote memoirs, mistakenly described in the New York Times obit as “rambling.” Doris did not ramble. Her fine prose has an 18th-century quality of concision. Her novel Chamber Music , her finest in my view, is notably compact. When I reviewed Chamber

a center table, from which she disclosed in a loud voice some insider lore: before chorus girls went onstage, they put their breasts in very cold water to make them stand up, a trick they called “soaking the Bordens.” While her novels dealt with incest and other topics, she’s best remembered for her lesbian themes. TheLadies , for exam ple, based on a true story, depicts two women from wealthy Anglo-Irish families who ran off to Wales to live together. They entertained notable visitors, including the Duke of Wellington and Edmund Burke. I wasn’t sure how “out” Doris was, despite the evidence in her novels, until she told me that she had agreed to be the grand Marshall of the Minneapolis gay pride parade. Doris and May Sarton were good friends, each giving the other less than total praise in their memoirs. Doris told hilari ous stories of May’s outrageous behavior. But she really liked Margot Peters’ biography of May Sarton. In an odd, perverse

development, the Women’s Re view of Minnesota printed Doris’ praise of Peters as a sidebar to my long, very negative review of the book. I thought Peters’ ac counts of Sarton’s tempestuous lesbian relationships were belit tling. Embarrassed by the juxta position of the two opinions, I never told Doris about it. I would never have disagreed with her in print. IwishI had disagreed with her about aging, though. Her ex tremely negative view, often elab orated in essays and memoirs,

Music in 1980, long before any thought of meeting the author, I asked Gay Community News ’ book editor Amy Hoffman if I could say that the author was ob viously a lesbian, because the re lationship of the main characters was so beautifully done. We de cided against speculating. An other time, Doris mentioned that she had begun a biography of Willa Cather, a writer she loved, but had abandoned it because of

Doris Grumbach in 1994.

seemed narrow-minded. Did she appreciate the irony of dis paraging old age and then living to 104? On her 100th birthday, I sent Doris a card calling her a “centurion,” a mistake that must haven amused her. She put a joke from me into one of her mem oirs. When I asked for a copy of her Fifty Days of Solitude at the bookstore in Bar Harbor, the clerk said that the shop didn’t have that book, but would I like 100 Years of Solitude instead? One of Doris’ favorite places in Maine was Schoodic Point on the mainland part of Acadia National Park, where waves crashing into high cliffs create an impressive show. Sybil and Doris would come to our house, and my partner Donna and I would drive up to nearby Winter Harbor to pick up food. Then we would find a place on the rocks for our picnic and watch the waves. Doris’ intent focus impressed me. We were all amused by a Park sign identifying “black dykes,” which are rock for mations on the shore. Doris could be curmudgeonly, a persona I think she en joyed, but she was fundamentally kind and generous. She mourned friends lost to AIDS. She visited John Preston when he was dying. She massaged his feet. “You have beautiful feet,” she said. “I know,” he replied. Margaret Cruikshank’s most recent book is an anthology titled Fierce with Reality: Literature on Aging (2017).

Cather’s anti-Semitism. She did write introductions to Cather’s fiction that show her skill as a literary critic. She also reviewed books for NPR. I had never met anyone so im mersed in literary life. Doris was an impressive storyteller, so good that I didn’t mind hearing them several times. One of her favorites featured Gypsy Rose Lee. Doris was a last-minute replacement for a scheduled interview. They met at Stouffers, the favorite lunch spot of Westchester matrons in town for a matinee, according to Doris. She hoped for a quiet rear table. But Ms. Lee wanted &BOOKLOVERS READERS ATTENTION Tim’s Used Books 242 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA timsusedfilms@gmail.com | 508-487-0005 | Open year-round. Are TIM’S USED BOOKS of Provincetown has been traveling throughout the Northeast since 1991, buying book collections, large and small. Scholarly, gay interest, the arts—all genres. Immediate payment and removal.

TheG & LR

8

F RIENDS OF T HE R EVIEW F RIENDS OF T HE R EVIEW are readers who donated $150+ to The Gay & Lesbian Review , a 501(c)(3) educational corporation, in 2022. All gifts are fully tax-deductible.

L EADERSHIP C IRCLE ($5,000+)

Robert Hardman James Hess & Robert Herald

Elliot Leonard & Roger Litz In memory of Charles S. Longcope Jr.

Michael Manganiello The Shilts Literary Trust

Richard A. Barker & Matthew E. Schlansky Michael Barrett David B. Bockoff, MD Samuel D. Brown Denis Cagna & Carlos Medina Michael Carson & Ron Steigerwalt, PhD Art Cohen Eric Anderson & Roger Beck Ken Borelli

James & William Harrison David E. Hopmann & James W. Taul Jr. John C. Knepper David LaFontaine Carroll Edward Lahniers Steven McCollom Alfred Monetta & Bruce Voss Mark Mullin

James Thomas & Fred Provencher In memory of Jacob Brong Trumbower Douglas J. Warn Robin Weingart & Claire Zeppieri Louis Wiley Jr. Thomas A. Zanoni Stephen B. Thayer & Howard E. Terry Kirk S. Thomas Lyle Timpson James Uhrig Stewart Watson Jr. John Weingarten David Westmoreland & Mike Mushar Philip Willkie

Stanley Cushing & Daniel Lyons James J Dowd Jr. Heyward Drummond Martin Duberman Sacramento Community Fndn.

Maury Newburger John Newmeyer Robert Nicoson

Trent Norris & Jack Calhoun Brian Oleksak & Gonzalo Avila SueReamer Curtis Scribner Wm. H. Jackson– Wayne Skala Trust

Clifford L. Gregory Seth Grosshandler & Kim Wainwright JohnHager

S USTAINERS B ENEFACTORS ($1,200–4,999) S UPPORTERS ($150–299) S PONSORS ($300–599) ($600–1,199)

Darlis von Adkins Randall Arndt Bruce Arnold & James Labi Gary Arthur James Avila TomBaker Kenneth C. Beachler Jeffrey Begeal Allen W. Bernard Charles Bjorklund & Sted Mays Matthew Black William R. Bonsal Dale Boyer & Scot O’Hara DavidBray Campbell-Goldyn Peter Cannon Vic Carlson Jim Cassaro William J. Cavanaugh Burton Clarke Sherman Clarke Eddie Cline Robert Cloud RayCoe Peter Cohen and Jeff Sposato Anonymous Rodney Boren Thomas Bower Bill Brinnon & Ron Dhein Kevin Burns Robert Chaloner John Cherry Anonymous Richard C. Alter & Eric D. Johnson Harry Anderson In honor of Michael K. Boe

Stewart Clifford Michael Craft Rolf Danner MarkDavis Michael Denneny Robert Dockendorff Jack Dodson EdDonahue CarlDuyck Bill Evans Joseph T. Flynn, MD Harold F. Cottman III Justin Coveyou Mitch Crane David Crocker Fergus Currie David Curry D. Dibley & D. Monaghan Gary Domann G. Dryvynsyde & M. Porta Bradley Paul Edin Nicholas Edsall Edward E. Eliot Eduardo Febles Jason Fichtel Theodore Filteau John Finley & Stan McGee Kirk Frederick Michael William Galligan David Garrity John A. Gibson William D. Glenn Robert Gordon James Gother Frederick Griffiths Dennis Groenenboom

Kenneth Fulton Marc Geller TomGenson Thomas Gerber Robert Giron Thomas P. Gormly Bill Gorodner William J. Gracie Jr. & Daniel J. Fairbanks MikelGray Ken Greenstein Dennis Hall F. Harwood Scot Hedrick Bob Hellwig & Gordon Whitaker James Hendrick Darius Homayounpour & Steven Ziglar Stephen Kelley Michael Kelly Brian Kieley Clay M King & Iain J King David J. Klein GaryKrivy William Kux George & Charles Labonte Keith Landers Wayne P. Lawson Gerald P. Lepp Jim Lipsett & Paul LaRiviere Robert Lobou Ronald Hunt Scott Hunter Charles L. Ihlenfeld Alice Jay Dr. Michael R. Kauth

Paul Grzella Leland Hall TKHerrin Ted Higginson Jeffrey Johnson Daniel Jones William Lauch Paul Loeffler & Mike Sullivan Kevin McNamara Joseph Melillo

Bryan Mershon Shaun Mueller Roderick F. O’Connor Jack Padovano & Philip Baker In memory of Larry Phillips RonSeidle Laurence Senelick Ross Sloten Jim Stepp & Peter Zimmer John Sullivan Gordon Nebeker Michael G. O’Connell III Daniel A. Pavsek, PhD David Peckman & Michael Baffa Charles Popper in honor of Leland Perry William R. Powell JerryRehm Rex Roberts Charles Roberts & Craig Combs Robert Ross G. Louis Rowles Terence Quirk Preston Reese

George Shardlow A.V. Shirk, in memory of Bill Costley Nicolas Shumway Michael Siegel Harvey Silberman RaySmythe Andrew Stancliffe Robert Starshak MD & Ross Dracgert DanStuder David Teeter John Thomas Robert Tinkler Paul Travis Glenn Underwood Ralph Virkler

Coy L. Ludwig Holly Maholm Gary A. Mainor Gregory Manifold Gerald Markovitz & Cameron Jobe Joaquin Martinez-Pizarro John Mathewson & Thomas Huish Dr. Raymond Matta Marlin Mattson John McClafferty

Kirk McKusick Richard Meiss Virginia Merritt Andrew M. Miller Martha Miller EvanMogan Charles Moore & Morgan Painter Enrique Moreno Stephen T. Moskey James A. Mueller David Murdock Anthony Napoli

William Rubenstein Stephen T. Russell Kevin Schack Paul Schilling

Martin Webb & Charles Venable Richard Weeks & Robert Shavin Michael Weidemann Marc Weiner Charles Whelan Allan Wing & Frank Barringer David G. Wood, MD

Jan Schoenhaus George Seeber Mit Seiler & Marshall Lee Doug Serafin

Camilla Serrano John S. Shaffner

John Morrel Dr. Richard Muszynski JohnNeale Russell Needham Michael Neisen David Noskin Bart O’Brien Dennis O’Brien Kurt Ollmann Joseph Ortiz & Paul Hinkle Dean Papademetriou Michael A. Pargee Stephen D. Paster Richard L. Penberthy Lee M. Penyak Allan Phillips Ted Pietras Stan J. Pogroszewski Kurt Proctor & Joe Welsch Richard Quintana Dave Radcliffe Thomas Raffin James Ramadei Glen W. Redman Edward Reeves & Bill Fish Ken Nimblett John T. Nolan JohnNoran

Frank Carson Patrick Cather Roberto Ceriani Edward Chavez Arthur Chika Dennis Christofi Donald J. Cimilluca Wallace Cluphf Colleen Collar Gerald Coon John Corlett & Doug Van Auken Lillian Correa David A. Cotton Jack Cox & Edwin Light Cary Cranson Grant Crichfield PhD Fred Cummins Patrick Curtin Laurie Cushing Daniel Davidson Raymond J. DeAngelo George Dearani Samuel Dixon Richard Donnell Jack Drescher BillDubay Patrick Dunne David Eidelkind & Len Sanginario

DanEaston Davis Elliott & Tim Jolley J. Yusuf Erskine Steve Fernandez-Brennan Charles Fischetti & Michael Chalmers Frederick J. Fox, MD Patrick Fratellone, MD Mark Friedman Bradley Fritts JimFuqua Sterling Giles Blackbaud Giving Fund Peter Goldberg Eric Gordon Harlan Greene James Hammann Robert Hanna Roland Hansen Sharon & Marilyn Hedges-Hiller Kenneth Heger JohnHeist James Heitzler George W. Henry Jr. James S. Heuer William Hollings Norman A. Horowitz & Robert Tomasik Charles Ellwood Jackson

John Ibson & Steve Harrison Thomas Jacobson Karla Jay Jeffrey Alan Johnson Richard T. Johnson Rolando Jorif Ricky Kamins Dean M. Karns Richard Kasten Leonard Keyes Keith Klopfle John A. Kosartes LeeKramer Barry Kropf William La Civita David Lane & Grayson Less Mark LaPole Ron Larason Rick Lawrance William Lawrence Joel Leander JamesLebo Arthur Leonard Maurice Levenbach

Patricia Lutsky & Sally Jordan Bernard Lynch Craig Machado Elliott Mackle Gerald M. Mager Gary L. Magruder Benjamin Mah James Malatak Peter Manson Clayton Marsh &

Alexander Roche GaryRod Luis Rodriguez Michael Roggow Daniel Ross Rob Russell Jeffrey Ryan Robert Saltzman

John Tekian Robert Teller Ken Thompson Bruce Thompson DavidTodd Jim Toledano AndyTracy Henry Tufts Dr. R. O. Valdiserri Thomas Von Foerster James W. Haas

John H. Adams Raoul Ajamil & James Anderson William E. Arndt Dr. Mark S. Arseneau Bruce Selden Babski Robert Ball Scott Bane Michele Aina Barale William Barnaby Michael Beek Joseph Bell David Benson Jerry Bernhard LarryBest Steven Bourne Courtney Bowen Jerry A. Boyd Peter Brenner JimBrogan Jeffrey Brosnan Steven Buck Michael Burke & Robert Charles Antonio Calcagno Peter Cameron Jason & Andy Cannon-Ball James Carnelia Ronald Simonds

Sam Sanders Steven Sayers Michael Schwartz Jeffrey Sharlach John Silva & Lloyd Ogden LynnSipe James Skibo Eric Slater George Smart Dennis A. Sondker David H. Spear David Staats Charles Strang Charles Studen Ron Suleski Gerry Sullivan & Bob Benzel Christopher Surrana & Andrew Love Charles Swinney

George Villanueva Wayne Marshal Danny Matherly Peter Maxson & Jack Taylor Kenneth Mayer Michael McAdam Tim McFeeley David McKellar John W McKenna Kevin McLoughlin Robert Melton Edward Mendez Jon Cloudfield Merkle Greg Mermel

BryceWard Bill Watson Allan Weinreb Lyndon Wester Charles White John Wilson George E. Wolf

Paul Wolfson Keith Wolter Matthew Wolter & A.J. Galazen JasonWong Michael Wood, MD W. Preston Woodall Jr., DO Gene Woodling George Yahnel Jr. JoeYoung

Robert S. Miller Robert Mitchell James Moore Thomas Morbitzer Gerald Morin

OwenLevy JohnLloyd Paul Lockman RonLong

Deborah Taft Kevin Taylor Warren E. Taylor

Stuart L. Rich Rodger Robb

James Zebroski Mark Zelinsky

may not have foreseen: there’s a new gay reality dating show called For the Love of DILFs on OutTV that’s being hosted by Stormy Daniels (yes, that Stormy Daniels). The series features two groups of gay men, “daddies” and “himbos,” who compete for each other’s affections. Daddies are older men (but not too old!), while “himbos” are gay bimbos (get it?). The goal is to be the first lucky couple to find their per fect match (and win $10k!),

BTW

God’s Nature To date we’ve managed to ignore the existence of one Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), whose verbal assaults on everyone who isn’t white, Christian, and straight are not to be dignified. Nevertheless, she recently made an oddly fascinating statement that an observant writer at LGBTQ -Nation (Molly Sprayregen) picked up. It came as Greene was re introducing her “Protect Children’s Innocence Act,” which would make it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to minors. Standing by a sign that read “There are TWO genders: Male & Female. ‘Trust The Science!’” she ended her gleeful defense of this cruel proposal by declaring that “God made all of us, male and fe male, in his image.” The implication is clear: God must be non binary! For if “man” was made in God’s image, it has to work both ways. Christian theology has traditionally been quite con tent with the notion that man was created in God’s image (with woman emerging from a rib or whatever), but Ms. Greene is making a claim that posits two sexes in her binary model. But in order for that to work, God would have to be non binary to pro duce Their two, differently gendered offspring. It’s Gonna Be Huge All in the interest of keeping our finger on the Zeitgeist as it evolves in ways that those over, say, fifty

and among the methods used is—wait for it—the sniffing of un derwear to home in on Mr. Right. Did we mention that the host of the show is Stormy Daniels, who has apparently landed on her feet despite the ongoing drama with Donald Trump? Indeed For the Love of DILFs looks like a pretty sweet gig, filmed in Florida, where, believe me, everything is beautyful. Seriously? Then on to George Santos (R-NY), who seems to be living his nine lives simultaneously, one of which is that of a legislator in the U.S. House. Among the bills he’s cosponsoring is H.R. 115, which is ostensibly about women’s rights but whose real purpose is to deny transgender rights. Of the resolution’s six points, the first three would redefine the word “sex” to mean “biological sex at birth” in various contexts. The other three A unique perspective on the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, the legend who found her way into our hearts.

Available at your favorite bookstore or online retailer.

An unorthodox biography told through an autistic and transmasculine lens, examining issues of identity and self-determination.

streetnoisebooks.com

TheG & LR

10

specify that this definition shall apply to all federal protections related to sex, which would seem to rewrite decades of legisla tion on sexual equality. Santos is the only out LGBT person in Congress to be a cosponsor— but why ? It’s the kind of bill that closeted gay politicians jump on to prove their hetero bona fides, but Santos is openly gay and even used his gayness as a trump card during his campaign, which hasn’t prevented him from speaking out against same-sex marriage and parenting. So, maybe this guy is just a dick, or maybe it’s a case of “internal ized homophobia” or generalized feelings of self-hatred—feel ings that seem increasingly justified the more we learn. There’s Always a Twist Another anti-LGBT politician who got caught engaging in decidedly pro-LGBT behavior, another mea culpa, another plunge into that inexplicable realm of clos eted gay men whose public homophobia is proportional to their private misbehavior. What makes the case of Tennessee Lt. Governor Randy McNally special is that the object of his af fections became a minor celebrity in his own right. McNally has a history of anti-gay rhetoric and support for anti-LGBT legislation, including his administration’s bill (now law) ban ning drag shows and healthcare for transgender minors. And yet, it seems McNally became smitten with a young man on Instagram named Franklyn (“Finn”), a musician who likes to pose in scanty underwear and sometimes in the nude. McNally was a frequent fan of both styles, writing comments such as “Finn, you can turn a rainy day into rainbows and sunshine!” followed by three heart and three flame emojis. Franklyn, who is presumably the source of the screen shots, revealed that he and McNally have been social media friends for years and have communicated privately. He noted that they’ve never met in person, but he assumes McNally is gay. It turns out he’s well informed, and his actions may have been strategic: “I just hope that he knows I love him and LGBTQ + loves him and would love him even more if he would open his heart and treat everyone else the way he wants to be treated.” Pat Robertson Lives Surely it was inevitable that someone would blame LGBT people for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)—hey, Silicon Valley is close to San Francisco— but it’s surprising how far this meme got in the ideosphere (a coinage), going beyond the Tucker Carlson stage of just mak ing stuff up, all the way to The Wall Street Journal .Akind of explanation was produced, and it all came down to… “woke ness.” The most dumbed-down version was offered (pre dictably) by Fox News, where Jesse Waters asserted that SVB’s executives, rather than attending to issues like risk manage ment, were spending all their time “holding seminars on Les bian Visibility Day and National Pride Month.” The Journal was more measured, of course, suggesting that “the company may have been distracted by diversity demands,” while noting that the Board was 45 percent women, with one Black and one LGBTQ + member (aha!). Okay, so let’s say the Board and man agement were too “woke”—this led them to do what exactly? No actual financial decisions or policies are cited that might be attributed to wokeness or used to explain SVB’s collapse. (For the record, the causes of the collapse are well understood: rising interest rates, etc.) So it turns out it was all about prox imity to San Francisco, after all. May–June 2023

at Is Pride Month Every Month

Fin 20

nalist f

or the

utions g instit learnin needed light on the h- “Shed[s] muc The Bay Area acles.” everyday obst and queer pose where being Black

Publisher eekly P bli h sW kl and rewarding.” h ysis is ric “Thisanal udies LGBTQ+St Literary Award in da 023Lamb Lite

y “A criticall

“Acogent,

en.” beautifully writt ... necessary history

Tey Meadow, author [Thorn]’s work.” tribute to Barrie and loving illuminating, eyMeado , a

Objects Image author of , Jacob Gaboury Obje ts

TransKids of

11

ESSAY How Diaghilev Reimagined Ballet A LLEN E LLENZWEIG

T HE BRITISH DANCE and opera critic Rupert Christiansen has written a history of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes that is not aimed at scholars or specialists. Referring to his morbid addiction to “watching, thinking or dream ing about classical dance and dancers,” Chris tiansen chooses “to [make] connections that can explain the allure of ballet to those uninfected with my mania.” His brisk story starts with the extraordinary hold Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s post-World War II cinema melodrama The Red Shoes had on a populace living in the “drab and derelict” war-scarred cities of Europe. The movie’s “glori ously excessive Technicolor,” he maintains, fed “a primal human need.” A popular surge of interest in ballet had not been seen like this since the early decades of the century, when the Ballets Russes took Europe by storm. Christiansen writes a cultural history with considerable verve. His wit and sharp judgments—of Sergei as a youth eager to be stylishly cosmopolitan, of the Renaissance court culture that lent the ballet early models of elegant gesture and grace, of the “las civious old gents” who ogled young women’s legs at Music Hall performances, and of a select audience of self-appointed arbiters of taste, often homosexual—color his story with the passion of a “home team” devotee cheering on Manchester United. But he also writes a richly human story to encourage readers to appreci ate Diaghilev for his brazen managerial skills and temperamen tal amours, which were all-male, all the time. We learn that when Sergei was leaving his hometown of Perm to study law in St. Pe tersburg, his father arranged for him to lose his virginity to a pros titute. Young Diaghilev caught a venereal disease, which may have accounted for his “irrational repulsion” to the female body. In other contexts, Diaghilev could be warm and respectful toward women, although he often used mature aristocratic women as fi nancial vehicles for the advancement of his cultural projects. Still, achieving his aims required a practiced charm. Christiansen’s portrait of the self-assured and arrogant Di aghilev offers up an admirable if not always appealing picture of a “chancer”—to use an English term for a scheming oppor tunist—who, especially in his early years, sometimes failed spec tacularly. Before taking up the reins of a ballet company essentially Russian in its tendencies and staffing, Diaghilev en joyed success as an organizer of art exhibitions and as founder of an ambitious and lavishly illustrated journal called Mir Iskussva , “The World of Art.” The latter undertaking he shared with a group of four St. Petersburg university students who fashioned them selves the “Nevsky Pickwickians.” According to Christiansen, “they considered themselves a cut above their vulgar contempo raries, whose devotion to sports, drinking and womanizing pro Allen Ellenzweig is the author of George Platt Lynes: The Daring Eye.

voked them to scorn.” Diaghilev knew them via his “darkly handsome” cousin Dima Filosofov, one of its members, who was intellectual, literary, and capable of cutting remarks. Sergei had arrived from Perm to cos mopolitan St. Petersburg, where he shared a bedroom with Dima, who may have been his first love. Precocious Sergei was eager to ingratiate himself with Dima’s exclusive fraternity. The leader of the group was Alexandre Benois. Descended from French stock of the ancien régime , he was “the most sophisticated ... and eru dite.” Walter Nouvel was a musical connoisseur with demanding standards that he expressed unapologetically. Benois’ friend Lev Rosenberg joined the group late. Bipolar and “secretly cursed with perverse sexual tastes,” he was an art student with a genius for color who would disguise his Jewish origins by changing his name to Léon Bakst. In the years before and after the turn of the 20th century, the Nevsky Pickwickians acted as “an informal editorial committee”

TheG & LR

12

and unpaid staff for Mir Iskusstva. The magazine was initially supported by Princess Tenisheva and a Russian businessman. When they eventually withdrew their funding of the financially fraught enterprise, the Tsar himself provided support with a three year grant. The Pickwickians’ interest in the magazine by then had faded. However, despite their sometimes testy relations with Diaghilev—Benois was “infuriated” by the “brash pretentions” of the pushy social climber Diaghilev—they frequently participated in his later efforts to upend the dainty conventions of traditional courtly ballets. When Diaghilev brought his ballet to France, Marius Petipa, the French-born ballet master choreographer, who had settled in Russia for three decades to dominate the Tsarist imperial ballet, was becoming old hat. His greatest successes were in the past— first, the procession of ghostly girls in white tulle from La Bayadere , and later, the lavish Sleeping Beauty with a cast of over two hundred and an intoxicating score by Tchaikovsky set in a royal milieu from a 17th-century French fairy tale. The produc tion was an enchantment in 1890, one whose music “bewitched” Alexandre Benois, who claimed late in life that had he not “in fected” his fellow Pickwickians by his enthusiasm “there would have been no Ballets Russes and all the balletomania to which they gave birth.” By the first decade of the 20th century, impresario Diaghilev was importing leading Russian composers and singers to Paris. But his ambitions led him to introduce a new sense of the inte grated ballet to the West, in which music, story, costume, décor, and choreography met in a unified gestalt. By then, a younger generation had been making its presence felt, such as Mikhail Fokine, “a handsome and conceited young man” with classical training from the imperial school who was “impatient with Petipa’s academicism.” Fokine had been influenced by the auda cious American Isadora Duncan, who danced in Russia barefoot, bare-legged, and without corset in a Grecian-style tunic. While he did not share her disdain for ballet’s conventions, he recognized her distinctive personal response to the music. In successive productions in Paris and London, the Ballets Russes began presenting the latest in musical composition, with décor and costumes by contemporary artists like Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst, Cocteau, and Picasso. Choreography and narratives might be drawn from contemporary life, starring one or more from a trio of Fokine’s dancers. Anna Pavlova, “a crea ture more of the air than the earth,” is said to have performed Fokine’s famous “Dying Swan” solo more than 4,000 times worldwide over a long, commercially-minded career. The dark beauty Tamara Karsavina could “communicate emotional reali ties as well as elusive fantasies.” A pupil of her father’s at the im perial school, she became a friend of Fokine but was a thorn in the side of the older Pavlova. Finally, there was Vaslav Nijinsky, of Catholic Polish ancestry and suspected Tartar blood. A son of professional touring dancers, he acquired a gymnastic athleticism in traditional folk dances, which matured when he whizzed through ballet school in St. Petersburg and, by age eighteen, was partnering “all the star ballerinas.” Unusual in his physical dimensions—at five foot, four inches tall, Nijinsky was short, with sloping shoulders but “rock-solid thighs and bulbous calves”—the more eccentric aspect of his man ner was in his personal comportment. Christiansen proposes that in our time Nijinsky might be “diagnosed on the autistic spec

trum” given his inability to mingle socially or directly engage in conversation, unless it was with a dance partner. But he would then beat a hasty retreat. Composer Igor Stravinsky, one of Bal lets Russes’s mainstays, noted “curious absences in [Nijinsky’s] personality,” which may hint at his later descent into mental ill ness. Not “obviously handsome,” Christiansen writes, “his erotic allure exuded a disturbing perfume of the Uranian ‘third sex.’” However, while not himself homosexual, Nijinsky was taken under the wings of successive older suitors as a male favorite in a manner accepted in upper-class Russian circles, where “mature men of rank amusing themselves on the side with pretty serf boys or bathhouse attendants was ... laughingly accepted as ‘gentle men’s mischief.’” By the time Diaghilev “inherited” young Ni jinsky, during the 1910 Paris season, the dancer had previously been the boy toy of a wealthy “thirty-something” prince and “man about town” who set him up in a luxurious apartment, paid for extra ballet lessons, and lavished “his impoverished mother and sister with hampers of food.” Christiansen suggests that Ni jinsky was “perhaps only politely compliant in the bedroom” and was eventually passed from the prince “to a Polish count and thence to Diaghilev.” While their relationship may have been transactional, Di aghilev did by 1912 see an element of genius in his 23-year-old lover and imagined that the curiously self-contained youth might push the ballet “out of the realms of fairy story and lurid romance into uncharted aesthetic territory.” Diaghilev set him the task of devising a dance to a “voluptuous” ten-minute long tone poem by Debussy of 1894, Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune . If Nijinsky had a hard time verbalizing his vision during rehearsals, he still

-<. :9=* 34< +*( 31/% #&!*. (<636<,1>7 +034=9 =: #'* ,1).* &4 -'* 2*/)"*04 $*0

,"21)%"1 '<36 &+3/# -%" ('"- !04"5$ *1."2-12 2% 3426 "<.2743:1. %<( ;1<9 :-%3-6&)

)$)%!)&!( '"#

' *% <%$4-%32%7 3-.< #: 52%#$42# 2% 34< <%" 32'<6 * #CDB;$@ :! >2B" =B:=>? 24#$@?;"D >:%#B* 6;$"$D?* 4#8D 2$"* %#?= ;%!#B=2$=* >#!D)& ? )@ #5"/% $/&'2

' 8%< $-%+3 4<.! ,13 :-. 2% .#0< (234 3426 ,#/) & ? ;@ /@ !8$!8

5A9-A 07)+A.(510/3,<

May–June 2023

13