Von Aroldingen-( not Kent)-/Kirkland/and the Russian tour.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Edited to add that now I've been corrected in that the dancer Kirkland speaks about was Von Aroldingen, not Kent.

Original post.

Maybe you have also observed little details here and there that seem to contradict a recollection of an event from dancer to dancer..?

Event in question. NYCB tour of Russia during Balanchine's lifetime. 

Gelsey narrates a passage in which she observed Balanchine holding Kent by her arm and both of them wearing paper slippers while walking the marble floors of the Hermitage.

I just finished Kent's recollections of the tour. According to her, she missed the only one opportunity she had to visit the Hermitage because when she finally made it there, it was closed as it was October Revolution Day celebration, and the museum was closed.

Edited February 29 by cubanmiamiboy

[Helene]

I'm not sure how many tours of Russia NYCB took, but during the 1962 tour of Russia, Kirkland would have been nine or ten.

[cubanmiamiboy]

9 minutes ago, Helene said:

I'm not sure how many tours of Russia NYCB took, but during the 1962 tour of Russia, Kirkland would have been nine or ten.

Aaah....so there must have been then two different tours. Although if Kent is reporting, by the time she finished writing her autobiography, that this was her ONLY opportunity to see the Hermitage, then even if Kirkland and Kent were together in yet another tour, where Kirkland made the observation about the marble and the slippers, still contradicts Kent's account of have never been in the museum.

[volcanohunter]

New York City Ballet conducted its second tour in the autumn of 1972.

[Helene]

Thank you, @volcanohunter!  That must have been the tour that Kirkland was on.  She left for ABT a couple of years later.

[California]

1 hour ago, Helene said:

Thank you, @volcanohunter!  That must have been the tour that Kirkland was on.  She left for ABT a couple of years later.

I would have trouble tracking down the source, but Baryshnikov reportedly spotted Kirkland on that 1972 tour and asked for her when he defected in 1974,.

[dirac]

It's been many moons since I last read "Dancing on My Grave," but I'm reasonably sure it was the '72 tour and Balanchine was walking through the Hermitage with von Aroldingen, not Kent.

[Helene]

I didn't realize I still had the book, but it was, indeed, von Aroldingen:

Quote

On a sight-seeing trip to the Hermitage Museum, I removed my street shoes and covered my feet with a pair of paper slippers, a precaution enforced by museum officials to protect the marble floors.  I saw almost nothing of the exhibits.  At first I was distracted by Mr. B, who was escorting dancer Karin von Aroldingen on his arm.  There was something incongruous about the picture they made, softly padding along in dainty footware.  Slow and deliberate, their movements could have been choreographed in advance.

(p.90)

[Marta]

California said:

 

On 10/25/2023 at 3:50 AM, Helene said:

Thank you, @volcanohunter!  That must have been the tour that Kirkland was on.  She left for ABT a couple of years later.

I would have trouble tracking down the source, but Baryshnikov reportedly spotted Kirkland on that 1972 tour and asked for her when he defected in 1974,.

True. I think I  read this in a book written about Baryshnikov  when he was director of ABT.  In Kirkland's book, she writes about visiting a men's class at the Kirov.  She comments on  Baryshnikov's  "extreme turnout" or maybe it was "freakish turnout". 

[Helene]

From the same chapter:
 

Quote

 

An elderly man sitting on my right whispered in English, "That is Mikhail Baryshnikov." I was not impressed.   The diminutive size and strange line of his body did not recommend this Baryshnikov fellow in my eyes.  In first position, his feet were turned so far out that his ankles seemed to roll over, like he was mounted on casters...

As I looked around, I realized that all of these dancers had the same placement.  The others were even more exaggerated...

 

(p.94)

Then he did the variations from Don Q, and she did a 180 on him.

[Marta]

10 hours ago, Helene said:

• Posted 10 hours ago
  
•  

From the same chapter

  Quote

An elderly man sitting on my right whispered in English, "That is Mikhail Baryshnikov." I was not impressed.   The diminutive size and strange line of his body did not recommend this Baryshnikov fellow in my eyes.  In first position, his feet were turned so far out that his ankles seemed to roll over, like he was mounted on casters...As I looked around, I realized that all of these dancers had the same placement.  The others were even more exaggerated...

(p.94)

Then he did the variations from Don Q, and she did a 180 on him.

Thank you, Helene.  I was too lazy to look up that section!

[cubanmiamiboy]

On 10/25/2023 at 4:33 PM, dirac said:

It's been many moons since I last read "Dancing on My Grave," but I'm reasonably sure it was the '72 tour and Balanchine was walking through the Hermitage with von Aroldingen, not Kent.

Ooooh ....ok. Thanks for the clarification!

[dirac]

Welcome. However, your original point - that recollections may vary, to borrow a useful line from Buckingham Palace - is worth holding in mind when reading memoirs and also when reading (and, one hopes, writing) biographies.  It can be tough, because sometimes the best raconteurs are the least reliable.

This has a special application when it comes to ballet, because writers or ballet masters/mistresses who are trying to reconstruct how a ballet was first made and how it's changed over time frequently have to contend with differing recollections. I found a good discussion on an old BA thread:

Oral history

[sandik]

On 3/1/2024 at 2:00 PM, dirac said:

recollections may vary, to borrow a useful line from Buckingham Palace - is worth holding in mind when reading memoirs and also when reading (and, one hopes, writing) biographies. 

This is indeed a twisty thing.  I was reviewing a memoir last summer, and was thinking about the difference between memoir and autobiography.  I asked around among friends and colleagues, and my favorite response came from a book critic friend -- "If it's a memoir, I don't trust a thing they say."

Reconstruction is another part of the territory, with many of the same pitfalls.  I appreciate the link to the oral history discussion (and especially the contributions from folks who are no longer living) while we're in the middle of several projects, dance and otherwise, where people are grappling with that challenge.  Alongside the reconfigured Bayadere that Doug Fullington and Phil Chan are staging in Indiana (here's an excellent preview from Marina Harss in the NYT today), we're all following along with the reconstruction of Notre Dame and the discussions about old v new building technology.  And today as well, in the Guardian, an overview of a project in Berlin that is dealing with contentious opinions about a new building at an old site, and how much of past attitudes should be included.