REVIEWS BY BONNIE ARANT ERTELT
The centenary of the birth of choreographer George Balanchine this year has created cause for celebration and revival of many of his most famous ballets—among them "Serenade," the first ballet he choreographed in the United States, "Four Temperaments," "Jewels" and "Allegro Brillante." Robert Gottlieb, an editor and dance critic, served on the board of directors of the New York City Ballet, the company Balanchine founded, and brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge
to George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker, his straightforward narrative of Balanchine's remarkable life. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, George Balanchivadze was thrust into the dramatic political and social fabric that soon produced World War I and the Russian Revolution. He entered the Imperial School of Ballet and Theater at age nine after arriving too late to take entrance exams to the Naval Academy. Balanchine's subsequent development at the school as a musician, dancer and choreographer served as the springboard for his phenomenal output of dances.
So did money—or lack of it. Though never outwardly bothered by either having money or being penniless, Balanchine always seemed to thrive in situations where time was of the essence, money was on the line or a problem presented itself. Throughout his prolific career—his five marriages (all to ballet dancers, most of them much younger than he), his early wandering years after he left Stalinist Russia creating works for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and other European companies, his time as a choreographer on Broadway and in Holly-wood, and his subsequent maturation with the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet—Balanchine, like Shakespeare, seemed to create his most inspired works out of the most mundane of circumstances.
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Effortless grace
Margot Fonteyn, the subject of biographer Meredith Daneman, fits this mold in some ways as well. Although she never professed any great love for dance and she went on to dance well past her prime (with her most famous partner, Rudolf Nureyev), in part because of medical bills which mounted following the assassination attempt on the life of her husband, Panamanian politician Roberto Arias, those who saw Fonteyn dance were mesmerized by her beauty and grace. She brought seemingly effortless characterizations to roles created for her by British choreographer Frederick Ashton, for whom she was a muse. Like Balanchine, she worked tirelessly and constantly despite social upheaval, personal troubles, monetary and political considerations and physical pain. The honor was in working, and even if she did not think about dance (she is quoted as saying she didn't think ballet "ever caught my imagination. . . . I just danced. I don't think I ever thought about it very much."), she created an aura that captivated those who witnessed her firsthand.
The two books also demonstrate the incredible cross-fertilization in ballet during the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, and for that reason, too, they are hard to put down. At the Imperial School of Ballet and Theater, it is prima ballerina Olga Preobrajenska whose eye Balanchine catches as worthy of admission to the school. Later, she becomes one of Fonteyn's favorite teachers in Paris. Ninette de Valois, who nurtured Fonteyn into becoming the first great British ballerina at the Sadler's Wells Ballet, worked in the corps of the Ballets Russes while Balanchine was its resident choreographer. Fonteyn herself worked with Balanchine in 1950 as he staged Ballet Imperial for Sadler's Wells.
These books are a testament to the genius of Balanchine as a choreographer and Fonteyn as a performer, but both also track the incredible journey that ballet took in the 20th century, away from its late 19th-century Russian roots. They show how these two legends made thoroughly modern modes of expression in dance that continue to impact the course of ballet.
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Bonnie Arant Ertelt is a writer in Nashville.
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