Choreographer Balanchine made ballet dancers move

Choreographer George Balanchine had one mission, says Edward Villella, who danced many roles Balanchine created at the New York City Ballet in the 1950s and 1960s.

"He understood it was his responsibility to take us out of the 19th century," Villella said. "Any art form has to move forward. You can't just stay there."

Villella, now artistic director of the Miami City Ballet, was one of four panelists in "From Russia With Love: Balanchine and Stravinsky in America," a panel discussion attended by about 70 people Monday night at Academic Auditorium.

The talk was moderated by Dr. Marc Strauss, an associate professor of dance and theater at Southeast.

Wednesday night, an audience at sold-out Rose Theatre will see Villella's Miami City Ballet perform "Rubies," one of three parts in Balanchine's masterwork titled "Jewels." Set to music by Igor Stravinsky, "Rubies" is the jazzy American middle of the ballet, which also bows deeply to France and Russia. Villella originated the principal male role in "Rubies."

One of four

Balanchine was one of the four great choreographers of the 20th century, Dance St. Louis executive director Sally Bliss said.

A former guest artist with the Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre, she is the trustee of the foundation that controls the work of another of the great choreographers, Anthony Tudor.

Stravinsky was a composer who combined "modern freshness with a classical approach," Southeast music professor Dr. Robert Fruehwald said, words that could describe Stravinsky's fellow Russian émigré and collaborator Balanchine as well.

He wrote "a music that still lives and breathes," Fruehwald said.

Christine O'Neal, senior artist-in-residence in dance at Washington University in St. Louis, traced Balanchine's work from Marius Petipa, the "father" of classical ballet. With Balanchine, the human body became primary, she said. "Substance, not style, became the central issue."

The son of a composer, Balanchine was praised as a musician who choreographs, not just as a particularly musical choreographer, said Carol Pardo, New York correspondent for Danceview magazine.

He was captivated by "the quality of how Americans move and the syncopations of jazz," she said.

Villella recounted the terror and thrill of rehearsing while both Balanchine and Stravinsky watched.

"I could swim in that genius, the genius of George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky," he said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

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