YESTERDAY WE SET THE STAGE for Coppélia, a classic ballet produced in 1974 by George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova. Today in Part 1, we hear from talented dancers who reminisce with Roslyn Sulcas about interactions with these two major personages of ballet.
Patricia McBride, Swanilda: “Madame Danilova’s memory was uncanny. She remembered every step for every character in the ballet, and she danced full out when she showed you the choreography. She wanted me to play it straight when I impersonated the doll, not for laughs, and she was very precise about the musicality and phrasing, and the intent of each step.”
Alexandra Danilova rehearsing with Helgi Tomasson and McBride. This and following images by Martha Swope/NYPL via The New York Times.
McBride recounts, “Madame Danilova and Balanchine would keep going all day long, moving from one scene to the next, talking together. It was like seeing history, the two of them in the room together. Mr. B never interfered with her staging. I think he really respected her knowledge and memory.”
McBride rehearsing Coppélia, watched by, from left, Lincoln Kirstein, George Balanchine and Rosemary Dunleavy (standing).
McBride continues, “They were both in their 70s, but they had so much energy and vitality and love, and they had a lot of fun together. They were so young in spirit. I felt so fortunate to work with them, and to see their respect for each other and their love of dance.”
Helgi Tomasson, Franz: “I remember that Patty and I did every performance of “Coppélia” in the first week, seven or eight in a row. At some point during that first week, I was so tired that in the scene where Franz is supposed to be asleep, I actually fell asleep. But the whole experience was a highlight of my career.”
Shaun O’Brien and Patricia McBride in the 1974 New York City Ballet production of “Coppélia.”
Jean-Pierre Frohlich, Corps de Ballet: “I had been in the company two years and was just 19. I remember so well Balanchine and Danilova standing in front of the mirrors at the front of the studio. She was so elegant. I knew they had been an item in the Diaghilev era, and I was trying to see how those dynamics would have worked! You could see she still adored him.”
“Danilova loved to demonstrate steps,” Frohlich continues. “She wore ballet slippers with a little heel and ribbons. She had beautiful legs, and liked showing them off. She loved men; she was harder on the women than the men.”
Christine Redpath, Prayer Solo: “Madame Danilova was so charming. She would wear a gorgeous green sleeveless leotard, with a scoop neck and back, a belt and chiffon skirt, hiked up to show her fantastic legs, and her hair coifed with a little scarf tied behind her ears. You could see she still loved to dance, and it was very sweet to see she still loved Balanchine.”
Merrill Ashley, Dawn Solo: “You felt that Balanchine and Danilova were really friends and colleagues. He turned to her a lot; he really respected the knowledge and tradition she brought. I loved watching their interaction.”
Charlotte d’Amboise, Child Dancer: “David Richardson, a dancer in the company, was in charge of the kids, and to my twin sister and me he was God. We knew Balanchine was famous, but it was all about David. I was in the big dance in the last act, which I loved. We wore pink tutus and it was really dancey, and we had a whole section that was just us.”
D’Amboise recounts, “I did pretty much all of the Balanchine ballets that had children in them, but ‘Coppélia’ was my favorite. You felt like a ballerina, you had to have technique to dance it, and you felt like you were part of the corps de ballet. The best part of being a kid in these ballets was dancing next to these ballerinas and dancers who are goddesses and princes. To be surrounded by high art, to be part of it, affects you forever.”
Thanks, Roslyn Sulcas, for such charming and articulate reminiscences from and about such talented people. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024