Dances at a Gathering opens with a solo for the Brown Boy who was originally danced by Edward Villella . Eddie wrote about this solo in his autobiography Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic:
"[Robbins said to Eddie] 'I see something in you no one has used yet, but the music has to be just right.' He tried one or two selections, but they didn't work. He didn't give up. Finally he came bounding into the studio one day saying, 'I found it, I found it!' The music was a Chopin mazurka, Opus 63, No. 3, and on the spot he started choreographing the variation.
"'I feel that there's a romantic side to you that people don't see because they don't look beyond your pyrotechnical ability, the physical, athletic feats you do, all your jumping and your speed,' he said. 'I'm going to try to express this romantic side in this dance. This variation is very introspective. It's as if you're looking inside of yourself.'
"The choreography contained jumps and turns, but it wasn't really bravura or pyrotechnical. It reflected the contemplative state Jerry had described, and he gave me very specific directions about the mood he wanted me to project.
"'When you walk out onstage, you're actually beginning the ballet. You look around. It's as if it's the last time you'll ever dance in this theater, in this space. And this is your home, the place you know.' In fact, the variation opened Dances at a Gathering and was essential in establishing its mood. The curtain rises on an empty stage. The piano is offstage right, visible to the audience on a platform at the far end of the orchestra pit. I enter downstage left, my back in three-quarter profile to the audience. I begin to walk, but not a note is played. On my third step, the music starts, and I dance. There was no doubt in my mind once it was completed that Jerry had created what had to be one of the most beautiful solo male variations ever choreographed."
--Edward Villella
Peter Boal said, “Jerry held that solo close to his heart. He felt he must teach it to the next generation and not assign it to someone else. As the dancer entered the performance space, Jerry described a grown man returning to his childhood playground or an old dancer revisiting their first ballet studio. -
Eddie said, “Opening night comes, and I do that, and I finish and go offstage, and I look up and there’s this beard [Robbins'], and he said, 'I want to tell you. I’ve never done this in my life. But I had to come back and tell you, that was wonderful, just wonderful.' And, boy, was I in a good place.”
“I felt so emotional after dancing it that some nights I wanted to go home immediately it seemed as if I should leave the theater at once. Often it was hard for me to get back onstage for the rest of the ballet.”
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