Developing the American Ballet Dancer the Pedagogical Lineage of Rochelle Zide-Booth Jessica Zeller

1 1 Developing the American Ballet Dancer the pedagogical lineage of rochelle zide-booth Jessica Zeller without a centralized national institution for ballet, the typical American ballet dancer’s training has been far more eclectic than that of dancers raised in conservatories or national academies such as the Paris Opera Ballet School or the Vaganova Ballet Academy. Rochelle Zide-Booth is an example of one mid-twentieth-century professional American ballet dancer with a heterogeneous training background. She turned to teaching more than forty years ago, and her pedagogy can be described as uniquely American: it acknowledges and cultivates individuality, eclecticism, and vibrant physicality, and it encourages an analytical approach. At the core of her work are those qualities and char- acteristics that have come to be accepted as the American ballet style: bold, direct, rhythmic movement that has few stylistic idiosyncrasies or embellishments; clear direc- tions and spatial intentions with a keen sense of focus; and an energetic, spirited, intellec- tual approach to dancing. Numerous twentieth-century dance writers, critics, and scholars have tried to defi ne the American qualities of American ballet. As early as 1913, writer Willa Cather quoted Anna Pavlova, who described American dancers as “quick and confi dent.” 1 Th e impre- sario, philosopher of dance, and foremost advocate for American ballet Lincoln Kirstein stated in 1937 that the “American style springs or should spring from our own training and environment, which was not in an Imperial School or a Parisian imitation of it. Ours is a style bred also from basket-ball courts, track and swimming meets and junior- proms. It is frank, open, fresh and friendly. It can be funny without seeming arch, and 2 Copyright © 1987. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. All rights Press, Incorporated. © 1987. Oxford University Copyright serious without seeming pained.” Critic Edwin Denby referred to American ballet as displaying “a lovely freshness in classic dancing.” 3 In his 1949 book Ballet: Th e Emergence 283 Dance on Its Own Terms : Histories and Methodologies, edited by Melanie Bales, and Karen Eliot, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1987. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/tcu/detail.action?docID=3055619. Created from tcu on 2020-07-15 19:10:54. 284 Dance on Its Own Terms of an American Art , George Amberg described his sense of the American style: “it is not meticulously accurate in the traditional virtuoso fashion, but it is full of bodily self- confi dence and youthful stamina.” 4 Zide-Booth’s pedagogy refl ects most of these qualities, which emerged from her multifaceted experiences as an American ballet dancer in the United States during this formative period for American ballet. In addition, her work embodies several prominent American ballet traditions that were central to her individual development as a dancer: the legacies of the ebullient Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and the youthful, tenacious company of Robert Joff rey; the vaudeville lineage of her teacher Harriet Hoctor; and a potpourri of infl uences from a number of European and Russian teachers with whom she studied throughout her career.5 Like many American dancers of the mid-twentieth century, Zide-Booth’s training was a bricolage: she studied with numerous teachers from diff erent national schools and per- spectives, whose approaches were oft en contradictory. At the same time as she was chal- lenged by the inconsistencies of her instructors’ various demands, she had to navigate the technique with an unconventional physique for ballet: at fi ve feet tall, she did not fi t the then-emerging aesthetic of the wiry, long-limbed Balanchine dancer. Using her individual body to guide her experimentation with the technique, Zide-Booth began the arduous process of reconciling her teachers’ discrepant approaches and, along the way, developed her own methodology for teaching ballet. Her pedagogy is, in this way, an extension of her work as a dancer. It is American by virtue of its inherent plurality and its unbridled individualism. It is the fusion of her teachers’ oft en contrasting methods as mediated through her physical facility. It does not adhere to an established syllabus but rather includes elements of several approaches that have been fi ltered through her unique capacities as a dancer. In contrast to the Balanchine technique—the only American approach to have been supported by an institution, codifi ed, and passed down—Zide-Booth’s American pedagogy is entirely dependent upon her body, her intellect, and her eye. From this perspective, her work is comparable in its infl uence to that of the most notable modern dancers, who have long been acknowledged for their unique approaches to movement based on their individual bodily capacities. American ballet teachers such as Zide-Booth, who, unlike their Euro-Russian counterparts, have been given the formi- dable task of assembling sound methods from a variety of materials, have likewise used their unique bodies as vehicles for discovery. Because ballet has oft en been viewed as an immutable form that does not absorb or refl ect the mark of the individual, however, these teachers’ innovative contributions to ballet technique have been largely overlooked. Zide-Booth’s development and dissemination of a cohesive, unifi ed approach from a miscellany of sources is a pedagogical accomplishment that places her among the most infl uential of American ballet teachers. Th e versatility of her methodology has allowed her to teach in a variety of locales, including professional companies, conservatories, univer- Copyright © 1987. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. All rights Press, Incorporated. © 1987. Oxford University Copyright sities, and private studios. 6 Having sent numerous students into regional ballet companies, Zide-Booth is an exemplar of the predominant system of training in America, wherein most regional dancers are trained outside the ballet academy and are the products of such Dance on Its Own Terms : Histories and Methodologies, edited by Melanie Bales, and Karen Eliot, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1987. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/tcu/detail.action?docID=3055619. Created from tcu on 2020-07-15 19:10:54. Developing the American Ballet Dancer 285 eclecticism, which they themselves are encouraged to resolve through their individual phy- siques.7 Although Zide-Booth has not altered the course of classical training, she has in this way contributed to a more pervasive dialogue that examines the meaning of being American in a Euro-Russian form. Th rough her diverse and individualized methodology, Zide-Booth trains dancers—American or not—to identify and embody those characteris- tics that distinguish American ballet and American dancers on the international stage. biographical sketch Rochelle Zide began to study ballet in 1941 at the age of three in Boston, with the Zieg- feld ballerina Harriet Hoctor (1903–1977).8 Hoctor studied ballet from the age of twelve at the Louis H. Chalif Russian Normal School of Dance and with Ivan Tarasov of Diag- hilev’s Ballets Russes. 9 In 1920, she debuted on Broadway with the Ziegfeld Follies, and in 1928, amid a string of vaudeville engagements and Broadway productions, she was deemed one of the foremost American prima ballerinas of her time.10 Hoctor appeared in the fi lm Shall We Dance? with Fred Astaire in 1935, and continued her career as part of a touring company with which she performed and staged revues until 1945. As a teacher, Hoctor wanted to enable her students to discover their own artistic sensibilities, a notion—likely derived from her vaudeville days—that has since become fundamental to Zide-Booth’s pedagogical philosophies. A few years into her training, Zide-Booth’s mother determined that Hoctor’s teaching was too unorthodox: it combined principles of the danse d’école with more unconventional elements that Hoctor had absorbed from her years of performing in revues. Zide- Booth’s mother sent her, instead, to the Cecchetti teacher Alicia Langford, who she believed would provide more structure for a budding young dancer. When Zide-Booth no longer found enjoyment in the syllabus-derived training, her mother stopped her classes altogether, although the break was short-lived. Th ey found a once-weekly class with a former Ballet Russe dancer who recognized the then-eight-year-old Zide-Booth’s talent and recommended that she fi nd a teacher who would be able to take her on as a serious student. Zide-Booth began several years of study with Boston Ballet founder E. Virginia Williams, who took her students to New York for a few weeks each year to study with a number of teachers. She also frequently hired guest teachers from prominent New York schools, including some from the School of American Ballet. At age fourteen, aft er feeling that Williams had routinely overlooked her, Zide-Booth made the decision to return to Hoctor. Hoctor’s perspective—that dancing should be a source of enjoyment and crea- tivity for students—was what Zide-Booth had been missing. At the same time, she had also determined that more structured classes were important for the development of her Copyright © 1987. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. All rights reserved. All rights Press, Incorporated. © 1987. Oxford University Copyright technique, so she found other instructors who could complement Hoctor’s classes: Tati- ana Stepanova, formerly of the Ballet Russe; Margaret Saul, a Cecchetti teacher who contributed to Cyril Beaumont’s book A Th ird Primer of Classical Ballet (Cecchetti Method) ; Dance on Its Own Terms : Histories and Methodologies, edited by Melanie Bales, and Karen Eliot, Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 1987. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/tcu/detail.action?docID=3055619. Created from tcu on 2020-07-15 19:10:54.

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