Speaker 1: Ballet in Balanchine's company was all about the female, the
Speaker 1: idealized female, and putting her on a pedestal. And one
Speaker 1: of the aspects of being a Balanchine dancer was to
Speaker 1: have your own perfume that was nobody else's perfume. Balanchine
Speaker 1: was so fond of perfume that leaves the scent of
Speaker 1: that dancer behind. So it's as if the dancers have
Speaker 1: a physiological energetic scent or pulse or resonance or feeld
Speaker 1: that is absolutely indelible, and nobody else has it. It's
Speaker 1: their own fingerprint. So we each had to have our own,
Speaker 1: and we doused ourselves, and we're speaking about bathing and perfume.
Speaker 1: We were supposed to leave our scent behind so that
Speaker 1: he would know who was there before him.
Speaker 2: Why.
Speaker 1: It was just part of the culture, the same as
Speaker 1: people dressing up for class. They would just make up
Speaker 1: to the hill to the just so chaponskirt perfect, clean
Speaker 1: shoes and hair done, and their own smells all looking good,
Speaker 1: smelling good, all the volition in place, all the readiness
Speaker 1: of being chosen, selected.
Speaker 3: For My Heart podcasts and Rococoa Punch. This is the
Speaker 3: turning room of Mirrors America Lance, Part four, The Muses.
Speaker 3: The dancers in Balancine's company wanted to present themselves well.
Speaker 3: They wanted to please Balanchine, catch his eye. They knew
Speaker 3: he was watching all the time in that studio without
Speaker 3: windows and from the heavy curtains of the theater's wings.
Speaker 3: By this point, Stephanie Land was an insider. She'd been
Speaker 3: in the company for a while and had navigated the
Speaker 3: culture and ethics of Valancine's world.
Speaker 1: We've rarely got any guests from outside, but Balanchine actually
Speaker 1: really did favor a few people who came in, and
Speaker 1: one was Pilentesmar from Paris Opera.
Speaker 3: Galentesmar was a star ballerina. She danced all over the world,
Speaker 3: and even though she wasn't trained by balanging, she came
Speaker 3: to guest dance with the company.
Speaker 1: Years later, I went to visit Guilln in Paris and
Speaker 1: her apartment and we had a conversation about her experience.
Speaker 1: And here's this person who was an eight twelve at
Speaker 1: Paris Opera. She's a very, very gracious woman, and we
Speaker 1: sat in her most wonderful apartment. She said, you know,
Speaker 1: the first time I went in, I've just never seen
Speaker 1: anything like it. It was like a harim, like a haram, Yes,
Speaker 1: and we were so accustomed to it. But everybody in
Speaker 1: that room was just waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting to be
Speaker 1: the one the concubines or.
Speaker 4: Aum, waiting to be the one for Balancine. Essentially, Yes,
Speaker 4: in his early years, certainly he did either Mary or
Speaker 4: was with six of his ballerinas. And I say his ballerinas.
Speaker 4: They really were part of his life, and each of
Speaker 4: them quite different. In the stories around that, quite different,
Speaker 4: And there are many, many stories to tell. This was
Speaker 4: a time when there really were no clear boundaries, and
Speaker 4: the desire to please and the confusion around that with
Speaker 4: young women definitely was interwoven into that.
Speaker 3: I wanted to ask you about Apollo. Could we talk
Speaker 3: about Apollo a little bit?
Speaker 1: We can.
Speaker 5: I watched a video of you dancing it recently, and
Speaker 5: maybe could you describe that ballet?
Speaker 1: Oh dear, that takes a few hours. I can't even
Speaker 1: begin to speak to Apollo with anything that would give
Speaker 1: it its due. Honestly, it is so rich and so
Speaker 1: ahead of its time. He was beginning to show us
Speaker 1: how time and space and bodies and mind and music
Speaker 1: could be sculpted and merged.
Speaker 3: Apollo is Balancing's first major collaboration with the composer Igor Stravinsky.
Speaker 3: It was the start of what would be dozens of
Speaker 3: projects they partner on, and it launched Balancing into international
Speaker 3: fame when he was just twenty four. The ballet follows
Speaker 3: young Apollo, the Greek god of music, as he is
Speaker 3: visited and instructed by three muses, the Muse of Poetry,
Speaker 3: the Muse of mime, and the Muse of dance and song.
Speaker 3: At first, Apollo doesn't seem to know what he's doing.
Speaker 1: He's like a shaky cult or a young deer that
Speaker 1: isn't quite on its legs yet. And then you see
Speaker 1: him find his ground.
Speaker 3: You watch him become an artist and a god. During
Speaker 3: the ballet, each muse dances for Apollo. They teach him,
Speaker 3: they inspire him. At times, it's hard to tell who's
Speaker 3: in power. They're all learning from each other. When Stephanie
Speaker 3: danced it, she played the Muse of poetry Calliope. She's
Speaker 3: the first of the muses to dance for Apollo, and
Speaker 3: as she dances for him, her body suddenly caves in
Speaker 3: on itself, as if an emotional or physical pain. Each
Speaker 3: time you hear the cellos make a sudden, low sound.
Speaker 3: Then she reaches out while holding one hand to her heart,
Speaker 3: as if she's finally expressing what's within. Her mouth opens
Speaker 3: as if to speak.
Speaker 1: This taking from the gut, from the core, from the soul,
Speaker 1: through the throat, through the mouth, and out into the world.
Speaker 1: It is again, I think, in that way that is
Speaker 1: so Hallmark Balanchine about the importance of women in a
Speaker 1: man's life. Only now, of course, the women are muses
Speaker 1: and goddess creatures on Mountain Olympus, and that they are
Speaker 1: going to teach this young god all that he needs
Speaker 1: to learn. They are the mentors, the guides, the muses.
Speaker 3: Beyond the basic story, the ballet itself is beautiful. The
Speaker 3: movements feel classical yet totally modern. At times, Apollo holds
Speaker 3: all three of the muses hands and leads them or
Speaker 3: moves them around in a chain, tangling them with each
Speaker 3: other in this abstractly shaped knot. It's interesting to watch
Speaker 3: how the power shifts throughout who is leading who was learning.
Speaker 3: Apollo controls and manipulates the muses. Other times it seems
Speaker 3: he struggles to contain them, struggles to keep up Ultimately,
Speaker 3: Apollo takes his place as a god. Armed with the
Speaker 3: knowledge of the muses. He's now powerful over them.
Speaker 1: It is his deep bow to the idealized female and
Speaker 1: their role in shaping the world, shaping that world which
Speaker 1: is otherworldly.
Speaker 3: An ode to his muses. Over the years, Balanchine would
Speaker 3: have many.
Speaker 2: When he became very interested in someone. They might have
Speaker 2: been sixteen or seventeen. They had certain exquisite gifts like
Speaker 2: maybe an exquisite Arabesque or jumping, or maybe turning, or
Speaker 2: the way the arm the upper body work together.
Speaker 3: When Garifola is a dance historian who lives in New York.
Speaker 3: She saw many Balanchine ballets during the dance boom in
Speaker 3: the seventies. When Balancine was inspired by a dancer, he'd
Speaker 3: choreograph dances on her, as they call it, and not
Speaker 3: just teach her the steps, but really dance through it
Speaker 3: with her in a way that felt special, and in
Speaker 3: many cases he'd fall in love with her.
Speaker 2: I think for balancein working with someone and dancing with
Speaker 2: someone was perhaps the only way in which he could
Speaker 2: create a really close relationship.
Speaker 3: Balanging was totally absorbed in the art form, and he
Speaker 3: asked the same of his dancers to fully surrender to
Speaker 3: the art form and to his vision. Holly Howard was
Speaker 3: one dancer Balanchine was drawn to early on, in the
Speaker 3: nineteen thirties, she danced the role of a muse in
Speaker 3: the first performance of Apollo in the United States.
Speaker 6: Holly Howard a wonderful American dancer. She was arguably Balanching's
Speaker 6: first American muse, like the first American dancer that he
Speaker 6: became really obsessed with and that really drove his art.
Speaker 3: Jim Stikeen researched Balancing's early career. He scoured the diaries
Speaker 3: of Lincoln Kirstein, the man who invited Balanging to the
Speaker 3: US to start his work. The diaries gave Jim a
Speaker 3: window into the dynamics of those early years in the
Speaker 3: United States.
Speaker 6: Balancing took a romantic interest in Holly Howard, and they
Speaker 6: were kind of a couple. You know, everyone's super young.
Speaker 3: And at one point they were touring the East Coast
Speaker 3: on the bus, Balanging sat with Holly his current news.
Speaker 6: When they were in Princeton, Holly Howard, after their show,
Speaker 6: decided to go out with some of the Princeton men
Speaker 6: and the next day when they're getting back on the
Speaker 6: tour bus, Balancing sitting next to a different dancer and says, oh, well,
Speaker 6: you know, you decided to go out to the Princeton
Speaker 6: Boys so you can sit next to someone else. So
Speaker 6: there's that classic manipulation power move. We don't really need
Speaker 6: to know too many of the details to know that
Speaker 6: there's some games being played and some power dynamics at play.
Speaker 3: Because even though they had a relationship, Balanging was still
Speaker 3: Holly's boss.
Speaker 6: The other chilling tidbit in Christine's Diaries makes a reference
Speaker 6: to one day that Holly Howard had had her fourth
Speaker 6: abortion by Balancing. It's hard to know what that really means,
Speaker 6: but you can read between the lines and think about
Speaker 6: what was happening.
Speaker 3: When you say read between the lines, like, how do
Speaker 3: you read between the lines there?
Speaker 6: So clearly they're sleeping together.
Speaker 3: When you say use the phrase fourth abortion by balancing,
Speaker 3: is that imply essentially the fourth termination of a pregnancy that,
Speaker 3: like Balancing was the father.
Speaker 6: That's my understanding. You know, we know for a fact
Speaker 6: that Balancing didn't want his dancers, especially the start answers,
Speaker 6: to get pregnant and have children, So it's you know,
Speaker 6: Do we have any idea how consensual their relationship was.
Speaker 6: Do we have any idea how consensual those decisions to
Speaker 6: terminate were. Do we have any idea what Holly Howard
Speaker 6: went through to go through those procedures while still dancing
Speaker 6: at a very high level. You know, that's where you
Speaker 6: realize that the cult makes him into this entirely benevolent figure.
Speaker 3: When Jim says cult, he thinks there's almost a cult
Speaker 3: around Balannging. He also calls it the Church of Balancing,
Speaker 3: fervent admirers who don't want anything bad said about him, writers, critics,
Speaker 3: and dancers who'd rather sweep unflattering stories under the rug
Speaker 3: or minimize those stories effects.
Speaker 6: You know, we well probably never know the full story,
Speaker 6: but this is kind of the height of her career.
Speaker 6: She kind of fades away after this.
Speaker 3: These relationships often faded away eventually. Lynn says he'd always
Speaker 3: move on.
Speaker 2: Well, this is a little bit like the Six Wives
Speaker 2: of Henry the Eighth, Not quite, but a little bit
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 3: Balancing married or partnered with a number of these dancers,
Speaker 3: five to be exact, Tamara, Alexandra, Vera, Maria, and Tannakhill.
Speaker 3: But even beyond those marriages, he developed other romantic relationships,
Speaker 3: which always seemed to be intertwined with his work in
Speaker 3: some way. Some of these relationships ended because the ballerina's
Speaker 3: career has led them elsewhere, to cabarets or to Hollywood,
Speaker 3: But more commonly the relationships ended for a different reason.
Speaker 2: I think there's a sense in his work that the ballerina,
Speaker 2: the woman who for a certain moment is ideal, is
Speaker 2: never fully attainable, or perhaps once she appears to be attained,
Speaker 2: then perhaps he loses interest and moves on to something else,
Speaker 2: to someone else, she's no longer ideal.
Speaker 3: Through Balancine's twenties, his thirties, and his forties, his pattern
Speaker 3: of having relationships with his dancers persisted. Sometimes he was
Speaker 3: decade older than his romantic counterpart. His company grew, he
Speaker 3: had more and more talented dancers coming into their own
Speaker 3: and inspiring his choreography.
Speaker 2: In nineteen fifty four, he was fifty years old, and
Speaker 2: he sees this talent around and he's making ballets for
Speaker 2: them all. And then there's Allegra Kent. It's very young,
Speaker 2: Allegri Kent.
Speaker 7: This is siren City. The traffic doesn't stop for sirens.
Speaker 7: And it's a free for all.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 7: My name is Allegra Kent. I was born in August eleventh,
Speaker 7: nineteen thirty seven, on the same day that Edith Wharton.
Speaker 3: Died turning producer Alan Lance Lesser, and I met Allegorc
Speaker 3: Kent in her studio apartment in New York, walking in
Speaker 3: felt special. Allegra Kent was one of those muses who
Speaker 3: stood out. She was somebody balannging bent the norms for
Speaker 3: I've known who she was since I was a kid.
Speaker 3: I read one of the books she wrote cover to
Speaker 3: cover many times in middle school. She was my idea
Speaker 3: of the perfect ballerina. It's hard to think of a
Speaker 3: more iconic dancer than Alegra Kent.
Speaker 7: Yes, your wall is just covered in dwellers. Most of
Speaker 7: it is career pictures, but I need more children and grandchildren.
Speaker 3: At eighty five, Alecra's fingers are thin and wrinkled. She
Speaker 3: gestures to the photos on the wall and slow circular motions.
Speaker 3: They're mostly of Allegra, gorgeous and moody, black and white
Speaker 3: images of her in the most beautiful poses mid dance.
Speaker 7: So over here seven Deadly Sinned.
Speaker 3: There are shots of her backstage. One of her balancing
Speaker 3: on point that had been in Vogue magazine.
Speaker 7: This is Russia ninety two. My name is over there.
Speaker 3: A poster in Russian with her name on it, and
Speaker 3: then Balanchine and Allegra both squatting mid motion. They're dancing together,
Speaker 3: side by side. Next to it is a photo of
Speaker 3: the two of them on stage in front of the curtain.
Speaker 3: She holds a bouquet of flowers.
Speaker 7: A bow with Balanchine Saraena Japan.
Speaker 3: Scattered among all this are these blue and black images.
Speaker 3: They look like ink blots, rorshock tests. When we get
Speaker 3: closer we realize they're dark limbs in bright blue water.
Speaker 3: They're photos of Allegra doing exercises in a pool. She
Speaker 3: used to put flotation devices on her arms and legs
Speaker 3: and move in the.
Speaker 7: Water, pushing air down in the water was easy to
Speaker 7: go up, but hard to go down. It's like contrary
Speaker 7: too gravity. I have a certain contrariness in my nature.
Speaker 3: In these pictures in the pool, her body reflected itself,
Speaker 3: cut in half, the pool became a mirror. You can't
Speaker 3: see her torso or her face, just legs and arms
Speaker 3: reflected back. Surreal symmetry. Part of her is always hidden.
Speaker 3: What do you think was your favorite ballet to dance?
Speaker 7: That is very hard to say.
Speaker 3: It's like asking what your favorite child is or something.
Speaker 7: Or your favorite flower, because then I think, oh, all
Speaker 7: the flowers should start with A. Those are all my favorite,
Speaker 7: all the ones that start with B yes, all the
Speaker 7: ones that start with P yes, all the ones it
Speaker 7: start with W. So I could throw out an answer,
Speaker 7: but I think I won't.
Speaker 3: Throughout our interview, Allegra's thoughts felt watery and mysterious and
Speaker 3: hard to pin down. She often left our questions unanswered.
Speaker 3: Allegra was born in Santa Monica, California, to two Jewish parents.
Speaker 3: They divorced while she was still young.
Speaker 7: In California, for a while, everyone changed their religion once
Speaker 7: a week, but my mother decided that we should be
Speaker 7: Christian scientists. According to Christian science, there's no pain. It's
Speaker 7: very complicated.
Speaker 3: The Christian scientists around her believed the physical body had
Speaker 3: no substance, that pain and pleasure weren't real, and Elkra
Speaker 3: took that seriously. When she danced, she told herself the
Speaker 3: pain wasn't real and kept dancing. In this religious household,
Speaker 3: Alekra learned to obey authority, and she learned to keep
Speaker 3: unpleasant feelings hidden with ballet. Even as a kid, she
Speaker 3: realized she had found a way to express herself without
Speaker 3: revealing her thoughts. Dance was how she fought with her mother.
Speaker 3: Dance could bypass words. That's something Balanging would understand. He
Speaker 3: was known for speaking through movement. For the rest of
Speaker 3: Alkra's life, she'd feel that displaying emotions made her vulnerable,
Speaker 3: so she didn't. She held them secret, and that's what
Speaker 3: made dance special. When a Lakra was fourteen, she and
Speaker 3: her mother moved to New York so a Leger could
Speaker 3: pursue dance. She auditioned for a scholarship at the School
Speaker 3: of American Ballet. Her mother did the talking. They brought
Speaker 3: a letter of introduction from her previous ballet teacher, who wrote,
Speaker 3: Alegras dancing was demonic. Balanging observed part of a ballet
Speaker 3: class to a valuate her. She says, even at the time,
Speaker 3: she knew this was a metaphysically all or nothing moment.
Speaker 3: She had the feeling if Balanching rejected her, she'd have
Speaker 3: some kind of breakdown. As a Legger danced, she mirrored
Speaker 3: his face with her own almost involuntarily. His face gave
Speaker 3: nothing away, and neither did hers. She wouldn't let him
Speaker 3: see how important she knew the passing moments were, or
Speaker 3: how eager she was to get a scholarship. After four
Speaker 3: short minutes, he left. It was all he needed. She
Speaker 3: got the scholarship. A year later, she was invited to
Speaker 3: be an apprentice in the company. Soon she took her
Speaker 3: first ballet classes from balancing himself from mister b.
Speaker 7: She liked the way I danced, He liked the way
Speaker 7: I moved.
Speaker 3: One day during class, Balanchine said to her, you can
Speaker 3: do anything.
Speaker 7: But yeah, I was a little different the way I
Speaker 7: approached things, in the way the way I heard the music.
Speaker 7: So yes, but the music came first.
Speaker 3: Of course, Alegra understood Balancine's philosophy. The music came first,
Speaker 3: and the when he talked about it felt almost magical.
Speaker 7: One evening performance, we were doing a Mozart ballet in Salzburg,
Speaker 7: and he said, last night I spoke to Mozart and
Speaker 7: he he started talking about this experience. I wish I'd
Speaker 7: written it down because as he was speaking, one moment
Speaker 7: I was crying and the next moment I was laughing
Speaker 7: because it was so glorious, was so moving, so and
Speaker 7: actually I think he did.
Speaker 3: You think he spooked amongstart.
Speaker 7: I think he communicated with the greatness of the past.
Speaker 3: Could you tell us about Balanchine's relationships with his dancers.
Speaker 3: He fell in love with a number of his dancers,
Speaker 3: He married some of his dancers, and I think that as.
Speaker 7: Far as that was in the early years, and then
Speaker 7: his life became much more complicated, and it's so complicated
Speaker 7: I can't talk about.
Speaker 3: But she would write about some of it in her autobiography,
Speaker 3: and things certainly would become complicated. Alegra writes she noticed
Speaker 3: a pattern in Balanchine's love affairs. There was a time
Speaker 3: limit around seven years. Balanchine got older, the women stayed
Speaker 3: the same age, usually between fifteen and twenty three, Alegro wrote.
Speaker 3: As an apprentice, Aligo found herself in classes with dancers
Speaker 3: she admired, including some of Balanchine's former and future wives,
Speaker 3: who danced side by side. When Alekra was an apprentice,
Speaker 3: Tanakille Leclair was on the rise. Tanny she was called.
Speaker 3: She was eight years older than Allegra and looked like
Speaker 3: modern art. Allegra says, one day Tanny came in with
Speaker 3: a bandage on her nose. Apparently she'd kicked so high
Speaker 3: to the front during a grand Vatma exercise that she
Speaker 3: need herself in the face. Allegra was impressed. Allegra's mother
Speaker 3: and the other mothers talked about Balancine constantly, and that
Speaker 3: included his romantic pursuits. They became experts. They said Tanny
Speaker 3: had caught Balanchine's eye when she was eleven years old. Later,
Speaker 3: when they went on tour, Tanny and her mother stayed
Speaker 3: in a suite with mister b. In nineteen fifty two,
Speaker 3: Balancine married Tanakil. She was twenty three and he was
Speaker 3: forty eight. He'd found his new muse. Allegra's mother didn't
Speaker 3: like this pattern of women. Alegra writes in her autobiography,
Speaker 3: in my mother's mind, there was only one type of
Speaker 3: pain that could be truly serious, and that would occur
Speaker 3: if Balanchine got me. Nothing was as terrible as his
Speaker 3: making me another lolita in his ballerina gallery. In nineteen
Speaker 3: fifty three, Allegra was still an apprentice, and then she
Speaker 3: got the news.
Speaker 7: I was invited into the company. I was fifty.
Speaker 3: She said, yes, What would you say? Were some of
Speaker 3: the pivotal moments or turning points as a dancer.
Speaker 7: Definitely the Unanswered Question that launched you as a star.
Speaker 7: That was the first piece Balanine did for me, the
Speaker 7: first ballet.
Speaker 3: I was seventeen, Balanchine was fifty. Aleikra had been in
Speaker 3: the company two years, dancing in the core. This rehearsal
Speaker 3: was different, just her and four men. Balanchin told Alegra
Speaker 3: to take her point shoes off. She would do this
Speaker 3: piece barefoot, but her feet would never touch the floor.
Speaker 3: Balancin had her climb on top of the ballet bar.
Speaker 3: He placed the four men in front of her, and
Speaker 3: then he said, now, Allegra, step on the men's shoulders.
Speaker 3: The men gripped her ankles and she stepped up. Eventually,
Speaker 3: on stage, the men would wear all black. Their costumes
Speaker 3: dissolved them into the dark backdrop.
Speaker 7: I'm wearing all white leotar. Nothing yell tear down.
Speaker 3: The piece was called The Unanswered Question. It began with
Speaker 3: one man, bear skinned, the only one not in black,
Speaker 3: backing onto the stage looking up.
Speaker 7: A man comes out, searching, seeking to feel the truth
Speaker 7: of what this image is, and a woman is being
Speaker 7: held totally upright and progressing slowly.
Speaker 3: While the visible man reaches for her. The men in
Speaker 3: black carry her forward. She's loading above them all standing,
Speaker 3: then sitting in mid air, then dipping backwards in a summersault,
Speaker 3: righted through the men's legs, and moved back up in
Speaker 3: a slow motion dive. It's like watching someone swim in
Speaker 3: a watery black void. And the bear skinned man the seeker,
Speaker 3: reaches for her.
Speaker 7: Is she an image? Is she on the unobtainable? She
Speaker 7: is everything? But he can't. She's out of reach, and
Speaker 7: at one point she sort of curls into his arm,
Speaker 7: but immediately the men take her away and she's threaded
Speaker 7: in and at one point she's held on high and
Speaker 7: I slowly tilted backwards and fell.
Speaker 3: Fell straight back from standing on their shoulders. You could
Speaker 3: hear the terror from the audience.
Speaker 7: It sounded like a gas. Of course, the man caught
Speaker 7: me as I did every time, but I realized it
Speaker 7: bouncing love to create fear, traumatic fear in the audience,
Speaker 7: and that was definitely one of those moments. And then
Speaker 7: the ballet progresses. I'm threaded through their legs, I'm hauled
Speaker 7: around like rope around their waist. I'm held on high
Speaker 7: and I do Arabique, and then not at leave, I'm
Speaker 7: taking way and the man the seeker is still following me,
Speaker 7: but this time he's in back. He's not in front.
Speaker 7: She has moved past him, and I'm unobtainable.
Speaker 3: It was the beginning of her life as a balancing muse.
Speaker 3: During rehearsals of The Unanswered Question, Allegra felt balanging was
Speaker 3: in love with her. The question hung there. What did
Speaker 3: mister B ultimately want from her? She thinks at that
Speaker 3: point neither of them knew what was your relationship with Balanchine?
Speaker 7: Like he choreographed, he chose me. I danced and very warm,
Speaker 7: not personal, very warm. He'd asks how I was, and
Speaker 7: things like that out.
Speaker 3: Aligra and mister B's connection felt close and unspoken. It
Speaker 3: would never turn romantic. In The Unanswered Question, Aligra says
Speaker 3: she was a sensual, spiritual object sought by a man
Speaker 3: who could never possess her, the object of a quest,
Speaker 3: but she eludes the man. The mystery is never solved,
Speaker 3: the question never answered. That's the dynamic of all the
Speaker 3: roles balance shed would make for her. She writes, a
Speaker 3: suppressed in her life and unanswered questions everyone knew Balanchine
Speaker 3: thought his dancers shouldn't have children. He'd say to them,
Speaker 3: anyone can be a mother, but how many could be
Speaker 3: a ballerina? How many could dance Balanchine's choreography. But Alikra
Speaker 3: got married, she had a baby, despite Balancine's wishes.
Speaker 7: I did what I wanted to do. That was part
Speaker 7: of my nature.
Speaker 3: Alkra speaks highly of Balanchine. She doesn't seem to want
Speaker 3: to get into the nitty gritty of relationships or company dynamics,
Speaker 3: but in her autobiography, Allegra writes that leaving the company
Speaker 3: for any reason was a dangerous thing. Balanging might not
Speaker 3: want you back. Disloyalty hurt him. He expected allegiance. Allegra
Speaker 3: writes that although he didn't overtly encourage awe or worship,
Speaker 3: in a subtle way, he used the idolatry of the
Speaker 3: dancers to keep the company together.
Speaker 7: I think the first baby Balancing thought was an accident,
Speaker 7: but the second one he thought. Wait a minute.
Speaker 3: When Allegra came back from childbirth the second time, she
Speaker 3: writes that he told her in a serious tone, Now, Allegra,
Speaker 3: no more babies. Enough is enough. Babies are for Puerto Ricans.
Speaker 3: I don't know if this was a racist joke or
Speaker 3: a racist attempt to rain Allegra in. Either way, she thought,
Speaker 3: this man directs the company, not my life.
Speaker 7: But he welcomed me back into the company. He always
Speaker 7: will be back.
Speaker 3: So what she didn't realize yet was that she'd never
Speaker 3: be back, not really. While she was having a baby,
Speaker 3: Balancing had turned to someone new, someone young, someone who
Speaker 3: had become his most famous muse of all time, a
Speaker 3: fifteen year old girl named Suzanne Farrell.
Speaker 6: Balancing and Suzanne Ferrell were joined at the hip. This couple,
Speaker 6: this you know, you know, you could call it an
Speaker 6: artistic power couple. You could call it, hey, you know,
Speaker 6: muse artist. There's obsession in both directions.
Speaker 3: I think Suzanne is probably Balancinge's most iconic dancer and
Speaker 3: his most complicated relationship. She declined to speak with us
Speaker 3: for this podcast, but she did write a memoir about
Speaker 3: this time. Early on, when she was at the School
Speaker 3: of American Ballet, it was clear that Balanchine was drawn
Speaker 3: to her. She had physical quality. He was looking for
Speaker 3: a natural musicality and a willingness to try anything he asked.
Speaker 3: Balancine choreographed the first ballet specifically for Suzanne when she
Speaker 3: was eighteen. It was a potted duh between a young
Speaker 3: girl and an older man. She realized it was about
Speaker 3: the two of them. Later, she would write, it did
Speaker 3: not occur to me that I was entering into an
Speaker 3: emotional abyss so deep that perhaps I should decide if
Speaker 3: I thought it might be worth it it was worth it,
Speaker 3: But I never once stopped to consider that question. In retrospect,
Speaker 3: I realized that the fact that I had no outside
Speaker 3: points of reference meant that I made various important decisions
Speaker 3: in a social vacuum. Balancie and Suzanne worked closely in
Speaker 3: the studio, like creative conspirators, and that trickled outside the theater.
Speaker 3: On tour in Europe, they spent every evening together at
Speaker 3: museums or shops, or walking arm in arm. Soon Balanchine
Speaker 3: became Suzanne's whole life. Knowing Balanchine's jealousy, Suzanne felt she
Speaker 3: couldn't really have other friends, and she didn't mind. Even
Speaker 3: though Balanchine was forty one years older than Suzanne. There
Speaker 3: was this romantic undercurrent that was clear to everyone. When
Speaker 3: she was twenty two and he was sixty three, A
Speaker 3: newspaper even falsely reported that they were engaged, and Suzanne
Speaker 3: felt that undercurrent herself. In her book, she writes, quote,
Speaker 3: it was for him that I felt the first stirrings
Speaker 3: of adult love, and he was, without doubt the most
Speaker 3: important man in my life. But she knew Balanchine was
Speaker 3: still married to Tanny, that he was living two separate lives,
Speaker 3: one of which she didn't discuss with Suzanne. So when
Speaker 3: an audience member began taking special note notice of her,
Speaker 3: she began a new relationship. His name was Roger. He
Speaker 3: was a couple of months older than her, and when
Speaker 3: they got engaged, he gave her a pearl ring. Suzanne
Speaker 3: knew not to wear the ring to the theater, but
Speaker 3: one day Balanchine saw it on her finger. He exploded.
Speaker 3: He ordered her to take it off. His anger frightened her.
Speaker 3: She obeyed and ended her relationship with Roger. In the end,
Speaker 3: she said it was not her decision, it was Balanchine's.
Speaker 3: A week later, Balancing came to Suzanne's hotel room on tour.
Speaker 3: He presented her with his own ring. She writes that
Speaker 3: when she turned it down, he hurled it across the
Speaker 3: room in fear. She dropped to her knees, clambered for
Speaker 3: the ring under the bed, and put it on her finger.
Speaker 3: She says, quote. It was never quite clear whether or
Speaker 3: not the ring was intended to symbolize our present or
Speaker 3: future union in marriage. But I think, at least to him,
Speaker 3: it dignified an exclusive attachment. To me, it dignified love
Speaker 3: and all its ghoshness, desperation and beauty. Dancers at the
Speaker 3: company knew that Suzanne Ferrell was off limits romantically, that
Speaker 3: she belonged to balancing, But eventually Suzanne did start to
Speaker 3: date someone else again, a fellow dancer in the company,
Speaker 3: Paul Mahea. They kept it secret, but they couldn't hide
Speaker 3: it entirely. When Balanchine realized Suzanne and Paul were in
Speaker 3: a relationship, he did something Suzanne did not expect this time.
Speaker 3: He asked her to marry him. But Suzanne couldn't give
Speaker 3: Balanchine what he wanted. She and Paul quietly married, and
Speaker 3: that's when things unraveled. Balanchine avoided Suzanne and Paul started
Speaker 3: losing roles. Finally, one day, Suzanne confronted balancing. She would
Speaker 3: later call that day the most surreal day of her life.
Speaker 3: She sent balancing a note stop the retaliation, or she
Speaker 3: and Paul would leave the company, not that she thought
Speaker 3: it would go that far, but balancing was still her boss.
Speaker 3: That night, the Russian wardrobe manager entered the dressing room
Speaker 3: and slipped Suzanne's two two off its hangar. She was crying, Suzanne,
Speaker 3: You're not dancing tonight, she said. At age twenty three,
Speaker 3: Suzanne realized her world was ending. She was no longer
Speaker 3: a member of the New York City Ballet.
Speaker 6: And you know, you can imagine someone that young, who
Speaker 6: had built their entire life and identity around one artist,
Speaker 6: run a company, and Balanching at that time was such
Speaker 6: a powerful figure. No other company in America would be
Speaker 6: able to hire Suzanne Ferrell to dance, even though she
Speaker 6: was one of the preeminent dancers of her generation, for
Speaker 6: fear of incurring the ire of balancing.
Speaker 1: Balanchine was so fond of perfumes that leaves the scent
Speaker 1: of that dancer behind, and it still permeates.
Speaker 3: Teenage Sephanie Seland joined the company a couple of years
Speaker 3: after Suzanne had been forced out. The muse was still
Speaker 3: in the air, her presence lingered.
Speaker 1: My parents got me as my graduation, President Magrief.
Speaker 3: A bottle of perfume, and.
Speaker 1: I remember just bathing in the scent. And at the time,
Speaker 1: Susanne Ferrell had gone away from the company, and I
Speaker 1: got into the elevator, I believe with Valanchine and Carnvan.
Speaker 3: Karen was another famous answer at the company. When Stephanie
Speaker 3: stepped into the elevator, she says she saw something change
Speaker 3: on mister B's face.
Speaker 1: A little bit of a look of displeasure or surprise
Speaker 1: or unease, And Karen just looked at me sideways and
Speaker 1: kind of cringed, and I didn't know why. And afterwards
Speaker 1: mister B got out and she let me know that
Speaker 1: the perfume was definitely to be discarded. It had been
Speaker 1: Suzanne's perfume.
Speaker 3: Years later, Suzanne Ferrell would eventually return to Balanchine and
Speaker 3: his company finally forgiven. They continued to work together for
Speaker 3: years until Balancine's death. Suzanne Ferrell's story is one of
Speaker 3: ballet legend, now a piece of balancing history that lingers
Speaker 3: in the air and not everyone sees eyed eye on it.
Speaker 3: Historian Jim Steichen is someone who's been publicly critical of
Speaker 3: how Balancing treated Susanne she's.
Speaker 6: Never denounced him for the way that he treated her,
Speaker 6: but you know, it was really shocking the way that
Speaker 6: she was treated, and it's hard not to think about
Speaker 6: it in terms of like a you know, blacklisting of
Speaker 6: like someone who spurs your romantic overtures, who chooses another
Speaker 6: man over you, and then you are going to punish
Speaker 6: that woman professionally and ensure that her livelihood is endangered
Speaker 6: and that she can't have autonomy over her own career
Speaker 6: and life. So it's it's a really tricky case. A
Speaker 6: lot of people have criticized me for kind of parsing
Speaker 6: it out and writing about it. I don't know how
Speaker 6: you can call that anything but a misogynistic, abusive hower
Speaker 6: in something that even if she won't denounce him, it's
Speaker 6: like the actions kind of speak for themselves.
Speaker 3: This is what Suzanne Farrell wrote in her memoir. Quote
Speaker 3: that Balancine spent his life building pedestals for his ballerinas
Speaker 3: to stand on is no secret, and although some might
Speaker 3: protest the position as one of inequality, no one who
Speaker 3: has ever been there has ever complained it is the
Speaker 3: most humbling and beautiful place I've ever been. Balancine was
Speaker 3: a feminist, long before it was the fashion. He devoted
Speaker 3: his life to celebrating female independence. End Quote Suzanne, Holly, Tannekiel, Elygra, Stephanie.
Speaker 3: They all performed Balanchine's ballet Apollo. They all played the
Speaker 3: roles of Apollo's muses on stage. Apollo is such a
Speaker 3: beautiful ballet. I can't help but love it. But something
Speaker 3: about it bothers me too. As much as the muses
Speaker 3: have their moments, you know that Apollo is the center.
Speaker 3: The muses are important, but they're important because of what
Speaker 3: they do for him. Apollo is the god. He is
Speaker 3: in control. Apollo or Balanching, keeps the muse on her
Speaker 3: pedestal right where he can always see her. Balancing. Has
Speaker 3: many famous quotations, but maybe the most famous is that
Speaker 3: he loved to say ballet is woman. People often quote
Speaker 3: ballet is woman as a sign of his reverence for
Speaker 3: the female body and the role of women in his art.
Speaker 3: It's a phrase you hear all the time, but what
Speaker 3: does it really mean. How feminist is the phrase ballet
Speaker 3: is woman? This is the rest of what Balanchine had
Speaker 3: to say. Quote man is a better cook, a better painter,
Speaker 3: a better musician. Composer. Everything is man sports everything. Man
Speaker 3: is stronger, faster. Why because we have muscles and we're
Speaker 3: made that way. And woman accepts this. It is her
Speaker 3: business to accept. She knows what's beautiful. Men are great
Speaker 3: poets because they have to write beautiful poetry for women.
Speaker 3: Odes to a beautiful woman. Woman accepts the beautiful poetry.
Speaker 3: You see, man is the servant, a good servant. In ballet, however,
Speaker 3: woman is first. Everywhere else man is first, but in ballet,
Speaker 3: it's the woman. All my life. I've dedicated my art
Speaker 3: to her.
Speaker 8: Next time on The Turning Gone unchecked, bad things can happen,
Speaker 8: and they did, and then people are scared. You know,
Speaker 8: people are still afraid to talk.
Speaker 3: The Turning is a production of Rococo Punch and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3: It's written and produced by Alan Lance Lesser and Me.
Speaker 3: Our story editor is Emily Foreman. Mixing and sound designed
Speaker 3: by James Trout. Jessica Krisa as our assistant producer. Andrea
Speaker 3: Assuage is our digital producer. Fact checking by Andrea Lopez Crusado.
Speaker 3: Special thanks to a leg or Kent if you want
Speaker 3: to check it out. Her autobiography is called Once a
Speaker 3: Dancer also to Suzanne Farrell and Tony Bentley, who wrote
Speaker 3: the memoir Holding Onto the Air, and Jim Steichen, whose
Speaker 3: book is called Balanjin, and Kirstine's American Enterprise. Our executive
Speaker 3: producers are John Paratti and Jessica Alpert at Rococo Punch
Speaker 3: and Katrina Norvel and Nikki Etour at iHeart Podcasts. For
Speaker 3: photos and more details on the series, follow us on
Speaker 3: Instagram at Rococo Punch, and you can reach out via
Speaker 3: email The Turning at rococo punch dot com. I'm Erica Lance.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.