Bruce Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 (edited) Something intimately linked with the original version of this forum and I think people will want to knowSome sad news - Jane Simpson is Retiring from Writing after 18 years at Balletco and DanceTabs:http://dancetabs.com/2014/06/jane-simpson-retiring-from-writing-after-18-years-at-balletco-and-dancetabs/Might be easier if I give the text of the page...Jane Simpson Retiring from Writing after 18 years at Balletco and DanceTabsIt's with a heavy heart that I have just run Jane Simpson's last review for DanceTabs. Jane, who has been with Balletco, and now DanceTabs, more or less from the start, has decided to retire from active criticism and it's a huge loss to us all.Balletco started in the summer of 1996 and within weeks an email of congratulation arrived and then Jane started contributing - initially not so many reviews and more standing information, terrific interviews and doing the weekly updates we ran at the time. The Legends of British Ballet pages were down to Jane as also were many of the Ballet Years series. It was a time when we all started with nothing on the net and there was enormous fun with Jane and others trying things out and steering the forum community forward as well. Jane also helped enormously when we put the 'Following Sir Fred’s Steps' book on the web. Over the summer we are going to do a piece about the early years that Jane helped make happen and made us not your average enthusiastic blog. Important to note also that Jane has contributed much elsewhere also, for me most notably as a regular at Dance Now - a hardcopy magazine whose demise I still lament.So, there is more to say but in the meantime I want to thank Jane enormously for all she has done and the quiet authority and professionalism with which she has done it. She will be greatly missed and I'm sure I and others will still have a quiet word when something comes up and none of us newbies has any clue about whatsoever.Jane, Thank you for everything.Bruce Marriott Edited June 2, 2014 by Bruce 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Wall Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 (edited) I am so sorry to hear this. I have so enjoyed Ms. Simpson's incredible literary acumen as towards depicting and describing dance. Certainly it has enhanced my own life and understanding. Without question I will feel its loss. May this brief entry on BcoF mark a note of my own personal and true appreciation for all that Ms. Simpson has offered. Bless you. Edited June 2, 2014 by Bruce Wall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I've very much enjoyed Jane's reviews, especially from Copenhagen, and will miss them. Very best wishes to Jane for the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mallinson Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Always classy and interesting. They will be missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I'm very sorry to hear this. Jane's pieces have always been interesting, knowledgeable and worth reading, and, like Janet, I shall very much miss the links to the RDB in particular, because they don't seem to get much coverage elsewhere. Jane, thank you very much for all your hard work over nearly two decades, and all the best for your "retirement". I hope you'll continue to post here and elsewhere. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IPalmer Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Hello all on Balletcoforum. I am just popping up on this thread to say a farewell to Jane, who has been the most inspirational writer for me ever since I started to read her all those years ago on ballet.co. I am bereft to think that I will not have the opportunity to read new pieces of hers again. There has always been a wonderful quality of rigour about Jane's criticism that can illuminate a performance like no other writer; and the absolute integrity of her judgement clearly arises from the respect and often the love (I think of her writing on Ashton) of the works she is reviewing, about which she shares her knowledge so elegantly. She has opened our eyes to the Royal Danes' recent activities and I, personally, have lived their seasons through her. Jane, you deserve a rest in your retirement, though I am sure this will not be a retirement from watching ballet. Thank you for the splendid reviews and interviews over all the years, and for your amazing work with Bruce and Brendan on the Ashton archive, and do know that one of your most avid readers will miss you dreadfully. Ian Palmer 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Macmillan Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Ian, as we all say Thanks and Farewell to Jane, know too that you have been sorely missed these last two years or so - please hang around, we need you. As I recall, you have your own powers of illumination. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ann Williams Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I'm very sad to read this - I just can't imagine BalletCo without Jane's matchless input. I agree wholeheartedly with everything Ian Palmer has said - and said quite beautifully - about the quality of Jane's writing and her passion for and deep knowledge of ballet. Jane, your writing alone speaks for you - its economy, clarity and elegance are text-book stuff and a lesson to all would-be 'critics' like myself. I'm sure you have plans for the future and I'm sure too they involve writing, so there may be light at the end of the tunnel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Hello all on Balletcoforum. I am just popping up on this thread to say a farewell to Jane, who has been the most inspirational writer for me ever since I started to read her all those years ago on ballet.co Ian Palmer Hello Ian, I love your beautiful tribute to Jane's writing. I do hope you will keep popping up out of the shadows! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Arrowsmith Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 I have always found Jane's descriptive abilities second to none. From her elegantly spare evocations you really got a sense of what a piece - which you may not have seen - really looked like in performance. For the historian, Jane's writings are a rare source. Where criticism was called for Jane's steel fist was clothed in the subtlest of velvet gloves. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annamk Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Also very sorry indeed to hear this. I've always enjoyed reading Jane's thoughtful, balanced and well informed reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alison Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 "Elegantly spare evocations" really puts it very well, Paul. Never a word superfluous, as I was reminded on reading her final review, of the RB's current triple bill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane S Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Thank you all so much for these very kind messages. These years have been a wonderful (and completely unexpected) experience for me and I'm so grateful to Bruce for building and maintaining the sites which give the rest of us so much enjoyment. Although I've written my last formal review I will still be seeing as much ballet as I can both here and in Copenhagen and will report back on these pages! Thank you again for your good wishes Jane 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I just saw this thread...... You will be very much missed, Jane. Thank you for sharing yourself with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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