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