Multinational Ballet Theatre!

[Leigh Witchel]

Looking at my ABT brochure, it's easy to do a quick census of the principals - they list birthplaces.

16 Principals listed, 2 guest artists.

4 American. (Gillian Murphy was born in the UK, but I think she's an American citizen)

The remainder?

3 Argentinian

1 Spanish

2 Cuban

4 Soviet Republic (3 Ukrainian, 1 Georgian)

2 Brazilian

1 French

1 Italian

I'm not saying this to advocate turning them furriners out, more out of amusement.

In the long term, it would be nice if ABT were breeding principal dancers, but that's asking it to be a different company than it is. When did ABT turn into an "importer"? Was that in the 60s?

[Hans]

But the US is multinational...especially New York. I don't understand the criticism.

[carbro]

Yes, Hans, it appears ABT is a company of immigrants, to a large degree, but it surely doesn't give an accurate demographic representation of the USA, as has been discussed elsewhere on this board.

Leigh, of the 15 principals, the following (only three of them American) came up from the corps: Gomes, Herrera, Kent, H. Cornejo, Dvorovenko, Tuttle. Going to the Soloist level, Liceica hails from Rumania, C. Corella, Lopez and Pastor from Spain, Molina from Columbia, Riccetto from Uruguay, E. Cornejo from Argentina and Saveliev from Russia. I haven't the patience to run a census of the corps, but it includes a fair number of foreign-born dancers, some of whom I expect to see rising through the company over the years.

Murphy, as I understand, was born to American parents who just happened to be in England at that time.

[Leigh Witchel]

It wasn't meant as a criticism. It was just funny to pick up a brochure for "American" Ballet Theater and realize that 3/4 of the principals aren't American. Of course, we could crunch the same numbers for NYCB . . .how do they stand up?

[perky]

Another example of "outsourcing". I think I will e-mail Lou Dobbs.

But seriously, I like seeing all those "foreign" names on the roster. It makes a nice interesting stew.

[Alexandra]

The real problem isn't the dancers' nationality, it's that they come from 80-gazillion schools, and Raymonda or Bayadere shouldn't look like a stew!!!

[Hans]

I understand, Leigh, but other people often do mean it as a criticism--should have made that clearer.

I'm still surprised, though, that this should even be considered. Does it mean San Francisco Ballet should only hire dancers from San Francisco? Or that NYCB dancers should ideally be from one of the five boroughs? Really--why is this even any sort of issue? ABT's title clearly refers to where the company is based and the region it expects to perform in, not the nationality of the dancers it should hire. :rolleyes:

[Alexandra]

Good points! Let's spread the joy -- how 'bout if the Kirov starts taking in people from every country to spice things up! ;)

[Marga]

Growing up on Long Island in New York, I've often thought the "New York Islanders" hockey team is misnamed since there's not one member on the team from Long Island or the rest of New York..... :rolleyes:

[carbro]

FLASHBACK!

Weren't we recently discussing how, in the case of the Royal Danish Ballet, the company's style has been badly diluted by the influx of non-Danes? Just thought I'd bring that up. Not sure where I land as we balance both arguments. :shrug:

(Not that ABT ever had a strongly identifiable, characteristic style of its own.)

[nysusan]

I think that without a school of their own ABT will always turn to international stars to make up their roster of principal dancers. I started going to see them in the late 60's, and I remember seeing Fracci and Bruhn back then. But even before that, weren't American principals a rarity? Sure, there was Nora Kaye but weren't there also Alonso & Youskevich?

[Hans]

The problem with the Danes is the schooling, which is the same problem Alexandra identified above with ABT.

[Leigh Witchel]

I'm not saying this to advocate turning them furriners out, more out of amusement.

[From my original post]

I'm sorry if that wasn't clear enough. I realize tone doesn't always survive through cyberspace, but that did seem to me to indicate that I wasn't making a criticism.

[edited to add - wait, am I misreading your last post? Which of us should have been clearer? Now I'm confused!]

[Hans]

Haha, Leigh, now I'm confused too! Let's just say that I understand that you didn't intend criticism and leave it at that--this thread seems to have turned into something else anyway (for which I accept much of the blame).

Alexandra, unless I'm missing something, I haven't found the word "Russian" or "St. Petersburg" in the Kirov-Mariinsky's name yet and it did hire Rasta Thomas for a while. So again, what matters is the schooling, not the nationality.

(It would be kind of fun, though, to have character dancers from every country performing authentic dances in the classics.)

[Leigh Witchel]

To add something into the mix, foreign dancers are part of the health of a company, "new blood" - and one need only look at dancers like Nureyev or Sorella Englund to see that it's so. I also agree with you about schooling. If someone is trained at a certain school, it really doesn't matter where they were born. But ABT doesn't yet have that kind of school.

I once wrote that there are companies with an international outlook and others that are more local in viewpoint. I think that "American" Ballet Theater implies a nationalist company (much on the order of what Lincoln Kirstein wanted with the American Ballet and American Ballet Caravan way back when) but ABT, at least in my time has been an internationalist company and an importer of talent. Nothing wrong with that, it's just a different way to run a company. But it does have its price, and it does affect ABT as an institution in ways I'm not sure they admit.

[Farrell Fan]

Growing up on Long Island in New York, I've often thought the "New York Islanders" hockey team is misnamed since there's not one member on the team from Long Island or the rest of New York.....  :rolleyes:

Steve Summers (Somers?) on WFAN calls them the Icelanders.

[Hans]

You're right, Leigh, about ABT not having a school, but in that case, it doesn't matter whether the dancers are all from the US or not--you'd still have a stylistic mix.

[Alexandra]

In (American) football, there are teams that build and teams that buy. Same thing.

To answer Leigh's original question, I think the influx of foreigners came when the company started doing full lengths -- after the "Swan Lake" acquistion in the mid-1960s. In Gruen's biography of Bruhn, he mentions the possibility that Bruhn remaned a second soloist for six years was because he was not American (Bruhn came to Ballet Theatre fully formed; he didn't grow on the job). While there have been international stars, the dominance of non-Americans is quite recent -- it parallels the same situation in Britain's Royal Ballet.

I think, as always, there are two sides to the question. New blood is good. BUT where are American dancers going to dance? If a young dancer has his/her sights set on ABT, does the current company mix send a positive mesage? The mixed training issue, which was an issue before the company was so international.

San Francisco Ballet also has a huge component of "furriners" but I'd argue it has a consistent company style -- in the small and mid-sized ballets and new choreography more than in the full-lengths. It just takes time to build stylistic consistency that is expected in a "Swan Lake," and as long as there is a Kirov or a Paris Opera Ballet around that does have stylistic consistency, that will remain a standard.

[GeorgeB fan]

I just receive my May issue of Dance Magazine. After reading senior consulting editor Clive Barnes Attitudes column, he made, I think, an interesting comment about some many foreigners in American ballet companies.

..... just wondering why the proportion of Americans in American companies seems markedly smaller than, say, the proportion of French dancers in French companies, of Russian dancers in Russian companies, Italian dancers in Italian companies.....

.... is it the overall quality of our classical ballet teaching and teachers? Or is our pedagogic structure too removed from the theatrical experience that must eventually sustain? Our ballet teachers are schooled in technique and trained as teachers, but how many of them have had even modestly successful professional careers and can inspire in a conservatory environment?

.... We have a few large conservatory-style schools, such as the School of American Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet School, associated with companies - although even here the dancers graduating into their companies tend to have been finished by the school (a year or two, perhaps, in the senior class) rather than fully trained by it, and, often, such students come from abroad.

... Clearly, we have some splendid teachers in this country. But when we train so many dance students and produce so few dance professionals, might there not be something slightly adrift?

Maybe that's the problems - we have talents students dancers and equally talented teachers in this country, but for some reason they are not understanding (students) and being taught (teachers) how to be brilliant star dancers.

[vrsfanatic]

If I may add, Gomes and Herrera both received a major part of their training in the US. Although they may be from other countries other than the US, they both did a major portion of their training in established American schools: Harid Conservatory, for Gomes and SAB for Herrera.

ABT does have some sort of school now. I am not sure of it's actual status though. It also had a school that was functioning for the last three years of the Baryshnikov artistic directorship. I believe there were only about 25 students total. Out of that school, dancers such as Radetsky and Stiefel received their early to intermediate training. There also was a young dancer Stephanie Wolfe who eventually was given a corps contract. I do not know what happened to her. :shrug:

I could probably be the first to jump on the wagon to discuss the lack of adequate schooling in the US. However, many of the challenges confronting the dedicated, highly skilled and hardworking teachers in this country have to do very much with lack of finances, lack of time to train the students, and poorly educated populus in respect to ballet education.

The European system of schooling generally allows for more time to train ballet students seriously. This is not the case in the US.

It is indeed very interesting to look at the roster of dancers and see that the majority of principles and soloists of ABT are not American trained, rather from the European system of schooling.

[Ari]

But why is it that at NYCB, sixteen of the twenty-two principals are American? How do we explain the almost opposite proportions of American to foreign dancers at the two companies?

[fandeballet]

I have a question: Did'nt ABT have a school of its own before Misha

took over in 1980?????????????

Edited April 16, 2004 by fandeballet

[art076]

Leigh Witchell wrote:

I think that "American" Ballet Theater implies a nationalist company (much on the order of what Lincoln Kirstein wanted with the American Ballet and American Ballet Caravan way back when) but ABT, at least in my time has been an internationalist company and an importer of talent.

Not to mention that ABT refers to itself as "America's national company." I've heard the reference used as recently as two weeks ago by Kevin McKenzie in his remarks before curtain at the Romeo & Juliet opening night in Los Angeles. In ABT's progam bio, it also says, "Mr. McKenzie, steadfast in his vision of ABT as "American," is committed to maintaining the Company's vast repertoire, and to bringing the magic of dance theater to the great stages of the world."

It's interesting that they keep referring to the "American-ness" of the company - not that the dancers' nationality needs to be American to do so. But why the emphasis on national identity? If ABT were to be "American" by repertoire or temperment, what would it then be like? It certainly doesn't seem like an American company from its active repertoire, which is by in large dominated by 19th century Russian classics.

--art

[vrsfanatic]

Yes, the school Baryshnikov funded during his tenure as AD was The School of Classical Ballet. It closed six months after he resigned as Artistic Director. See the above post.

...It also had a school that was functioning for the last three years of the Baryshnikov artistic directorship. I believe there were only about 25 students total. Out of that school, dancers such as Radetsky and Stiefel received their early to intermediate training. There also was a young dancer Stephanie Wolfe who eventually was given a corps contract. I do not know what happened to her.

[Mel Johnson]

And before Baryshnikov, ABT had its own school which folded in the late 1970s.