Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET When Candor Helps by MARGARET DICKSON Jolie is a beautiful woman whose looks have unquestionably been a major asset Americans were shocked in 1974 when then First Lady Betty Ford announced in both her career and personal life. That she is willing to go public with the surgical that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and would undergo a changes to her movie-star self because she "will do anything" to be with her own mastectomy. About two weeks later, then Second Lady Happy Rockefeller made children, speaks to the loss she felt when her own mother died of cancer at the age the same announcement. Our shock was not that two prominent women were of 56. I can relate. My mother died of cancer at 55. fighting life-threatening health conditions. We all knew that What is more, Jolie, an icon of beauty to millions of breast cancer is a serious illness and that people die of it, women who can only dream of such, added in her postincluding my childhood next-door-neighbor. surgery column, "I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel Our shock was that all of a sudden our nation was openly empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way talking about both breasts and cancer, topics which until diminishes my femininity." Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Rockefeller shared their distressing Those are strong words that will soothe the troubled news, were considered private matters, often very private minds of countless women faced with the possibility, even matters. the certainty, of breast cancer and its aftermath. A few years later, Betty Ford shocked us again by telling Jolie's bravery and grand gesture notwithstanding, a us that her husband and children had staged an intervention Angelina Jolie whiff of elitism is in the air. The author F. Scott to get her to face up to her alcoholism and a Fitzgerald once remarked to his friend Ernest prescription drug abuse and that she was going into Hemingway, that "the rich are different from you treatment for her addictions. Shortly thereafter, she and me," and that applies to Jolie. She can afford founded the Betty Ford Clinic in California, now the the several thousand dollars for genetic testing and best-known substance abuse treatment center in the a Rolls Royce health-insurance policy attracting world. top-flight medical care. Not all of us enjoy those It is worth noting that Mrs. Ford lived to the ripe luxuries. old age of 93, and Mrs. Rockefeller is still with us. But still, Jolie's decision to go public in the All of that being said, it still shocked me to read frankest way with what many women would Angelina Jolie's piece in The New York Times, announcing that she, at only 37, has undergone a consider a deeply private situation is the latest in double mastectomy and subsequent reconstructive a string of such revelations. She is adding to what Betty Ford Happy Rockefeller surgery, because her genetic make up made Ford and Rockefeller started more than a quarter developing breast cancer almost a certainty. of a century ago on the subject of breast cancer by No one living in our era can have missed Angelina Jolie. addressing the genetic and reconstructive aspects She has made dozens of movies, although I had to Google to remember any of the disease and its treatment. She is making it acceptable to talk openly about of them. I have seen only three — The Changeling, Girl, Interrupted and The difficult medical conditions and how we treat them. Bone Collector. I had never even heard of Kung Fu Panda. Ford, bless her heart, did this as well for addictions and their treatments, removing Movies may be her living, but her life is what makes her famous. Some of it them from the realm of character flaws. Rock Hudson and Magic Johnson did this is admirable, such as her humanitarian work to ease the suffering of refugees for AIDS, helping to soften its stigma as the modern-day plague. Ronald Reagan, all over the world and her adoption of orphaned children. Some of her life is whose position on AIDS became less strident after his friend's (Hudson) disclosure, perhaps less admirable, such as what NYT columnist Maureen Dowd referred did it himself with his open letter to the American people in his "long goodbye" as he to as "shoplifting Brad Pitt from America's sweetheart." faded into the sunset with Alzheimer's disease. But I have to give it to her on this one. Prominent people engender different feelings in all of us, some Jolie's disclosure is brave and follows in the footsteps of Ford, Rockefeller positive and some negative. No matter what we think of these very and other well-known people who have shared their personal situations to serve different individuals, I see their public MARGARET DICKSON, Conboth as role models and inspirations for us mere mortals who may be facing revelations as acts of profound kindness. tributing Writer, COMMENTS? similar situations. Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Charlotte Blume Presents the Spring Festival of Dance a STAFF REPORT It's more than tradition. It is the Spring Festival Holst. The soloists in "Les Sylphides" are Jane Violette as of Dance: A Dance Variety Extravaganza. The the "Waltz Girl", Mary Maxton Fowler, Megan Still, festival, presented by Charlotte Blume, will be on Ashley Watters and Deprecia Simpson. Brandon Scott stage at the Crown Center Theatre on Sunday, June dances the "Poet." Both Simpson and Watters will 2. The festival has been performed at the Crown solo in "Jupiter." Theatre since the 1980s when it was still named the Excerpts from "Les Sylphides" are performed Cumberland County Civic Auditorium, which was with traditional choreography by Fokine, and set by founded in 1967. Charlotte Blume. Fokine's choreography for "Les Two-hundred dancers of all ages will perform Sylphides" was first danced in Paris in 1909 by the in a variety of dance styles from the cutest to the Russian Ballet. Fokine staged it for the American sublime. It is a bonanza of classical ballet, rhythm and Ballet Theatre in 1940 and the lyrical ballet remains Broadway tap dance, contemporary, jazz dance, Hip The audience will see a progression of skills in its repertoire. Hop and dances for Tiny Tots, the crowd-pleasing throughout the show as the dances for children "Jupiter," a section of Holst's The Planets was pre-school children. All dancers will take the stage evolve into the beauty of classical ballet. with poise and polish, according to Blume. choreographed by Wei Ni. Wei Ni is the assistant The audience will see a progression of skills director of the North Carolina State Ballet Company. throughout the show as the dances for children evolve into the beauty of The Spring Festival of Dance is an afternoon of fun and entertainment. classical ballet. The featured classic ballets this year are, excerpts from "Les Tickets are $9 at the Crown Center Box Office or online through ticketmaster. Sylphides," with music by Chopin and "Jupiter" from the Planets by composer com. The curtain will come up at 2:30 p.m. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM MAY 29 - JUNE 4, 2013 UCW 5