Violette Verdy: coaching “Dances at a Gathering”
Surfing on You Tube recently, I came across a 2001 video of then-nearly-seventy-year-old Violette Verdy coaching French dancer Isabelle Guerin in Jerome Robbins’s “Dances at a Gathering,” teaching her the role that was first created on Verdy herself in 1969. This is how ballets are generally passed on, person to person.
I saw the original not once but many times. Unfortunately, I can’t find any online videos of what I remember as the transcendent performance of Verdy as part of that long-ago cast.
But you can watch Verdy attempt to teach her old role to Guerin (unfortunately, embedding is blocked, so you have to click on the link to see it). Violette sparkles with effervescence despite the fact that she’s merely indicating the barest outlines of the movements. Guerin, who was forty at the time, only a bit past her prime as a dancer, shows none of the fluid charm, subtle humor, and exquisite musicality I remember from Verdy’s long-ago performance of the very same steps.
It lives on in my memory. I guess such things cannot be transmitted to the next generation; they must be savored as they happen. As Verdy says towards the end of the clip: “we were incredibly lucky.”
I said there are no videos available online of Verdy dancing the role But I found a still that appeared in Life magazine, with some multiple exposures that may give you a small fraction of an idea of what I’m talking about. It’s a mighty poor substitute, but I guess it will have to do:
A nice peek into the nuts and bolts of a craft i know absolutely nothing about. But if Neo finds it fascinating, i’m pretty sure theres something there i should look a little more into. 🙂
1. Ballerinas have a way of walking that reminds me of jetliners taxiing on the ground.
2. This chap went mountain climbing in Alaska–and encountered legendary mountaineer Fred Becky, still climbing at 87.
3. Some eminent scientists continue to do research well into old age. I used to wonder why such hypercompetitive individuals persisted after they were well past their prime. I finally realized that they were demonstrating by example that the essence of their calling is distinct from ego gratification and material rewards.
Becky -> Beckey
Life magazine used to specialize in photos like that, where they used multiple exposures to simulate motion, strobe lights to freeze motion, etc. They had first-rate photographers.
Life was founded in 1936, when “news” was dominated by newspapers and radio. It enjoyed a good run, but television eventually killed it off. It folded in 1972. (Yes, I know they publish special commemorative issues today, but it’s not a weekly newsmagazine any more.)
It was a staple in my house when I was a kid in the 60s. I was crestfallen when it died. I still have almost every issue from about 1965-72, with a number of issues back to 1961. During one of my family’s moves, my parents threw out a lot of back issues, and I kept all the ones I could find relating to space flight.
Once, in the 90s, I went into a used book store and saw an entire wall, from floor to ceiling, of World War II issues. I nearly had a stroke when I saw them. I think my jaw literally hit the floor. I had very little money with me, and the store owner said that they had already been bought by a collector in Japan and were being readied for shipment. If I could have, I would have bought Every. Damn. One. of them.
More recently, a family on my street had a yard sale, and I bought six or seven issues from 1937 and 1938. (That’s all they had.) One, from 1938, had a photo essay about European Jewish culture. Poignant, to say the least.
Google Books has scanned every page from every issue and put them online: LIFE
Addendum to my previous comment:
In those old issues, the ads are just as interesting as the articles and photos. They’re like a time capsule of American culture.
I always enjoy your ballet posts. Thanks for posting this, neo.
Just echoing colagirl & SteveH: I always enjoy the ballet posts. It’s exposure to something I have little first-hand experience with. It’s exposure to beauty, which is oxygen, especially in comparison with the noxious politics we are forced to concern ourselves with.
thanks for that!