36 replies to this topic

[Mme. Hermine]

i haven't been by there in a while, but how about the harkness house building, which had been shuttered up for a while the last time i saw it, on 75th street?

[Calliope]

It's outside of NY, but there's a website with photos of Balanchine's summer house in Weston CT (lots of LeClercq on the site too)

www.katzhome.com/history.htm

I don't know if there's any cemeteries in NY that they still bury people in.

[leibling]

This discussion reminded me of the time in what was probably the mid eighties when my dad took me into New York to find the old ABT school. We had looked up the address in Dancemagazine- probably not the most recent issue, and were on our way. So, you can imagine my dismay when we walked up to an empty lot full of rubble. I think that at the time I was looking for a full-tme school to go to- so it may have been as early as 1984.

[Roma]

"it opened in 1933 on the fourth floor of an old building on 59th & Madison."

I remember reading that it was also Isadora Duncan's studio at one time.

(One critic/dance historian, who shall remain nameless, even wrote (and published!) that he thought that Serenade, having been created more or less in that space, was obviously very much influenced by Duncan's dancing by way of the lurking spirit (or was it the actual ghost?) of Duncan herself. Apparently, for some minds, too much history is not a healthy thing)

[balletmama]

Just a small, factual point:  Finis Jhung now teaches at Peridance.

[Farrell Fan]

As has been noted, this is a really wonderful thread. Balanchine also lived at 27 West 67th Street. A friend of mine who still lives there recalls the time during a strike of building employees when Mr. B took his turn operating the elevator. Amazingly, the elevator in that building still has an operator. And a fellow Ballet Alerter sent me a photo this past summer of Balanchine's grave in Sag Harbor.

[Kyriakoula]

The "old" ABT studios were not where David Howard's or Robert Denvers' studios were.  It was between Broadway and CPW and is still an empty lot.  It was shocking to me that they tore the building down that the studios were in (the studio had not been there very long and it had been a major renovation) and then the lot has sat empty for so many years.  I believe Millenium Partners own that lot.  To me, the old Abt studios were on 57th street.  I took from Pereyaslavic (sp), Swoboda and Danielion (sp) there.  I also saw Carla Fracci rehearsing Giselle in a miniscule studio there.