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Ballet and New York City in the 1950's (was Nora Kaye)


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I used to go to the Royal Ballet sort of the same way, Kurvenal --

back in 1969, when Ashton was still in charge of hte company, I was a student at Oxford, 60 miles from London -- but you could get all the way to Covent Garden by train and subway in just over an hour, and i'd buy a CHEAP balcony seat for about 50 cents, spot an empty seat down on the orchestra floor, and run down and grab it.... the ushers colluded, they were very sweet about it, and I saw a lot of shows from very close up, which at that time was thrilling for me -- now, I'd rather see stuff from far enough away to get hte picture, even upstairs, but then I wanted to be close, front-row close, and I always rushed down to the brass rail for the bows to drink the energy straight from the fountain.... It was thrilling to see Antoinette SIbley and Lynn Seymour standing there, 6 feet away across the pit, sending energy all the way up to the gods..... Not to mention Nureyev, but today, I don't remember his bows, i remember Sibley's -- my GOd, what a great dancer she was....

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Some things don't change that much, Fred.

People still "second act" at City Center. I haven't done it for a while, but I did it years ago when I wanted to see Cunningham and was low on funds.

I have a similar story about Merrill Ashley that you do with LeClercq. It was my birthday and I was 23 or 24, I think. I was walking down Broadway, probably around 61st or thereabouts. Ashley walked by. I asked her rhetorically if she was Merrill Ashley (of course she was. Unless she had a double.)

One always thinks one will be calm around people you admire, until you do something really stupid. It came out in one word. "Ithinkyou'rethegreatestdancereverI'velovedyouallmylife."

She smiled weakly. I slunk away, vaguely nauseous.

Robert Barnett went on to run Atlanta Ballet for several decades. He has since retired to North Carolina. I made a ballet for Atlanta Ballet II in '91; during a break I set down a leg warmer I was knitting on a chair in the lounge and came back to find him knitting it. "I hope you don't mind me doing a few rows."

I was rather impressed, but I didn't have the heart to tell him I had to take his stitches out - he knit them twisted.

Babilee and Philappart were the original cast of "Le Jeune Homme et la Mort", if I recall correctly.

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How wonderful for you Paul to have seen Sibley, Seymour, and Nureyev. I saw Fonteyn, of course, but with Helpmann, Michael

Somes, and John Hart as her partners. I have seen them both on video, and while I never saw Baryisnikov in person either, I have him on video.

Leigh, I am amazed I can find nothing in my library on Massine's "Seventh", but Denby does refer to it in an essay on Massine. "He can get away with murder. If one took him seriously he would be guilty of murdering the Beethoven Seventh." And of the dancers, "they get on top of each othrs, lie down, run around, crouch, whirl, pose, wave, or huddle." Sounds very much like what I saw, but I can't imagine why Cincinnati would want to try to bring this behemoth back to life when there are so many other ballets that need reviving. And who is reconstructing the choreography? I also found out Massine did the first movement of "Moonlight Sonata" at the Met with Ballet Theatre in 1945. Toumanova and Massine danced - Denby hated it, and loathed the orchestration, too. I checked into the NY Public Library. Again, it amazes me that they would have films of Massine's works while so much else is lost. Tell me, is Labahn dance notation still used at all? I recall back in the '50s when it was in use, but I wonder now if we rely on film as an accurate record of ballets?

You spoke of doing a ballet for Atlanta Ballet II. I would like very much to know what your profession entails when you have time. You could email me privately.

I talked to a friend who has a son, a lawyer working in NYC, who is married to a girl who goes by the professional name of Leonora Volpe. She choreographs/directs, and just did a "Traviata" for some company, in the TriBeCa area. His name is

Howard Mulligan. Do you know anything about that?

And I never did see "Ivesiana". When was NYCB doing that, and who did the choreography?

Enjoyed your Merrill Ashley story.

Fred

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Kurvenal -- you have opened the floodgates of my memory of war-time NY! I am sure we must have rubbed elbows at some point!. I, too, knew the r opes of getting into the City Center---gratis! It really started in earnest when Ballet Society was formed---subscription only--and no one had the money for that! At the old Met I was in standing room--in the orchestra--. We would purchase a balcony ticket for $1.80, which entitled us to enter the House with the orchestra patrons. (the family circle was only $1.20, but it was almost impossible to have access to the rest of the House). Leigh was asking about Harold Lang--the original 'show-off' sailor of Fancy Free. Robbins beautifully captured his personality in that role--also in 'Interplay'. I did see him as Harlequin in "Carnaval". It did not surprise me when he left ballet for Broadway--he had said at one time that he did not like being compared to previous interpreters of roles. He really cannot be confused with Hugh Laing---as unalike as oranges and apples. I was surprised of what you said of Hugh Laing's technique, I've always felt he was marvelous to see on stage and Tudor knew how to use his simple technical gifts to perfection (also, Agnes deMille's 'Tally-Ho). It's not easy to describe what he was like on stage...there was an energy emanating from him that crossed the footlights--in repose, or perhaps a sharp change of direction in his movement, one's eyes were always on him.

I don't remember any of Massine's symphonic ballets being performed at that time---during the mid-forties Massine was part of the deQuevas Company, Ballet International.

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Balanchine's Ivesiana gets revived every decade or so. A very strange ballet - the most notable section was choreographed on Kent. She's born aloft by a number of men anf followed by one man who is continually trying to reach her. She never touches the ground, although at one point her bearers slide her body near her pursuer.

I also remember a jazzy little section called "In the Inn" (I think). I saw Farrell dance it with Jay Jolley, she had her hair in pigtails.

The final section is simply dancers crawling on their knees and ending in a heap at the center of the stage. Very strange and unsettling.

Like Ives's music, the ballet is almost normal and ordinary but it is not. This work isn't an audience favorite but the choreographic range it suggests is part of Balanchine's greatness.

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Fred, to pick up where Liebs left off, Ivesiana (if I recall correctly) is from '53 or so.

I did an interview with Barbara Milberg (who was in the company from around '46 to '60) and she said that rehearsals of that ballet were the only time she recalls Balanchine lost his temper. As liebs wrote, they spent the finale on their knees, crawling. At one rehearsal someone made a crack about Toulouse-Lautrec. The whole cast (and it's a large one) broke out laughing.

Balanchine did not find it funny. He snapped at them, "You can go to Radio City for all I care!"

The ballet has not worn well, and Balanchine tinkered with it constantly, possibly out of dissatisfaction. There was a section to "Hallowe'en" that was dropped early on, and people said that "In the Inn" was never the same after LeClercq stopped doing it. I think it's an important work to get a complete picture of Balanchine (it was obviously important enough to him to lose his temper over it) but I think it's lost in a sense already, and it was lost well before he died.

I'll email you privately about the other topics as soon as I get a chance. I do know Ms. Volpe, though not well.

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I remember Ivesiana's final section as either suggesting or depicting a rape. I remember the dancers crawling on all fours, with Sara Leland in apparent fright dancing over/around/between them as she was being pursued. My recollection is very sketchy: I saw it when I was still absorbing impressions more than specific moments, and as noted, it is not often performed. If it looked awful during Balanchine's day, I hate to imagine how it might look today. Very much like a Peter Martins ballet, I guess! :eek:

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Y'know, I've got to say that a lot of ballets deteriorated or mutated during Balanchine's lifetime. Agon, for one. He had to be goaded into preservation of older works.

I believe fervently in the preservation of Balanchine's works, and I'm sure Martins isn't perfect. But he isn't the bogeyman either. Can we blame or laud him for what he actually does do instead of acts he hasn't yet committed?

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ATM

Chances are we did rub elbows at any number of venues in NYC.

I know I stood in line all afternoon in 1949 for standing room to see Sadler Wells' first trip to NYC, and I think I stood in standing room most of the time for all the other performances, plus all those of Ballet Theatre.

I am going to have to go to the Public Library as soon as I can and look up a NY Times from April 1949. It was the de Quevas company but known as "The Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo" - all this re the Massine. The Slavenska-Franklin Company was in NYC

in Dec. of 1952 but I don't think they would have done Massine's

"Seventh". Strangely, Balanchine does not include it in his book of ballets, although he does include all the ballets done up to the publication of the book. And yet, I cannot erase from my mind that scene of a human ramp and some woman (or man) scrambling up, arms outstretched, maybe waving a banner with the words "Excelsior", doing an arabesque - God knows what, but I know I and the friends I was with were finding it hard not to laugh. Maybe we did laugh - it's so long ago, we might have been asked to leave. I find it hard to believe that any company today would be so hard pressed as to want to revive any of those "symphonic" ballets. And I still want to know who's left who can remember the choreography. Maybe they will contact me!

Fred

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Fred - Looking back on it from far away and with no personal contact, it feels a bit like a war between rival sects and the cult of Balanchine won out. In the same way that the only descriptions we have left of the Mithraists and the Cathars are by those that wiped them out, most of what's read about Massine is by people

who didn't like it. I know at least one of the large Massine ballets has been revived, Les Presages by the Joffrey in the mid 90s. I've never seen it so I can't tell you what I thought of it. At the same time, I'd still like to see some of the Massine. What you describe does sound over-the-top to me, but sometimes a work that didn't fit when it was first done makes sense in revival. (And sometimes it just looks COMPLETELY out of date. . .)

Speaking of having to stop laughing in performances. . .my worst sins were during an ABT gala (sigh. . .the shame) and an NYCB performance nearly 20 years ago.

A Ballerina Who Shall Remain Nameless was dancing La Source. This Ballerina was not one to straighten her legs during an arabesque penchee. She had about eight of them to do. I was sitting with my first partner and best friend at ballet school, a very bright, very wicked girl of about 14 (I was about 22, I started late) who could be my worse half in situations like this.

I was OK for the first two penchees. She was already sniggering and muttering something about fire hydrants. By the fourth, she was hooting and I was laughing as well, to very dirty looks from people in the seats in front of us. We managed to calm down until the end of the ballet, but at the bows the irate folks in front of us rather pointedly began to bravo. Well, she looked at me with that look she got. Very deadpan and quite self righteously she began to bravo loudly along with them. I just about slid under the chair.

At an ABT gala in the late 90s three men performed a very heartfelt dance involving carnations. Well, the carnations were plastic, and when they hit the ground with an audible and very unrealistic clunk it summed up how I felt about the whole ballet. I just about lost it. The worst part was I was an invited guest. I had teeth marks in the back of my hand from biting it to stop laughing.

[At this point, since we haven't talked about Ms. Kaye in a while, but the thread is still going (yay!), I think I'm going to move it to Ballet History and retitle it "Ballet and New York City in the 50s"]

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On prices and time, I've been rereading Barbara Barker's book about ballet in New York in the late 19th century, and in 1866, corps dancers were paid $5 to $10 a week, and could get a room (which they shared, probably) for $5 a week as well. Ticket prices were 50 cents to $2.50.

That's not very far off from what it was in the 1940s. I'd love to know if there were price spikes in betwen there, or if New York was really flatlined until the huge price jumps in the 1970s.

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Just before NYCB moved to Lincoln Center, the top price for a ticket at City Center was $4.95. The first season at the State Theater, the top was $5.95, the next, $6.95, and off we went! "So much for the 'people's cultural center'," I thought. City Center lagged behind, but the prices inexorably rose there, too.:D

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My muddled memories of Massine's "Seventh Symphony" (Beethoven) drove me to the pulbic library. I spent over an hour

reading about ballet in NYC in 1950, going through the NYTimes on microfilm, specifically the de Cuevas company's two week stay.

Lots of interesting writing by John Martin, but they didn't do the ballet. I checked Ballet Russe who were in the city in the spring and they didn't do it either. Where and when did I see it? It was performed for the first time in Paris in 1938 one month after "Gaite "Parisienne", but I wasn't there for the opening! Ballanchine doesn't even mention it in his book' Walter Terry does but doesn't give any U.S. dates. Dangerous business looking up things like that! I kept getting stopped by headlines - GB Shaw's obituary, new tenor coming to the Met - Mario del Monaco. Met opens with a flurry of expensive furs, diamonds, and limousines.

Amazing how much space the opening got in those days!

If anyone can help me out on the Massine work - when and who

danced it in NYC and when - I will be eternally grateful.

Fred

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Fred, per a friend, there's a Massine expert at the NY Library for performing arts, Monica Moseley. She might be able to help.

The contact information for the library is dance@nypl.org or 212 870-1630.

When asking my friend for additional information on Massine she remarked that Francis Mason, (editor of Ballet Review) and you arrived in NYC about the same time. I was wondering if you knew him from performances.

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Leigh,

Thanks for the email address. I sent off a plea for help. In answer to your question, I never recall meeting Francis Mason.

I remember he reviewed for some publication, but I don't know which one. When I was in the library today I noticed that Balanchine's book had been updated since 1956 and Mason's

name was on it.

Monica might be able to help you with that Op. 34 you were asking me about.

Fred

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Paul was asking about Danilova in 'Scheherazade', which I saw many times. In those days the Ballet Russe had a program they would repeat and repeat--they called it 'ham 'n eggs'. It was 'Sylphides', 'Scheherazade' and 'Gaite Parisienne'. Danilova was born to play Zobeide--she had all the authority and glamour for the part--very little dancing, but she did it in high-heeled shoes and strings and strings of jewels.--Leigh was also asking about Nadia Nerina--a dancer I started seeing on the first English tour. I cannot remember specifically what I saw her dance, but at the mention of her name one word emerges---sparkle. She had a wonderful aliveness about her dancing. If I saw any of her qualities in today's dancers, it is Michele Wiles.

Leigh, after writing the above, I read the comments about Wiles on another thread and I am happy to say I did not read it before writing the above, so my observation of her is one I truly feel.

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In mulling over the recent posts on ABT's swans I have been thinking much about the one Odette I tend to compare all others. and that is Danilova. I saw Danilova near the end of her career, from 1944 until her retirement. If, indeed she was born in 1903, she would have been in her early 40's. I was fortunate to see a truly mature ballerina ---and make no mistake, she was a Queen!. I have seen a gaggle (really, no pun intended) of Swans over the years who all had admirable technical gifts, and I understand that you have to start somewhere to develop the role, but that s aid, I am grateful that Ananiashvilli is still performing. It appears that some of the ABT Swans have been observing her carefully, especially in her fluid use of her arms. (During Act2, when Ananiashvilli bourees off the stage with her back to the audience and her arms undulating, there is usually a collective gasp that arises from the audience, and one can feel the emotions going through her. Herrera also tried this--but it looked only technical). I am a bit off topic, but getting back to Danilova---she is most famous now for her sophistication and vivacity, but her Odette had a wonderful grandeur, and this combined with her fine line and musical allegro made her irresistible.

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The NY Public Library's Monica Mosely, evidently an expert on ballet, came to my rescue regarding the Massine. It was done in 1951. I was off a year. I am going back to my library just to read what John Martin of the NYTimes had to say about it.

My feeling about ballets such as the Seventh, Les Presages (to Tschaikovskys Fifth), and Choreatium (to Brahms First), all of which I think were by Massine is that the music is just too overpowering, and a ballet orchestra, IMO, is not geared to play these works, only because they don't play them often enough.

My recollection of the Seventh is vague but I do remember lots of people running about stage, and I shall never forget that human

ramp!

ATM, you were so fortunate to see Danilova as Odette. I may have seen her, but I think I would have remembered it. My first

great Odette was Fonteyn. What would it have been like to have seen Danilova in a full-length "Swan Lake"? I would have paid a kings ransom - or managed to sneak into the theatre!!!

Fred

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Fred, do you know which Company performed 'Choreatium' in 1951? Danilova never did the complete 'Swan Lake', as far as I know. It was always Act 2, and something that was called 'Pas de Deux Classique' which was danced to the Act 3 music and, interestingly, she never wore the black tutu for this.

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I think Mel is right in that Ballet Russe did Choreartium - and it

was done to Brahms Fourth, not his First, which I think I said in an earlier posting. According to Cyril Beaumont's book, it was first done in London in 1933 - and look at the dancers - Irina Baronova, David Lichine, Vera Zorina, Nina Verchinina, Danilova,

Riabouchinski.

I don't remember seeing the Pas de deux Classique but Denby reports that in 1944 Ballet Russe was performing at the City

Center, and it got done with Danilova and Second Class Seaman

Igor Youskevitch (dancing on the last night of his shore leave.) Denby devotes a whole paragraph to the majesty of Youskevitch's dancing - "I know of no dancer anywhere who is nearer than he to perfection. And now he is returning to his base, it is hard to think how the Monte Carlo can long continue as a

first-class company without him."

I was digging into microfilm at my library today - 1949, looking for the report of Beethoven Seventh. Ballet Russe was giving two appearances in NYC in those days, in the spring, and again in the fall. I still haven't found the review, but John Martin wrote a poor review of the company's overall performances, blaming the director(s) for the sloppiness and pedestrian dancing.

On the recommendation of Monica Mosely at NY Public Library

I ordered Jack Anderson's "The One and Only Ballet Russe" which she said lists every performance, every ballet danced, and the dancers, dates and places, during the company's existence. That should answer a lot of questions.

Last night I was watching the first Erik Bruhn Competition on a tape sent to me by a friend. I have no idea what year it took place, and none of the dancers are familiar names. It opened with Bruhn's version of the Black Swan pas de deux, and the opening pas de deux was to music I did not recognize. I also found the choreography less thrilling than what is supposedly the Petipa-Ivanov version. What does anyone know about this?

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Hi Fred---I asked the question about which Company did "Choreatium' in 195l, because I have the book you mentioned (Jack Anderson) and, indeed, it does list each year's repertoire, and 'Choreatium' is not mentioned for 1951. For the '48/'49 season they had 'Rouge et Noir' and 'Seventh Symphony'. I am embarassed to say that the one production I remember for that year was something called "Quelques Fleurs" by Ruthanna Boris! It was sponsored by a perfume company. I must quickly add, though, that I very much liked Boris' ballet for the previous year, "Cirque de Deux". (I always admired her in Serenade and Concerto Barocco, too!)

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