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Marian Smith 37 Washington, D

Marian Smith 37 Washington, D

Spring-Summer 2019 Review

From the Sp/Su 2019 issue of

Balanchine at the Metropolitan

Cover photo by Paul Kolnik, NYCB: Joseph Gordon in at a Gathering.

© 2019 Research Foundation, Inc. Ballet Review 47.1-2 Spring-Summer 2019 Editor and Designer: Marvin Hoshino Managing Editor: Roberta Hellman Senior Editor: Don Daniels Associate Editors: Joel Lobenthal Larry Kaplan Ballet Review is a nonprofit Alice Helpern journal pub lished by the Dance 168 Webmaster: Research Foundation, Inc. It David S. Weiss is supported in part by funds from the National Endowment Copy Editor: Naomi Mindlin for , the New York State Council on the Arts, The Fan Photographers: Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Tom Brazil Foundation, and individuals. Costas Contributions to the Dance Associates: Research Foundation, Inc., Peter Anastos 100 Hudson St. – Apt. 6B, Robert Greskovic New York, NY 10013, are 76 George Jackson tax-deduc tible. Elizabeth Kendall Board of Directors: Paul Parish Hubert Goldschmidt, Roberta Nancy Reynolds Hellman, Marv in Hoshino, James Sutton Nancy Lassalle, Dawn Lille, Edward Willinger Michael Popkin, Theodore C. Sarah C. Woodcock Rogers, Barbara E. Schlain, David Weiss. * For the latest information on subscriptions, see our website: balletreview.com. Current 95 double issue: $35. Editorial correspondence, books for review, subscriptions, and changes of address to Ballet Review, 100 Hudson St. – Apt. 6B, New York, NY 10013. Manuscripts must be accom- panied by a self-addressed, stamped return envelope. E-mail: [email protected]. * 207 ©2019 Foun- dation, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in China. issn: 0522- 0653. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. 4 Philadelphia – Eva Shan Chou 5 New York – Karen Greenspan 7 – Eva Shan Chou 9 New York – Susanna Sloat 11 Williamstown – Christine Temin 12 New York – Karen Greenspan Susanna Sloat 16 Tokyo – Vincent Le Baron 95 Rennie Harris and Ronald K. Brown 18 Jacob’s Pillow – Christine Temin Celebrate Alvin Ailey 20 Toronto – Gary Smith Robert Greskovic 22 Boston – Jeffrey Gantz 100 Chopiniana 25 London – Joseph Houseal 25 Vienna – Vincent Le Baron 109 Judson Dance Theater 27 New York – Susanna Sloat Michael Langlois 28 Miami – Michael Langlois 114 Awakenings 29 Toronto – Gary Smith 31 Venice – Joel Lobenthal Karen Greenspan 32 London – Gerald Dowler 119 In the Court of Yogyakarta 35 Havana – Gary Smith Marian Smith 37 Washington, D. C. – Lisa Traiger 125 The Metropolitan Balanchine 39 London – John Morrone 40 Chicago – Joseph Houseal Gerald Dowler 42 Milan – Vincent Le Baron 141 An Autumn in Europe Alexei Ratmansky Sophie Mintz 44 Staging Petipa’s Harlequinade 146 White Light at ABT Lynn Garafola George Washington Cable 151 , 1946 56 The Dance in Place Congo Karen Greenspan Michael Langlois 161 Drive East 2018 63 A Conversation with Karen Greenspan Clement Crisp 168 A Conversation with Maya Joseph Houseal Kulkarni and Mesma Belsaré 76 A Quiet Evening, in Two Acts Francis Mason Ian Spencer Bell 171 Ben Belitt on Graham 82 Women Onstage Gary Smith Michael Langlois 175 A Conversation with Grettel Morejón 86 A Conversation with Hubert Goldschmidt Stella Abrera 177 Rodin and the Dance 207 London Reporter – Louise Levene 218 Dance in America – Jay Rogoff 220 on Disc – George Dorris Cover photo by Paul Kolnik, NYCB: Joseph Gordon in . The Metropolitan most no comment, something I want to do here by focusing on the Met’s 1935 Aida and Balanchine its rela tionship to Ziegfeld Follies and Babes in Arms, as well as to other popular entertain- ment in Manhattan in the late 1930s. Marian Smith Before getting to Aida, we need to consider that in accepting the job at the Met, Balan- There are plans afoot for him to do “serious” dances chine was taking on two formidable endeav- for two musical shows this fall; if anybody asks him ors, far greater than the task – daunting how he reconciles this hotcha stuff with the Met enough – of creating multiple opera work, he says cagily, “Each is for different pooblic.” in short order (something he had already done in Monte Carlo for Diaghilev). Edward — The New Yorker, October 26, 19351 Johnson, the Metropolitan Opera’s new gen- From 1935 to 1938, served eral manager, wanted him to help revive the as the choreographer at the Metropolitan flailing Metropolitan Opera. At the same time, Opera in New York, where he devised dances , Balanchine’s patron and for at least twenty and eight ballets.2 self-appointed front man, wanted him to During the same time, he choreographed his help establish a particularly American kind first four shows on Broadway – Ziegfeld Follies, of ballet. That is, Balanchine was given the On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, I Married an Angel. twin tasks of breathing new life into an old Thus Balanchine’s works appeared onstage institution, the Met, and creating a newly in New York City more than nine-hundred imagined one, an American ballet. times during a three-year span – a remark- Johnson, who hired Balanchine, was a well- able record for a young immigrant artist not liked Canadian tenor (aka Eduardo di Giovan - yet thirty-five years old. ni) who had sung at the Met for many years.4 This highly productive part of Balanchine’s In May of 1935, he replaced Giulio Gatti- career has been ove rshadowed by his time Casazza, who had just sailed for after a with Diaghilev and then later at New York City now-storied twenty-seven-year reign during Ballet. The Broadway musicals have received which, according to a farewell assessment in some attention, in the Popular Balanchine the New York Times, he had “worked as hard as Project for example. So have the independent he could” to “transform the Metropolitan . . . ballets Balanchine staged at the Met, includ- into [a] semblance” of La Scala, and managed ing and Euridice (with the singers in to make the Met “in large measure worthy of the pit), The Card Game, and, of course, his Apol- the chief city of the New World.”5 lon Musagète in its first American appearance, With the assistance of Toscanini, Puccini, with Lew Christensen in the title role. But the and Caruso, Gatti-Casazza had achieved much opera ballets have been virtually ignored, and of his success before the First World War. By his tenure at the Met, downplayed as a re- the time of his retirement, however, and in grettable eyeblink, hardly worth remember- the wake of the stock market crash of 1929, ing – an unfortunate case of Balanchine’s ge- ticket sales were down. The and nius being rejected by the stuffy opera crowd.3 singing forces had fallen from the top rank. The between the opera produc- The in-house ballet troupe had deteriorated tions and the Broadway shows has received al- to a “shocking” state, so much so that an out- side had to be hired.6 As one Marian Smith, professor of music at the Universi- ty of Oregon and editor of : Paris 1832 and reporter put it, “It would be difficult to imag- Beyond (Dance Books, 2014), is currently working ine a much more trying situation than that with coauthor Doug Fullington on Five Ballets from which confronted Edward Johnson when . . . Paris and St. Petersburg. called upon to take charge of the opera or- ©2019 Marian Smith 125 ganization for which he had sung for many way chorus girls: a troupe of “young people years.”7 endowed with beauty of form and face”14 who Johnson – congenial, optimistic, a man of were “capable of competing with any revue in quiet authority – set to work quickly upon dancing and pulchritude”15 and “good looking taking the reins in mid-May. By August 7, 1935, enough to please any tired business man.”16 he was ready to disclose his plans publicly. In From the old troupe the Met would keep “the a wide-ranging “fireside chat” with reporters, best looking ones, the best dancers and those Johnson laid out his vision for the theater, of- with the best extremities.”17 fering at every turn a sense of freshness and Moreover, “a modern ballet” would be “pro- bright renewal. The star system would be cur- vided in place of the distressing flannel-clad tailed “so as to provide for better, balanced dancers of old.” “No longer will the girls in casts instead of most of the money going to Aida come on in wrinkled legs. Under the di- one or two singers.”8 The singers’ claques rection of George Balanchine, the ballet will would be abolished. The house itself would be have life and interest.”18 “Modern , freshened by a thorough cleaning, new paint, modern technique, the modern idea of classic better lighting, and “comfortably squashy dancing prevail.”19 Another reporter summed seats.” American singers would now be espe- it up: Balanchine’s “appointment means the cially welcome, for the Met would aim to be- complete revolution of the ballet into more come a “clearinghouse for American opera” modern and attractive lines.”20 And his ballet whereby the Met would share artists and pro- company was to be one of the features that ductions with other American companies.9 will “turn opera into something Broadway will Johnson also spoke bluntly about taking on like and will want to come to.”21 the Met’s growing competition. The Rockettes When Balanchine and his troupe arrived at were drawing large crowds at Radio City, and the Met, so did the twenty-eight-year-old Lin- the number of new musicals on Broadway had coln Kirstein. Not a dancer or a choreogra- increased for the first time in years in the 1934- pher, Kirstein, the Harvard-educated son of a 1935 season.10 Radio listenership in American rich Boston businessman, was a poet, essay- households was rising sharply, with twice as ist, art critic, and budding dance historian many radio sets in 1933 than just four years drawn to archival study. He had fallen in love earlier.11 Talking pictures had fully come into with the ballet and conceived the notion of es- their own, too, and they could be seen in New tablishing in the a ballet com- York (and other large cities) in conjunction pany in the manner of the great troupes of Eu- with live shows that sometimes includ- rope, but American in disposition. Feverishly ed a troupe of dancers whose pursuing his dream on the other side of the might entail, among other styles, both tap and Atlantic, he had found George Balanchine and ballet.12 in 1933 invited him to the United States. Given the growing threat of the public’s new Shortly after Balanchine had come ashore options, it is easy to see why in New York a few months later, it was Kirstein Johnson felt himself in a battle for audiences. – with the financing and business know-how “We can’t fight [. . . the movies and radio] fi- of another young Harvard graduate, Edward nancially,” Johnson told the press. “We must M. M. (“Eddie”) Warburg – who oversaw the fight them on an artistic basis, and that is opening of a ballet school, the “School of Amer- what we are going to do.”13 As for Broadway, ican Ballet,” and a ballet company, the “Amer- he added, “The engagement of George Balan- ican Ballet.”22 When Warburg agreed to be- chine was a great victory, one that will help come the president of the School of American us in our rivalry with the .” Ballet, he had never seen a ballet.23 And how would Balanchine help? By pro- It was Kirstein who, starting in 1934, pushed viding a as attractive as Broad- for Balanchine’s hiring at the Met so that both 126 Ballet review choreographer and company could have a sta- truly American ballet company was an actu- ble home. Balanchine favored the idea. Kir - al American at the helm, and when the Met stein’s plan was to create ballets for opera (as job was about to come open, Martin, in his the Met job obliged Balanchine to do) but to New York Times column, pointedly proposed devote the choreographer’s main efforts to- several promising American choreographers ward making new, stand-alone ballets for for it: Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman, presentation on special evenings at the Met, Paul Bachellor, Senia Gluck-Sandor, Agnes de apart from the opera. Mille, Ruth Page, and Catherine Littlefield. If What Kirstein meant by “American” ballet the Met is “administered by men with their was not entirely clear, but he was forced to ears to the ground for significant native de- hone his definition of it when attacked by the velopments,” he had written hopefully, “it New York Times dance critic, John Martin, for may well be in the position of fostering an hiring a Russian for his ballet company. Thus important art movement.”29 we may discern, if a little fuzzily, how Kirstein So when Balanchine was hired a few months conceived of American ballet in 1935, and how later, Martin was furious. “It is deeply to be he believed Balanchine was going to help con- regretted,” he wrote icily in the New York Times jure it into existence. published the day after the announcement was Ballet, said Kirstein, was a “400-year-old made, “that once again American artists have medium of Italian, French, German, Scandi- been passed by for a high artistic post for which navian and Slav origin.” Americanballet would at least half a dozen of them are eminently fit- be developed on the American continent by ted. This, too, in an organization which has Balanchine and other Europeans, who would gone on record as favoring the use of native teach ballet to American-born dancers ac- talent wherever available. Apparently the old cording to the finest Russian standards, but tradition has not yet been eradicated that only as a “temporary necessity.” Kirstein also we are a crude pioneer people and must im- explained what American ballet was not: port our culture from the European foun- “American ballet is not tap-dancing, though tainhead.”30 it may use it. It is not the Virginia reel, though Martin acknowledge d Balanchine’s gifts as country dances can be added to its context.”24 an artist, but voiced doubts about the readi- According to Kirstein’s vision, the reperto- ness of the young dancers and keen disap- ry of new American works would be choreo- pointment over the demise of the sort of Amer- graphed mostly by Balanchine, and would in- ican Ballet company Kirstein had described in clude neoclassical and modern ballets, like Ser- its pre-organizational days – a company that enadeand Orpheus and Euridice.25 But a strict re- would allow for “the creation of a type of quirement for Kirstein was that the reperto- theatrical dance that should develop the full ry include ballets on American subjects – for flavor of American life and culture, starting instance, “New England in Colonial times, pre- with the technical tradition of the academic Civil War days, early Dutch life in Pennsylva- ballet as nothing more than a framework.” nia, and the West during its stirring pioneer And he offered a dagger-sharp recommenda- days.”26 Kirstein especially favored a ballet tion for Kirstein: “It is that he charge his whole based on Uncle Tom’s Cabin and pushed hard for experience to date to profit and loss, congrat- Balanchine to stage it,27 possibly to arrange- ulate himself on having helped to get better ments of music by Stephen Foster. dancing into the opera house, shake hands cor- John Martin, like Kirstein, passionately dially with Mr. Balanchine, and get to work hoped for the foundation of an American bal- starting an American ballet.”31 let company and style.28 But he rejected any If Balanchine had an explicit notion of what notion that Balanchine was the right person constituted American ballet at this stage in his to lead the way. For him, the sine qua non of a career, he did not disclose it. We may infer spring-summer 2019 127 from his actions, though, that he lacked en- Paris in 1928.38 These movements included hip thusiasm for Americana ballets as Kirstein thrust poses, high kicks, and one of Baker’s was conceiving them. True, he had choreo- specialties, the split in the air while being held graphed Alma Mater32 (first called Touchdown, by her partner. Indeed, Genné even posits that a sort of revue depicting American college life), Balanchine had found in Josephine Baker his but he never acted on Kirstein’s frequent ex- first American muse in a long line of long- hortations to choreograph a ballet based on legged, lithe female dancers. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Nor was he the least enticed And it was not only American women whom by another of Kirstein’s ideas, Hobo Jungle.33 Balanchine admired; he is also known to have When a reporter sought him out at the found great inspiration in Fred Astaire – so School of American Ballet to ask him about his much so that Eddie Warburg told a reporter new job shortly after the Met contract was an- that Astaire might appear at the Met as a solo- nounced, Balanchine sounded an essentialist ist in a ballet: “All our ballets at the Metro- theme that he would return to several times politan won’t be toe-dancing. We will intro- over the course of his life: “Americans are very duce other forms. Balanchine is experiment- quick to learn, very musical” and the Ameri- ing now with tap-dancing. We probably will can physique and build well suited for danc- use it. Take Fred Astaire. He is a great tap ing.34 dancer, and at the same time a great ballet A few weeks later Balanchine spoke at dancer. Someday, maybe, we will have Astaire greater length on the subject in a Daily Mirror as in a ballet at the Metropolitan.”39 In story called “A Real American Ballet for the short, one may surmise that for Balanchine in ‘Met’”: “The American girl makes the ideal 1935, if there were such a thing as American dancer because she is better built than girls of ballet, it relied on the American body and its other countries. This, I think, is due to the ways of moving, not – as Kirstein held at the free dom permitted American women and the time – on American subjects, themes, and frequency and [illegible] with which they en- music. gage in athletics from young girlhood. Danc- Balanchine and Kirstein diverged on an- ing requires hours of arduous work—it is no other matter as well: whether or not Balan- facile exercise – consequently, the lithe, mag- chine should work on Broadway. Though pub- nificent body of the American girl stands her licly supportive of Balanchine’s interest in in good stead during the difficult training pe- Broadway, Kirstein privately considered it a riod. Another thing, Americans manifest a re- dalliance that threatened his own lofty plans markable response to rhythm. They eat with for the American Ballet company. Shortly it, even smoke cigarettes with it, so the tech- after Balanchine’s first Broadway show, the nique of ballet dancing is easily learned by Ziegfeld Follies, opened in previews in Boston them.”35 on December 30, 1935, Kirstein even wrote in But Balanchine’s ideal “American girl” may his diary that “Tchelitev [Pavel Tchelitchew] not necessarily have been what white audi- & myself, Lucia Davidowa [are] all concerting ences in America would have expected. In on preventing Bal. from doing another com- Paris, before ever coming to America, Balan- mercial show for Dukelsky or the Shuberts. chine had encountered one of the most ac- Not enough time with Tom [Uncle Tom’s Cabin] complished and famous American dancers of & Orphée.”40He also noted that he “hated” Bal- the day, Josephine Baker.36 He admired her anchine’s collaborator at the Follies, the com- greatly, and likely choreographed small num- poser Vladimir Dukelsky (better known as bers for her.37As the dance historian Beth Gen- ).41 né points out, Balanchine may have been in- It was not only Balanchine, but many of spired by Baker when he created the classi- his dancers at the Met as well, whose training cized jazz (or Africanist) steps for in had been in , but whose careers 128 Ballet review had necessarily taken them to the popular Olin Downes in the New York Times declared stage. Lew Christensen had performed as a the “the most eloquent and artis- Russian character dancer and in a “stunt-filled tic interpretation of the familiar work that ballet act,” as Debra Sowell has put it, and then has been seen here for a number of seasons,”49 in the cast of The Great on Broadway.42 and Winthrop Sargeant in the Evening Post Gisella Caccialanza, at age twenty-one already praised the “spontaneity that pervaded the a seasoned performer of movie prologues at production as a whole.”50 Even the ever-on- Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles edge Kirstein admitted in his diary that the and then at Radio City , was danc- ballets had been successful: “After a difficult ing five shows a day when per- week of rehearsals, disagreements, suaded her to audition for Balanchine’s new fittings at the Met taking hours & hours after school.43 William Dollar and Daphne Vane a row over moving the 2nd gauze for Tann - had also come from Radio City Music Hall.44 hauser & my being rude to everyone, includ- Kathryn Mullowney, too, had danced ballet ing I’m afraid M. Johnson the general mgr: af- in several prologues per day – in her case, at ter terrible impatience with Defrere, an im- the Paramount Theaters on Broadway and in becilic stage mgr., the opera finally opened. Brooklyn, where to advertise the show she The kids danced well enough and looked clear- toured the borough standing in arabesque ly trained”51 [punctuation edited]. on the hood of a car. (“Of course I was tied Detailed accounts of the choreographies of on.”45) La Traviata are not to be found in newspaper Indeed, it is worth noting, as a gauge of the accounts, for dance critics were rare in those state of ballet spectatorship in the United days, and John Martin of the New York Times States in 1935, that some of the Americans in focused his efforts elsewhere. But journalists Balanchine’s fledgling company – even soloists did write enough about the new ballet com- – had never seen a full program of classical pany’s first outing to give us some sense of its ballet until the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo attainment. Olin Downes said, “Members of appeared in New York in 1933.46 For instance, the American Ballet, in an ensemble devised Annabelle Lyon, who had moved to New York by George Balanchine, had more youth and from Memphis to study with Fokine, found it enthusiasm than technical finish.”52 “thrilling to see a real ballet company in a Pitts Sanborn declared them revelatory of whole evening of ballets.”47 the “infectious enthusiasm of youth,” adding On December 16, 1935, the much-anticipat- that “if their rhythm was not invariably per- ed opening night of the Met’s new season was fect, their spirit was admirable.” He report- a grand success. The capacity audience re- ed, further, that the audience “seemed to en- ceived the performance of La Traviata enthu- joy the dancing greatly, though there was no siastically, one critic hailing it as the auspi- lack of applause for the singers also.”53 There cious beginning of a new American era at the was praise for dancers themselves, deemed Met: “An almost entire American regime was “likable in appearance and spirited in their in evidence for the first time. . . . Edward John- dancing.”54 And in Sargeant’s estimation the son . . . headed the organization as general new troupe was better than the old one: manager, the first American to hold the post “A handling of the ballet interludes by the during the active season. Two of the princi- American Ballet under George Balanchine . . . pals in the case, Richard Crooks and Lawrence far transcended anything of the sort that has Tibbett, were Americans, and the new ballet been seen at the old opera house in many corps was American. New lighting and venti- years.”55 lation equipment, too, was American . . . . In- It seemed an auspicious beginning for the deed, almost everything was American except American Ballet at the Metropolitan Opera, the opera itself.”48 and Balanchine even told a friend not long spring-summer 2019 129 afterward that he “adores the house and dance of the big black slaves before Amneris’s thinks of himself as a fixture for years and seat of power. The tradition is the little, fun- years, like Petipa at the Mariinsky.”56 ny, black ones with cymbals, who dart about Four days after the season opened, the like insects. The slaves last night were big fel- Met’s new Aida made its debut, and the re- lows from the desert and they danced with the views of the ballets were, again, largely posi- suggestion of a primitive Africanism which tive. W. J. Henderson of the Evening Sun de- made welcome from the stereotyped clared plainly, “The American Ballet demon- procedure, and belonged believably to the mo- strated its worth.” He went on to say, “The ment. But this is a hard dance, and there is dance of the priestesses was not entirely need of perfecting it technically.”64 harmonious with the scene, but that of the In general the critics found the company slaves was admirably done by male dancers likeable and the ballets good – albeit with and the triumphal celebration at the return room for improvement – and made a point of of Radames, with Daphne Vane and William noting positive audience reactions. The re- Dollar as principals, was a brilliant feature in views were one of hopefulness for the ballet. the spectacular finale of the second act.”57 All seemed to be well. However, a different sto- Julian Seaman of the Daily Mirror said that ry was unfolding behind the scenes. Balanchine “makes the ‘Aida’ ballets worth see- Paul Cravath, the powerful chairman of the ing”58 and Leonard Liebling of the New York board of the Metropolitan Opera Association, American proclaimed that the ballet was to be disliked the American Ballet’s “credited with an excellent achievement en- – “especially the one in ‘Aida’”– and in a letter thusiastically received by the audience.”59 he urged Edward Johnson, only ten days into Critics were also well-disposed to the so- the new season, to “have a frank talk with Bal- called “Negro Dance” (Danza dei piccoli schiavi anchine,” presumably to persuade him to take mori of act 2, scene 1), devoting particular at- a more traditional approach, and to correct tention to it. As Liebling explained approv- the mistake of devising choreographies that ingly, Amneris’ entertainment was now fur- over-emphasized the “acrobatic skill” of cer- nished “by a group of black youths who in- tain danc ers.65 dulge in a becomingly savage and lively dance” December 26, 1935 instead of the “girls dressed as Negro boys fur- Dear Mr. Johnson: nishing unconvincing entertainment for Am- I have not read the comments of musical neris” – a custom that had “offended and bored critics of the performance of the Ameri- [dance lovers] . . . for years.”60 Another crit- can Ballet at the Metropolitan, but I hear ic declared that these “stalwart dancers . . . that they are not favorable. I have heard a represented a considerable change from their good deal of adverse criticism among the petite predecessors of former days;”61 anoth- boxholders and subscribers of the ballet er said that they “leaped and cavorted in the performances, especially the one in ‘Aida’, best Ethiopian manner.”62 And another hailed which I confe ss I share. I think the feeling Balanchine’s “substitution of male dancers, of the subscribers that I have heard talk nude but for a coating of lampblack, in place is that in opera the ballet should adhere of the girls in black cotton tight who usually pretty closely to tradition, and should err do the barbaric blackamoor numbers,” as “a on the side of conservation. The feeling welcome innovation.”63 is that the performance of the American Olin Downes of the New York Timesbuilt upon Ballet in our operas have been too acro- the twin themes he had raised in the Traviata batic, and have been so managed as to review, noting dancers’ technical shortcom- show off the acrobatic skill of certain of ings but praising the : “The best the members of the Ballet. If you feel as choreographic idea of the evening was the I do, or rather if you feel like heeding 130 Ballet review the rather general adverse comment, Perhaps it was the splits, the piggyback why don’t you have a frank talk with rides, or the jumping between each other’s legs Balanchine. He must know the classical that he mentions in the same review. Under traditions for ballet in the opera in our the title “‘Aida’ at Opera Wins Cheers, Giggles, repertoire. Very sincerely yours, Hisses,” Walker wrote that “The first ‘Aida’ of the Metropolitan Opera’s New Deal brought [Paul Cravath]66 forth cheers, applause, laughter and – believe Cravath did not specify how Balanchine had it or not – hisses. Cheers for the new Amner- departed from tradition. But in press de- is, Gertrud Wettergren, and applause for those scriptions and private comments, one may find veteran artists. . . . The laughter and hisses plausible reasons for the “adverse criticism” were for the American Ballet, which, in its ef- from boxholders and subscribers that trou- fort to be different, executed some of the most bled Cravath. astonishing figures that ever shocked a Met One may have been the modern tone of a audience. Many disparaging things have been snippet that Balanchine had reused from Prodi- said about Rosina Galli’s old-regime ballet, but gal Son (1929) – specifically, that in which the at any rate Mme. Galli [Gatti-Casazza’s wife men, in pairs (as Debra Sowell describes it): and the choreographer Balanchine replaced] “hold on to each other back-to-back and skit- never introduced snake-hips into the temple ter around with bent knees.”67 (On opening dances, had her ballerinas doing splits, or per- night, having never had the time to rehearse mitted the boys and girls to go piggyb ack or in black face paint, they could not recognize jump between each other’s legs in the victory each other, and everyone was forced to scram- scene.”73 ble around the stage to find his partner.68) Walker didn’t say to his readers that the Another problem was very likely the “Ne- movements he describes were usually associ- gro Dance” with its “big black slaves” that the ated with African American dancers, most no- critics had praised: one dancer recalled later tably, the “snake hips,” a dance calling for full- that audiences were “horrified” that Balan- body undulations and a seeming bonelessness, chine had dispensed with the “darling little which had been brought to the attention of children” of Amneris’ court and instead “put white audiences by Earl “Snake Hips” Tuck- the six tallest men in the ballet and had them er.74 Yet, as noted above, critics in general ap- blackened.”69 And a patroness made a com- proved of the Aida ballets (even if they found ment to Edward Johnson about “these Negroes them “daring”), and reported that audiences all over the white women.”70 (Did it make you had, too. nervous? Johnson asked. “No, it made me jeal- Danton Walker’s story caused consterna- ous,” she answered.71) tion at the American Ballet. Kirstein wrote in Another cause of offense may have been his diary the day after it appeared that the “the practically nude ballet in the proces- tabloid press “tried to make the dancers in sional scene [of act 2, scene 2], . . . an imagi- Aida hiss-provoking, shocking, etc.”75 And native and atmospheric touch, climaxed by the comment about snake hips, in particular, William Dollar and Daphne Vane with as dar- irritated Balanchine, who issued a quick de- ing a set of steps and postures as has ever nial in an interview with Dorothy Kilgallen astonished and pleased on the stage of the of the New York Evening Journal: “Maestro As- Metropolitan.”72 And yet another was, per- sails Critics of Hi-di-Hi Ballet at ‘Met’76 / ‘Aida’ haps, the “snake-hips” dance done in the Dance Wiggle Real Ethiop’ Style, Says Balan- “Temple Dances” (the Danza sacra delle Sacerdo - chine.” The article read, tesse of act 1, scene 2) reported in the New York “Mr. George Balanchine today criticized the Daily News by Danton Walker, a gossip colum- critics, most of whom have been criticized be- nist on the Broadway beat. fore. spring-summer 2019 131 “But Mr. George Balanchine is the daring cal sources; namely: “religious sculptures at young man who lifted the Metropolitan Opera Sak karah, at Beni-Hassan, and . . . La Fage’s ballet out of its petticoats, gave it snake hips, archeological engravings.”79 a dash of hi-di-hi and achieved more terpsi- What none of them said about the Aida chorean authenticity than has been men- choreography, however, was that at the time tioned around the Met in many a year. Balanchine was creating it, he was also work- “He put a reptilian wiggle in the torsos of ing on the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway in close the ‘Aida’ chorus until the dowagers couldn’t proximity to three prominent African Amer- believe their lorgnettes. He staged an orgy in ican dancers: Harold and Fayard Nicholas ‘Tannhauser’ and was heard to remark, ‘This (then aged fourteen and twenty-one), and scene is in hell and in hell they don’t dance a Josephine Baker. And even though Balanchine minuet.’ . . . was choreographing for Bake r, and not the “Mr. Balanchine’s ballet kicked the music , I would argue that he was critics in their aisle seats and sent them hok- very likely inspired and influenced by all ing to their midnight typewriters with words three of these stars, whom he was observing formerly used only in reviewing Harlem floor at close range in late 1935 as he was setting shows. It was this which delighted, if also the Aida ballets.80 slightly disturbed, Mr. Balanchine today. In fact, most of the very moves that Danton “‘The critics don’t know anything about Walker described can be identified specifically dancing,’ he declared in gentle Russian ac- with Josephine Baker and the Nicholas Broth- cents. ers and their acts: Josephine Baker was known “‘They are like prima donnas. They think for her near-nudity and her splits. The Ni - only of the singing, the singing. They do not cholas Brothers were known for their acro- know one dance from another.’ batics, their tumbling, their splits and for “tHe etHiOp waY sliding under each other’s legs. And Fayard “‘What they called snake hips in “Aida” is Ni cholas made undulating movements in the the way Ethiopians danced in those days. Not Follies, full-body undulating being the defin- on the toes, in nightgowns, but with the hips. ing movement of “snake hips” dance. This I learned from museums, from librar- Why Balanchine would disavow the influ- ies. This is the correct way. If I has been done ence of African American style and ideas in differently in the past, then it has been done his Aida at the Met must remain a matter wrong,’ he added. of speculation. Opportunism and racism on “It isn’t hi-di-hi at all, the dance director Balanchine’s part may account for it: he took insists – it’s archaeologically authentic. ideas from African American dancers and “‘I can prove it – the snake hips, the tum- then denied having done so.81 It may have bling, the whole ballet – from hieroglyphics,’ that he was playing the “hieroglyphics” card he said.”77 in a petulant attempt to beat his detractors at Three days later Grena Bennett of the New their own highbrow game. His answer about York American joined Kilgallen in scoffing at historical references was as offensive as he Balanchine’s denials, calling his Aida “far thought the questions were.82 removed from anything depicted on ancient It may be that Balanchine really had con- Egyptian illustrations.”78 Later, Kirstein leapt sulted archival sources, as Diaghilev and some to Balanchine’s defense, declaring that the choreographers had done in choreographer had given the priestesses in the preparation of their ballets, although, of the Temple Scene belly dances (not snake course, such research would not have pre- hips), although Kirstein used the French term, cluded Balanchine’s using living African “danses du ventre.” These danses du ventre, Kir - Americans in New York as a source at the same stein averred, were based strictly on histori- time, as he implied it would. 132 Ballet review It may be that Lincoln Kirstein, better at- being twirled around with four white boys tuned to American racist restrictions of the and dressed up like a queen.”86 Thus, just as time than Balanchine, a recent immigrant, en- Bal anchine’s Aidachoreography at the Met was couraged him to deny using African Ameri- too black for white performers, his “5 a.m.” can dance as a source for the Met Aida chore- Broadway choreography for Josephine Baker ographies, fearing that Balanchine’s job was was too white for a black performer. in danger. For Kirstein had a stake in keep- Eventually, Balanchine re-choreographed ing Balanchine gainfully employed so that his Met Aida not once but twice, the second the two of them could keep working toward time attributing it petulantly to Marius Peti- creating an American ballet. In any case, Bal- pa.87 Balanchine’s revisions to Aida included anchine had crossed the line at the Met, caus- adding children to the “Negro Dance,” as tra- ing offense by creating a choreography that dition had dictated, and eliminating the near- was racially out of step with what audiences ly nude in the Procession scene.88 expected. But even as Balanchine’s company kept This transgression in Aida is a counterpart performing his Aida choreography at the Met to a controversy Balanchine sparked on Broad- in progressively more conservative versions, way only six weeks after Aida’s premiere with Balanchine created a riotous parody Egyptian the opening of Ziegfeld Follies – a controversy ballet for the new Rodgers and Hart Broadway that has been described at length by Beth Gen- show Babes in Arms, which opened at the Shu- né. Many people were offended by the glam- bert Theater on April 14, 1937. This parody- orous number Balanchine choreographed for Aida was surely Balanchine’s retort to the crit- Josephine Baker in the Ziegfeld Follies (“5 a.m.,” ics of his Met Aida – both the public ones in by Ira Gershwin and Vernon Duke), in which the press, and the private ones behind the she wore a beautiful golden gown designed by scenes. Vincente Minnelli and was adored by four Babes in Arms featured an Egyptian Ballet white male dancers in elegant attire.83 The (referred to as such by Balanchine89), danced presentation of a black woman in this favor- in a show-within-the-show during the song able light would not have been far-fetched in “Johnny One Note,” sung by Wynn Murray. Paris (as Josephine Baker herself said at the One verse of the song is about Aida: time) but it flopped in New York, where white Poor Johnny one-note audiences preferred to see her in exoticized Got in Aida acts like “Isle in the West Indies,” another of Indeed a great chance to be brave Josephine Baker’s numbers in the same show He took his one note (this one choreographed by ), in Howled like the North Wind which she wore a brief costume decorated with Brought forth wind tusks. that made critics rave, Brooks Atkinson of the New York Timesfound While Verdi turned round in his grave! Baker too “refined,” comparing her unfavor- ably to the Nicholas Brothers, who “restore Couldn’t hear the flute your faith in dusky revelry.”84 And an em- Or the big trombone Ev’ry one was mute ployee of the Shubert organization (which 90 produced the show), was quoted as saying Johnny stood alone. “She’s black, trying to be white, why don’t she The number featured the show’s lead cou- go on and be her original self like she was in ple, Alfred Drake and Elenore Tennis, as a High Shuffle Along, when she was stickin’ her fanny Priest and Priestess, along with various oth- out and looking ugly?”85 As Maude Russell, an er characters, including eight priestesses. The African American dancer and singer, said, “At entire dancing and singing ensemble dressed that time, nobody wanted to see a colored girl in pseudo-Egyptian costumes that included spring-summer 2019 133 dish-towel headgear and household utensils loping of Aida,” Balanchine was taking a (under the premise that a group of amateur “merry revenge” on the critics of his Met bal- children were putting on a show on a shoe- lets.96 string budget). Perhaps Rodgers and Hart were inspired by The show’s cast includes a Southern, racist Balanchine’s troubles at the Met and in re- showman character who tries to exclude sponse wrote young talented black characters young black characters from his show (“Lee into their new show, along with a racist show- Calhoun’s Follies”). The black characters, Ivor man character, and a song about an untalent- and Irving De Quincy, are played by the ed singer who was appearing in Aida. Lorenz Nicholas Brothers, whom Balanchine espe- Hart was chummy with Balanchine, and when cially requested be brought into the cast after they spent weekends socializing together in the Boston preview.91 Their show-stopping the summer of 1936 in Cape Cod, along with choreography at the end of the Egyptian num- “Doc” Bender and Dukelsky, it is possible that ber was staged by Balanchine but based on the Balanchine told backstage tales of the ruckus Nicholas Brothers’ own practice of sliding un- raised by his Aida choreography.97 der and jumping over each other. Here is a de- Rodgers and Hart were also well aware of scription by Constance Valis Hill: Balanchine’s gifts as a satirist. His “Princess “Balanchine’s idea for the so-called Egypt- Zenobia” ballet – a send-up of Scheherazade – ian Ballet was for Fayard to jump over a line was playing to great approbation in their of chorus girls and for Harold to slide through smash-hit On Your Toes on Broadway even as the girls’ legs. First two girls stood together Babes in Arms was being created.98 In any case, and hunched over to make a bridge, with Fa- Rodgers and Hart gave Balanchine the chance yard jumping over the backs of the girls and to devise a parody choreography of Aida, and Harold sliding through their legs. Then an- Balanchine played it to the hilt. other girl joined the line, and the brothers re- One can imagine that Balanchine was gen- peated the jump and slide; one by one, girls uinely surprised by the adverse reaction to his were added until there was a line of eight girls, Aida ballets. After all, he was creating chore- pressed together and bent over with legs strad- ography along the lines of what Edward John- dled. Faya rd timed his jump over the backs of son had asked for. First, it had modern ele- the girls and into a split so that on his recov- ments, including the quotation from Prodigal ery, Harold’s slide under could be extended Son (even though few in the audience likely through Fayard’s legs.”92 recognized it as such). Further, its African After having jumped over and slid under all American-influenced elements may have eight priestesses at once, the two brothers seemed, to Balanchine, utterly appropriate not “exit[ed] in mock-Egyptian style with bodies only for making opera “something Broadway in profile, arms bent at the elbows and wrists, will like and want to come to,”99 but also for and heads jutting forward and backward.”93 giving the ballet a truly American style, in Fayard Nicholas recalled that Balanchine keeping with Kirstein’s vision. “‘didn’t show us anything. He just told us Although it turned out be too controver- what he thought would be sensational for sial to keep, Balanchine’s Aida choreography the number. And it was – the audience went of 1935 deserves recognition as a milestone in wild.’”94 the history of representations of race at the One of the cast members even stated ex- Met and an instance of crossing over between plicitly in an unpublished interview sixty- the Met and Broadway. Its Broadway coun- three years later that this scene was “supposed terpart in Babes in Arms deserves recognition, to be like a scene from the Metropolitan Opera’s too, as the revenge parody that it is. Aida.”95 A critic in 1937, Helen Eager, stated More important perhaps, I would argue that outright that in Babes in Arms’ “satirical wal- this choreography found itself at the nexus of 134 Ballet review several conflicts. For at the time it was creat- Into this turbulent and vibrant climate ed, old dividing lines were being re-negotiat- came a young Russian whose provocative ed between European and American sensibil- dances for Aida touched upon all of these de- ities in American art; between the older gen- bates, making a bold statement about race, eration of Met audiences and the younger one American identity, and generic convention at whose teenage years had been lived in the jazz the nation’s most prestigious opera house. The age; between popular culture and self-pro- statement proved too bold for the Met. But it claimed ; between uptown and ignited a firestorm that illuminates for us a midtown, immigrant and native born, black meaningful chapter in the histories of both and white. opera and dance in the twentieth century.

NOTES

I thank George Dorris for ushering me into the world ropolitan from an annual and more or less doubt- of the Met Archive, and for the highly useful com- ful piece of jobbery into a continuous and well-con- ments he made about an earlier version of this man- sidered artistic enterprise.” uscript. Further, I am grateful to the University of 6. John Martin, New York Times, August 18, 1935. Oregon Center for a residential fel- On the history of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet up lowship supporting this project, John Pennino for to 1921, see George Dorris, “Dance and the New York help during my several summer trips to the Met Opera War, 1906-1912,” Dance Chronicle 32, no. 2 Archive, Carolyn Guzski for profitable research (2009): 195-262; “The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, tips, and Helena Spencer for countless ideas and Fresh Starts: Rosina Galli and the Ballets Russes, inspirations. Finally, I thank Beth Genné for di- 1912-1917,” Dance Chronicle 35, no. 2 (2012): 173-207; recting me to this topic in the first place. “The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Fresh Starts: The 1. Charles Cook and Russell Mahoney, “Met’s Influence of the Ballets Russes, 1917-1919,” Dance Maître,” in The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Chronicle 35, no. 3 (2012): 281-314; and “The Metro- Town, The New Yorker, ed. Lillian Ross (New York: politan Opera Ballet, Fresh Starts: Galli in Charge, , 2001), 94. 1919-1921,” Dance Chronicl e 36, no. 1 (2013): 77-102. 2. See the George Balanchine Foundation’s 7. George Schaun, “Modernizing Opera at the Met: chronological title list of Balanchine’s works at Tomorrow, Under Edward Johnson, It Launches a www.ba lanchine.org/balanchine/chrontitlelist.js ‘Five-Year Plan,’” Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1935, p?p=1 and George Balanchine, Choreography by George Metropolitan Opera Scrapbook (hereafter called Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works (New York: Viking, “MOS”). 1984). 8. “New Ballet to Perform at the Met, American 3. Lincoln Kirstein’s tendentious and influen- Artists Will Take Over Dancing, Johnson An- tial account of Balanchine’s Met career is given in nounces,” New York World-Telegram, August 8, 1935, a chapter entitled “The Age of Iron: 1930-1936,” in MOS. his book Blast at Ballet: A Corrective for the American 9. Schaun, “Modernizing Opera.” Audience (New York: Marstin Press, 1938), 16-48. See 10. Gerald Martin Bordman, American Musical also Lynn Garafola, “Imperfect Partners,” Opera Theatre: A Chronicle (New York: Oxford University News 69, no. 4 (2004): 42-46. Press, 1978), 488. 4. Several North American opera singers in the 11. Kate Lacey, “Radio in the Great Depression: early twentieth century (including Caterina Jar- Promotional Culture, Public Service, and Propa- boro/Katherine Yarborough, 1903-1986) took Ital- ganda,” in Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History ian names when performing abroad. of Radio, ed. Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio (New 5. Hubert Witherspoon, Gatti-Casazza’s immedi- York: Routledge, 2002), 24. ate successor, died suddenly six weeks into his term. 12. In the 1930s, Variety referred to theaters com- See “The Going of Gatti-Casazza,” New York Times, bining live an d film entertainment on the same bill March 31, 1934, in which the unnamed writer de- as “combination houses.” In rare cases, the live clares that Gatti-Casazza “turned opera at the Met- shows were customized to fit a film, as, for instance, spring-summer 2019 135 the show accompanying Top Hat (1935) at Radio City James Steichen, “George Balanchine in America: In- Music Hall, which featured “a projected backdrop stitutions, Aesthetics, and Economics of the Non- of the film’s title designs, a re-creation on stage of profit , 1933-54” (PhD diss., Prince- the film’s ballroom set, dancers in top hats and tails, ton University, 2014). and an all-male with twenty-four members 26. Ora McCord Wheatcroft, “Music, Stage, and singing the film’s song, ‘The Piccolino.’” Screen,” publication unknow n, December 1935 Variety, September 4, 1935, 17, paraphrased in Mark (MOS). Kirstein later spoke with Glancy and John Sedgwick, “Cinemagoing in the about a Civil War ballet: “She had a very good idea United States in the Mid-1930s: A Study Based on abt. a vocalized accompaniment for a dance on some the Variety Dataset,” in The Classical Hollywood Read- words from the Declaration of Independence & a er, ed. Steve Neale (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2012), flag ceremony done for the Civil War when the bat- 192-93. Some of the dancers in Balanchine’s com- tle-scarred regimental flags are returned & no one pany at the Met, including Kathryn Mullowney and is left to receive them.” Kirstein diary, October 8, Gisella Caccialanza, were experienced “combina- 1936, in Lincoln Kirstein, 1907-Pape rs, (S)*MGZMD tion house” dancers. 123 Series I, Dance Collection, The 13. “Popular Punch for Opera: Sweeping Change New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. in Metropolitan,” New York American, August 8, 1935, 27. Gavin Raker, “Choreographing History: Un- MOS. cle Tom as Modernist Ballet,” nanopdf.com, 2003, 14. Pitts Sanborn, New York World Telegram, Au- 110, https://nanopdf.com/download/choreograph gust, 8, 1935, MOS. ing-history-uncle-tom-as-modernist ballet_pdf. 15 “Popular Punch.” 28. On further aspects of the clash between 16. “American Ballet Engaged by Met.” New York Martin and Kirstein, see Andrea Harris, “Chapter Post, August 8, 1935, MOS. One: Modernis m and American Ballet,” in Making 17. “Popular Punch.” Ballet American: Modernism Before and After Balanchine 18. Herbert Drake, Cue magazine, no date noted (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), especially in scrapbook, but probably December 1935, MOS. 25-29. 19. Arthur Voland, “Discarding Time-Worn Poli- 29. John Martin, New York Times, March 17, 1935. cies the Metropolitan Opera Season Opens This He was also careful to point out that three of them Week, Renewing Old Glories a nd Redoubling Pub- (de Mille, Page, and Littlefield) had had experience lic Interest,” Daily Doings, week of December 13, 1935, staging ballets in opera. Kirstein wrote in his di- MOS. ary on March 16, 1935, presumably after reading an 20. Henriette Weber, “Met Invites Broadway, early edition of the next day’s New York Times (or Frowns on Highbrows,” New York Evening Journal, mis-dating his diary entry), “John Martin wrote an August 8, 1935, MOS. article mentioning Balanchine and Novikoff’s 21. Weber, “Met Invites Broadway.” names as new maître de ballet at the NY Met opera 22. See Edward M. M. Warburg, “Fifty Years Ago: and saying ‘No No. We must have an American.’ I The Beginning of the School of American Ballet,” now consider his interest in ballet as superficial, Playbill, , Winter Season 1983- that he is a chauvinist and as far as I’m concerned 1984, 4-10, and Francis Mason, I Remember Balanchine an enemy that I cannot make use of.” Kirstein di- (New York: Doubleday, 1991; reprinted Anchor, ary, March 16, 1935. 1992), 121-29. 30. John Martin, “The Dance: At the Opera,” New 23. Eugene R. Gaddis, Magician of the Modern: Chick York Times, August 18, 1935, MOS. Austin and the Transformation of the Arts in America 31. As Martin Duberman has written, “Lincoln’s (New York, 2000), loc 4484 of 10,545, Knopf e-book. rejoinder entirely ignored Martin’s essential 24. Lincoln Kirstein, New York Times, August 25, points: that the American Ballet was a risky choice 1935. Letter is quoted in its entirety in Anatole Chu- because it was relatively new and inexperienced; joy, The New York City Ballet (New York: Alfred A. that an art originating in an aristocratic culture Knopf, 1953), 55-57. might not flourish in a democratic one; and that 25. On Balanchine’s Orpheus and Eurydice, see James George Balanchine had, thus far at least, seemed Steichen, Balanchine and Kirstein’s American Enterprise uninterested in American themes and American (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019). See also forms of expression in dance. Lincoln avoided those

136 Ballet review issues because – in 1935 – no cogent response to Africanist presence.” Brenda Dixon Gotts child, them was yet possible.” Martin Duberman, The “Strip ping the Emperor,” in Digging the Afri canist Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Presence in American Performance (Westport, CT: 2007), 300. As I point out below, however, Balan- Greenwood Press, 1996), 60. chine was indeed interested in African American 39. “Met’s Ballet – Fred Astaire Proposed as Opera forms of expression in dance. Stage Soloist,” New York American, August 26, 1935. 32. Alma Mater, with music by Kay Swift (ar- On Balanchine and Astaire, see Beth Genné, Dance ranged by ), costumes by John Held, Me a Song – Astaire, Balanchine, Kelly, and the American Jr., book by Warburg. See Warburg’s account in War- Film Musical (New York: Oxford University Press, burg, “Fifty Years Ago,” 5-6. One character wore a 2018), 63; 107-11. raccoon coat lent by Warburg himself. Katharine 40. Kirstei n diary, January 1, 1936. Two days lat- Weber, The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay er, though, the question arose of Balanchine’s do- Swift, and My Family’s Legacy of Infidelities (New ing “another commercial show which he’d agreed York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2011), 197. to a long time ago. I resent the time wasted away 33. Duberman, The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, 266, from Tom and Orpheus.” Kirstein diary, January 3, 288. 1936. See also Lynn Garafola, “Lincoln Kirstein, 34. New York Herald Tribune, August 8, 1935, MOS. , and the Left: The Genesis of an Balanchine later said, “I like Americans. They have American Ballet,” Dance Research: The Journal of the a rhythm, a rhythm of their own. In Russia, the Society for Dance Reseharc 23, no. 1 (Summer, 2005): girls were often short and fat and round and all 20-22. She suggests that Kirstein’s frustration with corseted-in. American girls are long and have Balanchine’s interest in Broadway may have led an easy grace of their own. . . . Big girls with long him to start Ballet Caravan. See also James Stei- legs . . . that’s what I want. Not small girls with chen, “The American Ballet’s Caravan,” Dance Re- big heads.” Robert Maiorano and Valerie Brooks, search Journal 47, no. 1 (April 2015), 69-94. Balanchine’s : The Making of a Masterpiece 41. See Duberman, The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, (New York: Freundlich Books, 1985), 71, quoted in 280. Beth Gen né, “‘Glorifying the American Woman’: Jo - 42. Debra Sowell, “Christensen Brothers,” in In- se phine Baker and George Balanchine,” Discourses ternational Encyclopedia of Dance, vol. 2, ed. Sel- in Dance 3, no. 1 (2005): 45. ma Jeanne Cohen and Dance Perspectives Founda- 35. “A Real American Ballet for the ‘Met,’” Daily tion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 160- Mirror, October 20, 1935. On the microfilm of the Met 161; and Debra Sowell, The Christensen Brothers: An scrapbook, one word of the text is illegible. American Dance Epic (Amsterdam: Harwood Aca- 36. Exactly where and how they first met is un- demic Publishers, 1998), 75. clear, but it is certain that she invited him to her 43. Sowell, The Christensen Brothers, 104 and 119- house in Paris. Genné, “‘Glorifying the American 120. Woman,’” 34-37. 44. Jane Von Bergen, obituary of William Dollar, 37. This according to Lincoln Kirstein. Sally Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2, 1986, http://articles. Banes, “Balanchine and Black Dance,” in Writing phill y.com/1986-03-02/news/26082816_1_dancers Dance in the Age of Postmodernism (Middletown,CT: -ballet-master-george-balanchine. Wesleyan University Press, 1994), 58. 45. Kathryn Mullowney had crossed the Atlantic 38. Genné, “‘Glorifying the American Woman,’” for summertime study with Russian dancers in 47-48. Brenda Dixon Gottschild had already noted Western Europe, but had never seen a full evening the “Africanist” influence on Apollo; it was Genné of ballet until she saw the Monte Carlo company in who suggests Josephine Baker may have directly New York. Kathryn Mullowney, interview by Vic- inspired this influence. Also, Gottschild points out toria Huckenpahler, 1976, Jerome Robbins Dance the problematic nature of the term “jazz dance”: Collection, The New York Public Library for the “Not only a donor, Balanchine was also the fortu- Performing Arts. nate recipient of a rich, partly Africanist-inspired 46. On ballet training in the United States before legacy during his musical years. Further- Balanchine, see Jessica Zeller, Shapes of American Bal- more, the term ‘jazz dance’ functions as a smoke- let: Teachers and Training Before Balanchine (Oxford: screen in [this case] . . . . [I]t serves to conceal the Oxford University Press, 2016). spring-summer 2019 137 47 Lyon goes on to say, “And finally they did a new slant to the ballet, which won outbursts of ap- whole night of Fokine’s ballets – ballets that we proval for Mr. Balanchine’s leaping dancers, with knew. And we went to see them. The next day we a special hand for William Dollar and Daphne Vane all came back to class and criticized them because, in the ‘victory dance.’” “Music: Debut at ‘Met’ of of course, they hadn’t done them correctly!” inter- Wettergr en,” Evening Journal, December 21, 1935, view with Annabelle Lyon, interview by Elizabeth MOS. Kendall, 1976, *mgZmt 3-1861, 35, Jerome Robbins 60. Liebling, “‘Aida’ Presented at Evening Per- Dance Collection, The New York Public Library for formance.” the Performin g Arts. 61. Francis D. Perkins, “Aida Returns to Metro- 48. Unidentified clipping in Met scrapbook politan with 2 Debuts,” New York Herald Tribune, De- (December 1935), which asserts that Johnson was cember 22, 1935, MOS. Canadian-born but had become a US citizen. Ac- 62. Grena Bennett, New York American, January 3, cording to Johnson’s obituary in the New York Times, 1936, MOS. he never relinquished his Canadian citizenship. 63. Danton Walker, New York Daily News, “‘Aida’ at (The obituary also reports that he was attending Opera Wins Cheers, Giggles, Hisses,” December 21, a ballet when he died.) “Edward Johnson of ‘Met’ Is 1935, MOS. Dead, New York Times, April 21, 1959. 64. Olin Dow nes, “First ‘Aida’ Given with New 49. Olin Downes, “‘Traviata’ Hailed for Its Ar - Singers,” New York Times, December 21, 1935. tistry,” New York Times, December 17, 1935. 65. The “frank talk” may have been the one 50. Winthrop Sargeant, “Metropolitan Season that Johnson initiated with Warburg, probably on Opens with ‘Traviata,’” Evening Post, December 17, December 27. After the evening performance, Kir - 1935, MOS. stein wrote in his diary, December 27, 1935: “John- 51. Kirstein diary, December 17, 1935. Kirstein son spoke to Warburg abt. the dances . . . . Hard for is referring to Desire Defrere (1888-1964), the bari- Johnson and his board of directors on his neck tone and stage director. all the time.” 52. Downes, “‘Traviata’ Hailed for Its Artistry.” 66. Corresponde nce file of Paul Cravath, Metro- 53. New York World-Telegram, December 17, 1935, politan Opera archives. MOS. Th e lead roles were sung by Lucrezia Bori, 67. Sowell, The Christensen Brothers, 110. Richard Crooks, and Lawrence Tibbett. 68. Interview with the Christensens conducted 54. New York Herald-Tribune, December 17, 1935, by Francis Mason, Donald McDonagh, and Don MOS. Daniels, spring 1984, transcript, San Francisco Per- 55. Sargeant, “Metropolitan Season Opens with forming Arts Library and Museum, San Francisco, ‘Traviata.’” California. Quoted in Sowell, The Christensen Broth- 56. Kirstein heard this from Pavel Tchelitchew. ers, 110. Kirstein diary, December 22, 1935. 69. Ruby Asquith Christensen in KQED interview, 57. W. J. Henderson, “Three Debuts in Two Op- quoted in Sowell, The Christensen Brothers, 110. Ac- eras,” Evening Sun, December 21, 1935, MOS. He mis- cording to an entry in Kirstein’s diary, both white spells “Vane” as “Vani.” men in black body/face paint and black men par- 58. Julian Sea man, “Music,” New York Daily Mirror, took in the ballet; the latter may have been extras December 21, 1935 (MOS). in the procession. “‘Aida’: Daphne Vane & Bill Dol- 59. Leonard Liebling, “Opera Matinee Has No- lar soloist, nearly nude, danced O.K. The Metro- table Cast in ‘Lohengrin’–‘Aida’ Impressions,” New politan’s preposterous mis-en-scene. The horrible York American, December 22, 1935, MOS. He had also costumes on the supers. The files of Roman centu- written in a review published one day earlier that rions & broken-dow n halberdiers. Madness & “one of the outstanding features of the evening was freakishness of the backstage which is elixir to me. the ballet. The temple dances, while not exactly an- The negro-boys (ours) in contrast to the real negro ciently that ritual, had atmosphere and vital”ity. ‘slaves’: latter standing in the four basins – only Leonard Liebling, “‘Aida’ Presented at Evening Per- water we are given, trying to wash the makeup off.” formance,” New York American, December 21, 1935 Kirstein diary, December 20, 1935. (MOS). Favorable comments were also offered by 70. Kirstein diary, December 22, 1935. I am sur- Henriette Weber: “There were new costumes and a mising that the patroness was referring to the

138 Ballet review “Negro Dance.” But she may have been referring to rhythmic features like syncopation (suspended the act 2, scene 2 Procession and “Victory Dance.” beats or freezes). (Obv iously such elements as bent See also Don McDonagh, George Balanchine (Boston: legs or suspended beats, per se, do not constitute Twayne Publishers, 1983), 72. African-isms. However, the more these elements 71. Backstage, the supers in Aida were getting appear in clusters, the more they resemble African- an eyeful, too, according to Kirstein’s diary. “New American dancing.)” Sally Banes, “Balanchine and clothes-tub to wash the black paint off . . . Cocks Black Dance” [1993], in Writing Dancing in the Age of emerging from the shadows & Doug Coudy wash- Postmodernism (Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University ing Daphne Vane off with the supers changing for Press, 1994), 63. the next act being ‘horrified.’” January 2, 1936. Further, Elizabeth Kendall points out, “Balan- 72. Liebling, “Opera Matinee Has Notable Cast,” chine’s lov e for tapdancing shaped his choreo- 73. Walker, “‘Aida’ at Opera Wins Cheers, Giggles, graphic style in the most fundamental way, gener- Hisses.” ating a consistent emphasis on multiple, complex 74. See the 1930 film short Crazy Horse, featuring steps and intricate, syncopated rhythms, with a rel- Earl “Snake Hips” Tucker (1905-1937). atively understated port de bras that at the same 75. Kirstein diary, December 22, 1935. time allowed for a flexible torso.” Banes, “Balan- 76. The term “Hi-di-hi” is from the refrain of Cab chine and Black Dance,” 55. Calloway’s popular song, “Minnie the Moocher.” Brenda Dixon Gottschild, in another canonic 77. Dorothy Kilgallen, New York Evening Journal, study, points out that “Africanist” features in December 30, 1935, MOS. Balanchine’ s ballets (including, among many oth- 78. Jan 3, 1936. My emphasis. Henriette Weber of ers, in , 1946; Rubies in , the New York Evening Journal objected to Balanchine’s 1967; and Symphony in Three Movements, 1972) were assertion that music critics knew nothing of bal- not simply occasional, decorative touches, but let, and reiterated her support for his Tannhäuser deep components of style and structure that were choreography: “Although we music critics, accord- “assigned to soloists and principals in serious ing to Mr. Balanchine, know nothing about the bal- ballets, thus assuring them integral significance let, it must be set down in this column a s was the in his work.” Gottschild, “Stripping the Emperor,” case after the first ‘Tannhäuser,’ that in this opera 71, 78. the Metropolitan’s new ballet-master has brought 81. Five years later, by contrast, Balanchine did out the purposes of the so well that for openly acknowledge his admiration for black the first time he is stamping the ballet part of an dancers in Katherine Dunham’s company. “No one opera with its true significance. His rioting dancers else can do certain hanging, fluent, smooth jumps” in the Bacchanal are a vast improvement over the the way the men did; “no women trained in classi- massively-robed sirens and what-not of the for- cal ballet hold their arms as beautifully” as these mer ballet.” Henriette Weber, New York Evenin g Jour- men; “no women trained in classic ballet hold their nal, early January, 1936, MOS. arms as beautifully” as the women in Dunham’s 79. Kirstein, Blast at Ballet, 30. company. He also acknowledged his debt (albeit in 80. Kirstein Diary, November 30, 1935. a roundabout way) to the style and ideas of black As Sally Banes has shown, Balanchine, as a young dancers in Cabin in the Sky, who were performing man in Russia, and then in Western Europe and the roles of black characters. “‘What is the use,’ he England, had found African-American performers asked, ‘of inventing a series which are a white particularly compelling, and his choreographies re- man’s idea of a Negro’s walk or stance or slouch? flected his interest in their art: “Some of Balan- I only needed to indicate a disposition of dancers chine’s ‘anticlassical’ innovations were created on the stage. The rest almost improvised itself.’” simply by injecting African-American elements That is, the dancers contributed significantly to into the classical vocabulary. These elements in- creating it. , November 1940, 11. For clude characteristic positions of the arms and Brenda Dixon Gott schild’s commentary on these hands, for instance the arms held akimbo and ‘jazz remarks, see Gott schild, “Stripping the Emperor,” hands’ – palms presented, with the wrists flexed. 69-70. They also appear in frequent pelvic thrusts, crouch- 82. Opera highbrows and a snooty dowager of es, bent legs, flexed ankles, and flat feet, and in the mid-1930s are lampooned in the Marx Broth- spring-summer 2019 139 ers’ A Night at the Opera, which opened on Novem- 4/archives/&xhome=http://69.18.170.204/archives ber 15, 1935, only a month before Balanchine’s first /bibpro.htm. Met opera-ballets appeared in La Traviata on De- 89. Constance Valis Hill, Brotherhood in Rhythm cember 16. (Oxford: Oxford Universi ty Press, 2000), 123. 83. Genné, “‘Glorifying the American Woman,’” 90. “Johnny One Note lyrics,” Soundtrack Lyrics, 31-32; and Genné, Dance Me a Song, 78-84. 1999, accessed January 8, 2019, www.stlyrics.com/ 84. Brooks Atkinson, “The Play: Fannie Bryce in lyrics/babesinarms/johnnyonenote.htm. the 1936 Edition of the ‘Follies’ Under Shubert Man- 91. The Nicholas Brothers took over the roles of agement,” New York Times, January 31, 1936. the DeQuincy brothers from Kenneth Wilkins and 85. Maude Russell, quoting a comment made to LeRoy James, who remained in the cast in other her; see Genné, “‘Glorifying the American Woman,’” roles. 55, note 25. 92. Hill, Brotherhood, 123. 86. Maude Russell, quoted in Jean-Claude Baker 93. Hill, Brotherhood, 124. and Chris Chase, Josephine: The Hungry Heart (New 94. Hill, Brotherhood, 123. In the A&E Biography York: Cooper Square Press, 1993), 205, quoted by documentary on the Nicholas Brothers, a few sec- Genné, “‘Glorifying the American Woman,’” 44. onds of Viola Harden Nicholas’ home movie of 87. H. Howard Taubman, “Balanchine Out of the “Egyptian Ballet” can be seen. It shows Fayard Opera; Ballet Will Go with Him. Master of Troupe jumping over several hunched-up characters in Criticizes Metropolitan’s Standards – Says Dowa- Egyptian costumes and then triumphantly beating gers Did Not Like His Dances as They Were ‘Too his chest, Harold then sliding under Fayard’s legs, Good,’” New York Times, April 13, 1938. and the two Nicholas brothers exiting in “mock- 88. Children returned to the act 2, scene 1 ballet Egyptian” style. Chris Bould and Michael Martin, (“La Danza dei piccoli schiavi mori”) in the 1936-1937 Biography – The Nicholas Brothers (A&E Home Video, season, according to the New York Times: “There were 2000), VHS. some changes in the ballet, notably the recruiting 95. Constance Valis Hill, interview with Marjorie of a group of young boys and girls in their early Jane, Popular Balanchine – Babes in Arms, Jerome teens, some perhaps younger, in the dance of Am- Robbins Dance Collection, The New York Public neris’ little slaves. The youngsters moved vigor- Library for the Performing Arts, *mgZmD 146, box ously. And they added a light touch when they 14, p. 11. www.balanchine.org/balanchine/03/popu backed off after their dance, and in their bewil- larbal_guide_to_dossiers.html. derment barged into a wall instead of the wing. The 96. Helen Eager, Boston Traveler,April 8, 1937, MOS. audience laughed as the dancers scurried around Eager made this observation after attending the to the exit.” H. T. [Howard Taubman], “‘Aida’ Pre- Boston preview in March 1937, before the Nicholas sented at Metropolitan,” New York Times, January 1, brothers joined the show. Some photographs (tak- 1937. en in Boston) of “Lee Calhoun’s Follies,” with char- After the December 2, 1937, premiere of Aida for acters in Egyptian costumes (presumably from the 1 937-1938 season, Oscar Thompson reported, “Johnny One-Note,” or what Balanchine called the “Newly elaborate by the American “Egyptian Ballet”) may be seen in Popular Balan- ballet represented some improvement over those chine – Babes in Arms, Jerome Robbins Dance Col- of last year, particularly that of the temple. Daphne lection, The New York Public Library for the Per- Vane danced a solo prettily in the triumph scene. forming Arts, *mgZmD 146, box 14. Little Nubians succeeded the dusky athletes of Am- 97. Vernon Duke [Vladimir Dukelsky], Passport to neris’s outdoor boudoir and this, too, was a change Paris (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 369; and Gary for the better.” “‘Aida’ and a New Baritone,” New York Marmorstein, A Ship Without a Sail: The Life of Lorenz Sun, posted on the Metropolitan Opera Archives Hart (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), 283. web site, no publication date [probably December 98. On in the “Princess Zenobia” ballet, see 3, 1937], http://69.18.170.204/archives/scripts/cgii James Steichen, “Balanchine’s ‘Bach Ballet’ and the p.exe/WService=BibSpeed/fullcit.w?CID=122030& Dances of Rodgers and Hart’s On Your Toes,” Journal limit=5000&xBranch=ALL&xsdate=&xedate=&the of Musicology 35, no. 2 (2018): 273-281. term=193738&x=0&xhomepath=http://69.18.170.20 99. Weber, “Met Invites Broadway.”

140 Ballet review

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