WEBVTT - S2:Ep 5 - The Prince 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:05.840 Just a heads up. This episode includes descriptions of an 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:18.360 alleged sexual assault. I mean, I knew, we all knew 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:24.880 that once he was gone, things we're gonna change. There 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:31.520 was a feeling in the air in Wilmina. Frankfurt visited 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:35.320 Balancing in the hospital. She was on edge about the future. 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.800 I felt protected by Balancing. He would just always take 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.239 care of me. I knew that, and I knew that 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:45.120 when he was gone, that that was not going to 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:49.080 be the case. Balancing Lee, weak and confused in a 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.040 hospital bed, that he hadn't left for weeks and that 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.400 he would never leave. At seventy nine, he was dying 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.720 of a rare neurological disease. He would have to hand 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.200 over the company to a success user, but the topic 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.360 of succession didn't seem to interest Balancing. He'd say, after 0:01:06.440 --> 0:01:08.760 he died, he wouldn't be there, so they wouldn't be 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:11.679 his ballets. He had no expectation that the New York 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.920 City Ballet would survive his death. He seems to absolve 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:20.440 himself from the decision except for one point. Whoever his 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.600 successor would be, he said, it could only be a 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:29.040 man who loves women. Peter had become the acting director, 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:38.720 and you could feel the shift coming. Peter Martin's was 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:42.760 a principal dancer in the company, Originally from Denmark. Peter 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:45.840 was striking, with full blonde hair and wide set blue eyes, 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:50.520 six two inches of muscle. He was known for his technique. 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:54.200 His movements were steady and precise. His body cut through 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:57.760 the stage at elegant and crisp angles. His dancing could 0:01:57.800 --> 0:02:07.960 be emotionless, his expression never changing. The whole package suited 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:14.880 Balancing and his plotless abstract ballets. You know, I had 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:16.720 lots of good times with Peter. I had lots and 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.280 lots of fun with him, and I loved his dancing. 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:23.880 It's a little boring, but it's what a beautiful technician 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:31.120 and balance she made incredible parts for him. Peter had 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:34.120 already been involved in day to day operations. He was 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:38.160 casting parts now and running rehearsals. Maybe he would be 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:44.359 in charge after Balancing died. Whoever Peter loved, they were 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:49.360 starting to dance more. But Wilhelmina says, if he didn't 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.720 like you, you might be shut out. I was on 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:58.359 that list for a number of reasons. People Peter didn't like. Yeah, 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.960 it's not that he didn't like me. It's just that 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:23.560 that I knew too much from my heart podcasts and 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:32.520 Rococo Punch. This is the turning. I'm Erica Lance, Part five, 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:40.240 The Prince. I don't know that you can have a 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.960 ballet company without a certain kind of hierarchy, the same 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:52.320 way orchestras usually have conductors and movies have directors. A 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:54.880 complex piece of art involving a lot of people and 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.600 moving parts needs a north star, and that's what Balancine 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.760 was to his dancers. He controlled the artistic vision and 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.360 a cadre of dancers who are willing to give everything 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:09.000 to be part of it. I think a lot was 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:13.360 codified when Balancing created his school, then company, aspects that 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:17.040 have been institutionalized around dancers, work ethic, and body aesthetics. 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.000 Whoever a successor would be, they wouldn't only inherit the company, 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.359 but also the culture, a culture that sucks you in 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.839 from the moment you enter Balancing School of American Ballet. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:40.400 But I lived without my family. I moved out from 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:45.560 my family, so my grow up school was fast and furious. 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.960 That's where Wilhelmina first encountered Peter Martin's It was nine 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:55.560 she was thirteen years old. In the boarding house for 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.680 the School of American Ballet. There were sixteen of us, 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.880 kind of like little Maiden saw in a row. Right away, 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:06.280 Wilhelmina admired one of the older girls who was sixteen, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:09.080 and she was a very big influence on me because 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:13.600 she was California girl, like really California dream and hip you. 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.440 She had lots of clothes, she was a really good dancer, 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.240 and I was awe struck. Someone else was interested in 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:24.160 Wilhelmina's friend too, Peter Martin's the tall blonde star in 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.240 the New York City Ballet. He wasn't a student, he 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.200 was a professional dancer already in the company. Peter had 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.039 trained and danced at the Royal Danish Ballet, but in 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:37.720 nine he started to perform as a guest artist at 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.600 New York City Ballet. His first role was Apollo. He 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.280 played the role of the young god to his three Muses. 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.240 Soon after, Balancine invited Peter to join the company as 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:52.359 a principal, the highest rank a dancer can reach. Peter 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.800 asked Wilhelmina's friend out on a date. He was twenty 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:59.200 three and she was sixteen, which is you know, a 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:05.200 little I know, but but oh well she was allowed 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.560 to go. So we all fifteen of us helped her 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.120 get dressed and we were all excited little ballerines. And 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:12.440 he came and he wasn't allowed about the second floor 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.680 and we all looked out the window, and off she 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:20.000 went with him, and he was already, you know, big 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:25.240 global star. So it's like she landed the big star 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.520 at a young age. It felt exciting. Yeah, yeah, very 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.599 soon Peter and Wilhelmine's roommate became a couple. We used 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:39.200 to go over to Peters and play poker and hang out. 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.520 It was fun. We were like very young couples, right, 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.200 I was like fifteen sixteen. It felt special to be 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:49.760 a dancer in New York. At that moment. The dance boom, 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.159 great dance of all kinds swirled around them. They could 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.599 catch the performance any night and they were a part 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.440 of it. What was that time, like, did you kind 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.320 of feel like unsupervised teens or what was that sort 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:08.479 of period like, Um, I didn't feel like unsupervised teens. 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.160 I think we felt like we were grown ups. It 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.160 was like sort of glamorous in a way, you know, 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.240 even though we had like crummy apartments and not really 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:23.400 any money or anything. It was fun. And how much 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.520 time did you spend with your fellow dancers, Like in 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.120 and out of the classroom all the time, all the time. 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.640 I didn't have any other friends. It was just you 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:37.160 go from class to lunch to the apartments you shared. 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:42.800 You were always just with dancers. Your experience with them 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:48.840 is so deep, and your children together, and so it 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.680 carries through for the rest of your life. You're not 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:58.200 really call workers your family. Did it ever, do you 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.960 ever feel like it led to like warped relationships where 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.360 you know, lines get blurry, or was there ever a 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.200 flip side where that went too far? Do you feel 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.200 like when it comes to the closeness or just how 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:15.120 you're like constantly in each other's lives. Well, I wasn't 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:21.080 conscious of that, so I don't know. I don't really 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:29.119 know anything else to wil Amina. It just all felt normal. 0:08:31.480 --> 0:08:35.800 It wasn't an until later that I knew there was 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:41.400 a dark side. I was always a little afraid of him, 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:46.439 even before I witnessed anything, and I think that dates 0:08:46.480 --> 0:08:52.360 back to my own instinct with my own father. And 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:58.520 my dad was an alcoholic and so there was just 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:04.360 that avier, and that's a specific behavior. There's an anger 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:12.120 that occurs that's different from other anger. Wilhelmina says they 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.280 all drank a lot and could lose control, herself included, 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.600 but there is an edge to Peter that made her nervous. 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:24.480 Even if there's not a violence that occurs, it's violent. 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:38.520 It crosses a line. First I started seeing Uh. While 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.520 I can talk about the public arguments, it's been publicly 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:46.239 documented that Peter and Wilhelmina's friend had a turbulent relationship. 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.680 They've both used the word tempestuous to describe it in 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:52.840 the past. Neither of them wanted to comment for this series. 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.760 The l A Times quoted her saying Peter and I 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.160 did not have a physically vie relationship, But after a 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.720 long silence, she adds, that is not to say that 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.839 I have not pummeled him in the arm more than once. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.120 And if I pushed Peter hard enough, if I shrieked 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.200 and yelled and cried and screamed and caused a scene 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.600 and he couldn't take it anymore, he would restrain me. 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.600 In those days, there was like a lot. I don't 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:23.160 know what it is now, but there was a lot 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.120 of drinking that went down a lot, a lot and 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.719 a lot of messy stuff because of it. And then 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.560 Wilhelmina says there were times she'd pick up her friend 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:36.719 and she'd see marks on her body or a black eye. 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.800 For people who are are kids, what do you do? 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.160 When Wilhelmina was in her late teens, her father came 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:49.840 to visit New York, My very angry father. He was 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:54.640 in town, and I was having a birthday party. Willomina 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.360 threw a birthday party for her boyfriend. It was at 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.120 Peter's house, a mix of dancers from the comp then 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.599 he attended. One of the guests was the renowned ballerina 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.679 Gelsie Kirkland. Years later, Gelsie would famously write about this 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.959 party in a memoir, It's a true story. It is 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.600 a true story. There were all kinds of people there. 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.040 Gelcie was having an affair with Peter, my boyfriend was 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:25.560 seeing somebody else, and everybody was like kids and screwing around, 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:31.120 kind of like college, right very college. Wilhelmina was downstairs 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.280 in this duplex when suddenly her dad came in. My 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:39.040 dad comes and grabs me and says, you have to 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:41.480 leave now, and I said, well wait, you know, like 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:45.680 threw me in the cab. Wilhelmina's friend, Peter's girlfriend was 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.560 in the cab. Peter was on the ground. My dad 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:56.040 knocked Peter out, knocked him out, apparently. Wilhelmina says her 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.520 dad had come outside for a smoke and he'd found 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:03.080 Peter there in a rage hitting his girlfriend. My dad, 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:07.800 who was also physically abusive to my mother all the time, 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:17.439 drunk there. He was seeing himself right, and that was bad. 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.640 We reached out to Peter Martin's multiple times for comments 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.640 on this and the other details on this episode, but 0:12:26.800 --> 0:12:34.680 we received no response. When I hear Willelmina tell this story, 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.280 it just strikes me how messy all this was. According 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.600 to her in Gelsie Kirkland, there was a far more 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:44.480 senior dancer in the company dating a woman much younger, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.199 and here he was allegedly getting violent outside a party 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.280 full of people they worked with. And then there's will 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.480 Almina in the middle of it all. Her dad, who 0:12:54.559 --> 0:13:00.679 himself has a history of being abusive, gets aggressive. It's 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.160 strange to think how it must have felt for everyone involved, 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:06.839 But It's also strange that it took someone from the outside, 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:11.199 someone not in the company, someone not linked to its hierarchy, 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:40.400 to intervene in that moment. At seventeen, Wilhelmina was a 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:43.520 member of the Quarterballe. Her ambition at this point was 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:45.960 to gain strength as a dancer move ahead in the 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.800 company land more roles. She says, you didn't care about 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.640 fame or being well known. She just wanted to dance 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:55.800 the parts of her idols like Patricia McBride and a 0:13:55.880 --> 0:13:59.959 Leger Kent. Meanwhile, Peter Martin's was still a prince of 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:04.120 in the company. He had relationships with numerous danswers, but 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:07.040 Wilhelmina says she didn't feel he was interested in her. 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.720 I never thought he was really attracted to me. I wasn't. 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.400 It wasn't his body type. He didn't like my dancing, 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:14.760 you know what I mean. It was like I was 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:19.840 just not his cup of tea. We wound up sitting 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:21.600 next to each other on the plane he was going 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:27.080 back to New York, and we were talking and and 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:33.920 he said to me, I'm intimidated by you. And I 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.880 said why, and he said, because you're just so much 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.000 woman you're so feminine, you're so much of a woman. 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:48.560 Peter had one specific type, and that was like a 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.680 boyish body, which is not my body at all. But 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.400 Wilhelmina says something changed when she was about twenty. She'd 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.960 been in the company for four years. This one summer, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:04.560 I was really anorexic and he started coming after me. 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:07.600 He kept trying to get with me right now. I 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:09.360 kept pushing me away and saying, you know, come on, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.000 you have a girlfriend and she's my friend. He just 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.200 didn't let up. He was trying to corner me, corner me, 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:22.320 corner me, and I kept saying, no, you know, stop, 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:27.680 come on stop. It was flattering because he's this big, beautiful, 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:32.520 handsome star. At the same time, it was just unnerving 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:42.359 to have to handle it. One day that summer, Wilhelmina 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.920 says she was performing Balancine's Stars and Stripes. It was 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.680 a high energy piece, rash and silly and technically difficult, 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:57.160 and said to music by John Philip Susa. Valentine directed 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.440 the dancers to prance and jumped in a large moving circle. 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:03.960 They walk on their toes on point, flirt with each other, 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.920 high kick, and do the splits in mid air. They 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:13.120 even salute the audience. He called the ballet an applause machine. 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.680 Will Almina wore a tutu and a bodice that looked 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:21.120 like an American flag. I was on the side of 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:25.640 the wing watching Wilolmina had a couple of movements to 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:27.800 wait through before as she went back on stage for 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:33.280 the finale. Suddenly Peter appeared. He came into the wing 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.200 in his robe and he said, come with me. I 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.520 was like, now, okay. And his dressing room was on 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.680 the side of stage, and I went in and he 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:51.120 opened his rope just like that. He exposed himself, she says. 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:54.560 And I mean, I'm in the middle of a vallet. 0:16:54.640 --> 0:17:00.480 I know, it's like I was like Peter. Then Wilhelmina 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.720 had to go back on stage. She joined the twenty 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:06.440 six other women and fourteen men in the grand finale. 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:11.280 She saluted and kicked, lined and pirouetted and marched. She 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.320 jumped in formation while a giant American flag the size 0:17:14.320 --> 0:17:18.480 of the entire backdrop unfurled behind her. She lunched for 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:30.280 the final pose. And I just kept it to myself, 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.960 you know, I kept it to myself. I think if 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:40.760 you've never experienced that kind of pressure or that kind 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.480 of someone stepping over the lawn, it might be hard 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:50.280 to understand, you know what I mean. It's embarrassing. And 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:55.400 also I wanted to try to keep the peace, so 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:58.320 she didn't tell anyone. She didn't know who she would 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:02.240 tell anyway, there was no hr, there was nobody to 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:03.920 go to, and if you were going to go to somebody, 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:06.879 it was going to be somebody that also wanted to 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:10.480 keep their own job, and we're loyal to them. Do 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:12.399 you feel like that's something you could have gone to 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:18.480 balancing about. No? Uh uh, I think it's that you 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:24.560 just I feel like a victim. Act like a victim, 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:28.040 you know, it's like that kind of I'm easy prey 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:31.639 that way, and you don't want anybody to know. You 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:33.720 always feel like what do what? What have what did 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:36.800 I do to cause it? That's just where you jumped to. 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.439 Other people may have gone to him about things that 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.920 happened to them and and I don't know who they 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:49.200 are or what that would have been, but um, yeah 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.480 I didn't. I it was I didn't feel like I 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:59.159 could go and bother him with that. Yeah, m hm. 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:05.440 I went to him more with you know, dancing problems, 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:11.640 life problems, money problems, you know, and stuff like that, 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.520 but not abuse stuff. And I don't think anybody did. 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:19.920 As years went on, I talked to some people who 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:25.080 were younger after me, and uh, I was telling that 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.600 story and she laughed. She said, oh yeah, she said, 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.679 that's what he did. You know how many people have 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:34.200 that story? That's what he did. We spoke with the 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.200 one dancer she's had. Her friend who has since died, 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:40.080 told her that Peter exposed himself to her like this. 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:45.760 At the time, Wilhelmina mostly blamed herself. When someone steps 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.879 over the line with you, you wonder what you're doing 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:55.080 to make that happen. You wonder what have I done? 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.159 You don't look at that person should just not be 0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:01.040 doing that, I mean, and that's what you do with 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:05.399 your abuser. Wilhelmina says, Peter Martin's left her alone for 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:09.800 a couple of years after that Stars and Strikes performance. Meanwhile, 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:20.320 he gained power in the company Balancing held private coaching 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:24.600 sessions with Peter in the seventies. Like most male dancers, 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:27.520 Peter didn't know a lot about the mechanics of dancing 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:31.840 on point balancing, and Peter would took away in an 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.160 empty rehearsal room for hours with a female dancer. They're 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.240 balanching showed Peter how to choreograph on a woman. He 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:47.600 talked about balance, placement and the female body. By there 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:49.919 was a lot of speculation about whether Peter would be 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:53.000 the one to step into balancing shoes someday. A New 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.639 York Times magazine article from that year wrote about the 0:20:55.720 --> 0:21:01.000 first piece Peter choreographed. Quote, the boys first entrance expresses 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.600 all of Martin's frustration and fascination at being a man 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.920 working at an art made for women. The boy walks 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:10.399 across the stage with his toes curled under his foot. 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:13.679 He experiments and steps on the tops of his toes, 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.439 testing what it feels like trying to climb up on point. 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.600 The critic wrote of Peter, He's an extremely intelligent and 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:34.680 promising choreographer, but he's not found himself yet. The headline 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:40.680 read Peter Martin's Prince of the Dance. That same year, 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:43.640 Peter Martin's got promoted to ballet master in the company. 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.159 Three months after the story ran, the company went on 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:53.359 tour to Fort Worth, Texas, Wilhelmina was. There was a 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.720 party one night. Wilhelmina says, you know, one of those 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:02.080 fancy dinners. And it was in the hotel and I left. 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:04.600 He got in the elevator with me. He followed me 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:06.960 to my room. He was drunk. I had a few 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:09.000 glasses of wine. I was not drunk, but you know, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.320 and he stood at the door and then I said 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:16.040 to him, do you want to come in? And he 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:20.840 said yes, and so he came in. I said to him, 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:22.720 you want me to get some room service and get 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.359 some coffee or do you want to talk? What's wrong? 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:29.800 Peter said he didn't want coffee. Wilhelmina says, instead, he 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.840 came toward her. He attacked me. I didn't think I 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:40.439 was going to get out of it. First he shoved 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:42.679 me up against the wall. You know, there was a 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:44.920 built in desk. He shoved me up against the wall. 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:51.639 He he pushed his body weight against me. He ripped 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.880 up my dress. I pushed him off and he grabbed 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.000 me again, kind of rough, and he threw me down 0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:01.560 on the bed. You know, he got on top of 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:06.040 me and he was out of control. The guy was 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:10.840 out of control, and I think he probably figured since 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:13.200 I asked him in that you know he was gonna 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:20.640 fuck me. I said, Peter, get off, get off, get off. 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:22.840 You know, I was just screaming at him like that, 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:28.919 get off. I remember at one point feeling like I 0:23:28.960 --> 0:23:34.240 wanted to bash him head with a telephone. I remember 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:40.600 thinking that I got it was like I got like 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:46.040 an exorcist voice, and I said, get the fuck off me, motherfucker, 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:52.480 the fuck off me. So I fought my way and 0:23:53.000 --> 0:23:55.840 sniggled my way out from underteath it, and then I 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:59.720 very firmly said to him, Peter, get out of here, 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:07.359 and he finally pulled himself together. He stood up. He 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:11.919 looked at me. He said, you mean you're turning me down? 0:24:14.080 --> 0:24:17.919 And I said, yeah, turning you down one of the 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:19.480 few I remember. I said that. I said, one of 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:28.600 the few, huh, And then he left. It was horrible. 0:24:28.680 --> 0:24:32.160 Right after I was I was shaking. I don't even 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:35.679 know if it's so much that he wanted to like 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:39.720 to have, if it was the sex as much as 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:46.600 the the violence of overpowering me so that I I 0:24:46.840 --> 0:24:54.400 was helpless, physically helpless. That was really nervous about seeing 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:59.400 him in class and in rehearsal and it was so awkward. 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:06.560 But I remember the next day just walking into class 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:11.880 and looking at him and thinking, uh, it was it 0:25:11.920 --> 0:25:16.520 was horrible. Will Almina wasn't a daze for a while 0:25:16.600 --> 0:25:19.520 after that, like she couldn't make sense of it. Yet. 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:25.080 You leave your body, for sure, you get lifted off 0:25:25.160 --> 0:25:27.159 your body in a way, you know, and out of 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:31.080 your head in order to handle it. I think, just 0:25:31.160 --> 0:25:37.640 because you're so wounded and you're trying to recover and 0:25:37.680 --> 0:25:40.560 deal with what happened and did that happen? How did 0:25:40.600 --> 0:25:43.399 that happen? Did I really live through that? You know? 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:49.479 I felt like I had to cover it up and 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:54.480 let it go. Will Almina says she told two friends 0:25:54.520 --> 0:25:57.639 about this incident at the time. We spoke to one 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:00.760 of them, who says she couldn't remember whether Wilhelmina told 0:26:00.800 --> 0:26:04.159 her about it. She says, you remembers the tour and 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:06.600 that tours could be wild times with people running up 0:26:06.600 --> 0:26:09.840 and down the halls drunk. She says it could have happened, 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:11.920 and she can't think of a reason that will Almina 0:26:11.960 --> 0:26:14.919 would invent the story, But she says it was several 0:26:14.960 --> 0:26:18.359 decades ago and she couldn't remember a conversation like that 0:26:18.480 --> 0:26:29.480 with Wilhelmina. Mostly Wilhelmina continued in the company as if 0:26:29.560 --> 0:26:35.440 nothing had happened. She kept it to herself. Before this interview. 0:26:35.520 --> 0:26:38.320 She told a reporter at Salon it was something so 0:26:38.359 --> 0:26:43.000 big she couldn't talk about it. I didn't say anything, 0:26:44.280 --> 0:26:47.160 went the next day into rehearsal, didn't say a word, 0:26:47.800 --> 0:26:54.960 and didn't say a word for thirty years. He didn't 0:26:54.960 --> 0:26:57.960 talk to me really for a little while after that. 0:26:58.840 --> 0:27:04.800 We stayed away from each other after that. That's why 0:27:04.440 --> 0:27:08.520 I knew that when Mr b died, my days were numbered. 0:27:43.320 --> 0:27:46.959 After Balancine died in three the board of the New 0:27:47.040 --> 0:27:50.440 York City Ballet made an announcement Peter Martin's and the 0:27:50.520 --> 0:27:54.520 choreographer Jerome Robbins would run the company together. They'd be 0:27:54.600 --> 0:27:58.280 co ballet masters in chief. Those are terrible shoes to 0:27:58.320 --> 0:28:01.560 have to step into, no matter who you are. Even 0:28:01.560 --> 0:28:04.880 though she felt for Peter, she was wary of him too, 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:08.480 and right away she noticed a difference in his approach 0:28:08.600 --> 0:28:13.680 compared to balancings. Will Amina says Balantine was tough but fair. 0:28:14.480 --> 0:28:19.600 He pushed dancers but never yelled, But Peter was volatile. 0:28:20.480 --> 0:28:24.920 It was taking this new direction of lack of respect 0:28:24.960 --> 0:28:31.919 to the dancers. You know, anger, any moment, this rage 0:28:32.080 --> 0:28:38.400 could occur, and that's scary. It is scary. After this 0:28:38.480 --> 0:28:42.880 one performance of a role in Western Symphony, he took 0:28:42.880 --> 0:28:46.840 me into the hallway and he was screaming at me, 0:28:47.880 --> 0:28:51.240 screaming at me. He was angry with me about the 0:28:51.280 --> 0:28:53.720 way that I danced. How dare I perform like that? 0:28:53.800 --> 0:28:56.520 How dare I take advantage of that ballot, this ballot 0:28:56.560 --> 0:28:58.480 that balancing had coached me in the role, and I 0:28:58.560 --> 0:29:01.120 knew what I was doing for a year. It was 0:29:01.160 --> 0:29:02.960 just a way of ripping me out of it. It 0:29:03.040 --> 0:29:05.160 was just a way to get rid of me. I 0:29:05.280 --> 0:29:07.600 talked back to him when he was screaming at me 0:29:07.720 --> 0:29:10.560 like that, When I stood up for myself, I said, 0:29:10.560 --> 0:29:13.480 what are you gonna do? You're gonna hit me? Because 0:29:13.520 --> 0:29:15.120 he was looking like he was going to hit me, 0:29:15.680 --> 0:29:18.600 and he caught himself and I just ran off crying. 0:29:20.040 --> 0:29:24.600 Valchan never yelled at us. Never. You knew if he 0:29:24.640 --> 0:29:35.200 didn't like it, But there was no screaming. As will 0:29:35.240 --> 0:29:39.600 Amina sees it, balancing was chivalrous, a gentleman, and balancing 0:29:39.680 --> 0:29:42.200 is definitely known for that. All of the dancers we 0:29:42.240 --> 0:29:44.680 spoke to who trained there balancing spoke of him with 0:29:44.800 --> 0:29:49.960 great affection. We've heard stories of kindness and humor. I 0:29:50.000 --> 0:29:52.840 get the impression that balancing dancers, at least the ones 0:29:52.880 --> 0:29:57.880 we've encountered, feel protective over him and his legacy. Wilhelmina included. 0:30:01.040 --> 0:30:04.120 But what's interesting is that you hear about other sides 0:30:04.160 --> 0:30:07.880 of balancing too, That he could be cruel, that he 0:30:07.960 --> 0:30:12.560