Ballet makes a statement at Neiman Marcus.

November 6, 2022

Ballet makes a statement at Neiman Marcus.

Max Mara celebrates milestone anniversary with a collection dedicated to ballet.

Last year, I resided in a place near Laguna Beach, Orange County… from here a several-mile scenic ride takes you to Newport Beach, where one day I decided to visit the Neiman Marcus.

 

I walked through the upscale department store, where on the whole, I found nothing new or noteworthy, apart from the high-end labels and steep prices. Practically on my way out, I wandered past a section on the upper floor when I did a double take: ballet dancers on a T-shirt ??!!

A little digging and it turns out these T’s are part of a Max Mara exhibit, launched to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Italian design company, which completed its international celebration tour at the State Historical Museum in Moscow over a decade ago. 

photo by Elena Alexandra, Neiman Marcus (2021)
Valery Katsuba at a Max Mara Boutique in Alicante, Spain, next to one of his T-shirts (c. summer 2011)

For the momentous occasion, Max Mara commissioned a photographer whose work, inclined towards the aesthetics of human form, is showcased in galleries of Paris, London, New York, Madrid, Shanghai, Belgium, Mexico and Russia.

In preparing to shoot the exhibition “COATS”, the Belarus-born visual artist Valery Katsuba came up with the motif Albatross, a concept that for him embodies moving forward while embracing your history.

In fact, the Albatross is a seabird that looks like a slightly larger version of a seagull. The artist finds awe in the flight of this bird, its gliding course above the ocean amidst strong wings reminds him of the most hauntingly beautiful moments in life… moments deeply etched into your memory, moments that accompany you forever.

And so for Katsuba, the fashion company’s milestone salutes the stance of moving into the future whilst carrying the legacy of the past on your wings, just as the Albatross.

VogueIT-Bolshoi-dancer

To create the impressive images on the cotton jersey T-shirts, the photographer worked with Bolshoi Ballet artists Anna Nakhapetova, Yury Baranov, Anton Savichev and Maxim Surov. An iconic image epitomizes the installation tableau with Anna in the forefront wearing the designer label’s camel colored coat, an Albatross above her, and male ballet dancers behind her caught in flight.

The shirts I saw in 2021 were attributed to the comeback of Max Mara’s classical dance collection as an “Anniversary Capsule” to celebrate its 70th year.

Valery Katsuba’s love for the human aesthetic enters into his work with ballet artists, inserted into settings that illuminate timeless themes of historical and cultural relevance. In one such project, the photographer juxtaposes a ballet dancer amidst the paintings of 18th & 19th century Spanish artist Francisco Goya.

Valery Katsuba, The Model: Classic and Contemporary. Ballerina and Goya paintings, Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. Madrid., 2016.

In another collaborative endeavor, Katsuba works with the exceptional ballet artist Oxana Skorik, in one instance showcasing her classical dance pose against an impressive marble statue captioned “Dioscuro.” The figure is one of two twin brothers from Greek and Roman mythology, the sons of Zeus and Jupiter, depicted as gods of horsemanship and protectors of travelers, the pair are referred to as “the Dioskouroi.

From the bird in flight, to a tremendous painter of our civilization, to semi-divine figures in historical mythology conceived by gods and humans coming together, it becomes evident that the photographer is transfixed by the idea of ascension — the state of a mere mortal aspiring and rising towards something higher.

Ballet fits this subject like a glove, or perhaps more aptly said, like a slipper, as in its very essence, the artform demands a complete devotion of mind, body and spirit, where all the realms of consciousness unite, enabling the human being to literally mold the self into an elevated version of oneself.

Skorik, a Ukrainian-born dancer who graduated from the highly-respected Perm Ballet School, a.k.a. Perm State Choreographic College, a classical dance institution known for its high caliber staff and training in the revered Vaganova Method, and who then rose to the top ranks of the classical dance world becoming a principal ballet artist of the globally treasured Mariinsky Theater, says in a recent clip where she is invited to teach a class of youngsters who aspire to her standard:

“It is not just about the physical work, it is about great mental work… and progress can only be made with the capacity to learn [in this league].”

So, what is the statement that ballet makes at Neiman Marcus, or anywhere else it arrives for that matter? It’s beyond words. It is a visual representation of ideals that most of us strive for.

Through the ballet dancer, qualities rarely seen together are combined into a synergistic working unit of consciousness.

toughness and fineness
stillness and movement
collectedness and fluidity
asymmetry and balance
absurdity and grace
science and art
masculine and feminine
All in ONE.

photo by Valery Katsuba, Albatross Exhibit (2011)

These perceived opposites work together in harmony, to comprise the alchemy of the underlying foundation of an expression that, with mathematical  precision, represents a supreme standard of beauty recognized universally.

Really, Valery Katsuba and his quest for beauty reflects the very same yearning that lives in each of us… we all seek to feel it and to express it… many of us don’t know any better than to try and possess it. 

But what is beauty, really?

The one thing we can probably agree on is that beauty is connected to an elevated state of being.

Perhaps the only thing we know for sure is that it involves evolving ourselves, evolving our consciousness.

Happy World Ballet Day 2022 !!!

The Sun King taps into the Supreme Power of Ballet.

March 27, 2022

The Sun King taps into the Supreme Power of Ballet

Discover the Underlying Origin & Purpose of an Unrivaled Artform.

The Sun King in David Bintley’s ballet production “The King Dances”

Forever heralded as The Sun King, Louis XIV of France brings Ballet to the world in the 17th century.

In 1653 he exhibits its supreme power with his eternally iconic performance in Ballet de la Nuit or ballet of the night. The production runs from sundown to sunset, lasting twelve hours straight. It is a picture of his country rising from darkness into light.

Discover the underlying origin & purpose of Ballet.

The Underlying Origin & Purpose of Ballet

Originating in 15th century Italy, belletti as they were called then, moved to the courts of France where they transformed into impressive court performances known as ballets de coeurs or court ballets.

“… danced by royalty, nobility and foreign dignitaries who aimed to entrance their peers in the audience” [D.Bintley] they served as political and cultural promo methods.

Besides being early broadcasting tools ”presenting events of the day with a twist” [Canova Green] and PR devices, promoting “the glory of France, the grandeur of the monarch” [Canova Green] ballet served a much deeper purpose: it denoted the profound strive towards understanding and expression of universal ORDER, through its mediums of leadership on earth, ie. royal figures and those in positions of power.

Prof. Canova Green says it another way: “… by performing dance you could bring down celestial influence… it was all about trying to recreate harmony on earth.”

The court ballets employed a form of conscious, or intelligent movement and posturing as a language used to define and convey the real dynamic and hierarchical order among the elite and ruling classes. This language defined the level of nobility, social rank, status of power and the expressions of respect, allegiance, recognition and obedience to it.

Bottom line: Ballet is the code of conscious, or intentional movement, with a visual, physical vocabulary representing the principles of presence, focus, order, purity, power, grace and integrity. 

Ballet is our active awareness through practice, of a higher state of being.

What is ballet?

Ballet is:

  • the essence of nobility, meaning to live a higher, more elevated way of life
  • a powerful tool with universal appeal – ballet ‘speaks’ to everyone because it is the language of:

— Beauty (pure and refined, requiring true strength and discipline to attain the skills of this high art)

— Power (a tamed and refined power over the lower animal nature of man)

— Order (it takes organization and coordination of many parts working together as one to express ballet poses and posture)

— Grace (moving in a stalwart, confident manner with intention and awareness of every movement)

— Integrity (this implies an ‘integration’ or ‘connection’ of multiple qualities within a person, resulting in actions that create harmony, prosperity and build-up people)

This defines why Ballet has the power to unite nations, cultures & politics like nothing else.

  • ballet is at the heart of civilized culture & social hierarchy because it reflects intelligence, pedigree and refined taste

Where did ballet originate?​

The Ballet we know today originated in the royal courts of France, in the mid 1600’s. 

Although the early roots of Ballet began in the regal palaces of Italy, Ballet was developed and refined into a visible artform being introduced to the world by the French King, Louis XIV.

Influenced by elaborate entertainment that took place in royal celebrations and aristocratic weddings of France and Italy, Ballet de cour or “court ballet” was the earlier name given to ballets danced at royal courts by nobility during the time of Louis’ reign.

Historically, dance has been an important part of the social hierarchy, and one of the most important skills for a gentleman (i.e. a noble, educated man) to master. As a king, Louis was expected to dance as soon as he could walk.

Who started ballet?

The Sun King Louis XIV in the 17th Century

Born in 1638, the longest-reigning monarch in French history, Louis XIV, who is known as the “Sun King” and the “King who invented Ballet”, gave birth to the ballet we know today.

Louis used ballet as the ultimate PR (public relations) tool to glorify his monarchy and place ballet at the heart of civilized culture. As a teen, his iconic appearance in “Ballet of the Night” (1653), where he danced the Sun King, conveyed strength and victory, bringing confidence and power to France on a national and international scale. He was like a political leader and rock star in one.

Most impressive, is the final ballet legacy that Louis XIV left to the world. Specifically, in 1661 he established the first formal national academy of dance called Académie Royale de Danse. The institution was comprised of 13 of the most experienced dance masters from ballet productions at his court. It is here that court dance began to be analyzed and codified into a teachable system of artistry and craftsmanship.

This opened the door to a closely related opera and ballet company that sprang up in 1669, and although the Académie Royale de Danse did not survive after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1789, the latter institution did. Today it is known as the Opéra National de Paris (aka,The Paris Opera Ballet) and it is the oldest national ballet company in the world.

How did King Louis IX get into ballet?​

Louis XIV was brought up and groomed to embrace the art of ballet by the Italian-born Cardinal Mazarin as part of his high-level education.

Louis XIV loved beauty and power, and as an extension and outgrowth of his love for the art of ballet, he expressed and cultivated his passion for fashion and architecture, which includes building the elaborate Palace of Versailles (1661 to 1715).

As France’s longest serving monarch, the “Sun King” reigned over a period of unprecedented prosperity in which France became the dominant power in Europe and a leader in the arts and sciences.

How can ballet affect your mind?

It is no coincidence that the “King who invented Ballet” had an exceptional mind which enabled him to have unprecedented and unbeatable success as a leader and world influencer.

Ballet integrates the mind and body, beyond separation, as one functional unit of expression.

Ballet integrates the left and right hemispheres of our brain, through poses and movements that require developing coordination, endurance, flexibility, strength, agility and conscious control of our expression.  

This creates and activates pathways in the brain unavailable to those who do not practice ballet. Therefore, those who practice ballet are at an advantage mentally and physically to be creative, constructive, excel in various activities and successfully pursue their interests.

on a last note...

Just after finishing this piece, I walk out to the parking lot of the cafe where I did my writing - when lo and behold, I see this magnificent SUN medallion hanging off the mirror of the car parked next to mine - our Great Self is always speaking to us!

Where US & Russia UNITE: The Remarkable Legacy of Royal Ballet Star Sarah Lamb

March 1, 2022

Where US & Russia UNITE:

The Remarkable Legacy of Royal Ballet Star Sarah Lamb

Sarah Lamb in photo by Francesco Guidicini

I’ve lately been enjoying a series of interviews with ballet dancers I discovered resulting from the COVID phenomenon, hosted on the platform Ballet Icons Gala by Olga Balakleets, a concert pianist turned international gala event organizer.

Olga appears to be a sort of ambassador for the high arts – particularly ballet, the beauty of which she admires enough to dedicate herself to bringing the world together through its channels of talent… Olga is able to create and surround herself with an exalted reality in which she chooses to exist, and it seems many benefit from this endeavor.

I found Olga’s interview with Sarah Lamb particularly interesting, largely because of Sarah’s exceptional ballet legacy.

Today, a celebrated premier dancer with The Royal Ballet in London, Sarah talks about her serious training which started in Boston, Massachusetts at age 12, with heavy-weight classical dance educator Tatiana Nikolaevna Legat.

Tatiana Legat is the widow of the great Russian dancer Yuri Soloviev (1940–1977).

A member of the famous Legat family, Tatiana recalls that dance and theater goes way back to her great-great-grandparents – a Frenchwoman who danced at the Grand Opera in Paris and a dancer of Swedish descent – the two met through their career.

Her great-grandfather, Gustav Legat, graduated from a theatre school in St. Petersburg, Russia. 

Notably, Tatiana is the granddaughter of Russian ballet icon Nikolai Gustavovich Legat (in Russian: Никола́й Густа́вович Лега́т).

Nikolai and his younger brother Sergei were prominent dancers, talented character artists, choreographers and ballet masters at the Russian Imperial Ballet, which eventually incarnated into the Mariinsky Ballet, as it is known today. 

Nikolai Gustavovich Legat
young Sarah Lamb with her mentor Tatiana Legat (Sarah Lamb archives)

Sarah talks about her teacher:

It took me time to realize how iconic her family is in the history of dance and Russian ballet and the theatre in Russia. It’s really like being of royalty.

Sometimes it was very rough, she was a very strict teacher, but she gave me so much… she gave us all so much of her passion, her dedication and instilled in us the love of detail and the real discerning eye to think about our technique as being the vehicle through which you can excel and even surpass technique into artistry.

When Olga asks Sarah about the difference in preparation and performance of classical vs contemporary roles, she again refers back to her teacher (Legat), who though usually thought of as a strict classical disciplinarian and not the obvious choice for a contemporary dance coach, brought out the optimal level of ability and expressiveness in her pupil for a contemporary solo in Sarah’s first competition.

Sarah talks about the quintessential nature of a dancer being inextricably connected to “…flexibility… malleability and… chameleon-like quality to take on a new skin… the ability… to… lose yourself in the character” of a story-based ballet or become the “essence [of] what are you projecting” in a more abstract piece, where ”you are the vehicle for this concept.”

The final portion of the interview focuses on the unique project to which Sarah’s family has dedicated itself starting with her grandmother, who established the first [US] camp for children with special needs in 1953.

“It has been every single summer since 1953,” Sarah smiles, until the camp was canceled for the first time ever in 2020 due to COVID related risks. 

Sarah lights up about the entire experience, as she fondly recalls incorporating the ballet segment into the annual play, where she would dance with the campers. “One year we even did an entire Rose Adagio…” 

From Sarah’s display, it is obvious that she sees ballet as a powerful tool with the capacity to build-up our Identity, integrating our mind and body into a powerful unit of creative expression — with multi-faceted benefits — and that this instrument can be applied to a broad spectrum of the human population.

Sarah talks about being a dancer as an “integral part” of who she is: “Anytime I’m not able to dance, I feel like some part of my Identity is missing…” She follows this, tapping into the significance of Identity, emphasizing the importance of ”…making yourself into a fully interesting… fully informed and fully vital human, so you’re not just simply a dancer.”

Sarah’s success story and the values she projects undeniably reflect back to her teacher and the roots of Russian ballet education, which produces world-class dancers, who reach this height of achievement precisely because they are well-rounded, highly-cultivated individuals with a solid knowledge of the fine and performing arts, languages, math, history and literature.

As many attest, a truly extraordinary ballet dancer like Maya Plisetskaya or Rudolf Nureyev, or for that matter, Yuri Soloviev, is a mind that dances, expressing itself through its physical instrument.

Tatiana Legat coaches Mikhailovsky Ballet Principal Dancer, Ekaterina Borchenko; photo by Nikolay Krusser

My non-profit partner and I recently attended several YAGP (Youth America Grand Prix) competitions in the Los Angeles area. While we saw many young dancers with much promise, ardently devoting themselves to this most demanding craft (along with the efforts of teachers, coaches & parents), we observed that what is missing in the scattered studios where ballet education in America predominantly resides is the deeper understanding, the consciousness, of what classical dance truly is.

And this awareness is the foundation of a strong, intelligent dancer, which is really a highly developed human being.

In Russia, there is a centralized system of education for classical dance, which is recognized and supported by the government as not only a serious profession, but a most noble one.

Our mission is to introduce this coveted knowledge and its core values into our system of education, providing young people with a practical method to develop our innate qualities that constitute a well-balanced, strong-minded, purpose-driven individual with a sense of Identity, the ultimate asset that can be applied to any career path.

The Nutcracker’s Prince & Princess Warrior

The Nutcracker’s Prince & Princess Warrior

December 20, 2021

There are many substories and messages in the famous fable of the Nutcracker.

The doll given to young Clara on Christmas Eve by her mysterious uncle transforms into a Prince who fights the dark forces of the mouse kingdom showing true warriorship with skills of strength and courage, protecting what matters most, in this case the young Clara.

Clara in her own right possesses the character of a Princess Warrior, displaying fearlessness in the face of great danger and grace under fire, saving her beloved Nutcracker Prince from a fatal finale by the Mouse King.

Mamuka Kikalishvili as the Nutcracker Prince
Clara holding her Nutcracker doll

This year we attended the Long Beach Ballet’s celebrated version of this holiday spectacle.

Apparently it takes an entire year for production members to pull together this amazing annual event for a growing audience of children, parents, families, ballet & arts lovers and those celebrating the season.

In fact, this adaptation of the show, in addition to utilizing professional ballet cast members engages kids, teens and even toddlers to participate in a uniquely exuberant and undoubtedly life-enhancing experience of expression, connection, community and pure joy of immersion into the world of ballet and the arts.

It is so exciting to see southern California audiences packing a large theatre with great enthusiasm as they are introduced to the culture of ballet through a spellbinding story growing more and more familiar.

What is not yet familiar to us is the understanding of the capacity of ballet to shape us into creative channels of expression living a life of value, purpose and joy.

Ballet is a most complex and challenging artform which demands olympian-level athleticism and the most refined artistic sense. In this unique realm, you are the canvas of your art, you literally channel it through your mind and body, bringing the two aspects of yourself together into one harmonious unit.

This caliber of mental and physical discipline takes a superhuman level of strength, behind which stands will, and in turn, behind which stands purpose. And this is where we are hurting: purpose.

In order to have this we must be educated in seeing ballet for what it really is, beyond the tights and tutus, and effeminate stereotypes.

The ultimate purpose of ballet is to elevate ourselves and inspire an elevated state of being in others.

Without being presented with the real picture and value of what ballet really holds for us, we see it in a limited capacity, evidenced in the scarcity of male dancers and a lacking presence of power – which is actually an inherent part of true classical ballet.

In a new, more comprehensive light, the end goal of ballet training is not necessarily to become a professional dancer, it is to become a more elevated being with the capacity to express your unique talent and share it with the world in a most gratifying way.

Pictured in this article is Mamuka Kikalishvili, who is both a ballet dancer and martial artist combining the two facets of his composition in an exemplary manner. He is both prince and warrior, embracing each aspect of himself and taking his art and his state of being to the next level. Mamuka’s inspiring mentor is ballet dancer, choreographer & multi-discipline black-belt martial artist George Birkadze.

Wishing you a delightful holiday season!!

Ballet Shapes a Style Icon: The secret ingredient in the making of Diana Vreeland

Ballet Shapes a Style Icon

The secret ingredient in the making of Diana Vreeland

I know what prompted me to write this. What I don’t yet know is where it will take me. … I wrote back in January of this year.

CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY

When I think about why I got started on writing this piece in the first place, I immediately know it’s because I was drawn to the story of this unusually creative luminary in the tapestry of our culture.

Yes, Diana Vreeland is an undeniably unique figure in our history who has gifted us with the visual and tangible jewels of her imagination, inspiring countless souls around her and infusing life into our societal institutions.

But what is most interesting is how it all got started. What captures my attention is the soil of Diana’s upbringing… and how this spirited girl in danger of being broken by her own mother and a world she did not belong to, got the strength and spark to become the force that we know of today as Diana Vreeland.

This was the very question on George Plimpton’s mind during his ’80s interviews with the iconic fashion editor: “How does one become Diana Vreeland?”

Diana Vreeland early years in the Victorian era

“I certainly didn’t learn anything in [traditional] school. My education was the world…” she confesses gleefully.

Vreeland proceeds to tell her biographer that her ‘gypsy’ family settled in New York when she was about 10, at which time her parents enrolled her in an all-girls private school called Brearley, where she lasted only “3 weeks”, she slips — “3 months, months!” she corrects her wishful thinking:

Really, they kept me there out of kindness to my parents, who obviously didn’t know what to do with me, cause I didn’t know any English… wasn’t allowed to speak French, and I had no one to talk to, and started to stutter, and the whole thing became really very serious… stuttering is quite a serious thing. 

And then one day I went to a Russian school, and then I was happy, and that’s the only school I was ever happy in because all I did was dance. And it was a great education.

In fact, it is cited that Vreeland’s education was with one of the great ballet masters of Imperial Russia, dancer and choreographer Michel Fokine. The young socialite born as Diana Dalziel even performed in Russian prima Anna Pavlova’s “French peasant dance” called “Gavotte” at Carnegie Hall.

“I was dancing, that’s all I cared about,” she tells Diane Sawyer in an interview (circa 1980s) when the reporter asks her what she was like in her teens.

As it did in her formative years, again ballet enters Diana’s life playing a critical role in the development of her Identity — her self-image, confidence, the construction of her relationship with the world. Ballet allows her to get in touch with who she really is… and apparently helps to repair significant social anxieties that lead to a great scare surfacing through her speech. 

Short version: Diana uses ballet to build the basis of her Identity. 

Russian choreographer Mikhail Fokine

ROOTED IN BALLET

Diana was born in the beginning of the 20th century in Paris, into the very center of an era we can only cinematize these days, known as “The Belle Epoque”, which she joyfully recalled to her biographer George Plimpton:

The first thing to do is arrange to be born in Paris, after that everything follows quite naturally.

I was brought up in a world of great beauties, a world where lookers had something to give the world.  Paris was the center of everything. I saw the whole beginning of our century there. It was the Belle Epoque.

She was right of course, if for no other reason than the early 1900’s in the City of Lights were the perfect time and place to catch the emerging phenomenon known as The Ballets Russes.

But Diana got even closer to the action, as the company’s founder Sergei Diaghilev was a family friend:

I was always mad about the Ballets Russes. Mad about it!  Diaghilev and his dancers… I remember him (Diaghilev) and Nijinsky coming over all the time.   –– DV

on the stage of the Grand Opera in Paris from left to right: dancer Nicolai Kremnev, artist Alexandre Benois, dancers Sergei Grigoriev and Tamara Karsavina, Sergei Diaghilev, dancers Vaslav Nijinsky and Serge Lifar (c. early 1900s)

“Did you realize at the time that you were lucky?” talk show host Dick Cavett asks her in a 1978 interview?  “Oh, yes. We adored them… A great deal of my upbringing was in all those evenings when I saw a lot of fun.”

You could say that this was Diana’s first and most critical exposure to the world of great arts with ballet at its core, and this would influence the rest of her life – and reflect in her perception of it.

Not less importantly, it would prove a mighty force in counteracting the injured self image Diana grew up with based upon the traumatically difficult relationship she endured with her mother.

“I was always her ugly little monster… she used to say it’s too bad you have such a beautiful sister and you’re so extremely ugly…” Diana divulged to Plimpton in their conversations for her memoir. 

DIANA’S BEAUTY

Diana Vreeland wearing her signature turban adorned with brooches gifted to her by friend, Coco Chanel

Diana’s beauty was anything but skin-deep.

Diana had an intrinsic sense of aesthetic that shown in her ability to play with style which, no matter how eccentric or bizarre, always retained an attractive coherence, and flair of elegance.

It was her effortless poise juxtaposing her whimsically unconventional character, it was her irrepressible effervescence and quirky sense of humour paired with toughness and unstoppable focus in her approach to work and life.

She was a compilation of contradictions perfectly coheased together – something to the effect of Gary Cooper’s line to Audrey Hepburn in the film Love in the Afternoon, when Audrey’s character says: “I’m too thin! And my ears stick out, and my teeth are crooked and my neck’s much too long,” and Cooper’s persona replies:

“Maybe so, but I love the way it all hangs together.”

Above all, there was a lightness of heart that prevailed over all of life’s other morose voices so convincing in their realness.

Perhaps this was a source of her unfailing lovability. 

All in all, within her lived the spirit of a dancer… in some aspects akin to Audrey Hepburn, who also happened to study ballet in her early years and always credited her discipline, work ethic and other attributes (that we’ve all delighted in) to this artform — and that’s to say nothing of her profound love for it.

Audrey Hepburn featured in center of spread on pages 154 and 155 of Harper’s Bazaar September 1959 issue, with Audrey wearing a puffed, white crystal beaded tunic by Dior, and diamanté collar necklace, a signature of Dior’s Edwardian jewelry.

It was Diana’s real beauty that attracted her loving husband whom she adored and who made up for how she felt with her mom:

I never felt comfortable about my looks until I met Reed Vreeland.  He was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen, very quiet, very elegant… Reed made me feel beautiful no matter what my mother made me think.

Diana with her husband Reed Vreeland

SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE

Coco Chanel in early 1900's

At the end of the 1920s Diana and her husband moved to London, where she learned many things including the language, and where she was now closer to her precious, native Paris which incited her passion for fashion and gave her Coco Chanel.

I learned everything in England. I learned English, but of course the best thing about London is Paris… The clothes! That’s where I really learned about fashion.  No one had a better sense of luxury than Coco Chanel… She would always fit me in her private atelier, we were very close, you know. –DV

Diana understood beauty and with her enterprising mind, nothing could keep her from her first business venture, a lingerie boutique in London attracting distinguished clientele such as Wallis Simpson, soon to be known as Duchess of Windsor.

Back in New York, Diana’s style and moves on the dance floor of The St. Regis famously got her noticed by Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief and Board Chair, Carmel Snow. Diana’s  confession of never having worked a day in her life did not detract from Snow’s confident decision to hire based upon the impression the young socialite made at the 5-star Manhattan hotel — that was her resume.

And Mrs. Snow was right on because Diana was off and running in her new role that fit like a glove:

Editor-in-Chief Carmel Snow and Fashion Editor Diana Vreeland reviewing magazine layouts at Harper's Bazaar office in 1952

It hadn’t crossed my mind to work… But I loved it, loved it! I was so mad about working in those days… –DV

IMAGINATION & RHYTHM

I think your imagination is your reality… Only what you imagine is real.  — DV

Diana’s early years with the Ballets Russes and her education in classical dance no doubt infused her world with imagination, which she in turn infused into everything she did.

Everything! …including her very own molding process. After all, it was Diana’s foundation in dance that enabled the upper-crust misfit to find her place in an offbeat community decisively matching her eccentricity factor.

This in turn, prompted her to forge her own way in discovering inspirational influences and allowed her to open ever-new doorways to a sense of inventiveness, which fueled her inner visionary:

At the time I was 17… young snobs didn’t quite get my number.  I was much better with …the odd ducks around town who liked to dance as much as I did… I didn’t care what anyone else said, I was never out of Harlem in those days.

The music was so great and Josephine Baker was simply the only girl you saw in the chorus line. All you could feel was something good coming from her. She had that… that thing … that pizazz.
–DV

Josephine Baker in 1920s
Josephine Baker is one of Diana Vreeland’s eternal inspirations, which Diana finally got to showcase in her 1975-76 Costume Institute exhibition “American Women of Style”

Diana’s upbringing also ignited her understanding and sense of movement – not just in the physical arena – but applied to every act of creation.

American art writer and editor Ingrid Sischy reflects on Diana’s unique trait in the 2012 documentary about the multi-faceted icon:

It appears as though she didn’t edit herself, but of course she knew what had the sound of rhythm, she knew what had the sound of madness and surprise…

Her understanding of rhythm is huge …you see it with the sentences in magazines, where a magazine has to have a pause… a crash… a blast of color… a big headline.

This is something Diana knew perfectly well: ”I think any form of rhythm is absolutely essential…”

CONNECTION

Another outgrowth of Diana’s ballet background which nourished her natural faculties, was her uncanny ability to connect. Diana could connect with people, things, places, ideas… enough to emanate, to even “become” them:

20th century fashion photographer Lillian Bassman attests to this unique trait, sharing a personal anecdote from her experiences with the unforgettable Mrs. Vreeland who once indoctrinated her on capturing the authenticity of the Japanese Kimono for a photo session:

Lillian Bassman demonstrates her connection to the grace of female form in this silhouette photo of Missouri-born 50s and 60s model Evelyn Tripp in Barbados (1954), swimming leotard by Claire McCardell

… I used to love to get an assignment from her because she would get in front of the mirror and become the model that she wanted you to photograph. I remember I had a group of kimonos to do, she got in front of the mirror and showed me … she just took on the whole aura, you really felt that she was a geisha girl in front of that mirror.
— Lillian Bassman

MODEL OF STYLE

Diana’s embodiment of style was an essential part of her Identity as she explains to her biographer:

Style is everything George. It helps you get up in the morning, it helps you get down the stairs. It’s a way of life. Without it you’re nobody. And I’m not talking about a lot of clothes.

And what Diana learned in her schooling, she demanded and passed on to those she worked with. In her own words:

They [models] have to do a great deal for themselves.  Their skin, their posture, their walk… their education.

Breakthrough model China Machado was in awe of the woman who gave her a deeper understanding of beauty:

She said, even if you were in closed shoes … your toenails have to be perfect. It was like every single detail, she knew …maybe you’d walk in a different way, I don’t know, but it was there, a special woman… a sense like that…

One can make fashion, or one is. Diana was fashion. It’s different.

China Machado in Harper’s Bazaar, February 1959, with photos by Richard Avedon; on right: China is wearing a dinner dress and jacket by Ben Zuckerman, New York, Nov. 6, 1958

Diana’s son recounts how the 1960 presidential candidate’s wife Jackie Kennedy turned to his mom for inaugural wardrobe advice, subsequently granting Diana’s magazine first photo opps of herself and newly elected husband as a token of appreciation to her fashion confidante.

Her son shares what Jackie wrote:

Dear Diana,
Everyone is wondering why we chose Harper’s Bazaar, and they invent a million reasons, and no one says the real one, which is you.

John and Jackie Kennedy in Harper's Bazaar, February 1961

SEEING BEAUTY IN OTHERS

Diana was her own greatest creation.

With her foundation in classical ballet as a springboard for discovering her Identity, Diana was able to connect with who she really was in life — another words, she was able to access her innate qualities and express her truth.

Diana was able to mold herself into something beautiful and this phenomenon became a most precious gift she could then extend to others.

It came through in different ways, one of which was Diana’s ability to transform our so called faults into assets as Joel Schumacher points out:

She would push their faults… if they have a space between their teeth, make it the most beautiful thing about them… She celebrated Barbara Streisand’s nose and made it into a renaissance statue…

Mrs. V’s ability to see the essence of a person is something fashion empress Diane von Fürstenberg reveres:

She saw something, and that’s what was extraordinary about her. She saw things in people before they saw it themselves.

60s fashion model Penelope Tree says it in her own way:

She would fix her gaze on somebody and then they’d start to blossom.

Perhaps American writer and film critic Bob Colacello recounts it best:

She would say: “Bob, you’re not supposed to give people what they want, you’re supposed to give them what they don’t know they want yet!”

This image is from a layout in the March 1966 issue of Vogue, featuring a posh Barbara Streisand modeling the couture collection of the season, from the Paris photoshoot that Diana Vreeland arranged for her with Richard Avedon; Barbara is wearing silk chiffon evening pajamas by Marc Bohan for Dior in a photo by Richard Avedon.

Diana was all about showcasing individuality with a spotlight on distinctively unique personas, and that’s what came through in her magazines. 

She shares this focus with George Plimpton:

You see, George… Ravishing personalities are the most riveting thing in the world. Conversation, peoples’ interest, the atmosphere that they create around them – these are the only thing worth putting in any issue.

Vogue always did stand for peoples’ lives. I mean, a new dress doesn’t get you anywhere, it’s the life you’re living in the dress.       –DV

“In those days, it was a real story, that’s how you referred to a layout. You didn’t refer to it as just a series of photographs, it was a story…” Vreeland’s one-time muse Angelica Houston points out.

The strong face comes not only from the bone construction, but from the inner thinking.      — DV

TURNING POINT

The passing of her cherished husband certainly took a toll, but as is usually the case with life-quakes, it also marked the ending of one period and the beginning of another.

By all accounts, her period of grief was deep, complex and not passive. In line with the deeply held beliefs constructing her character, she could not merely fold into what the material world dealt her.

And even her revolt at being separated from her beloved was expressed through style,  when she wore white attire to the post funeral reception at her home.  

She then totally immersed herself in her work,” recounts her son.

Diana didn’t know it yet, but something new was knocking at her door, and this reflected at the magazine where things were no longer the same and the empress of Vogue was asked to step down from her throne.

It didn’t take long for her next calling to arrive.

I was only 70, what was I supposed to do, retire? And then one day I got a call from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  –DV

A NEW CHAPTER

A friend came up with the idea to create a special consultant position for Diana at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the funds to make this happen were quickly raised by friends who gave money to the museum’s Costume Institute.

The dormant, conservation-focused branch was about to go through a major revival!

“George!” Diana exclaims to her biographer: “I was so excited. Back in business! I could show everything I’ve loved all my life!”

With Diana’s arrival, the clothes were ready to leave the shelves and come to life in front of an audience anxiously awaiting their display at the fashion diva’s famous annual exhibitions running 6 months long.

Diana Vreeland at the Costume Institute

“It was greater than a magazine, it was a magazine that was alive and 3-dimensional!” Vreeland’s grandson remembers.

From the get go, opening night was an international extravaganza for celebrities and elite socialites with guests lining up around the block.

But the success of this venture was owed not only to the former editor’s eye for beauty – it was, once again, all about connection and Identity.

Diana’s ability to connect and see the essence of others, enabled her to harmonize people creating a collective synergy, which translated into an uncommonly enjoyable atmosphere for all.

“This was really the party of the year, but all due to Diana because she knew how to mix the people,” astutely noted Carolina Hererra in DV’s 2012 documentary.

Opening night of the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibit, also known as the Met Gala (circa 1970s)

True to herself, Mrs. V deeply cared about reaching a universal audience through the language of fashion, a medium encompassing the entire bundle of culture, history, art and style.

“She wanted everybody to understand her shows. She used to say: ‘If an 8 year old girl from Harlem doesn’t understand what she’s looking at, I’m wasting my time…’ that girl was important to her…“ stressed Simon Doonan, Creative Ambassador at Barneys in NYC.

Diana knew this in her bones because, along with all her other personas, she was that girl — and not just from her days in Harlem!

Diana Vreeland, c.1914

“She didn’t have a college education; she learnt history, art, literature, she learnt civilization through fashion and she wanted to share it,” conveys private librarian Kurt Thometz.

In fact, Diana’s ability to find sympatico with all human consciousness was about much more than her unconventional education.

TRANSCENDING DUALITY THROUGH DANCE

Her profile is a study in the entanglement of uncompromising opposites. 

An oddball born into a life of privilege where she was condemned by her own mother, she was a socialite with a pass to the top tiers of an elite world where she found herself an awkward breed that never quite fit in.

Sophistication and simplicity pulsed through her in equal measure.

She exuded the graceful and grotesque, all at once.

She found herself at the bottom of the barrel amidst the crème de la crème.

In all evidence, the only thing that brought it all together for the Dalziel girl, surpassing all the hopeless contradictions, was the world of ballet.

Vaslav Nijinsky is considered the greatest male dancer of the early 20th century; of Polish origin, Nijinsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine and grew up in Imperial Russia

Everything else came after.

Because all that followed was constituted on a system of order, coherence and integrity, a structure which built up a broken girl looking for her place in the world.

And this most precious knowledge lived in the innermost recesses of the fashion icon, piercing the very soul of her listeners, when they would hear her stories and be privy to traits that belonged to a superhuman race.

“We’d go back into her office and she would tell me the story of when she saw Nijinsky dance the “Specter of the Rose” and I even get a chill now talking about it. The description of the stage, and the window blowing open and Nijinsky flying through the room,” says Tonne Goodman, who began her career as special assistant to Diana Vreeland at The Costume Institute.

He didn’t leap up, he leaped across the stage, to the far end. We knew it was amazing. –DV about Nijinsky

Epilogue

So… where has this piece taken me?

I believe, a step closer to understanding Identity… its limitless creative expression, its enormous power to integrate people, ideas and qualities, and its timeless contributions. Just as the legacy of Diana Vreeland, it stays with us for eternity.

But there must be a framework for Identity to emerge.

An instruction manual of sacred knowledge on how to build up consciousness, passed down through the ages, from one generation to the next, from master to apprentice, classical ballet has the content and substance to provide the very framework that begets Identity

Identity in turn gives rise to a more enlightened, elevated species of man that generates more than consumes, nourishes rather than depletes, and transcends a state of fear to one of radiant beauty.

Meeting Ms Olga

Meeting Ms Olga

Our destined meeting with the prima of Perm

who's sharing her gift with American youth

Olga & Christine pose with older student

This meeting had been a long time coming, more than just the several weeks between the call to Olga and our arrival at her studio several weeks ago. 

It was some two years ago when we first found out that a Vaganova trained dance professional was teaching in LA. Shortly thereafter we drove over and stepped into a vacant studio with no one at the reception desk… so we thought we’d return another time… and we did, two years later. 

We finally made it to Olga’s studio on December 13th in 2019 … it turns out just in time for her annual Nutcracker recital featuring her ballet students from Arabesque.

Following our acquaintance, Olga ushered us in to watch her class and group rehearsal for the Nutcracker taking place that weekend. It felt great to connect with someone who understood the world of ballet.. even moreso, the world of Vaganova.

Afterwards, Olga invited us to her production taking place that weekend in a venue next to the Hollywood dive called Paper or Plastik. It turns out the two joints are connected under the same owner who happens to love the performing arts.

On December 15th, we arrived with enough time to check out the hip cafe… along with a bunch of others attending the event. As we looked for a table to enjoy a hot latte on what was an unusually cold, windy LA day, and pondered on a drink to choose from their unique specialty offerings, my eye fell upon the perfect cup of frothy white, plant-based milk… a novel choice!

As it turns out, the table we found was right next to that enticing drink.

It was not until several minutes later when Olga came out of the performance hall to get us audience members (mostly parents and families of the ballet students) to take our seats for the show, casually introducing us to her star student, that we realized we had been sitting next to ABT principal Christine Shevchenko.

Olga & Christine in rehearsal; photo by Michael Cornell

After the show we went over to congratulate Olga and spoke to Christine who turned out to be as unpretentious as her drink.

We chatted a bit and Christine graciously offered her contact info telling us she’d be happy to provide us with backstage tickets for an interview during our visit to NYC in May. “Just tell me which performance you’ll be attending,” she smiled.

I conveyed my appreciation to Christine about her refreshing simplicity and ease with which she conducted herself… an admirable trait given that, for anyone who knows anything about ballet, beneath the lovely exterior of a classical dancer lies an interior of steel.

It takes a warrior in mind and heart to reach and stay on top of your game in this arena.

It is a life of dedication to a higher beauty that requires the ultimate discipline, willpower, unrelenting devotion to the craft and abstinence from most desires in which our human animal nature partakes.

Passing on a Priceless Legacy.

Aside from these gifts of the evening, the greatest joy was to see Olga’s work.

It was really something to watch young girls of different ages, different backgrounds being molded into a beautiful version of themselves. 

It was also palpable to see the inordinate amount of effort the girls expended into fulfilling what they were taught on stage – focusing on their steps and repertoire, while keeping in mind all the instructions their teacher instilled about correct technique, musicality and presentation.

And the courage to go out on that stage! — which was quite scary for many – was altogether an extraordinary feat.

You could see that this experience would change the rest of their lives – they were no longer who they were when they started out, they were already something greater.

To see this transformation before our eyes, was to see the result of teaching a precise framework built on principles of presence, focus, order, strength, balance, coordination and such through the ballet system of Agrippina Vaganova

… a system with the power to transport our mind and body to a place of greater awareness, integrity… a higher caliber life.

... may this year bring the magic of ballet into your life!

image sources

https://www.olgakova.com/the-miss-olga-blog/2019/3/3/0j8cmxmnhfy1tquw4i90jj0ohuyjro
https://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-coffee-scene-20110714-htmlstory.html
https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/israeli-kitchen/paper-or-plastik-cafe-los-angeles-dance-studio-michelson
https://medium.com/@erin_5063/behind-the-counter-with-anya-michelson-and-family-of-paper-or-plastik-cafe-b639f5b982bf
https://mimodastudio.com/

San Francisco’s Nutcracker

San Francisco’s Nutcracker

Here’s a rundown on our short, but memorable trip to the way-steep hilly city with the famous golden bridge.

As we are in the R&D phase of The First Guild School of Ballet & Arts, our focus is on exploring ballet schools and programs that exist in the US. With this in mind, we drove up direct from LA, just in time to make it to San Francisco Ballet School (at the Chris Hellman Center for Dance) before their closing for the holiday break.

It was indeed a frantic day with everyone either getting it together for the Nutcracker performances starting that night, or busy wrapping things up at the end of the school session.

In the midst of it all, the receptionist was happy to share her take on the school’s modern approach to ballet, in attitude, structure and training style — emphasizing a clear departure from the virtues of more traditional classical dance education.

A few snapshots, a take-in of the environment, a brief but telling conversation with the receptionist — and we were off to find our Airbnb pad!

The next day, before the main event we discovered a great French restaurant located right across the entrance to SF’s famous Chinatown district adorned with a lavish store complex called Michael’s featuring rich stone sculptures, statues and high end art pieces.

The French bistro really hit the spot! Café de la Presse was a happening place with just the right amount of Parisian culture – including my drink called “April in Paris”.

A wall of photos featuring great chefs including Julia Child and Jacques Pépin adds extra flavor to the authentic charm of the establishment founded by a French chef who learned of his zest for culinary art from cooking with his grandmother.

Bottom line: they know how to make food and they know how to do business!

The performance itself was a bit of a letdown due to a foundation lacking in technical strength and seriousness of principles taught in more traditional ballet schools.

There were of course exceptions… the male clown doll, clearly a talented dancer in energy, artistry and unusual bending ability; the ‘middle-man’ of the Russian trio at the Sugar Plum Fairy Palace with over-the-top acrobatics; and the princess ballerina into whom Clara transforms for the finale, evidencing a more serious classical training background – showing in both technique and stage presence… still, this level is soloist, not principal material for a top-tier world ballet company.

But with that said, ballet is ballet, it is an artform like no other, and just being in a climate where there is such a focus and striving towards what is basically an elevated state of being, is enough to commend a genuine appreciation for all involved.

... here's to exploring the extraordinary world of the arts!

I was there! The world of Balanchine, Robbins, Tudor, De Mille, et al… in 1940’s NY

I was there!

The world of Balanchine, Robbins, Tudor, De Mille, et al... in 1940’s NY

“… one day Mr. Balanchine came in to watch class, and after class he asked me if I’d like to be in his show “Song of Norway”, which he had choreographed on Broadway.”

— Barbara Cole Folsom

This is the company that Barbara kept during her time in 1940’s and 50’s NY.  

The legendary faces in the photo above, seated on the bench from left to right are: Maria Tallchief, George Balanchine, Tanaquil Le Clercq.  Around the piano, clockwise from left are: Melissa Hayden, Frederick Ashton, Diana Adams, Janet Reed, Jerome Robbins, Antony Tudor, Nora Kaye.

The photo was taken February 1952

When I watched the American Ballet Theatre documentary chronicling its 75-year history with rare historical footage from its early days in the 1940’s, who knew that some 7 months later I would meet a ballet dancer from that actual time!

This was back in March, when my business partner Lana found out that a neighbour was acquainted with a 91 year-old ballerina living practically next door.  Naturally, I flipped!

The neighbor mentioned something about the ballerina being from New York – an even more exciting piece of news, since NY is an epicenter of the ballet world.  For me, this translated into an increased likelihood of the dancer having had a serious background — and a great story for us!

our note to the ballerina

It turns out the two ladies took a dance class at the local Y that involved Zumba mixed in with a bit of tough love from their instructor, who reportedly hurries the students to take their water breaks without a moment’s waste, immediately returning them to the dance floor… this I heard later on.

So of course, Lana, asked our neighbour to connect us somehow, to find out if this lady would be interested in meeting with us.

Our neighbour returned with instruction asking us to write a note to our person of interest in the way of an introduction, which she would then pass on to the ballerina, whose name we still didn’t know.

We obliged, the neighbour passed our note on and came back with the verdict: her classmate loved it and was enthused to meet. Finally someone wanted to see her, and not her husband, a 98-year old WWII pilot veteran who gets all the attention in their family… “not many of these left, ”she later affectionately admitted referring to him.

Barbara, whose name we finally learned through her phone call to Lana, set up a meeting with us for Friday, March 22nd at her place… just several miles from us in Santa Monica.

The day finally came and this is how our conversation went…

our commemorative parking pass from that day at Barbara’s place

Pack your bags for New York

We did the customary meet and greet and engaged in a bit of repartee about Barbara’s adventures accompanying her husband in his post as military attaché at the height of the cold war – definite spy novel material! – but this would have to wait.  We were there for one reason, and one reason only… which Barbara’s endearing husband well understood.  So after our initial exchange, Barbara began to recount the unforgettable moments in her remarkable journey:

Flyer from Balanchine’s school, which he established in 1934, together with his patron, the distinguished dance scholar Lincoln Kirstein

… when I graduated from high school, I packed my little bag, I went to New York the next day and went to the School of American Ballet… started by George Balanchine.

… one day Mr. Balanchine came in to watch class, and after class he asked me if I’d like to be in his show Song of Norway, which he had choreographed on Broadway.

So I said: “Well, Mr. Balanchine I really want to be in a ballet company, I didn’t think about Broadway.” — where did I have the nerve to say that!”  Barbara bashfully remembers.

Balanchine said: “It’s good experience!  You do my show, maybe later ballet company.”

Balanchine teaching some of his first notable dancers at the School of American Ballet (circa early 1940’s); photo credit Time Life Pictures /Getty Images

A little before Barbara’s arrival, the studio photo here shows Balanchine teaching class at his School of American Ballet (SAB) in the early 1940’s. The dancers from back to front are: Anne Barlow, Marie-Jeanne (Balanchine’s famous ballerina of the 1940’s), Georgia Hiden, Jane Ward, June Horvath, Kathryn Lee, and Mary Ellen Moylan, called the first great Balanchine dancer” by Balanchine’s star ballerina and former wife Maria Tallchief.

Balanchine working with Mary Ellen Moylan; photo by Hans Knopf from Jacob’s Pillow Archives (1942)

'Lucky"

Encouraged by her mom who more than anything wanted to be a classical dancer herself, but was not physically cut out for it, Barbara started ballet early on receiving her training at the Washington School of Ballet.

Barbara holds a photo of herself strking a pose on the Queen Mary, with Alicia Alonso in the background (right)

“I was fortunate that I had good training through childhood…” Barbara recalls. And it’s no wonder, as her teacher in Washington had been a Russian-trained dancer who actually toured with the Anna Pavlova Company.

Between her schooling in Washington and the final period of prep at Balanchine’s school in NY, Barbara had accumulated a good dose of Russian methodology and Vaganova instruction under her belt, enough to outshine her competitive peers and soon grab the attention of Balanchine, de Mille, Tudor and more!

… though Barbara frequently repeats in the conversation that she was ‘lucky’.

There’s certainly a measure of disbelieving innocence that comes through Barb when she recalls her fortuitously wild ride, but perhaps there’s also a dose of truth to this ‘lucky’ business, owing to the opportune showbiz era of 1940’s & ‘50’s NY and LA.  Barbara herself attests to this when talking about her departure from Song of Norway, where her shoes were eagerly filled with the likes of Mitzi Gaynor – box-office star of hits including South Pacific and There’s No Business Like Show Business.

“I don’t know why I was so lucky, but I certainly was, it wouldn’t happen now…” she told us.

Antony Tudor

Before taking off for her next venture, Barbara accepted Balanchine’s offer and went on to perform in Song of Norway.  In the meantime, like any other professional ballet dancer, she continued her lifelong classes.  One class she took was with the legendary English choreographer Antony Tudor.

Tudor is known for his psychological ballets pushing dancers to strip the ego and move beyond the boundaries of one’s own personality, thus allowing the dancer to enter and vividly reveal the world of the character they are portraying.

As celeb ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov put it:  “We do Tudor’s ballets because we must. Tudor’s work is our conscience.”

Antony Tudor
the famous Gelsey Kirkland and Jonas Kage performing a pas de deux in Tudor’s ballet “The Leaves are Fading"; photo by Martha Swope (c. 1975)

So after class he [Tudor] came up to me and said: “How would you like to be in Ballet Theatre, this company that just started?”  And I said, “ It sounds wonderful, I’d love it.”   So I packed my bag and went off on tour with Ballet Theatre. That was in 1946.

“Oh, I missed one step!” Barbara tells us. No big deal – it’s only her experience with Agnes de Mille!

Agnes de Mille

Agnes de Mille in 1954; photo credit: Everett

It turns out that during her stint in Song of Norway, Barbara took a several week course with the celebrated American choreographer, who took notice of young Barb and offered her a spot in her most famous musical:

… I took a course that Agnes de Mille, the Broadway choreographer, was doing at a school in New York… and after the final class she called me over and she said “how would you like to be in Oklahoma, my Broadway show?

And I said: “Sounds like fun, but I’m already in a show, I’m in Song of Norway.”

Barbara tells us that de Mille wasted no time in instructing her new found talent on leaving Balanchine’s production and joining her own:

She [de Mille] said:  “You take your two weeks, the union rules that you have to have two weeks notice to leave the show, and you come and watch, and we teach you what you would do in Oklahoma.”

But the Broadway dame showed Barbara the other side of a ruthless business when the young dancer decided to take leave of Oklahoma for her next big opportunity:

… after about three months, that’s when Antony Tudor asked me to go into [American] Ballet Theatre. So I gave in my notice to Oklahoma and de Mille was furious, she was just livid, she said: “I’ll tell you when you’re ready to leave the show!!”

And I thought, how cruel, and being only 18 I just quivered, it was awful.

Of course there’s much more to De Mille than that!

in character... Agnes George de Mille

Born in NY, into a family tree whose members were visibly accomplished writers, directors and producers in early film and theatre, as well as activists in the economic sphere, Agnes George de Mille compiles within herself a unique portrait embracing all these traits.

In her early life, Agnes moved to LA where her playwright father sought to launch his career following in the footsteps of his successful brother, filmmaker Cecil B. de Mille.

Agnes De Mille in a photo by Nickolas Muray (circa 1928)

Discouraged from her dream of becoming an actress on account of her looks, and not allowed to pursue dancing seriously as it was still considered a “pastime” in the early decades of 1900, Agnes resorted to studying film stars on the set with her dad, an occupation which she found interesting and one which served as her immersion into character study.

After graduating college with a degree in English, Agnes moved back to NY with her mother and sister, where she would begin her long and arduous pursuit of a career in dance and theatre.  Lacking the natural endowment attributed to a classical dancer, de Mille was driven to use her talent to create stories and character roles performing them in solo recitals, which were well received in the professional arena.  

But Agnes’ projects were not moneymakers, and the young innovator sought another route towards destiny, travelling to London with her mother, where her potential was noticed and encouraged by Marie Rambert at whose establishment de Mille would study for the next five years.

Now acquiring sufficient professional skill as a dancer and continuing her staging work, de Mille’s next chapter would bring her back to NY where she would combine her dance and writing acumen in her travels across the US and Europe as a performer and emerging choreographer who staged her first works with Ballet Rambert*, and later with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

Over the course of her lifetime, Agnes de Mille developed an award-winning scope of work that spanned from ballet to theatre, musicals, films and even literature, with a distinct style of movement integrating modern and folk, and a daring flair for the dramatic, in a genre that was predominantly ‘good ole’ American storytelling.  De mille went on to carve out a niche of her very own as a 20th century artistic and cultural icon.  

*Incidentally, Ballet Rambert, today simply “Rambert”, is named after Marie Rambert, a dancer with the original Ballets Russes who was always tenderly remembered as a great teacher by her famous student, Audrey Hepburn.

This eventful period in Barbara’s life was also a memorable time for the entire country, as she herself told us:

… that summer I can remember the final day of the war trying to get home up Broadway, and it was just packed.  The whole of Times Square was packed with people, and everybody was grabbing and kissing and I just wanted to get home and to bed… it was a wonderful time for the country.

Presumably Barbara is talking about the very same day that this infamous WWII Victory picture was taken in Times Square.

Aug. 14, 1945, known as “V-J Day in Times Square” and more commonly called “The Kiss,” this image was published two weeks later in Life magazine; photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Ballet Theatre

Barbara accepted Tudor’s invitation and in 1946 traveled to England with her new family at Ballet Theatre for their international debut at Covent Garden:

… we went to England, we were the first American company that had been there at the end of the war – and it was just wonderful… We performed at Covent Garden Opera House and walked through the garden, the market to get to the Opera House and heard all the funny accents: ‘hello love…’

snapshot from ABT's history timeline commemorating the company's 75th Anniversary
The beginnings of American Ballet Theatre… clipping of a 1940 newspaper ad with ticket prices from 55 cents to $2.20. Choreographers include DeMille, Tudor... dancers include Chase, Laing, Lyon, Tudor, Romanoff…

Barbara proceeded to tell us that the repertoire brought over to England by the original American Ballet Theatre included classics like Swan Lake and Les Sylphides, and that the company did what they called a ‘ham and eggs’ program while touring:

We’d have the costumes ready, the music ready for the orchestra, and you would do Les Sylphides to start, and there would be a sort of comic ballet like Fancy Free, or light things.  And then we’d end up with a big rousing group like Petrushka…

But it turns out that touring is also where some of Barbara’s not so good memories reside:

… we travelled by train and sometimes the train schedule would be:

you’d leave late at night and you would arrive at the theatre the next afternoon, go right to the theatre, warm up, do some rehearsing wherever you could space it on the stage, and then do the performance, and then go back to the hotel and collapse.

It was not for me, I couldn’t stand it.  So I did it for 2 years, and then I decided that I would rather go back to Broadway.

Back to Broadway

As luck, or perhaps fate would have it, Barbara next hooked up with the historic dance figure Ruth Page, to perform in her Broadway show Music in My Heart, a tribute to the life of the Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

It turns out that Ruth Page and Barbara’s teacher in Washington knew each other because the two had been together in the company of none other than the legendary Anna Pavlova. “That’s real history!” as Barbara put it.

American dancer and choreographer Ruth Page as Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet”, one of three Shakespearean characters she adapted for dance during this time (c. 1939)
Ruth Page and Harald Kreutzberg in Bacchanale, photo by Maurice Seymour (Chicago, c. 1934)
Ruth Page as Lady Macbeth in her choreographed adaptation of “MacBeth” (c. 1939)

After ABT… I did a show called Music in My Heart and it was choreographed by Ruth Page.

Ruth Page had her own company in Chicago, and she was asked to choreograph this show…  I understudied the lead dancer, and there was a little song that went with it, it was fun…

… the understudy part opened up because the woman who did it, Dorothy Etheridge, had been in… she was Ballet Russe, and she left to go back to Ballet Russe and I got the part to study, so that was lucky for me, again lucky… that I got to do that.

SIDEBAR

A word on Anna Pavlova.

After a short run with the Ballets Russes, the unrivaled prima of the Imperial Russian Ballet proceeded to form her own company, which toured the world with a repertoire based on the works of Russia’s luminary choreographer Marius Petipa, as well as arrangements commissioned especially for Pavlova herself.

“a very enterprising and daring act. She toured on her own… for twenty years until her death. She traveled everywhere in the world that travel was possible, and introduced the ballet to millions who had never seen any form of Western dancing.”

— Quote from Agnes de Mille, The Book of the Dance (1963)

James Starbuck, Sid Caesar and early Television

Barbara’s next opportunity came knocking without delay, when her former dance partner James Starbuck was asked to choreograph for a television variety show called Admiral Broadway Revue and called on Barbara to be in a talent group he was putting together.

Starring Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca, the 1949 series ran for just 6 months serving as the predecessor to the small screen hit Your Show of Shows which debuted on NBC early the next year.

But it’s much more interesting to hear it in Barbara’s own words:

… it (Music in My Heart) probably occupied a year of my life. 

… then after it closed, the young man who had been my partner, James Starbuck, had the new choreography in the summers at a place called Lake Tamiment [a resort in the Pocono Mountains]…

They wanted 3 men, 3 women to dance and be in comedy sketches.  So he called me and came over to the apartment and I had quickly pressed a dress and got myself all dressed up to meet the director/ producer…

1949 Playbill Program Advertising TV Admiral Broadway Revue
James Starbuck rehearsing choreography with ballet’s grand Dame Alicia Markova for “Your Show of Shows” (1953)
Imogene Coca

Here’s Barbara’s recollection of her time working with the great talent Imogene Coca:

… we did a show called Admiral Broadway Revue. And that was for Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca who was a very funny lady… she had danced in her youth and she did parodies of the swan, Swan Lake, they put her on wires and she would fly overhead, and she did the exact choreography, but just made it look so clumsy… she was wonderful!

And so until the show lost its sponsor, Admiral appliance company, it was another great year with another great gig in Barbara’s action-packed life:

… I loved it! (laughs)  … that was my introduction to television… I did a lot of television shows and early tests for color TV, you know, originally it was all black and white…

“Then I went to Europe for a while…“ Barbara starts to tell us, but her stream of thought is interrupted and we may have lost a precious piece of biographical data … maybe we’ll revisit that one!

Washington Ballet... the beginnings

“I was in New York for 5 years before I went back to Washington…” which is where Barbara was asked to teach at her alma mater, The Washington School of Ballet.

… I taught for them for a couple of years… the company wasn’t union then… it was still sort of like an amateur company, but with some very talented dancers, and then they started getting funding and they had the union come in and set up their part.

Program cover page for the Washington Ballet’s inaugural Nutcracker in 1961; image from The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Another interesting tidbit from an insider into the very beginnings of the now formidable Washington Ballet Company, which as their own webpage says: “…grew out of the success of The Washington School of Ballet…”

And again, Barbara was there!

Washington had no theatre at that time… well one.  It was called the National Theatre, and it had a fairly small stage because it was for plays, not for ballet… the stage was just too small.  So they performed in a hall, in Constitution Hall which was built for the DAR.

Do you know what the DAR is?  They’re a bunch of old ladies who remember the Civil War…

And this is where Barbara’s husband who has been patiently sitting with us the whole time and waiting for his moment, animatedly chimes in:  “Daughters of the American Revolution!”

DAR Constitution Hall in Washington DC opened in 1929, built to host the annual DAR convention

Another parameter of Washington Ballet’s early performance venue, as Barbara reveals is:

“They couldn’t have scenery, so whenever I saw a ballet, you’d have to use your imagination.”

Washington Ballet founder Mary Day; photo from The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

For all of us who are building an idea from the ground up, it’s comforting to know that all the biggies had to start somewhere!

And speaking of starting out, here’s some encouragement about the power of your vision from The Washington Ballet, talking about their founder, Mary Day:

The School opened in 1944 and the Company was established in 1976 with Ms. Day’s singular vision clearly illuminated:

create a stellar institution of teaching, creating, and enlightenment through dance.

Barbara’s life remained busy and anything but boring.  Along with her teaching, she performed at a theatre just opening in the DC area:

… there was a theatre there opening called… Arena Stage, a theatre in the round, the audience would be all around you and would perform in the middle, so I was acting all the ingénue roles, the sweet little girls that never get the man.

On top of her performing and teaching schedule, Barbara would go down to the local air base to give ballet lessons to the otherwise idle children only too eager to engage in this activity.

… once a week I would go down to Patuxent Naval Air Station… where the children have nothing to do, so I’d make a fortune, every little girl on the air station wanted to take ballet classes, so they’d come over…

This is what Barbara’s husband, Sam Folsom, must have looked like around the time they met. Sam Folsom is one of the last living WWII Marine fighter pilots. (circa 1940’s)

This is also the part where Barbara meets the man in her life:

… and Mr. Folsom, Kernel Folsom, well no you were Major then [Barbara turns to confer with her husband, Sam].  He was producing a show for the March of Dimes for charity, and somebody told him that the ballet teacher might be willing to dance in his show. So he came over and saw me collecting all this money from all these little girls, and that was it, that did it.  Love at first sight.

Before moving onto the highlight of our get together – an impressive, weathered scrapbook with tattered edges, waiting to tell us stories torn right from the pages of glorious dance history…

…before we moved onto this magnificent object just waiting to divulge what it had inside, we got an additional archival treat.  Another article in the room was also asking for our attention – an impressive looking, large, gold covered book.

Barbara shows us the American Ballet Theater Coffee Table Book (a gift from her husband) with herself on the inside cover, standing right

It was the 1970s American Ballet Theater Coffee Table Book with photos by Cecil Beaton. Barbara proudly took it in her hands and opened it up.  There she was, young Barb in costume right on the inside cover!

“That was taken in London by Cecil Beaton… That’s me, and that’s my roommate Francis Rainer…” Barbara pointed to photos in the spread.

And now onto the centerpiece of our discussion: the scrapbook. A compilation of Barbara’s Broadway and Ballet Theatre “memorabilia” as she calls it.

The Scrapbook

We situated ourselves around the book and Barbara started leafing through it.

We start off with the Song of Norway booklet showing the original cast members of the Balanchine production:

“There’s no picture of me in the book because I went in after…” Barbara explains.

Ballet Theatre’s annual production booklet with a page on Balanchine and his works including “Song of Norway”

Barbara shows us production booklet covers from “Song of Norway”

The original Song of Norway was Ballet Russe, all the dancers he used were people taken from Ballet Russe. And when they had to leave to go on tour, that was when I got in.

… All these girls were Ballet Russe: Sonja Tyven, Mary Ellen Wallace (Moylan?), Pauline Goddard – and she didn’t go back to Ballet Russe, she left and did more Broadway shows.. and we were in another… TV show, she was one of the three of us…

In my research on the “girls” names that Barbara calls off, I came across a historic photo that former Ballets Russe dancer Pauline Goddard shared in an interview several years back, showing Balanchine with herself (Pauline Goddard) on right, Maria Tallchief in center; Mary Ellen Moylan Hanks behind Pauline. I’ve since found a better version of this same photo in a blog by The George Balanchine Foundation, featured here. 

historic photo showing Balanchine with Barbara’s one-time pal, former Ballets Russe dancer Pauline Goddard on right; Maria Tallchief in center; Mary Ellen Moylan Hanks behind Pauline

Moving on to Oklahoma! Barbara tells us:

“…my future roommate Frances Rainer was also in Oklahoma, so we went into Ballet Theatre together and roomed together.”

Below, Barbara points to her name in the 1946 cast of Oklahoma!  The images also show write-ups following Barbara’s career from various news sources including the Washington Post, dated April 6, 1946.

Production booklet with photos of Oklahoma! playwright, scenic & costume designers on left side opposite cast members on right
Barbara points to her name in the 1946 cast of Oklahoma
Oklahoma Playbill cover surrounded by newspaper clippings on Barbara “Babbie” Cole

Next Barbara walks us through a series of newspaper clippings:

Now here we were arriving in London and these are historic names in ballet…

That’s Melissa Hayden (born Mildred Herman) who was corps de ballet back then.

Ricki (Enrica) Soma married John Huston eventually, the movie director… she was a beautiful girl, looked very much like the Mona Lisa painting…

All these are all ABT… there I am.  And we arrived in London…

The top right corner photo captioned “Meeting the English Press” shows Barbara (far left) among a notable group of Ballet Theatre dancers performing in London in August of 1946. The article is titled “Ballet Theatre in London”, dated September 1946
Barbara’s colleagues: ABT company artists including Enrica Soma, Ruth Ann Koesun and Eric Braun in a production booklet from Barbara’s scrapbook
Chicago-born ABT dancer of Chinese-Russian descent, noted for her classic grace, Ruth Ann Koesun had a remarkable career including a White House performance in “Billy the Kid” for President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962, and was featured on the cover of a 1947 Life Magazine alongside Melissa Hayden (Koesun in profile)

Melissa Hayden

After her time with American Ballet Theatre from 1945 to 1947, Melissa Hayden, the Canadian born daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, danced with the New York City Ballet for over 3 decades, almost 2 of those decades as Prima ballerina
Melissa Hayden

Enrica "Ricki" Soma

American Ballet Theatre dancer Enrica "Ricki" Soma
Ballet dancer Enrica "Ricki" Soma in a 1946 photo by Philippe Halsman; Soma was the 4th wife of film director John Huston and mother of actress Anjelica Huston

Michael Kidd

… when I said there were choreographers who were still dancing [at Ballet Theatre], I didn’t mention Michael Kidd … Michael Kidd did the choreography for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers… a lot of other musicals too… choreographing and dancing.

Michael Kidd in the Ballet Theatre production booklet from Barbara’s scrapbook
Michael Kidd talking with Fred Astaire during filming of subway scene in The Band Wagon (1953)

Barbara was certainly in the right time and place with Ballet Theatre, which turned out to be a talent goldmine where a fair number of future dance, theatre and film icons got their start. Michael Kidd, who happened to be at Ballet Theatre from 1942 to 1947 is a case in point.

The talented “kidd” from Brooklyn who started off with the name Milton Greenwald, was born in 1915 to Russian immigrants who had fled the falling Russian Empire on the brink of revolution.

Kidd’’s inclination for dance came through in school, though he would diverge from his path with several years of college in chemical engineering, which perhaps mainly served to spur his appetite for his number one choice.  Either way, Kidd could not be held back from his calling and joined the School of American Ballet as a scholarship student in 1937. 

The student quickly became the dancer, performing with American Ballet and associated companies.

Michael Kidd’s signature ability to artistically mimic personality styles and mannerisms turning them into choreography, seamlessly woven into the fabric of a story, was impossible to miss from the get-go.  His opportunity to do his thing came at Ballet Theatre in 1945 with his first production On Stage! about a stagehand who falls in love with a dancer.

This was followed by his rapid ascension to the heights of Broadway with Hollywood less than a step behind, and the rest is history for the 5-time Tony Award winner who cast his fellow company member Barbara in his premiere ballet.

Michael Kidd in choreography mode

Barbara reminiscently points to photos in her scrapbook article naming off her peers in the Ballet Theatre company aboard the Queen Mary in September of 1946:

Here we are on the Queen Mary… going over to London… that’s me and this is Alicia Alonso, she was the Cuban ballerina… And that’s John Kriza…

Barbara's famous Ballet Theatre colleagues aboard the Queen Mary

John Kriza

Berwyn, Ill.native John Kriza was a vibrant, engaging principal dancer representing Ballet Theatre for over 2 decades from its very start in 1940, a key figure in introducing ballet to the American audience
Jerome Robbins, John Kriza, Michael Kidd, Janet Reed, and Muriel Bentley in Jerome Robbins' Fancy Free (ABT, 1944)
Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Choreographer

Alicia Alonso

Alicia Alonso, who is distinguished with the title prima ballerina assoluta – a rare merit reserved for only the most exceptional dancers – is an artist whose inspiration extended into the sphere of culture and politics, affecting the ideals of both her own country and the world.  Arguably her greatest gift is her living legacy, the Cuban National Ballet, (aka Ballet Nacional de Cuba) founded in 1948, along with its associate educational institution, the prestigious Cuban National Ballet School, (established in 1950).

Born in Havana, Alonso began her formal ballet education with the Russian-born ballet teacher and Cuban choreographer Nikolai Yavorsky at the Pro-Arte Musical Society in Havana (Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical) in 1931, the same year that Yavorsky was invited to direct the dance school established by the Society.  Around 1937, Alicia moved to NYC with her fellow ballet-student husband, where she continued to study at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet, associated with the New York City Ballet.

Afflicted with a serious eye condition, Alicia underwent a series of surgeries, forcing her to be bedridden for extensive periods of time, with instruction not to move or even laugh – lest it may affect the healing process of the eye. During this time, with the continuous devotion of her husband, Alicia continued to study dance on a daily basis, teaching herself great classical ballet roles including Giselle using just her fingers.

The surgeries proved unsuccessful and Alicia was left partially blind, but unstoppable.  Adjusting her technique and partner skills to work with her, she continued to perform at an optimal level, as a top-notch artist for years to come.

I danced in my mind,” is her famous quote and a testament to the conviction of the true dancer in us, no matter the journey.

Alicia Alonso shows her spirit in her famous ballet role Carmen; original photo from ICAIC
Alicia Alonso in flight performing Giselle, one of her best-known roles

“Did you meet Jerome Robbins?” we ask.

“Oh sure, we were all in the company together…” Barbara informs us:

… in fact, not many people would warm up before the performance, and I just felt I had to, I didn’t want to hurt myself.  So I would warm up holding onto the piano, and he [Jerome Robbins] would warm up holding onto something else. The two of us… claim to fame.

Barbara's warm-up buddy at Ballet Theatre
Jerome Robbins immersed in imaginative focus (circa early 1940’s)

Jerome Robbins

Barbara’s warm-up buddy went on to create legendary works on Broadway known by audiences far and wide, including the big hits West Side Story, The King and I and Fiddler on the Roof.

Born in Manhattan, Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, whose surname would later change to Robbins, came into a family of Russian-Jewish origin with ties to vaudeville and theatre showbiz society.

In high school, Robbins studied modern dance with a teacher who encouraged improvising steps to music, inspiring a play of imagination and a feeling of freedom to tell stories through movement in the young Jerome.  

In addition to modern, Robbins studied various forms of dance including folk, Spanish and Asian as well as classical ballet with a member of the Pavlova Ballet Company, Ella Daganova, known for her thoroughness in training.  Robbins’ dance education also included the learning of dance composition and performing with the Yiddish Art Theater.

Working with the artforms of classical ballet and modern dance through the media of stage, film and television, Jerome Robbins reached iconic status as an American choreographer, director and theatre producer.

Recipient of five Tony Awards, two Academy Awards for directing and a Kennedy Center Honoree, Jerome Robbins is not only a name in history, but a great example of how our impressionable childhood imagination is fostered by our exposure to the richness of arts and culture, and our potentials are shaped through the opportunities afforded by our environment.

We move onto the next series of photos of a less known ballet about which Barbara educates us:

Les Patineurs we did, that’s the ballet about the skaters and they [Ballet Theatre] put it together, cast it, in London because it was choreographed by [Frederick] Ashton, the British choreographer — and they chose me to be in it!

Of course we ask Barbara if she ever saw the famous maestro. “Once, he came in to approve the casting, but then he turned it over to an assistant,” she tells us.

Barbara shows us Les Patineurs ballet scenery image

I point to a waify illustration that catches my eye.  Barbara tells me: “I think it’s a costume sketch… “ and without losing a moment’s focus continues on with her Ashton ballet:

… here is Patineurs… this was my costume, they did it from the back with the little pillbox hat… Les Patineurs… and they put down a white ground cloth for it and pulled it really tight so we didn’t trip.

waify image in Les Patineurs section of Barbara's scrapbook
Barbara shows us her Les Patineurs costume with pillbox hat

SIDEBAR

The composition of Frederick Ashton.

Sir Frederick Ashton in a photo by Jane Bown (1970)

Though Ashton’s choreography expresses a spectrum of styles, from classical to dramatic to abstract, his connection with the Ballets Russes, through its former members including Bronislava Nijinska and Marie Rambert, has a deep influence in the formation and foundation of the man’s work. 

Perhaps the first and foremost influencer of this great British choreographer is Anna Pavlova, a legend in a stratosphere all her own, through whom he deeply fell in love with ballet upon seeing her perform when he was a 13 year old boy.

It is said that Pavlova “… inspired Ashton’s undying love of classical technique, and…all … that accompanies ballet: its airs and graces, its manners and mannerisms…”  as noted by Sanjoy Roy of The Guardian.

The second figure of notable impression on the art of Ashton is Bronislava Nijinska, the Polish-born, St. Petersburg Imperial Theatre trained dancer who performed with, and later choreographed for the Ballets Russes… and yes, sister of the famous Vaslav Nijinsky.

Hailed as an important 20th century choreographer, Nijinska is credited with introducing a more simple, modern aesthetic to the previously fancier, decorative variations in staging classical ballets.

Her specific sphere of influence on Ashton’s style appears to be her emphasis in using the upper body (the articulation of the head, shoulders, arms and hands, as writer Sanjoy Roy put it) to tell a story with less weight on emphasizing the legs as the primary mode of expression.

Interestingly enough, Bronislava Nijinska took her last breath just a few miles from where Barbara and I live now, at her home in Pacific Palisades, CA, albeit be it 1972. It turns out the international dance leader had been a Los Angeles resident for over 3 decades, moving and opening her own school out here in 1941.

Anna Pavlova with pet swan Jack (1927)
Bronislava Nijinska, circa 1930's

The third significant influence in Frederick Ashton’s life is Isadora Duncan, the American born, free-spirited pioneer of a dance, whose value lay in natural movement over classical technique, and whose mind was a fountain overflowing with imagination through movement.

Duncan, whose deep-rooted mission was “the creation of beauty and the education of the young” infused Ashton’s innovative aspect with a spark for the element of simplicity and honesty in speaking through the dance.

These intelligences came to form central components in the identity formation of Sir Frederick Ashton.

Isadora Duncan, early 1900's

Barbara spouts off more names… 

Nora Kaye… there’s Alonso and Hugh LaingIgor Youskevitch and his wife… a dancer, teacher.

Alicia Alonso and Igor Youskevitch in photo opp for Swan Lake at Ballet Theatre (circa late 1940’s); photo by Maurice Seymour
American prima-ballerina Nora Kaye with principal Hugh Laing, two of the most significant dramatic ballet dancers of the 20th century, in (likely) Antony Tudor’s version of Romeo and Juliet at Ballet Theatre in NYC (c.1947)

Lucia Chase & Mikhail Mordkin

We continue to flip through [American] Ballet Theatre’s annual production booklet with Barbara’s nonchalant commentary…

This was the director of the company, Lucia Chase, and she had lots of money… she was a wonderful actor dancer.

Johnny Kriza who was just so charming.

There’s Michael Kidd [dancer there too], he did a ballet called “On Stage” and put me in it – I was so happy. We all had things to say.

Ballet Theatre [today known as American Ballet Theatre] co-founder Lucia Chase

Frankly, Lucia Chase can be credited with midwifing ballet into American society.

In fact, Chase not only brought ballet to America, she empowered the artform globally by facilitating a cultural exchange and integration of talent between the US, United Kingdom and Russia.  

Her efforts – or perhaps more accurately, passion – to advance ballet and thus advance the cultural wealth of our country and as well as broaden our horizons through artistic collaboration in the international arena have been honored through multiple platforms including magazine awards, honorary degrees from universities across the country, invitation to join distinguished organizations abroad, the city of New York itself, and even a Medal of Freedom from the US President in 1980.

What is perhaps less known is that her great teacher and influencer was the one-time Bolshoi ballet master and partner of Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Mordkin. Mordkin’s approach to ballet was perfectly aligned with Lucia’s love for acting, as he saw the art from the perspective of entering and playing out the character being danced.

Mordkin was also instrumental in encouraging Lucia to use ballet as a tool in working through her family loss and propelling her focus from personal grief to life purpose.

Another mighty figure from the annals of ballet history, Mordkin who formed his own company in the US with his American students including Lucia Chase, is credited with helping to “build the foundation for ballet in America”.  By all accounts, the seed of Mordkin was successfully planted in Lucia who may be said to have carried out his mission on a grand scale.

Anna Pavlova and Michael Mordkin performing the Russian Dance by Foulsham & Banfield, published by Rotary Photographic Co. (1909)
Michael Mordkin, from The Rucker Archive (c. early 1900s)

Balanchine’s Waltz Academy

Barbara points to several photos with impressive scenery. They are shots of Balanchine’s Waltz Academy, a production he did for Ballet Theatre, which Barbara “… did get to do… that’s me right there,” she proudly shows us.

“… all these pictures are ballets that had different choreographers,” Barbara explains. “That’s Robbins, Balanchine… Les Sylphides…“

George Balanchine’s Waltz Academy in Ballet Theatre’s production booklet (bottom half) with Jerome Robbins’ Fancy Free on top
close-up of performers in Waltz Academy

“Diana Adams switched to New York City ballet, became a principal dancer with them,” Barbara tells us.

Diana Adams with Arthur Mitchell in George Balanchine's Agon in photo by Martha Swope from Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library (c.1957)
New York City Ballet rehearsal of "Agon" with Diana Adams and cultural phenom Arthur Mitchell, choreographed by George Balanchine; photo by Martha Swope (1957)
George Balanchine and the legendary composer Igor Stravinsky rehearse Agon in a photo by Martha Swope/ TimePix (1957)

Diana Adams & Agon

A principal with Ballet Theatre and subsequently New York City Ballet, Diana is recognized for her exceptional aptitude and versatility in both dramatic and abstract ballet genres. A favorite dancer of George Balanchine, Adams was appointed by the unflinching mastermind to teach at his School of American Ballet, whilst still a member of the company, a school where later on Diana would become dean, also at Mr. B’s behest.

One of Diana Adams’ most technically and psychologically demanding roles was Balanchine’s Agon set to the music of Stravinsky. 

A ballet whose name stems from the ancient Greek word for struggle or competition, Agon still remains an enigmatic study to both audiences and dance scholars. The most obvious clue to understanding this Balanchine work is its ever-presently loud dynamic of oppositional forces at play in every aspect of its expression, including the ultimately stark juxtaposition of a black male and white female in the lead roles.

It’s almost as if this echoes back to the very core of Balanchine’s own nature – expressing an unapologetic, even merciless severity, intensity and passion defining every aspect of his work and character.

If we go a step further, perhaps it’s not a long shot for this seminal work to represent the underlying essence of Mr. B – a vessel with a divine spark forced to re-create often tormenting ‘themes & variations’ of a dualistic world where yin and yang are always at war.

Now this guy became a big Hollywood dancer, Tommy Rall, he was … in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers… we just saw him in Kiss Me Kate, the old movie version.

And he became a Broadway choreographer, Don Saddler, every year he would do the Tony’s show…

Tommy Rall and Ann Miller in Kiss Me Kate
Donald Saddler (standing) with actor Robert Morse in 1973; photo by Neal Boenzi of The New York Times
Barbara leafs through her scrapbook to show us a page on Tommy Rall and Donald Saddler

Donald Saddler

A dancer with the original American Ballet Theatre, where he made life-long friendships with the likes of Jerome Robbins and “Fiddler on the Roof” star Maria Karnilova, Saddler went on to choreograph a number of notable ballet, stage and film productions including the Tony Award broadcasts.

Donald had an uncanny ability to tell a period story: “I do new research for every show because I believe you must recreate a period with respect and love,” The New York Times quotes him… “Each show is like taking a journey to another time and place.”

His talent for transforming the dance arts into a vehicle of time-travel, was recognized with several Tony Awards.

Saddler’s life in dance started with his attempt to regain strength after a bout with scarlet fever, after which there was no turning back. “I only knew who I was when I was dancing.”  he reportedly told The New York Times years later.

We have to wrap up somewhere, and we end our afternoon with Barbara’s account of André Eglevsky, at whose ballet school she taught in New York … at a later point in her life.

…got back to New York and I taught for André Eglevsky, do you remember that name?  He and Youskevitch were the big macho male ballet dancers from that era… Andre was not a very good teacher but he was a good example… take a preparation and do about 10 pirouettes without any effort… look and try to analyze how he did it, incredible – big, strong man.

Andre Eglevsky in a photo by Carl Van Vechten (1944); image from Marquette University Archives
Andre Eglevsky with Maria Tallchief, Diana Adams, and Tanaquil LeClerq (left to right) at New York City Ballet (circa 1950’s)

André Eglevsky

Born in Moscow, the soon to be ballet prodigy moved to France early on with his mother, fleeing the revolution of his country, and as is often times the case with other ballet dancers, his entrée into this exclusive world was in part prompted by Andre’s need to recover and strengthen his system after his ordeal as a young boy.

In Nice, Eglevsky studied with a group of formidable Russian teachers, several of whom were notable figures from the country’s Imperial world including Olga Preobrajenska. Later on, Andre would study in London with another star of the Mariinsky Ballet, Nicholas Legat.

Recruited by the Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo at just 14, he eventually became the company’s lead dancer alongside its star Igor Youskevitch. This is also where Andre developed his partnering skill working with the best of the best – namely the legendary Alexandra Danilova, who left Russia together with George Balanchine, the two joining the original Ballets Russes – she as a dancer and her as-yet unknown companion as choreographer.  

Eglevsky went on to become principal dancer with the world’s premiere companies and partner with ballet’s greatest.  His vagabond life-style took a more stable turn during his stay with Balanchine’s American Ballet (ltoday known as New York City Ballet) for a period of seven years.  

One of the most impressive figures in the life of Eglevsky was none other than Mikhail Fokin from whom he acquired what must have been the greatest role of his career – the “Spectre” in “Le Spectre de la Rose”, a role he eventually passed onto Mikhail Baryshnikov.

In the late ‘50’s Eglevsky together with his wife, also a former dancer with American Ballet and a student of the artform’s pioneers, opened their own ballet school and some years later formed the Eglevsky Ballet.  

Characterized by his imposing stature and definite presence of pedigree atop his natural gift for this discipline, Andre Eglevsky is regarded as the preeminent classical dancer of his era. 

It has been a transporting encounter.  We all give each other hugs and look forward to reuniting again.

Searching for Barbara...

I’ll end with this interesting message I found on BroadwayWorld.com in the midst of my research on Barbara’s exceptional life…

We are all searching for someone… someone who is in some way a piece of the puzzle on the road to discovering who we really are.

In fact each one of us holds a unique key to this great puzzle that we are all here to solve.

The secret is to match the puzzle pieces correctly. And it’s all about CONNECTION.  

Each CONNECTION brings us a step closer to our purpose, our talent, the expression of who we are … our IDENTITY.

Our drive for CONNECTION is deeply rooted in our DNA. And so underlying everything else that we do, is our drive for CONNECTION.

Our intuitive mind always directs us in our quest, if we listen. Our intuition is a voice that does not force, a voice that does not come from fear, it is a voice that simply knows. Our intuition is the voice through which our soul speaks to us.

Our Identity is our source of life, it is what gives us our beauty, our power, our riches… and finding our Identity is the only thing that can truly save any of us.

And so, I treat this essay on the rarely serendipitous journey of Barbara Cole and all the players in it, as an exploration of a life bearing the fruits of the spark of CONNECTION with self, with our natural talents… with our Identity.

For each of us the path to self is as individual as we are.  And for some of us, the treasure is more deeply buried than for others.  But beyond the shadow of a doubt, if you focus on what matters most, you will be stunned at what emerges in no time at all.

til next time!

The Ballet Master.

The Ballet Master.

A look into the Tour de Force Life of Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev.

Pyotr Gusev as “Asak” and Olga Mungalova as “Solveig” as the original performers in the ballet “Ice Maiden” choreographed by Fyodor Lopukhov to music by Edvard Grieg (c. 1927)

It seems an overwhelming task to write about the unique individual whom I have studied for almost a month, a personage who is revered as a supreme authority in the high art of classical dance.

So maybe I should start out by writing about how his students and colleagues felt about him.

Pyotr Gusev as “Boris”and Tatiana Vecheslova as “Olga” in Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Bolt (1931) with choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov

Contact with him would leave a mark in the soul, in the brain.

— Celebrated Mariinsky Theatre Principal Nonna Yastrebova

Ninel Aleksandrovna Petrova (born 1924)

Our generation was very lucky, because in the very beginning of our creative journey we met such a person.  It is to him we owe our accomplishment… we worked with spirit, if only to earn his approval.

— Distinguished Mariinsky Theatre Principal Ninel Petrova

Askold Anatolievich Makarov (1925–2000)

His critique was always targeted, precise. No extensive lectures.  He had the ability to draw out of a person that, which was inherent within…

Nona Borisovna Yastrebova (1923-2012)

… This entire group (of famous dancers):  Ninel Petrova, Askold Makarov, Inna Zubkovskaya, Olga Moiseeva, Alla Osipenko – Pyotr Andreyevich made us all…

— Nonna Yastrebova

Yes, my research project into this exceptionally accomplished dancer, teacher, choreographer, artistic director and writer has taken me awhile… not only because of my translation process from Russian to English… but just to wrap my head around the sheer number of accolades garnered by this individual… to metabolize that this person has literally molded the greats of the greats, among his students the famous choreographer Leonid Yakobson and outstanding dancer Aleksey Yermolayev… and that his school buddy and close friend was none other than George Balanchine.

George Balanchine born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze (1904 –1983)
Ninel Petrova

But unless you really seep into the depth of this person’s being, unless you really look into “the man behind the mask”, so to speak, he’s just a great, faraway star, someone you can never reach.

In fact, you find out it’s quite the contrary when you begin to explore the life of Pyotr Andreyevich.

Ballet great Ninel Petrova recounts a tender experience with her beloved mentor:

“Not long before the departure (of Gusev) we were at his apartment on Rossi Street. There were blini (Russian style crepes), a wonderful meal, and it was very simple and easy for us.  He possessed an incredible talent – he was able to be as an equal.”

So let’s take a closer look at the portrait of Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev, a surprisingly approachable man who lived an extraordinary life and left us an extraordinary legacy.

Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev really does have a remarkable fate in terms of his education and life trajectory from early on — it’s as if he was made for his great role.

It is a rare bird who gets to study from the get-go at a private school with a famous ballerina of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, who then brings him into the St. Petersburg ballet school, where he clearly emerges as not only a talented dancer, but a gifted teacher, conducting practice classes with the younger students during his senior years at the school.

Gusev’s famous teacher, Mariinsky Theatre ballerina Olga Preobrajenska (1871–1962)

SIDEBAR

As an older student at the St. Petersburg ballet school, Gusev coached his junior peers including future choreographers Leonid Yakobson and Rostislav Zakharov as well as the future outstanding dancer Aleksey Yermolayev, who even upon becoming the premiere of the Bolshoi Theatre, continued to study with Gusev.

Galina Ulanova

He goes on to become the principal dancer with two of the world’s top-ranking theatres, dancing with partners Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya, legends in their own right, and later becomes a teacher, choreographer and artistic director of the biggest world-known ballet institutions in his country.  If that isn’t enough, he travels to China to organize a ballet company in Peking and choreographic schools in Shanghai and Canton, pioneering the integration of classical ballet with Chinese classical dance.

Maya Plisetskaya

Here I must interject, because it is impossible to go on talking about Gusev without the inclusion of the historical figure Fyodor Vasilievich Lopukhov.

Spanning the majority of his career, Pyotr Gusev sustains a rare collaborative partnership with the famous Soviet-era choreographer Lopukhov, initially dancing break-out roles in his concept-themed experimental productions, and eventually joining forces with his visionary friend to head up the Mikhailovsky (Maly Theatre) where the two continue to up their game by staging societally risqué productions, taking their creative alliance to the next level.

Fyodor Vasilievich Lopukhov
Pyotr Gusev as head ballet master at Novosibirsk Theater (circa late 1960's)

Down the road, Gusev is invited to stage productions as chief ballet-master at the premiere ballet companies of Stanislavski and Novosibirsk Theatres as well as the aforementioned Mikhailovsky. He also becomes head of the unique Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theater.

Next in his repertoire, Gusev is appointed head of the ballet-master department at the Leningrad Conservatory eventually becoming a professor there.

Along the way he pens a number of poignant scholarly articles dedicated to questions about ballet and preserving the legacy of classical dance.

Believe it or not, this is the short version of the man’s resume.

But in all his achievements, three things
really stand out revealing the secret behind his ultimate value and contribution, making this article worthy of writing… and reading 🙂

An astonishing level of organization.

“He had everything remarkably organized.  Everyone always came prepared to the rehearsals – he was a great authority for us…”

— Ninel Petrova

Perhaps Gusev’s organizational talent had its first visible debut in 1923 via the Young Ballet project which he created with his school friend Georgi Balanchivadze, better known as Balanchine, and several other academy peers who would become future notables. The Young Ballet project was a series of evenings mostly showcasing performances staged by Balanchine, and attracted enthusiasts and young dancers including the acrobatically inclined Olga Mungalova, who would become Pyotr’s irreplaceable partner for many years to come.

Olga Mungalova with Pyotr Gusev in George Balanchine’s choreographic samples at Petrograd Training Ballet Theatre Academy (Petrograd, 1923)

To organize such a project is no ordinary endeavor. It takes a sharp, focused mind with an unobstructed vision of what you want and the ability to harness it.

It equally demands the kind of broad-mindedness that is driven to create beauty on a grander than personal scale.  Because it is about bringing talents together and seeing them shine as a group.

But that’s not all.  This skill-set must be accompanied by the ability to draw out the best in people, which means to see the best in people.

And this brings us to the next discernible trait of Pyotr Gusev.

A gift to see and draw out talent.

To see the best in people means to see the often less noticeable traits and latent potentials tucked beneath our outermost layers.  And in this respect, Gusev went above and beyond.

“He was able to see talents, with an exceptional ability to grow them,”  as prominent writer D. Truskinovskaya puts it.

Former head of Novosibirsk Ballet and Philharmonic, Alexander Savin recalls:

“Gusev had a god-given talent, to see the potentials of a ballet master in a dancer.”

Savin goes on to say that this is in fact, how world famous ballet figures Oleg Vinogradov and Nikita Dolgushin got their start:

“… he [Gusev] initiated Oleg Vinogradov into producing “Swan Lake” and practically convinced Nikita Dolgushin to start staging his first big works: “Cinderella” and “Romeo and Juliet”.

Oleg Vinogradov
Nikita Dolgushin

From the composite of sources describing his life and career – the two being literally fused – it becomes apparent that Pyotr Gusev’s creative drive was fueled through his work with young dance professionals.

“He always helped young people…” an article quotes ballerina Ninel Petrova’s recollection of Gusev.

“Gusev’s style of work was in his work with the dancers… He encouraged artists to try out for different roles, secured a ballet coach… [and] send them out onto the stage,” contributes Alexander Savin.

“Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev had a principle, from which he even suffered – he promoted the young…” remembers his student and colleague, ballerina Nonna Yastrebova.

Yastrebova further reveals:

His life was not at all easy… Pyotr Andreyevich had very big problems.  He was in fact removed… he left Petersburg. And because of what? Because, he put us, the youth, into productions.  We suffered for him very much. But it was impossible to shove us back.

A part of an earlier quote by ballet principal Ninel Petrova bears repeating in appreciation of his gift:

Our generation was very lucky, because, in the very beginning of our creative journey we met such a person.  It is to him we owe our accomplishment. Pyotr Andreyevich – an incredible leader, dance coach, teacher…

Nonna Yastrebova as the Autumn Fairy in Cinderella (Kirov Ballet, 1940′s)

If Pyotr Gusev was the sculptor of human talent, then these young dancers were the perfect medium for the molding and shaping of its expression.

“King of Partnering”.

Pyotr Gusev with Olga Mungalova in George Balanchine’s choreographic samples at Petrograd Training Ballet Theatre Academy (Petrograd, 1923).

Gusev had a remarkable quality that garnered him the famous title “king of partnering.”

“This artist… contributed a huge amount to the development of partner dance,” writes D. Truskinovskaya, “…and even today not many artists can repeat his almost acrobatic stunts.”

Nonna Yastrebova contributes excitedly:

The way Pyotr Andreyevich lifted you, no one could lift a partner.  No one!

What Lepeshinskaya (renowned Bolshoi ballerina) did in the famous “Moszkowski Waltz”?  She ran to him for the ‘fish dive lift’, holding her arms in back of her and… jumped!  And he caught her. He could catch from any position…

Freeze frame from the famous Moszkowski Waltz performed by Pyotr Gusev and Olga Lepeshinskaya for Bolshoi Ballet (circa 1940)
Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre with a 56-year tenure (debuting in 1860, and retiring in 1916)

Yastrebova goes on to gives an almost humorous, historical context to the significance of Pyotr Gusev’s partnering know-how:

Earlier, such a thing didn’t exist. Pavel Andreyevich Gerdt (the best dance partner of the imperial theatre era – “News” source) walked next to, some held by the hand, and if he circled around – this was already very good. But to push one up (high), double ‘fish’ lift down – this only Gusev could do.

Frankly, the real value lies not in his “stunts”, but what enabled Pyotr Gusev to impeccably perform the never-before seen feats. We can certainly get a clue as to what it is from exalted Mariinsky Theatre prima Tatyana M. Vecheslova’s quote:

Gusev was glorified as an outstanding partner, “king of partnering”… the  real virtuosity was that Gusev never clung to his partner. Performing the most difficult combinations, he barely touched her.  This created a feeling of lightness, ease. His technique, developed to the level of excellence, giving the dance an [exceptional] mood.

 

Pyotr Gusev and Olga Mungalova in Alexander Serov’s Opera “Judith” Dance of the Egyptian acrobats with choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov (1925)

What does this clue to Gusev’s rare aptitude imply?

Apart from the caliber of preparation required from a professional on this level – a given – this picture clearly denotes Gusev’s ability to genuinely CONNECT with his partner, to feel and gauge the mood, energy and character with whom he was dancing.

In fact, you can see the element of CONNECTION running through all the facets of Pyotr Andreyevich:

Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev with influential ballet educator Alisa Vasilevna Nikiforov at Novosibirsk Theatre (circa late 1960's)

… through the impressive synergy in the wiring of his brain allowing for genius in organization

… through his uncanny insight into the ability of others

… through his flair to bring talents together into a collaborative unit

… through his power to sear knowledge into the mind and heart of those he worked with

… through his piecing together of prior works with meticulous attention and methodical re-staging technique

… through his versatility in staging numerous and multifaceted ballets ranging from classic revivals to avant-garde abstractions

… through his capacity to bring the elite world of ballet to a greater audience, giving us insider access to privileged information through his earnest, concise and encompassing writing on the subject.

All these things – the ability to envision, construct, order, relay, transform – are based on CONNECTION…  a connection of qualities that Pyotr Gusev possessed within himself.

Ultimately, Pyotr Gusev was able to inspire the formation of personality in others.  He had the gift to grow Identity. Really, he was just passing onto others what he himself already had.

And in all likelihood the framework of classical ballet is what fostered this phenomenon.

“Seven Beauties” to music of Gara Garayev, staged by Pyotr Gusev at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1952, and in Leningrad’s Kirov Theatre in 1953
Gusev teaching in Peking (circa 1960)

Ballet is a uniquely powerful instrument proven to develop the integrity of the mind-body unit as one, promoting the functions of focus, orderliness and adaptability, bolstering mental acuity, confidence and very importantly the ability to connect with others.

Connection with others comes through connection with yourself… which in turns comes through connection with your own innate qualities.

This is what it means to have Identity… to “Know Thyself” as the famous aphorism goes.

And this is what ballet can help to bring out in us… the innate capacities already living within.

To know thyself is to have everything and Pyotr Gusev’s life is an exemplary portrait of this.  Through this point of view, he’s not just a dusty old figure in the annals of ballet history, but he comes to life as the ignitor of the great potential in all of us.

The creative offspring of Pyotr Andreyevich Gusev.

Perhaps one of Gusev’s most devoted students, Aleksey Yermolayev went on to pass the torch of his knowledge to the next generation of greats including the supreme Bolshoi principal and ballet master Mikhail Lavrovsky and famed Bolshoi dancer Vladimir Vasiliev, named “God of the dance” by Fyodor Lopukhov.

But don’t take my word for it!  Here’s an excerpt describing the rehearsal image from its contributor, The Reborn Art Foundation in Moscow:

In the 1960s, stars of world ballet and the best dancers of the Bolshoi, such as Mikhail Lavrovsky, Yuri Vladimirov, Maris Liepa, Boris Akimov, Alexander Godunov, and Vyacheslav Gordeev, all worked with Yermolaev. 

Vladimir Vasiliev was Yermolaev’s first student and his successor as a dancer.

Alexei Yermolaev rehearsing with his student Vladimir Vasiliev; photo by Leonid Zhdanov (1971)
Vladimir Vasiliev
Mikhail Lavrovsky
Mikhail Lavrovsky and Natalia Bessmertnova in “The Legend of Love” at the Bolshoi Theatre
Lali Kandelaki rehearsing “Romeo and Juliet” with Mikhail Lavrovsky at State Ballet of Georgia (2011)

Pyotr Gusev’s mentee Leonid Yacobson was instrumental in influencing and helping to shape the creative force of Boris Eifman, a pioneer of ballet exploration in his own right.

Boris Eifman, photo by Sasha Onyshchenko
Tableau of the “Gates of Hell” from Boris Eifman ballet “Rodin”; photo by Gene Schiavone

A good note to end on….  is that all this circles back to ‘lil ole me’ through my dear ballet friend Anna Korotysheva, a student of Inna Zubkovskaya, one of the members of Pyotr Gusev’s famous group of proteges.

til next time... be inspired to explore, expand and share your find!