Thanks, Francis.
Suzanne Farrell says many interesting things here about working with George Balanchine. Since one of her projects is to 'retrieve forgotten' Balanchine works, sometimes having to fill in lost parts herself (as she has stated) it is interesting to wonder about how much input she had in the original creation of these works.
"When Mr. B started working on a ballet for me, there would be no one in the room except Gordon Boelzner at the piano, George and myself. He would show me a little something and I would try to imitate or shape or decode what he indicated.
Choreography is not born as choreography; it grows out of a suggestion and then it gets shaped into choreography. Rarely would he say, “That’s not what I wanted.” Our collaboration was very special and filled with trust. He would put the ball in my court and allow me to run with it...."
And a thought about the ballet process in general.
"Before videos/DVDs, it [a ballet] was passed on by the people who first danced it. They had firsthand knowledge. Not just of the steps but of the history. That fragile essence gets lost and is not easily replaced. Essence has to be replaced by essence, not technique or something else."
http://www.7dvt.com/2012ballet-legend-s ... ine-legacy
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