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

[Kurvenal]

Mel is probably correct as Ballet Theatre doing "Choreartium". If I can find the time I will eventually find it in the microfilm of the NYT.

I was just down there for an hour looking in vain for a John Martin review of "Seventh". They were doing it in the spring of 1949 but I haven't run across the review yet. I did find

this interesing tidbit, however. The night that Mary Ellen Moylan danced "Ballet Imperial", Balanchine's work to Tschaikovsky's 2nd piano concerto (Martin loved her and the ballet), Markova and Tudor were scheduled to dance sometrhing simply called "Pas de Deux". According to Martin, "it proved to be not a pas deux at all but only a single section of the pas de deux from 'Sleeping Beauty'. What happened to the other three sections nobody connected with the company or Mr. Dolin or Miss Markova cared to say, but it was very nicely done, what there was of it."

THAT IS FUNNY!

Fred

[Kurvenal]

ATM -

"Quelque Fleurs" - was that a pas de quatre of sorts, or am I mistaking it for the old pas de quatre? I remember seeing

Ruthanna Boris dance when I first starting going to City Center.

Fred

[atm711]

Too bad it wasn't "Pas de Quatre". Quoting Jack Anderson:

"...a story about a haughty Contessa , who unsuccessful in her attempts to snare a young man, seeks help from an alchemist who presents her with three wondrous perfumes which cause the young man to swoon to at their loveliness. Ultimately, this gift proves to be of no avail, since the youth rejects the Contess, preferring the fragrances to the woman." Boris was approached by a perfume company (Houbignant, who made a perfume called--you got it! "Quelques Fleurs") to do a ballet. Their only stipulation was that it be called "Quelques Fleurs" Anderson further adds: "When Denham approached Boris about this, she scorned the idea as crass commercialism"-When she was assured that she would have a free hand, she accepted the offer. Anderson continues: "Quelques Fleurs presumably pleased Houbigant, although someone wishing to take its nonsense seriously could have argued that, because it showed that perfume cannot disguise lack of true beauty, Boris' ballet was essentially anti-cosmetic". Boris was too smart to be out-foxed by a perfume company.

A prediction of things to come!

[Leigh Witchel]

I just wanted to link to an earlier thread on the topic - maybe there's stuff to add!

Walking by History - Ballet Landmarks in NYC

[atm711]

On another thread, Leigh mentioned that he would like to see 'Helen of Troy' revived. The first time I saw this delightful romp Paris was danced by Andre Eglevsky. He was a big favorite of mine during the 40's. Nowadays I cringe when I view the NYCB tape of him and Tallchief in 'Scotch Symphony'. Maybe it's the camera angle, but he looks so big (not unlike a certain NYCB male dancer ) and lumbering. When he danced with Ballet Theatre he was slimmer, had a beautiful leonine grace, a very soft landing, and was boyishly handsome. I did not see Zorina as Helen, she had already left the Company, but I did see two very good Helens--Maria Karnilova and Nana Gollner. Hermes was danced (?) by Jerome Robbins who was soundly reprimanded by many fans as being "too Broadway" in the part. At one point, he sauntered on to the stage from the most down-stage wing, munching on an apple. This was at a time when many ballet-goers were hoping to have Ballet taken more seriously as an art form. (Does anything change?) I did not see Eliot Feld in the part--I wonder if he incorporated the apple.

[maxboswell]

In answer to your question, Paul, yes, Kurvenal (correctly Kurwenal) was Tristan's right hand, and in Wagner's opera, he dies defending his lord aginst Melot, an enemy of Tristan. Then Isolde arrives, and the rest you know. My favorite opera, by the way, the Mt. Everest of operas for me.

The name Reme Charlip stirs up some memories but I cannot say I remember him at all.

And, Leigh, your mother's memories are priceless, and I am glad

she is alive to relate them. NYC will always be a magical city for me, but back when I was in my 20's it was especially magical. I did go to NYCB by sneaking in many times. They used to print one program for the whole week, and each night might have four or five ballets on the program. I would go on Tuesday night, keep my program, go to the bar across the street from City Center - I think it was called "Tosca" then - and have a drink and wait for intermission after the first ballet. I would then leave my coat at the bar, go over with my program in hand, and wander in with everyone else and there were always seats. And I might get to be there three and four nights running.

Many of the early lovers of NYCB began to resent it when the company's fame began to grow, and they had to rub shoulders with people, many of whom seemed to know nothing about the ballet but were going because it all at once became the thing to do - Balanchine was becoming known as a great choreographer, and with a company with names like Tallchief, Eglevsky, Magallenes, Robbins, Kaye, Laing, Haydn, Reed, Adams, and all the others - and a longer season than any other company could do in NYC - tickets suddenly became hard to get. I wasn't sure I could sneak in and find a seat anymore! Damn!

I got to meet a lot of different artists - I once attended a cocktail party given by Elie Siegmeister, the composer, and had a marvelous conversation with a violinist from the NY Philharmonic; and one night I went to a collage party at the apartment of a young modern dancer and choreographer, James Mainwaring, I think, and some dancers from NYCB were there, including Tanaquil LeClerq, and I was so in awe of her that I could'n't put a sentence together without sounding totally stupid!

About Op. 34, I know nothing, but Paul's comment about the bandages reminds me of Babilee's ballet "L'Amour et son Amour".

Besides Babilee and Nathalie Philappart as Cupid and Psyche, there were two male dancers, one of them Ralph McCracken whom I knew, and they had white strips of cloth wound around their bodies, going from their ankles up around their torsos and around their arms. Cocteau did the sets and costumes. The music by Franck was the best thing about the ballet. That was in 1951 when the two were guest artists with ABT at the old Met.

The de Cuevas company only came to NYC one time that I can recall. I know I saw a ballet by Ana Ricarda, "Del Amor y del Muerte" with Marjorie Tallchief and George Skibine. The ballet was very Spanish with a lot of Spanish dancing, lots of skirts flying, anguished, angry looks between the two principal dancers,

and lots of black and red colors. Both the principals had come to this country with great credentials, but this ballet did not give me

any idea of how good they really were. I am sure Rosella Hightower was with the company then, but I don't know now why I didn't get to see more of them. They must have been there at least a week.

I was there when Jacque d"Amboise joined NYCB and that was an exciting time. I am sure he began in the chorus, but it seems like he appeared full-blown in "Picnic at Tintagel", a ballet by Ashton based on the Tristan legend. I found it to be a splendid work. D'Amboise as Tristan, Diana Adams as Isolde were awesome together - he was so young and so athletic - nothing seemed beyond him, and she was one of the loveliest women in the company, and so elegant - and heartbreaking - in that role.

And there was a dancer, Barnett, I think, who was Merlin, and he was fabulous. A really fine character dancer. I somewhat doubt that that ballet survived, however. Sad

Fred

I was there too. And I remember Jacques as one of the goons in Prodigal. He danced many corps parts. But then he became the darling of Lincoln and of Ashton: thus Tintagel. He was gorgeous in it. The costume -- in the first scene, of course, under a cape -- was all white. Even alongside Adams, the costume, the choreography, was designed to make him the standout.

Robbie Barnett was a terrific character dancer. Mr. B liked him alot. cf. the premiere of Nutcracker: the grt solo for Barnett.

Max -- more later, as I say,I was there, too.

[bart]

Maxboswell, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you have found and revived this thread, which I've never seen. And thanks to Kurvenal, ATM711, Mel and all the others who participated.

The people and events you are talking about were still very much alive in conversation and dance criticism 10 or more years later when I, and some of the others on this Board, began attending ballet in NYC. We may not have seen them, but they were "there" as exemplars, stories, and ideals. And their legacy is still with us.

For example:

Last night at Miami City Ballet (in West Palm) Edward Villella mentioned that he saw Bourree Fantasque only in the last season it was done (1958-59). This rang a bell, since that was the second season that I -- still a teenager -- attended regularly. Later in the evening, the curtain rose on the first section of the ballet, and there were the familiar Karinska costumes (rather silly, actually) and the same joyful spoofing of ballet movements and attitudes that I found unbelievably witty ... 50 years ago!!

So much of what makes American ballet distinct comes from that time and place. So much of this has been lost -- especially some of the individality and stage smarts that those dancers and choreographers, most of whom also worked in other forms of popular dance theater, brought to the work.

I hope that other relative newcomers to Ballet Talk will read and enjoy this thread as I have.

[maxboswell]

Maxboswell, I can't tell you how grateful I am that you have found and revived this thread, which I've never seen. And thanks to Kurvenal, ATM711, Mel and all the others who participated.

The people and events you are talking about were still very much alive in conversation and dance criticism 10 or more years later when I, and some of the others on this Board, began attending ballet in NYC. We may not have seen them, but they were "there" as exemplars, stories, and ideals. And their legacy is still with us.

For example:

Last night at Miami City Ballet (in West Palm) Edward Villella mentioned that he saw Bourree Fantasque only in the last season it was done (1958-59). This rang a bell, since that was the second season that I -- still a teenager -- attended regularly. Later in the evening, the curtain rose on the first section of the ballet, and there were the familiar Karinska costumes (rather silly, actually) and the same joyful spoofing of ballet movements and attitudes that I found unbelievably witty ... 50 years ago!!

So much of what makes American ballet distinct comes from that time and place. So much of this has been lost -- especially some of the individality and stage smarts that those dancers and choreographers, most of whom also worked in other forms of popular dance theater, brought to the work.

I hope that other relative newcomers to Ballet Talk will read and enjoy this thread as I have.

Bourree brings to mind the wonderful, versatile Beatrice Tomkins, a member of Ballet Caravan, Ballet Society (she was in the premiere of the 4 T's), and later a soloist at NYCB, where she was the 'chief monster' in the Firebird premiere and danced in many of Mr. B's ballets. I remember her in Orpheus, Symphony in C, among others. She was truly a dancer-actress, and a comedienne. She had a very funny role opposite LeClercq in Ruthana Boris' Cakewalk, and sometimes did Bourree with Robbins as her partner [the 2 of them always got lots of laughs in the opening sequence]. She danced in many of Robbins' ballets; and they often appeared together: in Tyl [she strode about the stage grandly in the Esteban Francis regal costume], Age of Anxiety, Jones Beach. In her later yrs at NYCB she was thought of as a character dancer. After leaving the Balanchine enterprise, she taught at the Joffrey School.

[maxboswell]

Culinary Footnote to NYCB history: Does anyone else remember Francine's? It was a lunch counter spot, right across the street from the stage entrance to City Center. Everything about it illustrates how the city has changed, and how the relationship between its public and the NYCB has also changed. Francine's was a hangout, not just for civilians, but for dancers too. Right there on W. 56th Street, in a storefront a few steps below street level. Hayden, LeClercq, Hobi, Robbie Barnett -- many others -- you'd be having yr own burger at the counter and in they'd come, after rehearsal or sometime before, grabbing something to eat. One time I met Tallchief there: she was chewing gum and humming "Belle Belle My Liberty Belle." No kidding. It's not by Sousa, by the way; it was a pop tune at the time. Francine's was an ordinary place, we all mingled there before performances. As though it were our cafe. And it was fun to see the dancers, who enthralled us on stage, turn up like everyone else, ordering their 2 eggs over with toast and coffee, or tuna sandwiches. Sure can't find any place like this near the State Theatre these days, cheap, friendly, low-key. In the first years there was one place, Joe's, a small (and dreary) diner, and for awhile it was sort of a hangout. But it was small, the food was pretty bad (so was the coffee), and it closed. Afterwards and to this day, there is nothing like these places -- only tourist spots, high priced eateries, Starbucks.

re Francine's: I never saw Mr. B there, but sometimes you cld find him with Morton Baum or Betty Cage at the Sixth Avenue Deli, around the corner: another favorite, albeit pricier spot. [sid Caesar and Imogene Coca and Max Lieberman, of yr Show of Shows, which had offices at the City Center, were regulars at the Sixth Avenue.]

In those days, City Ballet had a place in a neighborhood.

[bart]

I was just a suburban kid who came in on the LIRR, but I do remember Francine's. Some called it a greasy spoon, but for some reason a lot of people in NYC called that kind of thing a coffee shop. (Totally unrelated to the jazz or poetry coffee shops of Greenwich Village at the same time.) For real sit-down dinners there was also Puccini's across from the City Center lobby.

In those days, City Ballet had a place in a neighborhood.

You're right. And ballet -- along with ballet dancers -- also seemed to have "a place in a neighborhood" and be more connected with the rest of American society than it is today. I mean the theaters, the touring system, the schools.

More and more -- when I compare what I know of the dancers of that period with what I observe today -- I think the quality I appreciated most in American ballet dancers of that generation was a streetwise, theater-district, let's-put-on-a show quality. This existed alongside, and in no way contradicted a their sense that they were devoting themselves to bringing a very great classical art to the U.S. It allowed them, at their best, to give an improvisional, spontaneous look to material that they had worked on very hard, and to use their technique fully but in ways which did not call attention to itself as much as audiences seem to expect today.

Perhaps this all came from the very different kind of training system than we have today, where the best students seem to find shelter in ballet academies that are sometimes cut off from the rougher, more populist aspects of American life.

Am I just engaging in nostalgia for an imperfectly-remembered (or selectively-remembered) past? I don't know.

[maxboswell]

I was just a suburban kid who came in on the LIRR, but I do remember Francine's. Some called it a greasy spoon, but for some reason a lot of people in NYC called that kind of thing a coffee shop. (Totally unrelated to the jazz or poetry coffee shops of Greenwich Village at the same time.) For real sit-down dinners there was also Puccini's across from the City Center lobby.

In those days, City Ballet had a place in a neighborhood.

You're right. And ballet -- along with ballet dancers -- also seemed to have "a place in a neighborhood" and be more connected with the rest of American society than it is today. I mean the theaters, the touring system, the schools.

More and more -- when I compare what I know of the dancers of that period with what I observe today -- I think the quality I appreciated most in American ballet dancers of that generation was a streetwise, theater-district, let's-put-on-a show quality. This existed alongside, and in no way contradicted a their sense that they were devoting themselves to bringing a very great classical art to the U.S. It allowed them, at their best, to give an improvisional, spontaneous look to material that they had worked on very hard, and to use their technique fully but in ways which did not call attention to itself as much as audiences seem to expect today.

Perhaps this all came from the very different kind of training system than we have today, where the best students seem to find shelter in ballet academies that are sometimes cut off from the rougher, more populist aspects of American life.

Am I just engaging in nostalgia for an imperfectly-remembered (or selectively-remembered) past? I don't know.

Look: Mr. B knew all about "let's put on a show." He did it on Broadway, in Hollywood, and for Diaghilev (who didn't call it a show, of course).

On the matter Lincoln Center and how it's so alienated from anything local, any neighborhood: SAB, in those earlier days, was also in a neighborhood, over on the East Side, in rented space in an ordinary bldg. So both the school and the ballet company were on NYÇ streets, rather than isolated in bank-like buildings.

[Leigh Witchel]

Max - I wanted to point out a forum on a mini-seminar we began earlier in the year - http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=236

And also this thread on ballet landmarks in NYC http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=7618

Check them out, and please feel free to add any thoughts or recollections you would like.

[maxboswell]

Max - I wanted to point out a forum on a mini-seminar we began earlier in the year - http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showforum=236

And also this thread on ballet landmarks in NYC http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=7618

Check them out, and please feel free to add any thoughts or recollections you would like.

Leigh,

Thanks. I hadn't noticed the 'ballet landmarks in NYC" thread. Thanks. I guess my little piece belonged there. Believe me, I have more, when I have time.

Max.

[Leigh Witchel]

Trust me, we're all more interested in what you have to say than in what thread you post it. Enjoy the other threads and add to them if you can.

[bart]

On the matter Lincoln Center and how it's so alienated from anything local, any neighborhood: SAB, in those earlier days, was also in a neighborhood, over on the East Side, in rented space in an ordinary bldg. So both the school and the ballet company were on NYÇ streets, rather than isolated in bank-like buildings.

Yes. In some cities (Seattle, Miami) the studios have large picture windows that allow pedestrians to look in. But you do wonder how often those studying and rehearsing in the studios get a meaningful chance to "look outward" and make that a part of their work.

Another difference seems to be the relative smallness of the major companies in those days. Dances had the opportunity -- a job requirement, actually -- to perform each ballet in which they had been cast often during a season, since a limited number of ballets tended to be repeated again and again during a season and often revived season after season.

Dancers in the much larger and more complex companies oftoday work under very different circumstances on the whole. For example, Wednesday's Links contains an article by Judith Mackrell (U.K. Telegraph, Wed. 2/20) in which she discusses the process by which today's NYCB tries to maintain the style and standards required for their reportoire.

Martins programmes as wide a selection as possible - but the downside is that each principal dancer only gets to perform a ballet once or twice. It's an issue faced by all large companies today, and one that dancers find frustrating. As [Wendy] Whelan says, "it's the performances that we learn from. Really, we need to perform a ballet 10 times." A schedule which, Whelan says, "keeps us running from one ballet to another" can also mean that individual details of style can blur or even disappear. When Whelan watches films of the company from the 50s and 60s, she feels there is a kind of attack - a free accenting of the steps - that dancers today don't have. "If Balanchine was here," she says, "I'd love to ask him what we have lost."

If this is true of America's largest companies -- those with the most performances for each program -- I can only imagine how much more serious the effect would be in less busy companies like Joffrey, SFB, PNB and MCB, not to mention those who perform even less.

For anyone who missed it, the link that dirac posted on Wednesday is HERE.