Victoria Leigh

Thank YOU, glebb! I can't believe that you remember all that.....I think you were maybe 12 years old??? Those were all very special performances for me, though, and the memories are quite wonderful. Helene, thank you, that would be very helpful!

innopac, thank you for that information! I did not know that those photos would be there. Leigh, can we post photos here, or, if I can put it online, do I need to post a link to it?

Thank you, everyone, and I would love to put up a photo, but I didn't think that was allowed. I also don't know how to get one on here, as I don't have a scanner to copy one into the computer. I have a wonderful photo of all of us on stage when we did Billy The Kid at the White House.

ABT in the 60’s Looking back at my years in American Ballet Theatre, during the 1960’s, the first thing that comes to mind is what an incredibly different era it was! It was a great time for ballet, and certainly the greatest time in my life. We were a company of about 40 dancers, maybe a few more when we were in New York City. We traveled by bus and truck except when we went out of the country. Most of our performances were one night stands and we played many, many small towns all over the country. I was in every ballet, every night, even after I was a soloist. I loved it, and I even loved the bus tours! We had such love and joy and commitment to what we were doing, and felt very privileged to be earning a living doing it. And while we were a part of AGMA, the dancer’s union, it was not the same as it is today. Yes, we wanted to make a living, and we did. The union was not very strong then, and even if we did fight, it was kind of a lost cause. We worked 6 days a week. On tour our day off could be the day of a performance night, and our night off could be a day of travel. That was normal then. I don’t think it even occurred to me that it was not quite right! My years in ABT were special because of the great people who worked with us. In addition to the large classical repertoire, we worked with choreographers such as Antony Tudor, who I will discuss in depth next year during his centennial. In addition, there was Agnes de Mille, Eugene Loring, Jerome Robbins, Harold Lander, Glenn Tetley, William Dollar, and Herbert Ross. I worked with all of them except Tetley and Dollar. It has been a very long time, but I have distinct memories of things involving Tudor, de Mille and Robbins. Not quite as much about Loring, Lander and Ross. But, the sense of awe and respect that I still have for these people, and for the fact that I was able to work with them, has never left. I don’t think you will find any alumni from ABT, from that era, or before, who would feel any differently. Agnes de Mille was brilliant, eccentric, sometimes delightful and sometimes quite crazy, but “crazy,” meaning just really different. We were working on a new ballet she was choreographing that involved a lot of running. She didn’t like the way we ran. So, she had us in the studio doing absolutely nothing except running for a solid hour. Not fun, but we learned. The ballet was in the rep only one season, and it was called “The Wind in The Mountains.” Evidently not one of her masterpieces, but I had another experience with this ballet. The ballet required someone whistling two long notes twice from the wings. When we premiered it in New York, she hired someone to whistle. But then we went on tour and she was not there. We got to the first night and the ballet master, Fernand Nault, suddenly realized there was no one to whistle. It had to be loud and on pitch. He auditioned all the boys and was beginning to get very upset. I told him I could whistle. He was quite skeptical, but he said to go ahead. I did it. It was right on, and he said “Okay, you’re on!” I had to stand in the wings at the beginning of the ballet, and on cue whistle two times. No problem, except the musicians in the part of the orchestra that could see me in the downstage right wing, knowing I could not whistle while laughing, worked very hard at trying to crack me up! I had to be in the wings for that ballet even when I was not in it. One night somewhere in upstate NY, we did that ballet, followed by “Theme and Variations.” Agnes was there, and she came charging backstage in the intermission after her ballet, demanding to know who did the whistling. I was standing there in my tutu, and very sheepishly, said “I did.” She looked astounded, and then cracked up! She LOVED it! I was not in de Mille’s “The Four Marys,” but I was the understudy for one of the leading roles, the wife of the plantation owner. The leading Mary was Carmen de Lavallade. One of the other Marys was Judith Jamison. Carmen was already a major star, but Judith was a young dancer that no one yet knew. All I remember from those rehearsals was that I never really learned my role because I was so totally fascinated by Carmen de Lavallade and the other Marys, especially this very tall, most interesting looking one named Judith Jamison! Jerome Robbins choreographed “Les Noces.” for our first season at Lincoln Center. The opening night was very special, as we had Leonard Bernstein conducting on stage with the orchestra and choir, and Jacqueline Kennedy was in the audience. But the rehearsals for that work were something else. I have no clue how I ever lasted in that ballet; I thought he would throw me out almost every day of rehearsals! Dancing in tennis shoes was not exactly my thing, and this kind of work was something totally new and different for me. Somehow or other I was kept in it and I loved it, eventually. It was very difficult, both because of the kind of dancing and the difficulty of the music,often almost impossible to count. But having the orchestra and choir on stage was amazing! Herbert Ross gave me my first dramatic role in the company. I think I was still in the corps, but don’t remember the year. The ballet was “Caprichos.” It starred Johnny Kriza and Ruth Ann Koesun. I played the “burning girl”. It was not dancing, it was acting, and I really loved that! I got to do weird make up, and be like Joan of Arc! The ballet was episodic, and based on the paintings of Goya, with music by Béla Bartok. Each episode was a different painting, and there were 7 of them. The most memorable was the pas de deux depicting a man dancing with the dead body of his wife. This was danced by Johnny Kriza and Ruth Ann Koesun, and it was very different and very beautiful. Harald Lander staged “Etudes” my very first season with the company. The ballet never left the repertoire during my tenure. I danced “black girls,” “white girls,” and “sylphides.” I don’t really remember a lot about Mr. Lander, but I remember a lot about his wife Toni Lander. She was my role model in the company, the one I most identified with because I was a similar dancer and body type. I watched every move she made in every ballet she danced. When we did “La Sylphide” a few years later, Toni staged it and Harald came towards the end of rehearsals. We premiered it in San Antonio, following the South American tour. I was a soloist by then, and I danced the sylph who comes out at the beginning of the second act and does the promenade ending in arabesque penchée, with dry ice fog swirling all over the stage. That was NOT fun! The fog made me dizzy, and the penchée very tricky. I also worked with Anton Dolin but not in a ballet. He used to teach pas de deux classes at the school. I always took them when I could, and he would use me to demonstrate with him. What an incredible partner he was! That was great fun. Eugene Loring came to rehearse us in “Billy the Kid” when we danced at the White House in 1962. He was there for the performance, along with Aaron Copland. There is a photo of all of us on stage, the tiny stage in the East Wing on which we somehow fit that whole ballet, with both men in the photo. Kriza was Billy, Koesun was the mother, Bruce Marks was Alias, and Sallie Wilson was the lead Dance Hall girl. It was the end of my first year in the company, and I was just in the gun battle, but what a great honor to be in it at all, and especially for that occasion! We were flown to DC in an Air Force jet, given rooms for the day at a beautiful hotel a block away from the White House for the time between our rehearsal on the stage and the performance, which was after the State Dinner. The dinner was for the President of the Ivory Coast and his wife, who was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life. Following the performance, Jacqueline Kennedy took us all, still in costume, on a tour of the White House. During these years we also had the great privilege of working with Freddy Franklin. He taught classes sometimes, and he rehearsed us in several ballets. My favorite one was “Grand Pas Glazunov,” which is the Pas de Dix from “Raymonda.” I danced 3 of the 4 soloists in that, and loved doing all of them. The second variation was my first solo with ABT, when I was still in the corps. Later, I danced the third and the fourth, but never the first, which was always a smaller girl. My favorite was the third, and I did that the most. Working with Freddy was always a joy! He was not only brilliant, he was so incredibly upbeat and positive. He really inspired dancers and made them happy to be there and doing what they were doing even on a bad day. He was like a gentle wave of sunshine, with a great love for his art. He is a very special man, and still working today, bringing he knowledge, memories, and obvious love of his work to dancers everywhere. Our ballet masters during those years were Fernand Nault and Dimitri Romanoff. Fernand was always a joy, but Dimitri, though he got wonderful results, was another story, especially for new dancers in the company. Sometimes I think he felt he had to break them in by screaming at them and telling them how awful they were! There were lots of tears following “Les Sylphides” rehearsals every year during the first weeks of rehearsal. I think every female dancer in the company would remember those first days of that ballet. But, we all got through it, and we came to love him and respect him just as much as we did Fernand. When he rehearsed that ballet, it was rehearsed to the eyelash, and I’m not sure it has ever been quite the same since then. Dimitri gave attention to the tiniest detail. He would not give up, and he would rehearse it until it was right. He treated “Les Sylphides” with such incredible respect, not like it was routine but like it was a treasure and it had to be preserved with great care. Sometimes we hated those rehearsals. Most of the time, honestly. But, we also knew when we performed it that we were doing it as well as it could be done. Although it is often done very well, I have not seen the ballet quite that well rehearsed since then. It was an incredible education, especially with Tudor, and a great time to be in the company because we were traveling constantly, both in the States and in other countries. When we had more than one night in a city it would be only in places like Chicago, LA, SF, maybe New Orleans and Dallas. Not very many cities. We went to South America in 1964 and danced in nine countries. There we danced for a week almost everywhere in a three month tour. In 1966 we went to Russia for six weeks, and that was amazing. It was a wonderful era of ballet and a wonderful era of ABT. It was an enormous privilege to be a part of that, and certainly one that I have treasured all of my life.

The lady I mentioned in the last paragraph of my post, above, is Miriam Golden. She is the one who was in the very first performance ever of ABT, then Ballet Theatre, at the OLD Met, January, 1940.

The woman in the black dress in front of Paul Sutherland (3rd photo), is Lupe Serrano. The lady in short pink behind Martine is Rachel Moore, the company Executive Director. To Lupe's right, the short lady in black with short black hair and pink roses in her hand is Glady Celeste, one of the company pianists who has been with the company since before I was there! Far right of photo in black, short black hair, is Maria Youskevitch. In the first and second photo, I am standing next to Bruce Marks. (My dress is really pink, but doesn't show up pink in those photos.) Right beside me on my right is Stephanie Spassoff. On the right side of photo next to the lady with long red hair (Kathleen Moore?), in black with stole across the top, is Judith Siegfried. A few places further right (to Judy's left), in the red dress, is Barbara Cole, who was there in the last part of the 40's. The lady in white jacket with black rimmed glasses is Diana Levy, standing next to a lovely lady in a gold jacket who is Mary Stone. Elaine Kudo is in the middle of that photo, in black V neck dress. In the very last photo, on the far right of the photo, is a beautiful lady in a black dress, with grey hair. She is two places to Eleanor D'Antuono's left. I'm not sure of her name, but she was in the very first performance ever of Ballet Theatre, in Jan. of 1940! Also in that photo, on the other side all the way left of the photo, is a woman in a long black dress. She has very short light hair. That is Ellen Everett, and that is me talking to her with my back to the camera.

Hello Sierra, welcome to Ballet Talk, and thank you for your lovely words about our site. I'm not sure about the moderators on Ballet Talk, but I know that Ballet Talk for Dancers consumes every bit of time that I have available online. I also don't think that we want to be sending our moderators and posters to another board, as of course we would prefer to have you all come here. Have you been to Ballet Talk for Dancers, which is the "sister board" to Ballet Talk? I really don't think that it is that big or confusing, and we have forums for Young Dancers in two different age groups, plus a Pointe Shoe forum, and, after you have been on the board a couple of weeks and have enough posts, you can be admitted to the Buddy Board, where you can talk to other dancers. Check it out http://www.dancers.invisionzone.com

Thank you, Old Fashioned! It's always very special for me to read such lovely things about "my child"! Both Barbara Bears and Dawn Scannell were like my own children, and now they both have babies of their own, so, that makes me a Grandmother! And I love it! They were both trained during the 6 years that I had my own school, with my partner, Jim Franklin, in Florida. We had Barbara from age 11 and Dawn from age 12. They both went into Houston Ballet at 16, Dawn as an apprentice and then into the company in three months, and Barbara with one year in the school and then directly to company, skipping apprentice. They did their corps years, then soloist, and both became principal dancers. Barbara is back full time as a dancer, and Dawn, who now lives in Florida and teaches for Ballet Florida, travels to Houston frequently to help stage works that she danced. We had an amazing amount of talent during the brief 6 years in our Academy down there, and we had a number of students who danced professionally. Some are also teaching, and one has become a well known choreographer in Florida. We are still very close to many of them, and very proud of all of them, including the ones who are now lawyers, engineers and doctors!

Very impressed that he did that. Quite amazing for a ballet film, and well deserved. This film was groundbreaking and incredibly special, not only for it's time, but I think still. It certainly had a most profound influence on me as a child!

Wonderful!

Thank you for that information, Old Fashioned! Delighted to hear that Lisa K. is getting to do SPF. She is one of our former students and company apprentices here at WB.

Yes, she had a lot of things to do last night, and she caught my attention every time she was onstage.

I saw Saturday night's performance, and thought it was lovely! It's really a nice production, and I enjoyed the lovely sets and costumes and the livliness and energy throughout. Loved the ending with the balloon! Wonderful dancing by a number of soloists, particularly Julianne Kepley (Sugarplum), Masayoshi Onuki (Snow Prince), the dancers in the Arabian and Russian, April Daly and Masayoshi in Chinese, Maia Wilkins (Spanish), and Erika Edwards, a corps dancer who captivated me with her personality as well as strong dancing. The children in the producition were brilliantly rehearsed by Rhodie Jorgenson and they were just wonderful! My only problem with this production is the use of adult dancers as Clara and Fritz. It just doesn't work for me when the other children are "real" children, no matter how well the roles are danced or how small they are. They still just don't look like children when surrounded by children. Masayoshi was very good, but still, just not a child. As Snow Prince he was excellent. Stacy Keller also very good, but I still wanted to see a real child in that role.

Jonathan Jordan with Laura in Peasant Pas

During my years the staples of the ABT rep were Les Sylphides, Billy, Theme and Variations, Grand Pas Glazunov, and Etudes. Many programs on tour were either Sylphides or Theme or Glazunov, followed by Billy and Etudes.

Amen to that, Alexandra!

:speechless:

Some versions of Nutcracker use ribbons in the Chinese variation, and they are very effective. However, they are not used in the same way as in rhythmic gymnastics! There is also a ribbon pas de deux in La Fille Mal Gardée, however this is also quite far from rhythmic gymnastics, thank heavens! I have nothing against this sport, and it certainly is more artistic than many others, HOWEVER, it is NOT ballet, and never will be, I HOPE!

Nope....I was on the left, which was first group in, but I think it's the third one from the front, or second from back....not sure, haven't seen it for a while ;) I was the only blond. (I think Mel was thinking of when I danced this ballet with the company, and not the shortened TV version. By the time the company did it, I was a soloist, and danced the first sylph who comes out alone and does a promenade in arabesque and a penché, staring down into the swirling mist! )

Interesting It might have been a lot more fun with the "stars", however, for me I'm interested because of Kenny Easter. I taught him at Palm Beach Ballet Center from '88-'92. Choreographed several things for him during those years, and really enjoyed working with him.

If the deaf dancer can read lips, it is not hard to communicate in a ballet class. The teacher just has to remember to be sure and face that dancer when speaking, and not make corrections with her back turned to the dancer. If the dancer depends on sign language, it has to be done totally with demonstration and hands on work, which can be very difficult and time consuming in a more advanced situation. It seems to me that it would be quite important for a deaf student who wants to dance to learn to read lips. As long as the teacher is one who speaks clearly and uses her mouth when speaking, this will work well. The problem for deaf people who read lips is the people who speak but barely open their mouths to do so. I find this most disconcerting, even as a hearing person, and often have trouble hearing and understanding them myself.

All dancers must have a certain amount of flexibility or they would not be dancing professionally. Some have more in one area than other areas, and some have it in all areas. Those with extreme flexibility can be very beautiful IF it is kept in alignment and control. If it is allowed to go to it's most extreme at all times, I feel that it is disconcerting and inappropriate. If one has it, and can use it in contemporary work to advantage, and control it in classical work, more power to them. But a lot of that is in the direction and the teaching too. A "six o'clock penché" in Giselle or Pas de Quatre is not appropriate, however, it could be quite wonderful in a Forsythe work. A dancer with this ability is more versatile, but only if she she/he responds to direction and the director has taste, knowledge, and respect for the classics.

It was in the repertoire during my years in ABT. Primarily danced by Lupe Serrano, who I thought was totally awesome in that role! It's difficult technically, and requires a VERY strong dancer.

We have a deaf dancer in our program this summer. She is a 17 or 18 year old, from out of town. Nice dancer, and seems to have no difficulty staying on the music. She feels it throught the floor. She has an interpreter for sign language for workshop and lecture classes, but does not need one for ballet classes. One of our chaperones and one of our students in her class and in the dorm have picked up quite a bit of sign language and it's really neat to see them talking to her!

Jackie Kennedy was a patron of ballet, and also brought her young daughter Caroline to the Washington School of Ballet. I'm not sure if she actually took classes or not, as she was very young, but I know Ms. Day has talked about her coming to the school.