Curtain of intrigue

It seems incredible now that a 1942 work painted and signed by Salvador Dali (see Sally Kalson stories Dec. 29 and Jan. 7) could have come to the Carnegie Museum of Art in 1976 without its issuing a press release.

But in those days then-director Leon A. Arkus' contemporary interests were with artists of the CoBrA group (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam). Dali (1904-89) was still a controversial figure and generally out of step with many museums.

Having been interested in Dali since seeing his work as a youngster in Carnegie Internationals, and having written a master's paper on him in 1974, I think I would have remembered if the museum had announced the donation of the "Theseus and the Minotaur" curtain for the Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo by Pittsburgh philanthropist and National Steel Corp. executive Leon Falk, who died at 86 in 1988.

After reading Kalson's first story, I called his 89-year-old widow, Loti Falk Gaffney, co-founder of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre with Nicolas Petrov, in Manhattan. She told me that Falk bought the Dali curtain from famed choreographer Leonide Massine, who had worked with the PBT, for $5,000 (editor's note: Petrov claims it was $1,800). Massine, who died in Cologne at 82 in 1979, lives on in sequences in the excellent movies "The Red Shoes" (1948) and "The Tales of Hoffmann" (1951).

Gaffney told me, "After the curtain was used at Heinz Hall, we stored it in a closet at our [Gateway Towers] apartment until it began to have an odor, and Leon decided to give it to the museum." She doesn't remember the museum saying more about it until now.

Because the curtain is a valuable work by a surrealist master, it would seem the best way to display it is on the floor as depicted in recent Post-Gazette photographs.

Donald Miller
Naples, Fla.

The writer is the former art critic for the Post-Gazette.

Don't stop the dance

I was really moved when I read the article about Dancing Classrooms (Jan. 4), the collaboration between Pittsburgh Public Schools and Mercy Behavioral Health to introduce ballroom dancing to fifth-grade students. Because of the article, I decided to attend Colors of the Rainbow, the Dancing Classrooms' ballroom dancing competition at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School last week.

Having no affiliation with any of the elementary schools, I was an impartial observer just there to see what the students had learned. I was so impressed watching them dance the merengue, foxtrot, rumba, swing and tango skillfully. The kids truly seemed to enjoy dancing with their partners, and it was cool to see them dancing to classics such as "The Way You Look Tonight," "You Give Me Fever" and "Rock Around the Clock." The air in the auditorium was energized, with parents and other supporters cheering on the dancers. Despite the enthusiastic -- often deafening -- support, the dancers maintained their poise and concentration.

It was an inspiring event. It was amazing that these kids, at an age where boys and girls often want nothing to do with each other, were interacting in such a positive way. This seems to be a wonderful program that encourages team spirit, camaraderie, and physical fitness -- as well as an appreciation for a style of dancing that's not familiar to many fifth-graders.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this project. Dancing Classrooms should be instituted in more schools and grade levels!

Laura Lind
Squirrel Hill

The whole plot

So I go to the movies recently, and there are the standard six or seven previews. One was for the next Amy Adams flick, "Leap Year."

It looked interesting ... chick flick, something the wife might like. But now I'm not gonna go. In the increasingly grand tradition of previews everywhere, it told me the entire plot. I know the beginning, middle and it even tipped the ending. Why go? There cannot possibly be anything of importance that happens in "Leap Year" that I don't already know.

James F. Cataldi
Moon

Terrible loss

I was saddened to hear of the untimely passing of the much beloved Yvonne Zanos. Somehow reading her friends' tributes and watching Mike Clark and Sally Wiggin struggle to get through a noon tribute last Friday I realized the magic one life truly has on a region and on people.

While Mike and Sally and countless other colleagues struggled with their loss, the Pittsburgh region also had trouble coming to terms with the loss of such a fine, charismatic and caring woman. Their on-air grief somehow verbalized what we all felt -- and it made me feel that the "TV Family" created by such genuineness is powerful!

As our region struggles with this loss, there is much to be learned by the way she lived her life and the way she approached her death -- a celebration of all of her friends and her love for them! If only we were invited to the birthday party maybe we, too, might feel better, but unfortunately this one will hurt for a while.

Linda Kirk
Wilmerding

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