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NYCB Vol. 9 No. 25 - Nutcracker
(25/50) Diana Adams in the 1958 CBS television taping of Nutcracker. 1-2. Diana Adams. Photos by Fred Fehl, 1958. Harry Ransom Center. 3....

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 14, 2023


NYCB Vol. 9 No. 23 & 24 - Nutcracker
(23/25) These are photos from rehearsals for the 1958 CBS TV taping of the Nutcracker. As you can see here, Mr. B played Drosselmeyer. In...

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 13, 2023


NYCB Vol. 9 No. 20 & 21 - Nutcracker
(20/50) "In 1958, Balanchine removed the grand pas de deux, substituting for it a dance for the Sugar Plum Fairy supported not by a...

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 10, 2023


NYCB Vol. 9 No. 12 - Nutcracker
(12/50) I love these two photos of Arthur Mitchell dancing Balanchine's 1954 choreography for Arabian/Coffee. He just looks so radiant...

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 3, 2023


NYCB Vol. 9 No. 7 - Nutcracker
(7/50) The best thing you will see all day today is little baby Suzy Pilarre as a Polichinelle when she was 11 years old. The pictures...

Lauryn Johnson
Nov 29, 2023


NYCB Vol. 8 No. 13 - Stars & Stripes
“Ever since I came to the United States I have liked watching parades and listening to Sousa’s marches. For many years in the back of my...

Lauryn Johnson
Oct 3, 2023


NYCB Vol. 7 No. 14 - Afternoon of a Faun
“Every ballet, I believe, is individual. It sets up its own world, its own society and mores; it has its own life. The approach,...

Lauryn Johnson
Apr 30, 2023


NYCB Vol. 7 No. 10 - Afternoon of a Faun
When you watch Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun in the audience, you become aware that the opening of the proscenium is actually the mirrored...

Lauryn Johnson
Apr 27, 2023


NYCB Vol. 7 No. 7 - Square Dance
When Square Dance was choreographed in 1957, the cast included popular square dance caller, Elisha Keeler. The ballet featured his whitty...

Lauryn Johnson
Apr 23, 2023


NYCB Vol. 5 No. 49 - Nutcracker
[49/50] Suzy Pilarre recently reached out to me to share her history with the Nutcracker: "In 1958, at 10 I was brought to SAB by Melissa...

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 30, 2022


NYCB Vol. 5 No. 46 - Nutcracker
[46/50] “Little Miss Bethune, incidentally, gave up a good job in Broadway’s ‘The Most Happy Fella’ in order to appear as Clara. Her...

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 28, 2022


NYCB Vol. 5 No. 20 - Nutcracker
[20/50] Robert Maiorano, a former NYCB soloist was the first boy to play a soldier in Balanchine's Nutcracker in 1955 (before that it had...

Lauryn Johnson
Dec 10, 2022


NYCB Vol. 4 No. 17 - The Cage
“Once while performing The Cage, I did not fasten my sleek black beetle like wig securely, and by mid-dance it was hanging near my ear. I...

Lauryn Johnson
Oct 6, 2022


NYCB Vol. 3 No. 11 - Afternoon of a Faun
(1/4) The beauty of these photos gives me chills. Jerome Robbins working with two casts of dancers on Afternoon of a Faun in 1964. Edward...

Lauryn Johnson
Apr 28, 2022


NYCB Vol. 3 No. 8 - Serenade
Although Serenade’s meaning has been subject to endless speculation since it was created 87 years ago—Mr. B himself even giving...

Lauryn Johnson
Apr 26, 2022


NYCB Vol. 3 No. 3 - Serenade
Here are 5 of Balanchine’s Waltz Girls in the same arabesque. So interesting to see how the same choreography can still be so different....

Lauryn Johnson
Apr 21, 2022


NYCB Vol. 2 No. 13 - Swan Lake
(2/10) When Balanchine mounted his own one-act production of Swan Lake in 1951, New York Times critic John Martin was “bewildered” by the...

Lauryn Johnson
Feb 12, 2022


NYCB Vol. 2 No. 14 - Swan Lake
(3/10) “[Allegra’s potrayal] is poetic in the extreme and wonderfully musical […] Surely here is one of the loveliest of Odettes.”—John...

Lauryn Johnson
Feb 12, 2022


NYCB Vol. 2 No. 5 - Summerspace
Another round of Summerspace tonight at NYCB. Here is silent footage of the premiere of Summerspace performed at the 11th American Dance...

Lauryn Johnson
Feb 1, 2022


NYCB Vol. 2 No. 3 - Summerspace
Originally set on his company in 1958, Merce Cunningham staged Summerspace for NYCB in 1966. (left) Carolyn Brown and Viola Farber in...

Lauryn Johnson
Jan 29, 2022
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