Talk:West Side Story Suite

DYK nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by SL93 (talk) 17:51, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that the ballet West Side Story Suite was developed from the musical West Side Story? Source: "TIME IS ANOTHER DANCER IN this room. Jerome Robbins, in his signature gray beard, faces the young dancers of the New York City Ballet for a run-through of his "West Side Story" Suite. The work, consisting of original choreography from the 1957 musical, along with a newly created piece, will have its premiere on Thursday at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center." ([1])
  • ALT1:... that the ballet West Side Story Suite requires some of the dancers to sing? Source: "Wanting a ballet for your company repertoire is one thing. Getting the rights to perform the work is quite another. In order to secure Jerome Robbins's West Side Story Suite for the National Ballet of Canada, artistic director Karen Kain had to prove to the Jerome Robbins Trust and Foundation that her company could not just dance the piece, but sing it as well." ([2])

• Reviewed: Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions

5x expanded by Corachow (talk). Self-nominated at 23:30, 5 December 2020 (UTC).

• Full review to follow, but right now I was wondering if a different hook could be proposed here. ALT0 sounds too obvious, ALT1 seems a bit technical and seems to require that readers know that ballet dancers don't usually sing. I've also noticed that some parts of the article need copyediting, particularly the "Revivals" section where some of the tenses are improperly used (e.g. the use of present tense instead of past). Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 04:38, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

• The ballet is revived every few years (most recently in 2018, in New York and Seattle, I believe) so I refer to some of the contents in present tense. Unlike a Broadway musical, ballets are revived every few years, with a handful of shows, and are nearly identical, but not all of them get critically reviewed, so it's impossible to list every single revival. Also, a few ALTs:
• ALT2: ... that when choreographer Jerome Robbins choreographed the musical West Side Story, he believed ballet dancers could not dance it, but made the ballet version in 1995?
• ALT3: ... that when New York City Ballet's West Side Story Suite premiered, Broadway performers was brought in to perform some of the singing roles? Corachow (talk) 10:39, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

I was referring to parts such as "In 2005, when original cast member Jock Soto retires from dancing"; should it not be "when original cast member Jock Soto retired from dancing"? The statement was talking about Soto's retirement, not the revivals themselves. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 09:11, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

I had corrected that. Corachow (talk) 09:14, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

Comment: I like ALT1 (better that ALT2 and ALT3), and don't believe that readers who don't know that (ballet) dancers usually don't sing will not enjoy the article. We have a hook in prep which is placed quirky because about an opera without singing, and indeed expecting readers to know that operas is usually with singing. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:45, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

I have to agree with Gerda. I can't think of another ballet that requires the dancers to also sing, and this is emphasised in several sources. ([3][4][5][6]) Corachow (talk) 23:57, 11 December 2020 (UTC)

@Narutolovehinata5: When will you complete this review? Corachow (talk) 15:08, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

I'm taking a second look at it right now. At the moment, regardless of what hook will ultimately be approved or promoted, ALT1 is not possible at this time since the article doesn't mention anywhere that dancers were "required to sing", merely that the sang some parts (the keyword here is "required"). Maybe ALT1 could instead be slightly rephrased to reflect the article more closely (such as simply saying that it had singing parts, not that they were "requirements"). As a possible compromise, some combination of ALT1 and ALT3 is possible, where it could be mentioned that the ballet had singing parts and said singing parts were performed by Broadway actors. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 02:57, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

As stated in the revival section, several years after the premiere, the New York City Ballet decided to cast their own dancers instead of Broadway singers to perform the singing parts, so a combination of ALT1 and ALT3 will not work. Here's a rephrased version of ALT1:

ALT1a: ... that in the ballet West Side Story Suite, some of the dancers also sing? Corachow (talk) 16:37, 15 December 2020 (UTC)

Noted. This is almost ready for a full review, it just needs to undergo a copyedit. I'm still seeing some grammatical issues in the article, such as "when a ballet company add" (shouldn't it be adds?). Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 11:39, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

I did some copyediting and hopefully I did not miss anything. Feel free to correct any mistake I missed. Corachow (talk) 20:20, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Something sounds off about the sentence "therefore must hold singing auditions for company members", that's the last remaining one I saw. We'll be good to go with ALT1a once that's fixed. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 01:39, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

Done. Corachow (talk) 10:57, 19 December 2020 (UTC)

• Article meets DYK requirements, no close paraphrasing found, QPQ done. ALT1a is cited inline and verified. GTG. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 13:24, 19 December 2020 (UTC)