It was an inspiriting evening over all, even if there was no "refreshment stand" for those of us who neglected to pack a flask, the happiest, strongest impression made by Alys Shee and Aaron Smyth of ABT II in the pas de deux from Balanchine's Stars and Stripes. Dancing ability aside (she really turned on the afterburners at the end), what big eyes and smile Shee has--they really project--and Smyth spun through the devilish turns of his solo with charm and Music Man aplomb. His role was originated by Jacques D'Amboise, who has just published a memoir reviewed this weekend in the Wall Street Journal by Laura Jacobs, whom I just happened to be sitting next to last night, because we're married. She loved D'Amboise's memoir, titled I Was a Dancer.
Balanchine and [Lincoln] Kirstein wanted American dancers for their American company, and they especially needed men who could handle the thoroughbred ballerinas that Balanchine was developing. When he joined the company, the teenage d'Amboise was 6-foot-1 and 145 pounds. "A broomstick," he says of himself. "A lamppost with feet and teeth," the choreographer Jerome Robbins called him. Don't let the humor fool you. His physique was Apollonian and his technique honest, airy and effortless, a classicism without fear or tension. Just take a look at Mr. d'Amboise on YouTube, in the dream ballet, for instance, from the 1956 film "Carousel": those floating cabrioles, the nimble tours en l'air, the light touch that is a facet of American style?he's a natural. In 34 years, Balanchine made him 24 new roles. (This is extraordinary given that the considerable number of roles Mr. B choreographed or reworked for Suzanne Farrell, his consuming inspiration of many years, was 23.)
Mr. d'Amboise's long tenure with NYCB, and his privileged view of its inner workings, is the most historically important part of the memoir. He kept diaries, and his countless memories, anecdotes and observations are precious pieces to the puzzle of Balanchine's genius (and also a welcome antidote to the gulag portrayed in the recent film "Black Swan"). He discusses the oft-overlooked primacy of Diana Adams to Balanchine's art. The least known of his important muses, this cool, contained brunette obsessed the choreographer through the 1950s and early 1960s?and made a habit of derailing his dreams for her. When the married Adams became pregnant before a premiere in 1963, she taught the role to the baby-faced Farrell. Balanchine's next muse was born.
Mr. d'Amboise also revisits the glory of the lost ballet "The Figure in the Carpet," built around the unattainable Adams. It was Kirstein's idea? "George! What about a ballet about a Persian rug?"?and its interweaving of Near Eastern motifs was said to be spectacular. Because of a miscarriage, Adams never danced it, which is perhaps why Balanchine let it disappear.
As for Kirstein, d'Amboise is fascinating on the relationship between George and Lincoln (self-confidence versus self-questioning), and he sheds new light on the succession of leadership at NYCB after Balanchine's death. Even the lyrics that Balanchine wrote for a tango? "Why not I, when you were passing by? / Why not you, when I was passing through?"?offer an inroad to the master's heart. And Mr. d'Amboise dares to give us Balanchine's answer to the question: "Who of all your ballerinas do you consider the most talented?" (You'll be surprised.)
I was surprised to read in Roslyn Sulcas's New York Times write-up of choreographer Larry Keigwin, whose company opens its latest engagement at the Joyce Theater next week, that, "The arrival of MTV coincided with Mr. Keigwin?s discovery of dance, and he auditioned for the program 'Club MTV,' getting a job as a backup dancer in a few episodes."
Not many know this, but I also auditioned for Club MTV and everybody sitting at the judge's table just laughed, not even giving me a chance to complete my homage to Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas!, causing me to nearly dislocate my hip in mid-frug.
I told this heart-rending story recently to Julie Taymor and she said, "Look, I got my own problems," a quite understandable response really.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2011/03/into-the-balletmobile-last-night.html
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