Last week in the New York Public Library, I learned how to view things on microfilm, and I found this program from an early SAB demonstration in 1936. It’s really interesting to read through and I excerpted a bit below as well. So interesting to see what SAB’s mission and vision was in the 30s and compare it to what it has developed into 90 years later.
“An American Tradition is similarly, hopefully awaited, with our magnificent heritage of racial combinations a further enrichment will be added to the already fertile past. The School of American Ballet has been founded for one purpose only: to provide dancers as well trained as any other technician, whether it be surgeon, architect, or musician, to maintain a permanent company.
“The Permanent company of the American Ballet will bemoaned only by students or graduates of the School of the American Ballet, combined in a closely knit organization to produce in consecutive seasons throughout the country, ballets conceived and executed by Americans, defining perhaps for the first time on a scale worthy of its subject, what is most lyric, indigenous and essential in the American legend.”
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