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[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
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[DANCE ETIQUETTE] Mid-dance applause detracts from performance
7.1.06
It's early yet in the dance season, so maybe some proactive education might help in making the rest of the Jacob's Pillow summer season a little less fraught with tension and disappointment.
I speak, of course, of the growing, annoying habit of many dancegoers of applauding in the middle of a dance.
A similar syndrome afflicts the concert scene; that will be dealt with elsewhere. But in the first two weeks at Jacob's Pillow, we have witnessed several disruptive rounds of applause before an individual dance comes to a conclusion.
Sometimes this applause comes after a particularly virtuosic solo. Sometimes there is indeed a slight pause in the work, where seemingly a little clapping might be OK (it's not); but sometimes there is no pause and the applause just runs right over the dance as it continues.
Make no mistake: the ONLY appropriate time for applause at a dance concert is after the entire dance has concluded and the lights have gone out and there is a long enough pause to make clear that the dance is indeed OVER.
Applause at any other time is a violation of the work of art, no less than would be drawing a line through a painting, or talking back to a movie in a crowded theater.
At best, this applause is a sincere but misguided effort on the part of enthusiasts to reward a particularly noteworthy segment.
But at worst, and I'm afraid this consitutes the vast majority of the offenses, the applause is boorish behavior, the immature expression of self-satisfied boors who don't really understand or appreciate what they're watching and instead are really applauding THEMSELVES for having the good sense to be at the dance.
Make no mistake: this is rude, offensive behavior; it detracts from others' experience of the dance; and it should not be tolerated.
It has really gotten to the point that the announcement that precedes each evening of dance -- to turn off cellphones, beeping watches and pagers, and not to leave the theater before the lights go on -- should now include an admonition to hold applause until the dance is over.
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