"Don't Think, Dear" — former SAB student's memoir

[nanushka]

An article in the Times anticipates the publication of Alice Robb's "Don't Think, Dear": On Loving and Leaving Ballet.

Though Robb sounds reasonably even-handed in many aspects of her critique, I have to say her repurposing of the Balanchine quote for her title rubs me the wrong way — giving potentially a very false impression of what Balanchine seems to have meant when he said that. (And also, perhaps, the impression that "dear" was his patronizing way of addressing female dancers in particular, when in fact he used the term with men as well, including non-dancers.)

In the article, she has this to say about Balanchine himself:

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“I’m not arguing we should tear him down,” she continued. “But there’s this singular focus on Balanchine at S.A.B. and City Ballet that goes with a kind of hero worship that I don’t think is healthy. Everyone is in thrall to a dead man. And there aren’t many ballet memoirs about what it’s like having a dream deferred.”

From all I've read about him, I don't get the sense that Balanchine would have wanted to be worshiped as a hero or have everyone in thrall to him after his death. Patricia McBride makes this point in an interview quoted in the article:

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Asked for her opinion of a book that is critical of him, Ms. McBride said: “He didn’t expect his life to become a museum of ballet. Balanchine always knew that things were going to change.”

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by nanushka

[Balletwannabe]

She danced from ages 9-12 at SAB.  She started skipping classes and then in her words "expelled".  SAB is a pretty serious place.  Anyone would be asked to leave if they were skipping classes.  So she took three years of children's division classes and now speaks as an authority on ballet, SAB & Balanchine.  Right, makes sense.  

Edited February 24, 2023 by Balletwannabe

[On Pointe]

Amazing,  isn't it - Ms. Robb studied at SAB for three years as a child,  and now she's a published authority on an artistic giant who died almost twenty years before her first lesson.  She didn't leave ballet,  she was never in it.  Balanchine might have said "don't think, dear" to somebody,  but he didn't say it to Alice Robb.  This woman,  like so many failed dancers,  has an unhealthy obsession with ballet.  She couldn't make it so she tears it down.  I was struck by her biography - Dalton,  Brearley,  uber expensive private schools,  Oxford University,  an internship at the New Republic.  She's a spoiled rich girl.  It's a shame Mummy and Daddy couldn't buy her a career.  Maybe she should take a few voice lessons and tell us what's wrong with the Met.

Edited February 25, 2023 by On Pointe
Clarity

[Drew]

Are people responding to the book or the article?  I read the article and hadn't thought one could tell that much from it as to what the book really has to say or how much actual reporting it includes.  But there is no reason why someone who didn't make a success of her time at SAB might not have insights into the culture there. In my own workplace people who, for whatever reason, don't "succeed" sometimes have views distorted by bitterness and sometimes, on the contrary, have views whose accuracy is enriched by their more troubled experiences. And people who do succeed can have their own blind spots. 

As for the singular focus on Balanchine at SAB:  it was his school for his company, so what else should one expect?  But that an appropriately respectful and even appropriately reverential attitude to Balanchine occasionally turned and turns weirdly worshipful in the precincts of SAB and NYCB seems to me kind of self-evident. 

Edited March 23, 2023 by Drew
typo

[cubanmiamiboy]

13 hours ago, On Pointe said:

Maybe she should take a few voice lessons and tell us what's wrong with the Met.

🤣

[dirac]

It seems Robb persisted in her training at other schools until finally accepting that ballet was not going to be her career, which would suggest her SAB teachers were onto something. She seems to have talent as a writer and worked to make the most of that talent, so good for her.

I’ll be interested to check the book out, although it’s not exactly revelatory at this point that it’s very hard to succeed in ballet and many aspiring dancers have to cope with disappointment, body-image issues, and other problems.  At least Robb doesn’t seem to have had any money worries.

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I have to say her repurposing of the Balanchine quote for her title rubs me the wrong way — giving potentially a very false impression of what Balanchine seems to have meant when he said that. (And also, perhaps, the impression that "dear" was his patronizing way of addressing female dancers in particular, when in fact he used the term with men as well, including non-dancers.)

I had the same thought, nanushka. It’s a clear misuse of Balanchine’s quote, and likely an intentional one. It's not that difficult to figure out what Balanchine meant.

From the article:

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Another dancer described meeting Balanchine on the street one freezing day, and when he noticed that she badly needed winter boots, he handed her some cash to buy a pair. To Ms. Robb, though, the takeaway was: Why couldn’t he have just paid her better?

Probably he couldn’t at that time. The memoirs of dancers from the company’s early years have plenty of anecdotes about Balanchine paying for this and that out of his own pocket because funds couldn’t be found even with Kirstein’s support.