Neryssa

I've never gotten the sense, in my readings on the subject/people, that Diana Adams had any romantic interest in Balanchine, and more importantly, was very uncomfortable playing muse, or principal dancer for that matter.

That was my impression, but Wilde gives a different one. I wish she'd been more specific.

I thought Wilde was quite specific

I need to find the issue and quote the part about Adams and Le Clercq - if the editor(s) of Ballet Review do not mind. Ménage à trois is perhaps overstating it but things were arranged in a way that kept the personal and professional pressure off both dancers and their relationship(s) with Balanchine. Wilde called Le Clercq a "free spirit" who wanted to go out and do other things and would have been fine after the separation and divorce - had it happened.

Has anybody read the latest issue of Ballet Review? There is the 2nd part of an interview with Patricia Wilde who made some very interesting comments about Tanaquil Le Clercq and Diana Adams and their relationship with Balanchine. I am surprised that Nancy Buirski didn't interview her.

Neryssa, did Nancy Reynolds appear in the documentary talking about taking her first ballet lessons from Tanny?

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to give the impression that I have seen the documentary. I assumed from what I have read (mustn't assume) that Patricia Wilde was not interviewed - Would somebody on the forum who has seen it please clarify who was interviewed? I saw on IMDB that Nancy Reynolds was a consultant on this film.

Has anybody read the latest issue of Ballet Review? There is the 2nd part of an interview with Patricia Wilde who made some very interesting comments about Tanaquil Le Clercq and Diana Adams and their relationship with Balanchine. I am surprised that Nancy Buirski didn't interview her.

I remembered (through a Google search) that I read Amanda Vaill's acknowledgements to Le Clercq's heirs for her biography on Jerome Robbins. She thanks "Norma Pane the executor for the estate of Tanaquil Le Clercq, for correspondence from Le Clercq to Robbins; and the heirs of Tanaquil Le Clercq: Abraham Abdallah, Una Bates, Carla Bigelow, Holly Brubach, James Lyles, April Stevens Neubauer, and James Newhouse."

Pherank wrote: I'm afraid I can't answer your question though, as I don't know enough about Le Clercq's actual heirs and surviving friends. But this very thread was begun by a relation of Tanny, so I know they are out there somewhere.

Wasn't this a second cousin (not mentioned in her estate) searching for additional information? Heirs do not always include blood relations, as you know.

I just finished watching this Q&A with director Nancy regarding her documentary on Tanaquil Le Clercq:

Does anyone know if Le Clercq's "heirs" or closest friends such as Holly Brubach were interviewed in the documentary?

It boogles the mind to think that Le Clercq was only 15 or 16 when she danced Choleric

The first thing I notice is how closely Le Clercq's movements correspond with the movements of the earlier "Three Fates" dance - the sharp/spikey elbows, and jarring movements that succumb to inertia, soften and fade.

Fine observation. Thank you for your thoughts, pherank. I'd like to hear more from you on La Valse.

How did I miss this longer clip of Le Clercq in La Valse posted last May (authorized by the Balanchine Foundation?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R3oqV5-Wng

You can read one of the early reviews here (it is positive):

http://jbspins.blogspot.com/2013/09/nyff-13-afternoon-of-fauntanaquil-le.html

Thank you. This review provided the trailer. I am pleased the documentary is balanced and "humane" regarding the topic of Balanchine himself. I don't think Le Clercq would have wanted it any other way.

The trailer for the documentary "Afternoon of a Faun" which a few of you will be seeing soon. Anyway it looks stunning and heart wrenching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEaicb-pag

Excellent!

I'm really encouraged by the fact that the footage being used of Le Clercq has been cleaned up, and film rate issues have been fixed: it does look like people will be seeing the clips at life-like speeds and with decent clarity.

That was the first thing I noticed. I wonder if we have Martin Scorsese to thank for the digitization - I have always wanted to see clips of her in Symphony in C and - perhaps one of those clips is Le Clercq in Cinderella? And I was not expecting to hear her speak - she had a beautiful voice too. I am quite overwhelmed by this trailer and the fact that this documentary has finally been made. It's about time.

The trailer for the documentary "Afternoon of a Faun" which a few of you will be seeing soon. Anyway it looks stunning and heart wrenching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEaicb-pag

I also don’t believe in the terrible, toxic myth of the “aha” moment. Progress is incremental for us, both as individual creative beings and together as a society and civilization. The flower doesn’t go from bud to blossom in one spritely burst. It’s just that culturally, we are not interested in the tedium of the blossoming. And yet that’s where all the real magic is in the making of one’s character and destiny.

Oh, I do like this, for all that it comes at a dispiriting part of the interview. Ballet is one of the human activities that really does need time to develop -- I've always said that it needs someone with a high tolerance for repetition!

You can read the entire interview at: http://thegreatdiscontent.com/maria-popova or just google her. She's very inspiring!

This part of the interview made me sad:

MH: Is there anyone like that [Danilova) now?

VJ: Who has time, now, to do that? People used to be molded and nurtured. Now you have to have it, and you hold onto it for a couple of seconds, and then it’s on to the next thing.

----

I just finished an interview with the editor/writer Maria Popova and she answered this question:

Did you have an “aha” moment when you knew that editing and curating, for lack of a better term, was something you wanted to do?

Not at all. I also don’t believe in the terrible, toxic myth of the “aha” moment. Progress is incremental for us, both as individual creative beings and together as a society and civilization. The flower doesn’t go from bud to blossom in one spritely burst. It’s just that culturally, we are not interested in the tedium of the blossoming. And yet that’s where all the real magic is in the making of one’s character and destiny.

How can our culture create artists in a culture where art and human beings in general are expendable is my question.

N.

Thank you for scanning this - she looks gorgeous. Is this from the mid-1960s, I wonder?

There are several inaccuracies in this blog entry. I hope Nancy Buirski's documentary addresses a few of them.

If the article has worthwhile text, I suppose it could be photographed with a camera rather than a scanner.

I recently took photographs of an article from Life magazine - not with my expensive Canon but with my iPhone which produces better results. I have a few colleagues who use their iPhone camera in the archives too. It is really amazing.

Thank you for posting these fantastic photographs.

Two tribute videos:

The second variation done by a soloist was Barbara Fallis. I studied with her in NYC years ago. She sadly passed away some years ago. Her son is Richard Thomas, the actor.

Which couple were Ruth Sobotka & Shaun O'Brien?

I'd love to know who the other dancers were.

Thank you, vipa. Is Richard Thomas (Sr) still alive? When you look at the still image of Pas de Dix - Part 2, Sobotka & O'Brien are the third couple to the left - or the second couple to your right - depending upon how you view it. She is wearing glittering earrings. Sobotka also does a solo at the end of Pas de Dix - Part 1; she is the soloist on the right.

I so love these videos of Pas de Dix. I don't know how they managed to dance on that small stage, it's just awful! I recognize one of the couples as Ruth Sobotka & Shaun O'Brien. Who else is there, anybody know?

Oh dear, I missed this. Did he talk about his time in Seattle in the interview?

No, sorry. It was an interview focusing on the NYCity Ballet tour to Japan and Australia in 1958. He seemed quite ill when I interviewed him so I am glad that he is no longer suffering. He seemed to love Maria Tallchief and had a poster of her (in Firebird) on the wall. He also had kind words for Allegra Kent. He could be quite sarcastic, compassionate, cranky and deeply moving remembering certain people and other things.

Has William Weslow's obituary been posted here or elsewhere? I had no idea that he died last January. I interviewed him several years ago but still have yet to transcribe it.

http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/March-2013/William-Weslow-19252013]http://www.dancemagazine.com/issues/March-2013/William-Weslow-19252013

Balanchine and the "baby ballerinas" - from the Ballet Russes documentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEjpqIcIoPw

The facebook page for the film Tanaquil Le Clercq: Afternoon of a Faun just posted: "We're delighted to announce that our film is officially part of the acclaimed American Masters | PBS series. We will keep you posted on its upcoming air date as well as festival screenings and other events"

I've read it and thought it quite worthwhile although I wonder if d'Amboise exaggerates the tone and manner of Le Clercq. She is depicted as rather cranky during Balanchine's illness and death but it is understandable. How did she bequeath the rights to Balanchine's ballets - anybody? I've read somewhere that she had several heirs. And what is happening with the Nancy Buirski & Ric Burns' documentary about her? IMDB says it is still in preproduction. Wow, it could be another year before it is released.

Different people react differently to intense sutuations, and Le Clercq was exasperated and furious over Balanchine's protracted, awful illness and death (as depicted by d'Amboise). I have to think that she still felt bound to Balanchine's fate. She barely survived her own polio onset, and was spending every moment of every day crippled, in a wheelchair. Balanchine's demise must have struck her as too unfair - in a sense she was still living through him as he continued to create for the ballet, and she had to struggle to relearn how to do everything for herself, or manipulate others to help her with those things she simply couldn't do. Jacques d'Amboise relates how she orders him about when she leaves the burial ceremony, but the important thing to notice is that Le Clercq often calls upon d'Amboise for help, and they are often together at events (literally side-by-side), not because he was her flunky, or a stooge, but because they were 'family', and had been so for years.

I re-read the chapters on Balanchine's illness and death this evening. They are so emotionally raw and descriptive. d'Amboise also did a good job regarding the chapter on Balanchine's Muses - giving everybody credit and noting each one's unique style and gifts - and not just focusing on Farrell... I was pleased that d'Amboise gives Diana Adams her due as a great muse. And quoting Balanchine on Darci Kistler: "Nobody should touch her - one could ruin what she has." So very true and poignant.