(40/50) “At the time, the ballet was rehearsed by Janet Reed; she was wonderful. She made everything so clear and so much fun at the same time. And Mr. Balanchine would come. He was there at the last rehearsal, and we all obviously knew that he was the boss. I always listened. I was an attentive, serious person, though I was having fun. It was a disciplined group of kids, but we had a lot of fun running around the halls of City Center. There were no girls playing boys’ parts; we were all a bunch of roughnecks”
— Paul Mejia in I Remember Balanchine (affiliate link)
(top left) Rusty Nickel, the first Nutcracker Prince.
(top center) Rusty being zipped into his costume.
(top right) Party scene children admiring Robert Barnett, original Candy Cane.
(bottom left) The children’s dressing room.
(bottom center) SAB students passing time at the theater.
(bottom right) SAB students leaving the stage door at New York City Center
Photos by Radford Bascome, 1954.
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