Balanchine

NEW YORK -- George Balanchine, whose choreography helped shape the ballet of the 20th century, is to be honored with an eight-week Balanchine Celebration by the New York City Ballet in spring 1993 at the New York State Theater.Seventy-two Balanchine ballets will be performed, ranging from the 1928 "Apollo" to the 1981 Garland Dance from "The Sleeping Beauty."The festival will mark the 10th anniversary of Balanchine's death."What we want to do is to make you remember his variety and his profligate gifts," Lincoln Kirstein, who founded the City Ballet with Balanchine, said at a news conference Monday night at the State Theater in Manhattan.

Someone once said that ballet and modern dance would merge when a contemporary dancer donned toe shoes and ballerinas went barefoot. Well, that did happen in an Alvin Ailey piece years ago, and it was evident again last week in the dance kickoff of “China:  The Art of a Nation,” at the Kennedy Center now through October. As I watched the National Ballet of China , I was reminded just how much classical ballet has changed since the company's last appearance here in 2005.

PRODIGAL SON: DANCINGFOR BALANCHINE IN A WORLDOF PAIN AND MAGIC.Edward Villellawith Larry Kaplan.Simon & Schuster.306 pages. $23. How do you tell, Yeats once asked, the dancer from the dance?That question turns especially mind-tickling when the dancer is a Balanchine dancer, one of those fast, sleek thoroughbreds raised and trained to carry out the singular vision of New York City Ballet founder George Balanchine.In part, "Prodigal Son" can be seen as Edward Villella's attempt to answer this question.

A celebration of a classical ballet master, interpretations of Chinese dances from 770 B.C. to the present and artistic representations of the game of baseball are among the dance offerings at the Columbia Festival of the Arts during the next two weeks. Performances by the Pennsylvania Ballet II, Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company and a group of dancer-illusionists called Momix will bring the diversity of the dance world to Columbia. "There is a huge diversity of style and ethnic influences and technical influences in the dance world," said Betsy Brininger, executive director of the festival.

Talk is not her medium, she says, dancing is. And yet, when Suzanne Farrell speaks, it is as she danced: in whole, seamless paragraphs that begin in one place and end somewhere else entirely, with quirky and unrelated metaphors that ultimately spin into a perfect narrative. "I'm going to answer your question, really I am," she says with a laugh when it seems that she never will. This is Suzanne Farrell, on stage and off, elusive and yet uniquely present at the same time. She was the final and greatest muse of choreographer George Balanchine, the dancer who would fulfill his lifelong vision of ballet that was faster, bolder and more streamlined - thoroughly modern and distinctly American rather than traditional- bound and European.

No one is really sure what George Balanchine meant when he echoed King Louis XV's famous quote, "Apres moi, le deluge." The choreographer of the world's most precise and eloquent ballets was notoriously - even gleefully - obtuse when it came to talking about his art. The naysayers who feared a decline for the New York City Ballet under Balanchine's successor, Peter Martins, saw it as an apocalyptic prediction. Even the most optimistic saw it as a simple statement of fact. After Balanchine's death in 1983, how could ballet ever be the same?

The Pennsylvania Ballet made its Kennedy Center debut this week with a program that underlined the company's strong Balanchine tradition as well as its penchant for experimentation."

Stacy Sewell, who in an unprecedented transplant surgery received a lung lobe from each of her living parents, died Saturday on her 24th birthday from complications of bacterial pneumonia. The resident of the Mojave Desert town of Quartz Hill, Calif., suffered from cystic fibrosis. Barbara and James Sewell each donated a lobe of their lungs to their daughter Jan. 29, 1993. It was the first double lobar lung transplant in which both lobes came from relatives. After the transplant, her lungs were restored to normal lung capacity.

The Washington Ballet opened its Baltimore season last night at Goucher College with a program that exemplifies founder-artistic director Mary Day's quest for excellence.Not only are her dancers first-rate, but the dances Ms. Day and her engaging company present are equally top-notch. With a lineup of works choreographed by George Balanchine, John Cranko and the company's late great choreographer, Choo-San Goh, the program couldn't miss.This company can capture the imagination of the most jaded dance fan.Opening the evening was Mr. Balanchine's "Donizetti Variations" music from the composer's opera, "Don Sebastian."

The Washington Ballet packed Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium Saturday night with fans hungry for ballet. Artistic director and founder Mary Day satisfied everybody with her company's first-rate , dancing and with a program of three solid works by George Balanchine, Nils Christie and Choo San Goh.Opening the evening was Balanchine's "Serenade" to "Serenade in C major for String Orchestra" by Tchaikovsky. It is the first ballet Balanchine created in the United States, and it remains the epitome of modern classical style.

The dance students glide - and sometimes stumble noisily - across the gray wood floor. Their hair is pinned back in tight little buns, their toes are crammed into pointe shoes. The choreography has brought them center stage, staggered in four lines, with two girls lying on the floor in the middle. Judith Fugate stops the rehearsal. Something is wrong. It is day six, hour four of rehearsals for George Balanchine's ballet Serenade. The dancers - students at the Baltimore School for the Arts - are exhausted.

Talk is not her medium, she says, dancing is. And yet, when Suzanne Farrell speaks, it is as she danced: in whole, seamless paragraphs that begin in one place and end somewhere else entirely, with quirky and unrelated metaphors that ultimately spin into a perfect narrative. "I'm going to answer your question, really I am," she says with a laugh when it seems that she never will. This is Suzanne Farrell, on stage and off, elusive and yet uniquely present at the same time. She was the final and greatest muse of choreographer George Balanchine, the dancer who would fulfill his lifelong vision of ballet that was faster, bolder and more streamlined - thoroughly modern and distinctly American rather than traditional- bound and European.

No one is really sure what George Balanchine meant when he echoed King Louis XV's famous quote, "Apres moi, le deluge." The choreographer of the world's most precise and eloquent ballets was notoriously - even gleefully - obtuse when it came to talking about his art. The naysayers who feared a decline for the New York City Ballet under Balanchine's successor, Peter Martins, saw it as an apocalyptic prediction. Even the most optimistic saw it as a simple statement of fact. After Balanchine's death in 1983, how could ballet ever be the same?

George Balanchine, the presiding genius of 20th century ballet, was from Georgia, at that time a southern province of Russia, and his surname is a French contraction of his original name, Balanchivadze.Ballet historians don't make much of his Georgian ancestry, but when the Georgian State Dance Company performs at the Naval Academy tonight and the Kennedy Center in Washington Saturday, the connection should become clear.Until Balanchine, women in the world's ballet companies were graceful, willowy aristocrats or short, strong technicians.

As ballet lore has it, George Balanchine clapped his hands for attention at the end of class one day in 1934. "Mmmm," he said to his students. "I think we'll start something."That "something" was the ballet called "Serenade." As the title suggests, it's a nocturne, a song to the night, hushed and ephemeral as moonlight. It is also a masterpiece."Serenade" was the first ballet the Russian-born Balanchine made in America and also the first major abstract ballet in dance history. Intended as a teaching piece, it is today in the repertory of every major ballet company in the world.

Stacy Sewell, who in an unprecedented transplant surgery received a lung lobe from each of her living parents, died Saturday on her 24th birthday from complications of bacterial pneumonia. The resident of the Mojave Desert town of Quartz Hill, Calif., suffered from cystic fibrosis. Barbara and James Sewell each donated a lobe of their lungs to their daughter Jan. 29, 1993. It was the first double lobar lung transplant in which both lobes came from relatives. After the transplant, her lungs were restored to normal lung capacity.

A celebration of a classical ballet master, interpretations of Chinese dances from 770 B.C. to the present and artistic representations of the game of baseball are among the dance offerings at the Columbia Festival of the Arts during the next two weeks. Performances by the Pennsylvania Ballet II, Lily Cai Chinese Dance Company and a group of dancer-illusionists called Momix will bring the diversity of the dance world to Columbia. "There is a huge diversity of style and ethnic influences and technical influences in the dance world," said Betsy Brininger, executive director of the festival.

Someone once said that ballet and modern dance would merge when a contemporary dancer donned toe shoes and ballerinas went barefoot. Well, that did happen in an Alvin Ailey piece years ago, and it was evident again last week in the dance kickoff of “China:  The Art of a Nation,” at the Kennedy Center now through October. As I watched the National Ballet of China , I was reminded just how much classical ballet has changed since the company's last appearance here in 2005.

The Pennsylvania Ballet made its Kennedy Center debut this week with a program that underlined the company's strong Balanchine tradition as well as its penchant for experimentation."

The Washington Ballet packed Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium Saturday night with fans hungry for ballet. Artistic director and founder Mary Day satisfied everybody with her company's first-rate , dancing and with a program of three solid works by George Balanchine, Nils Christie and Choo San Goh.Opening the evening was Balanchine's "Serenade" to "Serenade in C major for String Orchestra" by Tchaikovsky. It is the first ballet Balanchine created in the United States, and it remains the epitome of modern classical style.