I have always loved ballet. Since I was little tyke, I had the dreams that many little girls had about being a prima ballerina. I had a tone of ballet dress-ups and there are pictures of me going back to as little as three-years old of me with tutus and crowns and pretend little ballet slippers. When I was five and six, I took ballet and was in the Nutcracker. The first year I was in the party scene and a snowflake and the following year I was again in the party scene but was part of the "Giggling Girls" dance and also was a Chinese Dancer. The pictures are cute but years later I watched a video and I was not very good. It's OK though.
I was able to keep my love for ballet alive in two ways. First of all, Grandma would take Roni and me to New York City, to Lincoln Center, to see both "The Nutcracker" and "Coppelia." (Funny story about Coppelia.... we would always go see the ballets in Millie Brock's limo and after Coppelia, Roni and I were dropped off at Mom's reunion... the kids were pretty taken aback by the limo and our dresses and we were celebrities until we had to change into our play clothes....) I loved watching the New York City Ballet company onstage and loved even more when I was able to read books about dancing. My favorite growing up was "A Very Young Dancer" about Stephanie, a ten-year-old student at the School of American Ballet who gets chosen to dance the role of Mary/Clara in NYBC's "Nutcracker." I loved how you got to see the entire process of how a ballet is produced, from all the individual and group rehearsals, dress rehearsals on stage, costumes, makeup, the awe that younger dancers have for the seasoned principals. As I got more and more familiar with the members of the NYCB of the 70s and 80s, I would always go back to "A Very Young Dancer" and enjoy seeing pictures of them.
As I got older, I started to pick up other books, many of them autobiographies or memoirs by NYCB principals. My favorites are featured below, ones by Merrill Ashley, Suzanne Farrell, Toni Bentley (which gave me a very interesting view of the life of a corp ballet dancer in the company), Christopher and Jacques d'Amboise. I've read all of them numerous times (except for the Jacque d'Amboise one which has just come out in the last few years) and each time, I love finding out something new about the dancer's personal life, experiences on and off the stage, their view of George Balanchine and their thoughts on being a dancer. I have read these over and over and over again and each time, I love them more.
I love the opportunities that I do get to see ballets, especially when they're the Balanchine ballets that I have read about so much but never gotten to see. Luckily, I found on Netflix some filmed versions of Balanchine ballets and spent several hours over the summer watching them several times each. Below are some of ma favorites. "Tzigane" was written about many times in Suzanne Farrell's memoir, as this was a ballet created for her. Peter Martin's part at the end was a later addition and Suzanne write about how she was glad when he finally showed up to dance with her because it was so lonely on stage. I personally love the beautiful music and the non-traditional moves. "Chaconne" is also absolutely beautiful. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Patricia McBride and her smile and so I love watching her move in the "Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux." And finally, "Diamonds" is one movement of "Jewels", along with "Emeralds" (which I saw this summer while watching "Breaking Pointe on the CW) and "Rubies." After reading about it in both Suzanne and Merrill's memoirs, I was so excited to get a chance to see the famous pas de deux.
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