David Bruce

The Funniest People in Dance: 250 Anecdotes David Bruce

This book contains 250 anecdotes, including these: 1) Opera singer Mary Garden sometimes watched rehearsals of the Ballets Russes with Sergei Diaghilev, and she noticed just how much attention to detail he paid. On one occasion, he noticed a tiny flower in a dancer's hair and ordered her to remove it because the color wasn't right. Ms. Garden asked him, "Don't you ever rest?" Mr. Diaghilev replied, "My dear Mary, there is all eternity to rest." Ms. Garden writes, "I don't wonder it was the greatest ballet company in the world." 2) Whenever the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performed, many dancers sat in the audience. A non-dancer at a performance looked at the audience members as they walked around during the intermission and said, "I've never seen an audience so erect, with such beautiful posture."