THB #698: Étoile

Amy and Daniel Sherman-Palladino want to make “fetch” a thing. And they very well might do it with Étoile, their new series for Amazon Prime.

In this case, “fetch” is ballet. And the creators of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Gilmore Girls are, literally, taking us all to school… ballet school. And then, to the ballet itself.

As a child, I was privileged to be dragged to the ballet to see Nureyev and Baryshnikov and Margot Fonteyn… and hated every minute of it. I was a kid and I was forced to wear a suit and be quiet for what seemed like days to me at that age. I saw Baryshnikov fly across the stage with that weird bulge in his pants and I just had no idea what I was seeing or why women seemed to be fainting in the seats around us.

I eventually developed an appreciation of modern dance and Agnes DeMille and Geoffrey Holder, and Bill T Jones amongst others. But I’ve never found myself compelled to go see ballet, except for seeing friends’ kids in various Nutcrackers… pun unavoidable.

So …