Offshoot Performances

[researcher33]

A couple of questions:

--I have found a suspect reference to a performing group fronted by Igor Youskevitch in the early 1960s. If it existed, it might have been called Ballets Intimes--not to be confused with Adolf Bolm's Ballet Intime of several decades earlier. Anyone heard of it? Seen it perform?

--We know that Andre Eglevsky did found his own small group and school, also active as of the early 1960s. Can anyone report having seen that group perform?

--Would also appreciate information on the repertoires of either or both.

Thanks.

Jack

researcher33

[Mel Johnson]

I had forgotten that Youskevitch's group HAD a name. We just called it "dancing for Youskevitch". The company was a pickup group made from students mostly from the Ballet Russe school, but with some others. It headlined Maria, Youskevitch's daughter, but not to the detriment of other talented young dancers.

The Eglevsky Ballet is still around. They used to be a performing outlet for C-level students (advanced) from the School of American Ballet. They have a website. Google them.

[Marga]

I saw the Eglevsky Ballet perform in the 1960s when Marina Eglevsky danced principal roles in the company her parents founded. I am also familiar with the company as it was a dozen years ago, performing, besides the Nutcracker, many contemporary and some "boutique" classical pieces.

Now, it's a pickup company under the direction of Ali Pourfarrokh, performing an annual Nutcracker with guest principals and the students of the American Theater Dance Workshop, where Pourfarrokh also teaches, the studios of which are in New Hyde Park, shared by the Eglevsky Ballet.

When Eglevsky was alive the school was called the Eglevsky School of Ballet and was situated in Massapaequa. After his death of a heart attack just before he would have turned 60, his wife Leda carried on as director of the school until her death at the age of around 73 (she never told her age) in December, 1989. As a point of interest, to connect to another current thread on BT, Leda Anchutina was a member of Balanchine's original cast of ''Serenade".

[duffster]

After the Harkness Ballet folded-in the 70's-Marina Eglevsky and Sal Aiello invited some of the dancers from the company, to dance in some performances with the Eglevsky Ballet. It was wonderful, as it kept some of us working until we were fortunate to find work in other companies. [ How I wish the dancers of today could have the same opportunity! ] We performed many Balanchine pieces, Glinka pas de trois, Minkus pas de trois, A la Francaix, also Les Sylphides, Pas de Quatre and Les Patineurs. Fernando Bujones had his debut with Gelsey Kirkland doing Don Q pas. We would rehearse all day with Andre at his studio in Massapequa, then all of us would go to his home for a magnificent dinner hosted by he and his wife Leda. Such wonderful memories!