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PAMTGG


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To touch on a point raised earlier in this thread, I think that, to be relevant, any revival of PAMTGG that Peter Martins or Benjamin Millepied might make necessarily must include those current TSA security screening procedures that, of course, did not exist in 1972.

:lol: (Sad, but true...)

It would have to be a full-length: Act I is where the dancers get to the theater two hours earlier than usual.

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I was in the ballet, PAMTGG, in 1971 as a corps de ballet member. Balanchine did have us all wear our own clothes for the 3rd performance (and final, as I remember it) and he said, "I want you all to be hippies" - so I wore a pair of blue jeans and in the middle of a lift, where I split my legs in second position, hugh above my partner's head- (Hermes Conde) - my jeans split at the crotch! - a mortifying moment in a mortifying ballet - thank goodness I was wearing tights underneath!

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I'm sorry for your mortification, but thanks so much for sharing the moment with us!

Is there anything you can recall about the making of the work that seemed unusual, or specific? It's one of those ballets that make me curious, since I'll never see it.

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It was based on a TV jingle, and from what I read, the premises -- musical and thematic -- were weak, and it ran out of gas. It might have worked if it was part of a short work for a special occasion, like in front of the Pan Am building, like the work Balanchine did for a World's Fair.

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... the 3rd performance (and final, as I remember it)

Third and last performance in New York, maybe? I thought it got two performances at Ravinia (north of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony's summer outdoor performing pavilion, where ballet went on for a week in August, IIRC). I remember seeing one or two, with the Lucite luggage we don't see in these images. Notice rg credits the photo to the Chicago Tribune, and notice the surface the dancers are on, big rectangular sheets of something. Plywood? Was your floor laid in sheets in New York, Liz?

(If you didn't make the Chicago tour, you may not have missed much. When NYCB tried to give the local premiere of Agon at Ravinia in 1957, I recall someone took such a hard fall the performance was stopped and they went on with something else after a considerable interval, to the apprehension and disappointment of my companion and myself. Like dancing on trampolines there? But 1971 was not 1957, of course.)

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I'm sorry for your mortification, but thanks so much for sharing the moment with us!

Is there anything you can recall about the making of the work that seemed unusual, or specific? It's one of those ballets that make me curious, since I'll never see it.

I remember thinking, as Mr B was choreographing PAMTGG, "What trash!" and I actually hated doing this ballet. But, as a corps member, it was my job to dance, without complaint. This was not the first piece of junk I had to dance, but it was the most disappointing because, after all, it was the great Balanchine ,and in my eyes he had just toppled off a huge pedestal. I also remember thinking that to Mr B, this ballet was a throwaway and even he didn't like it, but he was commissioned to do it... I Pan Am gave the company a million dollars to create it... that was a lot of money in 1971! I was thinking: what a waste!....

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... the 3rd performance (and final, as I remember it)

Third and last performance in New York, maybe? I thought it got two performances at Ravinia (north of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony's summer outdoor performing pavilion, where ballet went on for a week in August, IIRC). I remember seeing one or two, with the Lucite luggage we don't see in these images. Notice rg credits the photo to the Chicago Tribune, and notice the surface the dancers are on, big rectangular sheets of something. Plywood? Was your floor laid in sheets in New York, Liz?

(If you didn't make the Chicago tour, you may not have missed much. When NYCB tried to give the local premiere of Agon at Ravinia in 1957, I recall someone took such a hard fall the performance was stopped and they went on with something else after a considerable interval, to the apprehension and disappointment of my companion and myself. Like dancing on trampolines there? But 1971 was not 1957, of course.)

I remember going to Ravinia and dancing there - but oddly enough, I was not listed in the program for those performances of PAMTGG. - and when I referred to the third and last performance, yes, that was new york. There is a photograph from the Chicago Tribune, that I found on ebay and purchased, of PAMTGG, and I am in it....How do I post it here? anyway, I don't remember the flooring.. Sorry.

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