Balanchine and the lost muse : revolution and the making of a choreographer

305 Pages·2015·3.888 MB·English

by  Balanchine, George, Ivanova, Lidiia, Kendall, Elizabeth

Balanchine an d the Lost Muse

B alanchine and
the Lost Muse
R e v o l u t i o n a n d t h e M a k i n g o f
a C h o r e o g r a p h e r
Elizabeth Kendall

1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kendall, Elizabeth, 1947–
Balanchine and the lost muse : revolution and the making of a choreographer / Elizabeth Kendall.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-995934-1 (alk. paper)
1. Balanchine, George. 2. Choreographers—United States—Biography.
3. Ivanova, Lidiia, d.1924. I. Title.
GV1785.B32K46 2013
792.8 (cid:1) 2092—dc23 2012042482
Frontispiece: Georges and Lidochka, 1921
Courtesy, Bernard Taper
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For
Tsiskari Balanchivadze and Keti Machavariani Balanchivadze
And in memory of Djarji Balanchivadze ,
1941–2011
Pianist, composer, painter
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Contents

ix
Preface ·
xii
Acknowledgments ·
xiv
Cast of Characters ·
3
Introduction ·
13
One Maria and Meliton ·
25
Two Georgi ·
41
Three Th eater School: Boys ·
57
Four Lidochka ·
69
Five Th eater School: Girls ·
95
Six 1917 ·
113
Seven Th eater School: Th e Hungry Years ·
145
Eight Th e NEP Economy ·
173
Nine Th e Young Ballet ·
189
Ten Th e Last Year, Summer to Summer ·
217
Eleven Death and Life ·
245
A Note on Sources ·
246
Notes ·
265
Bibliography ·
269
Index ·
Balanchine
BALANCHINE Is a Trademark of Th e George Balanchine Trust. Courtesy of New York
City Ballet Archives, Ballet Society Collection.
Preface
Th is book had its beginnings in two revelatory moments. Th e fi rst came
in 1981 when I interviewed George Balanchine, founder of the New
York City Ballet and virtual inventor of ballet in America, in his offi ce in
Lincoln Center’s New York State Th eater. I was a young dance critic
sent by the Ford Foundation. He was seventy-seven, slim and dapper,
white hair brushed back from a high forehead. “Is boring, questions we
must talk about,” said Balanchine as he rose to meet me. I agreed and
prepared to leave—I had no right to his time. “So, we do questions, then
we talk,” he said briskly but mischievously. Indeed, aft er we discussed
Foundation business he began telling me tales about his life back in
1920s revolutionary Petrograd, maybe because he liked young women:
tales about starving, and sewing saddles and playing batt ered pianos in
movie houses just to get food. How far away—like the distance to a
star—was this past from the complacent America where we sat now. I
put myself in his shoes, and as him despaired of conveying the real
nature of his youthful experience. My patchy Russian history was
causing him to serve up traumatic memories as careful fairy tales.
I’d fallen in love with Balanchine’s company, the New York City
Ballet, right aft er I’d arrived in New York in 1973. Actually, “falling in
love” isn’t right. I’d come to write about avant-garde modern dance;
I’d sampled the whole dance scene, and I’d fallen i nto the New York
City Ballet. I’d found myself responding to City Ballet’s dancing with
emotions almost religious in nature: exaltation, wonder, and a sharp
gratitude for the beauty and longing being enacted onstage, especially
by the ballerinas. Th is was a time when all the young women I knew
were waking up to feminism. Where in our culture were the spaces,
the works of art, where women’s inner lives could be explored and
dramatized?