In Balanchine's Classroom, the new documentary on American ballet's Russian-born hero, I found a glimpse of SAB, the school I had attended so long ago as well as how it was to be in the Company which I never experienced. There was respect, grace, passion, and the total dedication of almost every person who walked through the doors. Balanchine was like a guru to so many of his dancers.
Most, or many, like Merrill Ashley, were utterly devoted and now teach the master's methods with unwavering fierceness. Carrying on the traditions and very specific knowledge is a gift to us all. Heather Watts is irreverent and funny and has some distance on herself as a Cali Girl and how hard it was to be a Balanchine dancer. Eddie Villella exposes his own checkered history, and is all the more human for it. Jacques d'Amboise was always a favorite and devoted his life not just to Balanchine, but to children who would not grow into Balanchine dancers.
Missing from this very fine and closely observed documentary with rare found footage are any of the nay sayers. Where is Gelsey Kirkland, for example? But Connie Hochman, the director who was also once a student, was sensitive to Balanchine's memory. What she has given us instead is a delicate homage, and that alone is worthy. Brava.
Mourning the Loss of Jacques D'Amboise
Jacques D'Amboise was two totems to me.
First: as a very tiny student at SAB, he was the dashing, handsome ballet star I got to see up close as he came in for class. And with my most favorite ballerina, Allegra Kent, he was the sexy, alluring male who danced Afternoon of a Faun which made me think that ballet was not just a profession but a calling.
Second: at WNET as a producer, my office was next to Emile Ardolino's. At that time Emile and I had big dreams about Hollywood. Emile took the first step: he produced and directed He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin", about Jacques’s National Dance Institute, which won Emile his first Oscar. (He went on to direct Dirty Dancing among many others) The film is still the joyous, upbeat ode to Jacques’s enormous energy, spirit, guidance, leadership, outreach and just plain exuberance. ( look closely and you’ll see a fab Janet Eilber now head of the @marthagrahamdance as the leading lady) I got to meet Jacques then, and a few other times, he just oozed humanity. You can catch the 23 minute version on You Tube. Please do and light up your day.
The ballet world and the whole world will be the poorer for his loss. He didn't only make you feel like dancin', he made you feel, period.
NYC Ballet Digital Fall Season
I think you can still catch the NYC ballet Digital Fall Season with its five premieres today. Produced under the constraints of losing their entire year, it showcases choreographers who have plans to work with the company on longer works. But most important: it shows these ballet dancers can do just about anything.
Here they are using the Lincoln Centercampus, which beats the festival they once had about Architecture of Dance (see my piece for Huffpost) There's nothing like seeing Lincoln Center, like a Giorgio de Chirico painting, empty, surrounded by orange and white bollards, as a backdrop for contemporary movement.
I especially liked Sidra Bell’s piece for taking advantage of that energy bouncing off the buildings, Andrea Miller’s romantic piece to the music of Victor Jara, where the four dancers danced in water, and Justin Peck's which broke out of the campus and found other NY City spots that make our hearts zing. Sara Mearns in an after dark Chinatown was especially haunting.
Sound/Stage at the LA Philharmonic
Though the visual arts still have access to us during the pandemic, the performing arts are suffering mightily. From artists who are part of large organizations to individuals in smaller companies, these troupers are largely unable to gather. A few virtual experiences manage to break through to be uplifting in a way that almost feels like the real thing.
The LA Philharmonic, completely shut down both during its seasons at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl has just begun a series called Sound/Stage focusing on dance music appearing on Fridays. This week's episode, Salon Los Angeles, is an enchanting look at the art of danzon, Mexico's signature ballroom dance as practiced in the vintage Salon in Mexico City (alas, apparently soon to be permanently closed). Gustavo Dudamel, ever inclusive and resourceful, invited some dancers from the Grandeza Mexicana Folk Ballet company to the Bowl to demonstrate in the empty aisles and he leads the orchestra, socially distanced from each other behind plexiglass screens, in this rousing dance number Danzon Number 1 by Arturo Marquez and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
It is the Danzon that had me up on my feet. This dance which depends on precision, and tightly constructed elegant movements, is fleshed out in a bonus sidebar of goodies, including a very moving conversation with film director Alejandro Inarritu who remembers his in-laws stylish danzons in Veracruz. But it is the poignant images of the dancers in an empty Hollywood Bowl that brought me to tears.