From: The New Leader | Date: December 27, 1993| Author: Simon, John | COPYRIGHT 1993 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

AMERICA inspires freedom in its artists. It was Walt Whitman, and not the French vers-libristes, who invented modern free verse; it was New York, not Paris, that came up with action painting; and despite the Parts and Goreckis, it is America that put minimalism on the musical map. Although most of the great classical ballerinas of our century were Russian-- from Pavlova and Karsavina, Spessivtseva and Nemtchinova to Ulanova and Plisetskaya--the great female modern dancers were mostl...