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Dance History in Hartford (of all places!)


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"July 16, 1933

Dear Chick,

This will be the most important letter I will ever write you as you will see."

-Lincoln Kirstein

There's a wonderful exhibit running at America's oldest art museum, The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT called "Ballets Russes to Balanchine: Dance at the Wadsworth Atheneum" inspired by this year's centennial celebrations of Balanchine & Ashton, both of whom were brought to America in 1933 under the auspices of the Wadsworth Atheneum.

There's a little thrill that flows through me as I read the original handwritten letter from Lincoln Kirstein to Chick Austen and look at the telegrams involved and the original programs for Serenade, Mozartiana and Alma Mater (more intricately laid out than I would have imagined), as well as a program for Balanchine's memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC... by the way, any Ballet Alerters in attendence that day? A college roomate of mine went and told me how touched she was to see so many of Balanchine's ballerinas holding candles for him... that it was a very emotional day.

I need to return and study the exhibit again.. it runs until January 2, 2005. The museum has free admission after 5pm on the first Thursday of every month, and I believe if you get there before noon on Saturday, but it's only $10 normally & $5 for students with ID... well worth it.

I had been to see the Ballets Russes exhibit of a few years ago, and of course there are repeats, but I seemed to notice different things this time, and with different expectations had different reactions to some of the work I had seen before.

A few things I found interesting:

There's a nice catalog of the exhibit, should collectors be interested. ($15)

A beautiful photo of Balanchine & Tchelitchew taken by Tanaquil LeClerc (have her photos been published elsewhere I wonder?)

Designs for Doubrovska's American premiere with Lew Christensen in his first major role, in a piece called Sereneta.

Bakst's costume design for a guide in "Sleeping Princess" (was this different from Sleeping Beauty?) has a dancer with clearly African features.

How hot so many of the costumes looked.

Bakst' designs were so beautiful in the original... I didn't realize that famous one of Nijinksi with the blue scarf as the faun had gold worked into it. The design for the Rose in Spectre was luscious.

Looking at the original Benois set designs (how that man could capture excitement in movement, much more so than the Picassos on view!) for Petrushka and Rosignol, got me to wondering how the dance had to be pretty good to compete against such galvanizing designs. I wonder how hard Diaghelev had to work the lighting to give the dancers a chance. Just looking at Benois' opening scene for Petrushka reminding me of his book which I read so long ago and have now mostly forgotten about how he was trying to recreate from memory what had fascinated him as a child... the "fascination" part reads so well... I don't know if it's his use of light or the complexity of the energy in the scene, but it comes still across.

The Matisse costumes for La Chant de Rossignol have some amazingly detailed beading work... I can't imagine the labor that went into that for a detail that must have been barely visible to anyone who wasn't on stage with the costumes!

It seems Matisse and Benois both made designs for Rossignol, were both produced?

I didn't realize Matisse painted on the dancers! There's a photo of him painting Markova. Frederic Franklin was another principal, did Matisse paint on him as well? Do we have an aural history from Franklin on this?

The original Apollo drop design was pretty ghastly, thank heavens it never made it to the stage.

On the other hand, the drop for Concerto Barocco is quite beautiful and it seems very appropriate... but perhaps it made the physical aesthetic references too obvious, detracting from their charm... I've often noticed designers make this error... particularly costume designers... as if they see something in the movement and try to magnify it in the costume design, but by making so obvious the movement seems to lose it's inventiveness.

On at least 3 and maybe 4 of the costume designs (each by a different artist) I noticed that minor changes had been made around the feet... in one it looked like the leg had been shortened, in another lengthened, in another the line redrawn... I became curious because I couldn't see why the change would have been made, it seemed so innocuous, but I wondered if Diaghelev had objected to something and made them change it, just to assert his role as director, yet not wanting to change anything aesthetically significant in the design... very curious... anyone else notice this and have a theory?

It was nice to see the Spectre de la Rose costume in grand jete, but it would have been so much more effective if they had used a more lifelike mannikin... after all, part of the shape of the costume is how it looked on a dancer's legs.

Also, I found myself wishing we could see the costumes with something approaching stage lighting, so that the silks and satins and gold embellishments would gleam as they had been intended to... but I suppose that might have been damaging to these delicate relics.

Original designs for the Prodigal Son drops.

Original set design for Les Noces... I didn't realize there were 4 grand pianos visible on stage, 2 on each side of the set...

That four Four Saints in Three Acts, Ashton raided the Savoy club in Harlem for the dancers.

Interesting study of a male dancer holding the hand of a little girl (pre-school age?)... such a contrast of physical self control... (Tchelitchew "Errante")

The Paper Ball designed by Tchelitchew looked like tremoundous fun. Tchelitchew did most of the costumes and he put Kirstein, Balanchine & Everette in elaborate paper beggars' costumes. (ha ha wink wink, I suppose).

"Ode" designed by Tchelitew for Massine's choreography must have been an interesting one... elaborate lighting effects and film projected onstage amongst the dancers... back in the Ballets Russe days, was that a first? How early on was film used as a stage effect?

My only regret? That there was no live performance of Serenade to see in the theater it was created for.

Here's a link to the exhibit:

Ballets Russes to Balanchine: Dance at the Wadsworth Atheneum

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Balanchine's memorial service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC...  by the way, any Ballet Alerters in attendence that day?  A college roomate of mine went  and told me how touched she was to see so many of Balanchine's ballerinas holding candles for him... that it was a very emotional day.

I attended the service. Most of the dancers weren't visible from where I was sitting, but it was a beautiful service. The NYCB orchestra played, Bach I think.

A beautiful photo of Balanchine & Tchelitchew taken by Tanaquil LeClerc (have her photos been published elsewhere I wonder?)

A few have been. In Bernard Taper's biography of Balanchine there's an interesting photo of Tchelitchew.

The exhibit sounds fascinating. Any chance that it will tour to other cities?

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There was a beautiful printed program, along with a small portfolio of photographs, given to everyone who attended the October 31, 1983 memorial service for Balanchine at St. John the Divine. Thus I am able to report that members of the NYCB orchestra played the Mozart Requiem, which was sung by the Cathedral singers. Lincoln Kirstein read selections from the wisdom of Solomon, and John's account of the raising of Lazarus.

The service started with The Bidding by the Dean of the Cathedral. It began: "Good People we are met together to remember before God the soul of George Balanchine, who served him and his neighbours by the endless showing forth of the beauty of creation as seen in the splendour of dance. So great is his contribution that, as long as our civilization endures, none may ever again think or speak of ballet without remembering Balanchine with infinite gratitude."

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The exhibit sounds fascinating. Any chance that it will tour to other cities?

There is no mention of a planned tour in the catalog.

My memory is hardly trustworthy but there seem to be photos in the catalog that I don't remember being in the exhibit. The footnotes reference the Harvard Theater Collection as well a NYCB archives and the NYPL's Jerome Robbins Dance Division... but I can't tell if the photos I'm wondering about are in the Wadsworth collection.

The beautiful photo of Balanchine next to an angel on the memorial service's program seems to be from "Errante" (1935) which Tchelitchew did some beautiful studies for... full of movement. I can't remember much being said about Errante. I gather it's one of the lost works?

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Reading a little further in the catalog, I come across another tidbit...

Lew Christensen's "Filling Station" had it's world premiere at the Wadsworth in 1938, with sets by Lincoln Kirstein's future brother-in-law Paul Cadmus (Kirstein married his sister)....

The stage at the Wadsworth is so small, it's hard to imagine so much dance being presented there (BalletCaravan, Humphrey-Weidman, Truda Kaschmann and Alwin Nikolais, Martha Graham & company, Agnes de Mille with an ensemble).

I love ambitious artistic directors!

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"Errante" probably is lost. Too bad, because anything John Martin dismissed in 1935 as "cosmic nonsense" must have been pretty good. Wish I'd seen it.

The photograph, by Carolyn George, of Balanchine with angels in the Memorial Service program shows him working on the Tschaikovsky Adagio Lamentoso, the work which closed NYCB's Tschaikovsky Festival in 1981.

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When the makers of the Balanchine documentary were compiling fotage, they discovered film of Errante. I don't know if it was silent or not (it probably was, considering the time). However, many of the principals who would have danced the work and could have helped in a reconstruction have passed away. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be an interest by ADs in Balanchine reconstructions - the ballets that have been brought back since Balanchine died have not been seen recently - Bourrée Fantasque, Danses Concertantes, Haieff Divertimento, Cotillion, Symphonie Concertante.

Amy, thanks for the description of the show. I plan on getting up there soon.

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Anyway, there doesn't seem to be an interest by ADs in Balanchine reconstructions - the ballets that have been brought back since Balanchine died have not been seen recently - Bourrée Fantasque, Danses Concertantes, Haieff Divertimento, Cotillion, Symphonie Concertante.

ADs? Or the Trust? It seems to me that, lacking first-hand authority in such cases, the Trust would be unwilling to allow an ersatz version to be staged. Symphonie Concertante does get an occasional season in the air. I'd love to see Gounod Symphony again -- a few more times. Two of its ballerinas (Tallchief [its originator] and Verdy) are alive, well, and actively teaching Balanchine. Maybe, just maybe . . .

Amy, thanks for the description of the show.  I plan on getting up there soon.

I agree. A most tempting summation! Thanks.

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Yes carbro, I forgot to put Gounod Symphony on my list, as well as the Minkus and Glinka pas de trois. NYCB hasn't performed the reconstructions (other than the woman's part in Firebird) since Kirstein died. I don't know if he was the driving force behind bringing Gounod and Danses back. During the 1993 celebration news conference, he was reported to have called the Hodson-Archer ventures "ambulence chasing." I agree some of them are far-fetched and guess work, others have strong sources. I think it is a matter of time and money. Less people are able to mount those works than the more well-known ones and, since the dancers haven't performed them, it would take time to set something like Gounod Symphony (which was set by Farrell on SAB in 1998). However, maybe the Trust is behind it - they are known to insist on Balanchine's latest vision of a work - they might feel, as Peter Martins expressed himself this year, that Balanchine chose not to have those works in the rep.

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Gounod Symphony was performed by NYCB in, at minimum, Winter 1985, Winter 1986, Pre-Nutcracker 1987, and Spring 1988. Merrill Ashley and Sean Lavery were the leads in the premiere of the revival, and they're both working at NYCB. I can't imagine that they wouldn't be capable of at least supervising a revival of the ballet, particularly since it would have been on videotape by then. The other casts I saw were Valentina Kozlova and Adam Luders, and Judith Fugate and Lindsay Fischer. I'm not sure what the status of these dancers are with the Company or Trust.

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I asked NYCB as background material for an article just a while back - Gounod was last performed in '93 for the Balanchine Festival. It looks like there's unedited footage of the performance at the NYPL (a close and a wide shot). The leads were Fugate and Ben Huys - Fugate stages for the trust. I don't think there's anything preventing a revival except the desire to revive it. I'd love to see Paris get it back.

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footnotes regarding GOUNOD:

i interviewed vida brown who staged the most recent post-1983 revival; she had rather good notes for the staging as she was deputized by balanchine to stage the piece in paris after it's premiere at nycb and was very concerned at the time of getting the ballet on stage in paris accurately. (much of what got in the intereview was put into a stagebill article around the time.) all that was missing according to brown was the pas de duex material at some point, so peter martins redid that 'missing' section from scratch. apparently these pp. of brown's notes went missing or were so memorable she didn't need to write them down.

too bad the original costumes weren't 'maintained' for the revival. what remained of some of karinska's gorgeous tutus were used for a workshop perf. of SAB here and there; the re-makes were tamer, i rem. rosemary dunleavy saying how the new versions were to be 're-thought' as she made passing, negative reference to some trim on the skirt hems. so in addition to the watered-down karinska detailing, the designs were also paler of hue; the old 'original' tutus seen on occasion as pick-up costumes at SAB were much more pungent and lush of color: sharp golden mustard hues interworked w/ ripe rosey shades. inimitable karinska.

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further footnote, this time to the balanchine service:

the handout with the program's elements and photos seemed, so far as the photos were concerned, to be a prelude for the soon-to-be published PORTRAIT OF MR. B. which includes all the photos published in the service's program booklet. (every now and then, the NYCB gift bar sells memorabilia and this booklet has, if mem. serves, been among the items put out for sale, each time as i recall at a very reasonable price, maybe $5.00 or so.)

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(every now and then, the NYCB gift bar sells memorabilia and this booklet has, if mem. serves, been among the items put out for sale, each time as i recall at a very reasonable price, maybe $5.00 or so.)

An"Antiques Roadshow" kind of digression: The year after Balanchine's death and for some time thereafter, the gift bar had for sale a small paperback booklet of quotations under the title, "By George Balanchine." I bought it for $4.95. I recently saw this in a catalog of The Dance Mart, priced at $175.

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"By George Balanchine." I bought it for $4.95. I recently saw this in a catalog of The Dance Mart, priced at $175.

Aaah! Myhusband gave me a copy as a birthday present this summer! They were for sale at the Wadsworth giftshop (and presumably still are... they had several dance books, mostly Balanchine, on display (as well as No Fixed Points). I remember there was something curious on the publication page, but I can't seem to put my hands on it now.... It was probably for more than $5 but I don't think as much as $20. Oh yes... here it is... (too small for a spine to easily show up in the bookcase)

This edition has the centennial on the cover.... the curious thing on the publication page is that the copyright is August 2003 -- January 2006 by the George Balanchine Foundation. I guess they got some sort of special copyright arrangement in honor of the centennial celebration and the copyright will revert back to the San Marco Press that has the 1984 copyright? At any rate, the last line on the last page is the Balanchine Foundation thanking Tom Schoff for making the publication possible. Who is Tom Schoff?

I liked this one:

Classicism is enduring because it is impersonal.

Here's the ISBN if it helps 0-9747618-0-x

Probably doesn't though... I looked to see if one could get it off Amazon... no luck... however, to my surprise up popped this: George Balanchine / TIME Cover: January 25, 1954 I'm not surprised, but I hadn't known he made the cover of Time magazine.

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Glad to hear that "By George Balanchine" was reprinted, Amy. The original San Marco Press edition measured approx. 4 1/4" wide and 5 1/4" deep and had a different ISBN number: 0-918793-79-3. There were 32 numbered pages and a couple of unnumbered ones. The cover illustration reproduced a Balanchine self-caricature, signed G. B. The booklet came wrapped in a "bellyband" with the same illustration slightly smaller. I presume that was the item in the Dance Mart catalog.

This reminds me that "Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalog of Works," was originally published in 1983 by the Eakins Press Foundation in an edition of 2000 copies. It was a huge, boxed volume that sold for $75. In 1984 it was published by Viking in normal book size at a regular book price. I refer to it constantly, but I just looked at the original Eakins Press behemoth for the first time in years. Maybe someday it will be in a museum exhibition.

A note from Tom Schoff, dated Sept. 29, informs me that he is now Director of Planning at SAB.

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The cover illustration reproduced a Balanchine self-caricature, signed G. B.

That's now the first page (or whatever the page after the endpapers is called). There are still 32 numbered pages, so I imagine there haven't been any changes in content.

Thanks for satisifying my curiousity about Tom Schoff. With a dial-up connection, sometimes googling gets tiresome.

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