Serenade 90th Anniversary No. 5 - Workshop Performance

Lauryn Johnson
Jun 7, 2024
2 min read

Today I’d like to tie two topics together: My week-long look at Serenade ahead of its 90th anniversary, and the 59th annual SAB Workshop. Today students will perform Serenade at the workshop and as such I thought these photos of Alexandra Danilova brought both topics together nicely.

ree — Alexandra Danilova in Serenade with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Photo by Maurice Seymour, 1935. Library of Congress.

Yesterday, while at the Library of Congress in DC, searching Danilova’s personal collection, I found these photos (and MANY others I will dole out during the year) as well as her personal notebooks where she would draft speeches and classes.

(1) First we see Danilova in Serenade in 1935 costume, (2) then Danilova rehearsing the first SAB Workshop in 1965, (3-4) then photos of Danilova teaching, and finally, (6) her draft for a speech that she gave for the 1992 Workshop!

I transcribed the entirety of her Workshop speech below and continued in the comments:

“Lecture at Promenade of State Theater for Friends of City Center 19th of May, 1992.

ree — Alexandra Danilova conducting a dress rehearsal for the first Workshop Performance in 1965; Photo by V. Sladon via SAB Blog

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. This afternoon I am going to talk about our workshop. You are all probably wondering why ballet school needs a workshop. And where and how it’s originated. As far as I know, it originated at an unknown date in the Imperial Theatrical School of St. Petersburg, and is continued to this day by the Leningrad State Choreographic Institute. Workshop is a performance by graduating students to show their capability as performance on the stage. And the results are sometimes – surprising!

“The star of the classroom may be unnoticeable on the stage! And vice versa. Unnoticeable students in class suddenly light up and give a brilliant performance!

“It is my business to find suitable classical ballet for this occasion, and present them to Mr. Balanchine. This year we chose the first act of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with choreography by Petipa. All of us who were trained in Leningrad State Choreographic Institute consider Marius Petipa one of the great masters of classical ballet. Among his best known works, are Sleeping beauty, Swan Lake, Bayadere, and Nutcracker.

“Classical technique is the base of all dance. To re-stage such a work is very difficult. There is sometimes too much repetition of movements for present day tastes. In such a case, it has to be altered. At the same time, the tradition of classical ballet must be preserved. Apart from the dancers, it is good for young choreographers to be able to study the works of their famous predecessors he will find his surprise the vocabulary of classical movements far exceeds anything he has ever imagined.

“Stanley Williams has chosen this year the famous part from “Flower Festival” choreographed by Bournonville in 1848, who, like Petitpa, was trained in France at the School of the Paris Opera, and then went to Denmark, where he raised the Royal Danish Ballet to its present height.

“As usual in our tradition, we are presenting the work of a young choreographer, Richard Tanner, who was raised in Phoenix, Arizona, and started his ballet training under Robert Lindgren.

“We hope you find plenty of variety in this year’s workshop performance.”