Question: Balanchine's experience of other companies

[bart]

I recently came across this statement of Balanchine's, made as an aside during an interview: "[bejart's] Le Sacre [du Printemps], by the way, is the best anyone has done. It has a certain impact, I think, and I was amazed how almost right -- physically and musically -- his version as."

First of all, I was astonished by the positive evaluation of Bejart's work, especially since Bejart is sometimes treated by critics as a kind of anti-Balanchine. Balanchine himself commented that with Bejart "it's the men -- the way they look -- who are the most important," an approach that contrasts with Balanchine's own conviction that "Ballet is a feminine form, it's matriarchal. And we have to serve her."

On second thought, I realized that my ideas about Balanchine have never included the image of him attending other ballet performances on any kind of regular basis. Nor do I tend to think of him as paying attention to or thinking about the work of other choreographers, at least after his formation of New York City Ballet.

Does anyone know about Balanchine's attendance at performances of other companies during the NYCB years? Did he check out the competition (as it were) on a regular basis? Occasionally? Was there a pattern in what he attended and did not? Did any of you actually see Balanchine at such performances?

Thanks in advance for any information you can share.

P.S. This interview, with Jonathan Cott, appears in the Ballet Society's Portrait of Mr. B. Earlier in the same interview, Balanchine commented about Le Sacre "It's impossible, terrible. Nobody can do it."

[carbro]

I never saw Balanchine at performances of other companies, but friends saw him leaving the Met following a performance of one of the European visiting companies. I'm afraid I don't remember which one.

[Paul Parish]

I believe I've read his attending the famous Saddlers' Wells Ballet opening [Fonteyn in Sleeping Beauty?], with Robert Irving and Lincoln Kirstein, and they noticed how good Lambert's conducting was.

OK, I just double-checked, and it's in Duberman's WONDERFUL bio, "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein," p 453. You should own a copy of this book.

Aslo, Balanchine thought that the English training of the average dancer was the best he'd seen, but found it prim.

In earlier chapters, when Balanchine first came to the US, Kirstein took him to Harlem a lot. And of course he knew what Broadway dabcers were like, and admired several of them -- Ray Bolger, the Nicholas Brothers, Fred Astaire -- enormously.

You can't beat "I Remember Balanchine" for stories about him.

PS: One of my ballet teachers, who'd been a soloist at NYCB and took his class, recalled that they all went to see the Kirov do Sleeping Beauty and were blown away and wanted to dance it but he said "When you can dance like that , we do Sleeping Beauty."

[Mel Johnson]

When he'd "lend" ballets to Joffrey, like "Square Dance" or "Scotch Symphony", he'd come around once or twice just to put "the seal of approval" on things. Usually, it was in rehearsal, but I was at a performance of the latter when he just "turned up", or maybe it was planned. Mr. Joffrey wouldn't tell.

[bart]

Paul, carbro, Mel: thanks for those responses. It was especially interesting to get a glimpse of him keeping an eye on the Joffrey. Was that just for his own ballets?

The biographies I have, and the interviews, don't seem to address this side of his life, unless I have just forgotten the references.

We do know a lot about the outside cultural influences that influenced his earlier work in America: the theater experiences, the engagement with both high and popular culture, the trips to Hollywood (many involving driving cross-country and even camping), etc. etc. The treatment of Balanchine in Joseph Horowitz's new Artists in Exile, which I've just begun, focuses on the early decades in the U.S. and especially his relationship with Stravinsky. I was intrigued, however, to read the following:

George Balanchine's 1972 version of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto extrapolates Greenwich Village.

It would be interesting to learn a bit more about that.

However, those of us who remember glimpsing Balanchine during his old(er) age sometimes tend to think of him almost as if living in a bubble, brooding over Farrell, communing with cats, small dinners for friends, a life pretty much limited to the New York State Theater, the West Side, with excursions to Saratoga and (something which surprised me) Southampton.

Incidentally, and , after reading Balanchine's dismissal of Le Sacre, it was interesting to find the following in Alex Ross's new book, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century. It relates to the Masterpieces of the XXth Century in Paris (1952), organized by Nicolas Nabokov:

All performances took place at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. George Balanchine's New York City Ballet also came to town; Balanchine had wanted to stage the Rite with designs by Picasso, but Nabokov quashed the plan because "Comrade Picasso" had compromised himself with pro-Communist statements.

[Ray]

However, those of us who remember glimpsing Balanchine during his old(er) age sometimes tend to think of him almost as if living in a bubble, brooding over Farrell, communing with cats, small dinners for friends, a life pretty much limited to the New York State Theater, the West Side, with excursions to Saratoga and (something which surprised me) Southampton.

My 2 cents: Balanchine made regular, if infrequent, visits to Chicago in the late 70s-early 80s to see Tallchief's company (performances only, to the best of my knowledge). And Patricia Wilde sometimes mentioned spending time with him outside of NY (her husband was Russian too, very pals-y with B)--I know they had a place in France. But I'll stop speculating.

[Mel Johnson]

Re: Balanchine and Joffrey, yes, he would mostly see only his ballet. There was one performance of "Donizetti Variations" he saw the first ballet, too, but left after DV, as it was a frequent #2 ballet on a bill. "Scotch Symphony" was invariably an opener. The first "Square Dance" was before my time, so I don't know what he did there. Later things like "Tarantella" or "Tchakovsky pas de deux" I think he left to his stagers.

[Jack Reed]

When he was here to set an earlier version of Walpurgisnacht Ballet on Maria Tallchief's Lyric Opera Ballet for their run of Gounod's Faust, he sat a few rows in front of me (in the good center-section seats!) in the Auditorium Theatre for one of DTH's programs. I think it included Agon