Annabelle Lyon, Age 95

[Eileen]

As you may know, Annabelle Lyon died recently at the age of 95. She was a member of the original cast of Serenade in 1935 (not the student cast). At a seminar Suki Schorer recently gave, partly on Serenade and its creation and structure, she announced that she learned from original cast members Elise Reiman (faculty at SAB, died 1993) and Annabelle Lyon how Balanchine formed with ballet with an irregular number of dancers. I can't recall unfortunately how Suki described it exactly, but it was in terms of height. He called out 4 similar height girls, who ran onto the stage at Suki's words and took places. Then 4 medium height girls, then short girls, all of whom took prescribed places, and he was left with two quite tall girls who were placed in front. The result was a diamond, and when the SAB students turned just so, they were in Serenade position. It was quite dramatic. But this Suki told us was straight from Reiman and Annabelle Lyon. So I thought Miss Lyons' passing was worth mentioning on this board. If anyone was at the seminar and can correct me on the details of putting together Serenade, please do so.

[Helene]

A thread about Ms. Lyon has already been opened in the "Ballet Obituaries" forum:

http://balletalert.i...merican-ballet/

(I'm closing this thread to avoid duplication.)