American dances

From November 8 to 20, the Balanchine-Robbins Triple-Bill closes the ballet season with a tribute to two masters who are undisputed authorities in the world of dance and ballet: George Balanchine, with Theme and Variations, which returns to the stage in a new production by Luisa Spinatelli, and Jerome Robbins, with two pieces never before seen at La Scala, Dances at a Gathering, which carries great subtlety, and the sparkling and witty The Concert. The current generation of La Scala artists will take on these three ballets for the first time, and it is up to the choreographers of the respective foundations to immerse them in the style and specificity of these important productions. We met with them, and they shared their experiences with us.

Patricia Neary: Theme and Variations, one of the greatest classical ballets ever
In Balanchine's Complete Stories of the Great Ballets, first published in 1954, Balanchine speaks of the first version of Theme and Variations.

"In addition to the ballet scores, Tchaikovsky composed many others that were perfectly danceable. And that was natural for a man who had found ingenious inspiration in ballet. Between the time of his first ballet, Swan Lake (1877), and that of his second, Sleeping Beauty, Tchaikovsky wrote four orchestral suites. They were not written for dance, but listening to them, it's hard to understand why Tchaikovsky was not a favourite composer of choreographers of his time. In 1933, I created Mozartiana to the fourth of these orchestral suites, while Theme and Variations was set to the music of the finale of Suite No. 3. It is a pure dance ballet.”

It is reminiscent of the great period of classical dance, that of the Russian Imperial Ballet. A concentrated development of the classical ballet lexicon, Theme and Variations was created in 1947 for the Ballet Theatre (later American Ballet Theatre) and entered the repertoire of the New York City Ballet in 1960. Ten years later, Balanchine used the entire orchestral suite to create Tchaikovsky's Suite No. 3, and with some minor revisions, Theme and Variations returned to the repertoire as the fourth and final movement of that ballet.

The La Scala Ballet Company first performed Theme and Variations in 2004 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa for the International Ballet Festival, and the following year at La Scala as part of the 'Trittico Novecento'. One hundred and twenty years after Balanchine's birth, and 20 years after it entered the repertoire of La Scala, the piece returns to the stage in a new production with sets and costumes by Luisa Spinatelli. Patricia Neary will oversee the choreography. She was one of Balanchine's principal dancers at the NYCB from 1960 to 1968 and has performed over 30 of his masterpieces around the world, first commissioned by the maestro himself and later under the auspices of the George Balanchine Trust.

Patricia Neary has no doubts about what it means to revive a ballet that is part of 20 ^th -century dance history. "It is still incredible and one of Balanchine's greatest works. It is a great classical ballet, in tutus, very technically demanding for everyone, especially the two leads. I have been teaching it for about 45 years, since the 1970s, so almost 50 years. I have done it for countless companies. The Royal Ballet, the Paris Opera, Berlin, the Ballet of Denmark, Oslo, Amsterdam, Romania, Japan, the Royal Ballet of Birmingham, to name but a few.

The programme notes state: "The final movement of Tchaikovsky's third orchestral suite consists of 12 variations. The performance opens with an ensemble of 12 women and a principal couple. As the ballet progresses from one variation to the next, solos by the ballerina and her partner are interspersed with choral moments. As in all classical ballets, there is a central pas de deux. A great Polonese leads up to the final climax, which involves the entire cast of 26 dancers."

So, we asked Patricia Neary what she focuses on during rehearsals, what is required of the dancers, what skills they need to develop.

"Mr. B is an extraordinary choreographer from a musical point of view; he is phenomenal. Every dancer who does this ballet loves it. But it is the most challenging technically for the lead couple. Of course, when I teach Mr. B's ballets, we have to work on getting the timing right, which is usually fast. Every Mr. B ballet is about music and speed, especially this one. It is one of the greatest classical ballets of all time, and everything is very important to me: technique, musicality, arms, feet. Someone who could say a lot about this production is Manuel Legris, one of the greatest dancers. I taught him ballet when he was at the Paris Opera, and he is absolutely the best.”

Jean-Pierre Frohlich: Robbins’ theatricality in The Concert
First performed at La Scala, The Concert is a ballet in which Jerome Robbins delights in – and delights others – with the extravagances of a concert hall audience. It was first performed at the City Centre of Music and Drama in New York in 1956 for the New York City Ballet. Robbins went on to create three more ballets set to the music of Chopin: Dances at a Gathering, In the Night and Other Dances.

The theatre notes say: "One of the pleasures of attending a concert is the freedom to get lost in the music. Often unconscious mental images are formed, and the patterns and paths of these reveries are influenced by the music itself, the programme notes or the listener's personal dreams, thoughts and fantasies. Chopin's music, in particular, was given made-up programme names such as the Etude 'of the Butterfly', the Waltz 'of a Minute', the Prelude 'of a Drop of Water', etc.  

Jean-Pierre Frohlich is reviving The Concert at La Scala for the Jerome Robbins Trust and shares with us his journey with the great choreographer.

"I met him when I was very young and studying at the School of American Ballet. Putting on this ballet means a lot to me. It is an honour and a privilege to bring a piece of 20th century dance history back to the stage. I have been reviving it for over 35 years, with countless artists and étoiles around the world. First, I was involved as a dancer, one of Jerome Robbins' "instruments", then I became his assistant, and when he was alive, we travelled together, and I staged his ballets with him in numerous companies; now I am carrying on his legacy.”

We asked him what he believes is the strength of The Concert still today and how the specificity of this ballet leads to the structure of the work in the rehearsal room.

"I think one of the strengths is that the audience can relate to the dancers on stage or to the different characters, because you see these kinds of themes a lot when you go to ballet or opera. You see them and you find yourself doing the same things that they are doing. And then it's nice to hear the audience laughing. It is nice to watch a ballet and not have to try too hard to understand what is going on, because the choreography itself tells you what is going on, even if you know nothing about dance or ballet. What is difficult about this production is the detail. It is very detail oriented. Comedy is timing. So, the timing of each section is very important because if you get it wrong you lose the audience. What I ask the dancers to do is to put themselves in the situation. Like an actor does, or like anyone does in their everyday life. I ask the dancers to look at what they are doing and how they are doing it, to understand that they don't have to make it funny just because it's a funny ballet. It is the situations that make it funny. If, by looking at themselves, the timing and the situations make sense to them, then it will make sense to the audience.”

All this is linked to a close relationship between choreography and music. "I think Robbins saw many stories in Chopin's music and found a way to tell them through movement, without saying a word, and through what he asked the dancers to do. I don't think of it as a ballet so much as a skit, which is to say several sections, several divertissements. Then he had a funny way of connecting everything when he choreographed different parts at different times. He knew how to put it all together, like a doctor or a chemist, he knew how to shake things up and find an order that made sense. Of all Jerome Robbins' idiosyncrasies, his theatricality in The Concert stands out most. He was a genius when it came to theatre. He was all about truth. He wanted to be honest. He wanted to make sure that the audience understood what he was doing and that they were in the situation, that they were involved and that they could see themselves in these characters on stage. He also wanted the dancers to be people, not dancers, even if they were on pointe shoes, real people.”

For those attending this ballet for the first time, Frohlich has only one suggestion: "Sit back and enjoy the performance. Don't be afraid to laugh if you find it funny! Sometimes, especially in Europe, I have noticed that people are afraid to laugh because it 'doesn't look good' in the theatre, but I think they should let go and enjoy what they are watching. There is nothing to pay attention to. Just sit back, watch the ballet, laugh if you want to laugh, and that's it."   

Ben Huys: The sense of community in Dances at a Gathering
Robbins created Dances at a Gathering, the second of his ballets to Chopin's music, in 1969, dedicating it to the memory of Jean Rosenthal, a pioneer of lighting design. He told Newsweek in the same year: "I started doing a pas de deux for Eddie Villella and Patricia McBride, then I got carried away by the music. Everything started to flow, as if a tap had opened inside me and the purity of working with dancers took over."

Ben Huys was the choreographic supervisor for the La Scala dancers' debut, has been with the New York City Ballet since 1986, has appeared in numerous Balanchine and Robbins ballets, and is now a coach for the George Balanchine Trust and the Jerome Robbins Rights Trust.

"Dances at a Gathering is a masterpiece. It has a very important place in the history of 20th century dance. I have been involved in staging this ballet for almost 20 years in London, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Paris, Seattle, Miami, Copenhagen and now Milan. It is an honour and a privilege for me to pass on what I have learned from working directly with Robbins on this wonderful title. A brilliant, ingenious, musical and beautiful choreography that makes the ballet very relevant today. It does not seem dated at all. On the contrary, dancers still love to perform it, and audiences still love to watch it.”

Having worked directly with Jerome Robbins, Huys has many first-hand memories of this production. "I was lucky enough to work directly with him on this ballet for about ten years, playing The Green Man (roles are indicated by the colour of the costume). Rehearsals with Robbins could be long, intense and not always easy. He was very demanding and expected the best of you. You had to work as hard as he did. Dances at a Gathering meant a lot to him, in fact he wanted to be there in person for the rehearsals and was happy to do so. Although the rehearsals were challenging, we also had fun thanks to his great sense of humour. I remember his big smile as he followed some sections of the ballet. There was a mutual respect between the choreographer and the dancers, and he rarely changed the cast, so if you were in the ballet you stayed for a long time and that made you feel part of something very special. What is special about this ballet is that there is no corps de ballet, only ten principal dancers. The original cast was a group of extraordinary dancers – Violette Verdy, Patricia McBride, Edward Villella, Alegra Kent, Kay Mazzo, to name but a few – and it was wonderful to see so many artists from all over the world take on the roles they danced.”

We also asked him what he thought the meaning of this ballet was and what the dancers needed to pay the most attention to in the rehearsal room to make it the best it could be. "The ballet has no story; it is about people coming together in a space and dancing with each other.  It's all there, great choreography to the beautiful music of Chopin. There is a real sense of community in the ballet and as a dancer you feel it. Like all of Robbins' creations, Dances at a Gathering is about relationships, love, friendship and life. The most important thing is the relationship with the other person. Robbins was very specific about this, emphasising the importance of looking at each other, of dancing in relationship to each other.  To understand this, the dancers have to have artistic sense and the right sensitivity. It is a very intimate ballet; the audience must feel as if they are looking through the keyhole of a door.  I think it is wonderful that Manuel Legris has brought Dances at a Gathering into the repertoire of La Scala. It is a privilege and a great opportunity for the dancers to perform this ballet in their careers, and what a gift for the audience to be able to enjoy this masterpiece!"

Carla Vigevani
Translation by Alexa Ahern