Neryssa

FYI, Bonnette: From The New York City Ballet for researchers link: http://www.nycballet.com/researchers/archive.html An overview of the NYCB Archive collections includes the: Ballet Society Collection, New York City Ballet Collection, School of American Ballet Collection, George Balanchine Trust Collection, and Tanaquil Le Clercq Personal Archive. (They misspelled her name as: Le Clerq)

Me too, Bonnette. Or at least a book of photographs - although to be fair, Ballet Review published wonderful photographic tributes to Le Clercq after her death. Didn't she leave an archive?

Thank you for posting this wonderful photograph. Neryssa

It is curious. Unless O'Connor interviewed dancers and friends from the period, she knows much less than most people on this forum. She is imagining the rest... O'Connor has the right to do so but it just makes me uncomfortable. I don't know how to articulate my uneasiness and resentment - the latter which is silly, I suppose.

Does anybody know anything about a novel called "The Master's Muse" by Varley O'Connor. It will be released later this spring. I am a bit wary...

Thank you for that. It doesn't surprise me...though I was hoping for a chapter! I want a biography of LeClercq too. I thought she was the most sublime, enchanting dancer (not that I ever saw her perform) but I have always been fascinated by her dancing. When I was skimming the book by D'Amboise, I didn't see many references to her in the index. How to post links properly? She is so beautiful dancing in La Valse: http://danceinteractive.jacobspillow.org/dance/tanaquil-leclercq-nicholas-magallanes?ref=term&refcar=/genre/ballet

Perhaps most of you know that a review in The New York Times is available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/books/review/Macaulay-t.html

Thank you, bart. You make some excellent points. What a beautiful candle, rg.

**Spoiler alert** There is a lengthy excerpt on Balanchine's funeral at: http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2011/03/02/jacques-damboise-dancer

Excellent idea, Neryssa, I will add more detail on these points when I get home. Thanks very much, Eileen. I appreciate it!

I hate to take the wind from all of your balletic sails since I see how much you are looking forward to this memoir. But perhaps I can urge you to borrow this from the library. Here's what I wrote on Amazon, and if it seems a bit strongly put, please be aware that I moderated my tone as much as possible so as to reduce the pain factor to the author, yet at the same time warn the unwary reader: I saw your review on Amazon.com, Eileen but it would be nice to have a more descriptive review. How does D'Amboise's memoir compare to other dancers' memoirs (Allegra Kent, Maria Tallchief, Suzanne Farrell)? Does he describe the NYCB during the 1950s and the transition to the 1960s. Or does he just write about his personal and professional life with little historical perspective. I don't mind anecdotes in context, if that makes any sense.

I didn't see a co-author listed on Amazon.com. It is 464 pages, Maria Tallchief's was 368 pages and it wasn't long enough for me regarding information on Balanchine and NYCB.

I am so excited too! Here is a "product description" from Amazon.com (I can only wonder what he kept to himself - he was there from the beginning, as we know. Product Description “Who am I? I’m a man; an American, a father, a teacher, but most of all, I am a person who knows how the arts can change lives, because they transformed mine. I was a dancer.” In this rich, expansive, spirited memoir, Jacques d’Amboise, one of America’s most celebrated classical dancers, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for more than three decades, tells the extraordinary story of his life in dance, and of America’s most renowned and admired dance companies. He writes of his classical studies beginning at the age of eight at The School of American Ballet. At twelve he was asked to perform with Ballet Society; three years later he joined the New York City Ballet and made his European debut at London’s Covent Garden. As George Balanchine’s protégé, d’Amboise had more works choreographed on him by “the supreme Ballet Master” than any other dancer, among them Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Episodes; A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream; Jewels; Raymonda Variations. He writes of his boyhood—born Joseph Ahearn—in Dedham, Massachusetts; his mother (“the Boss”) moving the family to New York City’s Washington Heights; dragging her son and daughter to ballet class (paying the teacher $7.50 from hats she made and sold on street corners, and with chickens she cooked stuffed with chestnuts); his mother changing the family name from Ahearn to her maiden name, d’Amboise (“It’s aristocratic. It has the ‘d’ apostrophe. It sounds better for the ballet, and it’s a better name”). We see him. a neighborhood tough, in Catholic schools being taught by the nuns; on the streets, fighting with neighborhood gangs, and taking ten classes a week at the School of American Ballet . . . being taught professional class by Balanchine (he was “small, unassuming, he radiated energy and total command”) and by other teachers of great legend: Anatole Oboukhoff, premier danseur of the Maryinsky Theatre (“Such a big star,” said Balanchine, “people followed him, like a prince with servants”); and Pierre Vladimiroff, Pavlova’s partner (“So light on feather feet”). Vladimiroff drilled into his students, “You must practice, practice, practice. Onstage, forget everything! Just listen to the music and dance.” D’Amboise writes about Balanchine’s succession of ballerina muses who inspired him to near-obsessive passion and led him to create extraordinary ballets, dancers with whom d’Amboise partnered—Maria Tallchief; Tanaquil LeClercq, a stick-skinny teenager who blossomed into an exquisite, witty, sophisticated “angel” with her “long limbs and dramatic, mysterious elegance . . .”; the iridescent Allegra Kent; Melissa Hayden; Suzanne Farrell, who Balanchine called his “alabaster princess,” her every fiber, every movement imbued with passion and energy; Kay Mazzo; Kyra Nichols (“She’s perfect,” Balanchine said. “Uncomplicated—like fresh water”); and Karin von Aroldingen, to whom Balanchine left most of his ballets. D’Amboise writes about dancing with and courting one of the company’s members, who became his wife for fifty-three years, and the four children they had . . . On going to Hollywood to make Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and being offered a long-term contract at MGM (“If you’re not careful,” Balanchine warned, “you will have sold your soul for seven years”) . . . On Jerome Robbins (“Jerry could be charming and complimentary, and then, five minutes later, attack, and crush your spirit—all to see how it would influence the dance movements”). D’Amboise writes of the moment when he realizes his dancing career is over and he begins a new life and new dream teaching children all over the world about the arts through the magic of dance. A riveting, magical book, as transformative as dancing itself.

Forgive me if this book has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum as I have not found a review. Has anybody read it?

I don't know if this has been posted elsewhere but there is a new article about the school in The New York Times this week: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/arts/dance/24kirkland.html?_r=1&ref=dance Edited to add: I love the portrait of her by Kenn Duncan. Appears to be pre-silicone era.

Same here, DanceActress. I would like to hear more about Juliet Rylance who I saw in Othello and Stephen Dillane who was excellent in his reading of Four Quartets and Beckett in One Evening. I have tickets to As You Like It but not The Tempest (yet) Nessa

Was it really necessary of the New York Times dance critic to assess Kisler's career at this point when we know she is retiring? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/arts/dan...1&ref=dance

Why couldn't I do this?! I love you Mme. Hermine! I just checked iTunes and I finally found the 1:27 minute piece from Water Music Suite: Gigue Thank you very much ~ Neryssa

Handel's water music...? I wish somebody who has the American Masters DVD could confirm this. Thanks, Mme. Hermine.

If anybody can help me with the following question, I would be so grateful. I've been stuck on this piece of music since I saw the PBS American Masters' documentary on Balanchine. The late ballerina, Diana Adams (dressed in Scottish uniform with a regiment), dances to this music in "The Figure in the Carpet" (1961/2) in the documentary. It is a British or Scottish sounding piece. Balanchine liked it so much that he put it in "Union Jack" (1976) many years later - I think... Does anyone know what I am talking about? Then, a few weeks ago, I heard the same piece of music in the film, "The Duchess." Thanks for any information. Neryssa

You know what bothers me is the lack of research. Tanaquil Le Clercq died in 2000 and already there are inaccuracies being printed about her life. For example, the following online article. http://www.moviecitynews.com/voices/2009/0..._daisymuse.html **Contains spoilers about "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - Mark Wheaton January 2, 2008 Mark Wheaton is a screenwriter. His most recent credit can be found on the forthcoming Friday the 13th. Balanchine did not mean it that way. HOW? What? Wasn't the relationship really over in 1965/66? She never left NY. They reconciled long before that time] (he died in 1983). ---- I am pleased to see Le Clercq receive some overdue press but not in relation to this film.

Has anybody read the following article about "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?" I only want to see this film because I cannot believe that Cate Blanchett could resemble Tanaquil Le Clercq - although I like Blanchett as an actress. Tilda Swinton strikes me as a would be dancer. http://www.wildaboutmovies.com/behind_the_...NDTHESCENES.php

Well, Abigail was really the hard working farmer. Fine point that I neglected to make, dirac. I was thinking about Adams the farmer vs. Jefferson, the great philosopher and slave owner whose first memory was of being carried on a pillow by a slave. Jefferson, man of the people who avoided people and conflict as much as possible. And as much as he loved Monticello, it and his entire household was run by his slaves (no revelation here). Jefferson seemed to have conservative views about women, too. I didn't know that. Yes, Abigail was one of the heroes of the Revolution, too.

Thank you for this post, bart. That must have been quite an experience for you. I am an editor and please don't misunderstand me, I llke my computer but I miss the tactile experience of handling manuscripts and photographs. Now we do everything online...which we should in our case but I miss what you describe - the feel of certain types of paper - even the smell of it. Most of us are missing too much of the "tactile" in our lives - which is another topic but it was apparent in the John Adams series how much our domestic and work lives have changed. I was not aware that John Adams was such a hard working farmer and did not own slaves. We always see him in the mud, planting crops, walking through them, admiring a tiny flower... And writing letters on that wonderful paper with quilt pens. There's a great scene where Abigail and John Adams move into the still unfinished, drab and muddy White House, which is still being built by slaves. I hope you watch the series when it returns to HBO. dirac - I read that Thomas Jefferson did not like giving speeches and press conferences perhaps because he had a lisp - not apparent in the series, of course!

Thank you for the information, bart. Some of the correspondence between John and Abigail Adams was incorporated into the series which was not difficult to do since the couple was often separated during the first decade-plus of their marriage. I understand your affinity for print as I am a bookaholic and I prefer my history untouched by Hollywood. But I first heard excerpts of the correspondence between Adams and Jefferson on one of the American Experience Presidential series documentaries on either Adams or Jefferson. It was narrated by David McCullough who did such a fine job on the Truman documentary as well. True, McCullough has become a popular, homespun historian and I am usually suspicious of such writers, but his reading of the Adams-Jefferson correspondence was deeply moving. The John Adams series did not quite live up to my expectations when they portrayed Adams and Jefferson corresponding towards the end of their lives. It is depicted in the last episode of the series, part 7, I think... What the series has done is revived interest in early American history and there is a good scene in one of the last episodes where an elderly Adams is viewing (with his son, now President John Quincy Adams) the famous painting of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence. Adams hated it and the series portrayed it well; he despised the misrepresentation of events and complained bitterly to the painter that no one could ever write the real history of the American revolution. I think the series is worth a second look and viewing. As I wrote earlier, it was difficult at first, quite a test of endurance (not as difficult as visiting Philly during a heatwave), but it has some very worthwhile scenes.