Antonia Franceschi (and Balanchine)

[bart]

Today's LINKS has an article about a London autobiographical dance/theater piece performed by dancer Antonia Franceschi. The article includes the following:

Spotted by the New York City Ballet, she became a star muse for the legendary Balanchine.

I was not following NYCB in the 1990s, so don't know what the word "muse" may be referring to. Can anyone throw light on this? Or have any memories they can share about her career with NYCB?

The fulll article can be read here: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/show...viewId=23372638

[Dale]

She was in the film "Fame," in which ironically she says she's not ready to starve for Balanchine. And then of course... I think "muse" is an exaggeration. She was in the corps, right? I remember her in a couple of solo-type things, secondary roles. Lead flower was one. It's like when somebody is a model, the press make her out to be a "Super Model." Somebody isn't just an actor or actress, but a movie star.

[Farrell Fan]

Dale has explined it very well. I remember her name in the program as a corps member, but that's all.

[ViolinConcerto]

I read that article and noted the same thing. I've seen this kind of exaggeration/boasting/bloating in lots of articles I've come across via Google Alerts for Balanchine or NYCB. Mr. B apparently had more muses and principals than any of us knew!

[sz]

I read that article and noted the same thing. I've seen this kind of exaggeration/boasting/bloating in lots of articles I've come across via Google Alerts for Balanchine or NYCB. Mr. B apparently had more muses and principals than any of us knew!

Some lasted longer than others... Some were muses for only a week, some lasted over decades. Depends how you define a muse, I suppose... But Mr. B did take inspiration from many dancers for many different ideas, and often dancers took on principal parts for one, maybe two, performances. Then never again seen in that part, all the while listed as corps.

[Dale]

Some lasted longer than others... Some were muses for only a week, some lasted over decades. Depends how you define a muse, I suppose... But Mr. B did take inspiration from many dancers for many different ideas, and often dancers took on principal parts for one, maybe two, performances. Then never seen again in that part, all the while listed as corps.

sz, you're right, of course. I think Francheschi got most of her demi-solo parts after Balanchine's death. Also, what's wrong with being in the company? In today's world, that doesn't seem to be good enough, even though it's the top percentile.

[Helene]

Francheschi, along with Lourdes Lopez and Carole Divet, was featured in a fashion spread in the 80's -- maybe the revamped Elle? -- modelling rare Fortuny dresses. In one of the photos was her unmistakeable profile.

Her Craske/Cechetti training would have made her a more natural fit at ABT, for example, and so would her profile from the movie Fame. It's hard to imagine that she didn't have a choice of companies, but chose NYCB when she was chosen by it. So even if she wasn't a Balanchine muse, she must have been dedicated to Balanchine, having stayed in the company for many years as a corps member.

The last role I remember her in was a demi-solo role in a Paul Mejia ballet.

[bart]

Thanks, all, for your responses. I was afraid I had been asleep as far as Balanchine's late-career muse-collecting was concerned.

Performing artists have always had many different paths to choose from. I hope that this new development in Francheschi's career will be fulfilling and rewarding for her and the audience.

[ViolinConcerto]

I read that article and noted the same thing. I've seen this kind of exaggeration/boasting/bloating in lots of articles I've come across via Google Alerts for Balanchine or NYCB. Mr. B apparently had more muses and principals than any of us knew!

I just saw another example of this phenomenon in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, citing Christopher Fleming as a former NYCB principal dancer:

This week, the beloved figure and the local troupe meet for the first time in Christopher Fleming's "Helen Keller: A Tribute to Her Teacher." The ballet will receive its premiere at Cuyahoga Community College's Eastern Campus Performing Arts Center.....Fleming, a former principal dancer with New York City Ballet, honed a narrative that also shows Sullivan as college valedictorian.

Now, who knows where the error/exaggeration began?

Here's the link:

http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/pla...2800.xml&coll=2

[sz]

Why don't you write Chris Fleming, c/o NYCB and/or Rock School, and ask Chris what principal

role(s) he danced while at NYCB. Or do the same with the author of the exaggerated article.

[Mme. Hermine]

there are too many places a misunderstanding like that can come from, it doesn't have to originate with the perfomer. an uninformed writer or even director can assume, for instance, that someone who choreographs or teaches *has* to have been a principal, and there are those who won't give credence to someone who wasn't, so they just make the assumption.

[Helene]

an uninformed writer or even director can assume, for instance, that someone who choreographs or teaches *has* to have been a principal, and there are those who won't give credence to someone who wasn't, so they just make the assumption.

So true. Many people who know little about ballet assume that corps members never dance anything but swans or swains, thinking them as little more than movie extras, unless they have a "star is born" career trajectory.

[Helene]

To take this farther afield, in the November 6, 2006 issue of The New Yorker there is a "Talk of the Town" item on Charlotte d'Amboise. In it writer Lillian Ross states:

From the age of eight to fourteen, d'Amboise danced with New York City Ballet, together with her brother Christopher, her sister Kate, ad their father, Jacques, a principal dancer. She was a regular in most of the ballets, including "The Nutcracker," while attending P.S. 199, and then Professional Children's School, where she decided to head in the direction of theatre.

Even if the seasons' repertoire included Nutcracker, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mozartiana, Harlequinade, Mother Goose, and Union Jack, and she danced in every one, she was hardly a regular in most of the ballets. I think it is very likely that Ms. Ross misunderstands Ms. d'Amboise's participation in NYCB. Even Toumanova, Baronova, and Riabouchinska had to wait until they were 12-13 to have full-fledged careers with the Ballet Russe .

Something that would not have gotten by the copy-editors in the old days of the magazine is the d'Amboise quote, "Daddy always tried to get boys to take ballet; getting them to the ballet bar is difficult." I don't think anyone would have a problem getting boys to the "bar," but getting them to the "barre" is a different story.

[Ray]

Something that would not have gotten by the copy-editors in the old days of the magazine is the d'Amboise quote, "Daddy always tried to get boys to take ballet; getting them to the ballet bar is difficult." I don't think anyone would have a problem getting boys to the "bar," but getting them to the "barre" is a different story.

I wondered about this too. One thought I had, though, is that during the Croce years, the magazine made a concerted effort to "Anglicize" ballet terminology--for instance, saying "on point" instead of "en pointe," and, more generally, not italicizing terms like plie or jete (the logic being that they are the terms for the steps, not foreign words for them). I have a vague memory of Croce discussing this, I think (can anyone corroborate this?). And it would be in line with the magazine's Strunk-and-White editorial philosophy of clarity and unpretentiousness.

But after all that I think Helene's right: it might just be an error!

I think I've taken this even *further* afield!

[ViolinConcerto]

I hate to beat a dead horse, and I know it's off the original topic BUT.....

"Ballet Gala" will feature the contributions of prestigious guests. Former New York City Ballet principal Gerard Ebitz has set Balanchine's famous "Rubies" pas de deux on DANB principals Stephanie Heston and Alexander Smirnov.

This is from Gainesville Entertainment, and the article is "Dance Alive Gala shines with the light of Soleil" by SARAH INGLEY