By Victoria Looseleaf
“Wow, I really like that headline,” our father said to us after reading our recent New York Times story on the great choreographer George Balanchine’s time spent in L.A.
“So do I, but we don’t write the headlines. The paper actually has writers who crank those out.”
Talk about a niche job.
Ah, needless to say, we were thrilled with the story whose headline has given a new moniker to the City of Angels. In any case, we are the Deadline Queen, so having done our reportage, including observing rehearsals at both Los Angeles Ballet (the troupe is in the middle of its Balanchine Festival, below) and American Contemporary Ballet (the company has four performances in June, below right), as well as writing the piece while somewhat jet-lagged (we’d recently been on a whirlwind trip to Aix-en-Provence to cover Ballet Preljocaj’s world premiere – we know it’s a tough life but someone’s gotta live it), we’re happy to share the story, which posted online May 17 and published May 19, with those of you who may have missed it.
Ergo, here it is…our New York Times story on Balanchine in Los Angeles – just because we’re so pleased – and not only for us, but for the brilliant companies we are privileged to have introduced to a national audience. (Full disclosure: We had written about LAB for Dance Magazine in 2010, but the more stories, we feel, the better.)
Some of the tidbits in the NYT story have to do with Balanchine loving films and choreographing five of them. Below is a scene from his first, The Goldwyn Follies (1938), which starred his then-wife, the fabulous Vera Zorina. At left, Mr. B is rehearsing with Maria Tallchief, his third wife, whom we also mention in the story.
While writing about dance is fabulous, it’s even more exciting to watch our local ballet troupes grow and thrive.
In short, thank you, dear readers, for sharing this written journey with us, and please make sure to check out these wonderful companies!
