Though the week began with sobering news about new financial realities for our company, it ended with a reaffirmation of why we devote our lives to this wacky profession. With us for the past two weeks was former ballerina Violette Verdy. I met Violette when she was took the position of teaching associate with New York City Ballet. Like most who meet Violette, I fell in love pretty quickly. Her class not only helped me improve and strengthen, but it focused on precise musicality and the satisfaction it can bring. Laughter shared the spotlight with learning in Violette’s classroom and many of us are still repeating charming and insightful bon mots.
For several years, I had hoped to bring Violette to PNB as a guest teacher. As we slog through the budgeting process, small items like funding for a guest teacher often have to go. With each year that it couldn’t happen, the idea worked its way up the list of priorities. Add the fact that we are currently preparing for performances of George Balanchine’s Jewels, in which Violette originated the ballerina role in Emeralds, this was the year to make it happen. After several emails that miraculously radiated the same charm as the person, I received one from Mimi Paul, which was very sweet. It read something like this:
“Dear Peter, I hear you are bringing Violette to Seattle to coach Emeralds. What a lovely idea. Can I come too?”
There are two ballerinas in Emeralds and the other was originally Mimi Paul. Violette and Mimi are terrific friends, which you can’t say about all of those former ballerinas. Needless to say, the response was yes.
Regrettably, I saw only a precious few moments of these coaching sessions as I was always in the adjacent studio reconstructing Rubies. I was jealous of the many photographers, videographers, and curious staff and press who did. I spoke with a few purple-faced dancers muttering about just having experienced a highlight of their careers. If I were to take a broad swipe at describing what emerged from a week of detailed coaching, I would say that motivations for movements were revealed. Steps were not changed, but images assisted their execution. The first steps of Mimi’s pas de deux, known as the “walking pas de deux,” were described by Balanchine as those of a tightrope walker—not those of a scared individual on a tightrope, but those of the professional, measured yet secure. Balanchine said the walk originated far beyond the wing, merely pausing for a moment once onstage.
Phrases of movement became rounder, with dancers allowing lilt and finding graceful brushstrokes of the arm.
Violette spoke about the gathering before the final pose of her “bracelet” solo. She demonstrated with upturned palms, more like child’s in a pond than a ballerina’s in performance. In class, she reminded dancers about the simple recurring moment of assembling the legs in fifth position. As she spoke, little red teaching shoes demonstrated with her words. The standing leg makes a promise (one red shoe is placed at an impressive 180-degree angle), then, as the other shoe arrives in parallel, the working leg keeps that promise, and we are ready.
As my son tries to drag me into the electronic age and I regularly wonder why I don’t have Skype, I was once again struck by the rarity of ballet. It is passed on with words and movements of one body and mind standing next to another. It can’t be downloaded or programmed. Watching this tribal passing of knowledge and inspiration is why we can’t fathom doing that high paying desk job. (Not that anyone has offered one.) It was an extraordinary week in our studios—one that we will remember fondly for years to come.
