oops, Suzzane was from a little tom-boy from Cinncinatti Ohio not Iowa , discovered when she was 15 yrs ... she moved with her mom who packed up her nurses uniforms and her toe-slippers and ballet records into the back of a U-Haul & they moved to a one-room flat in NYC
ohiobio.org
* while still back in Cincinatti , Suzzane and her friend used to put on big 33rpm records of Swan Lake and dance around two large arm chairs ..one they named Michael Soames of the Royal Ballet , and the other they named Jacques D'Amboise of the NYC Ballet, and they would pique arabesque into the chairs waiting arms...dreaming of being in a company and dancing for the great somber and serious Ballanchine.
And later in NYC , in her first adagio class her partner was Jacques d'amboise! Funny , touching recalling later in the Ellusive Muse Bio , of Jacque d'amboise remembering Suzzane and her still being "not there " yet , but just crazy as even from the start she was dancing always like it was her last dance , and the possibility of her being a great dancer ...
Only a little while later , Balanchine was doing a premier piece called "movements for piano and orchestra" for the music of Stravinsky , which Jacque and Ballanchine's "Muse" at the time was Diana Adams . Diana had always wanted a child and became pregnant and announces that she wasn't going to dance....poor Balanchine felt as though he had been stabbed in the back by Diana ,
hehe, and his "vision" of the dance was destroyed and he was not to be found for 3 days ....the project was
abandoned.
He wasn't going to pursue it any further ...but Jacque decided to go with Suzanne (then just 18) and over at Diana's apartments and Diana laying down giving directions with her hands , she focussed and learned the movements...and later , reluctantly Balanchine see's what they had done and proclaims that
Suzzane was sent to me by God , he took away Diana and gave me Suzane
Later , the ballet was performed , was well received and Stravinsky asks Balanchine who is that girl, as he had never seen her before and Balanchine replies
" Igor , that is Suzanne Farell ....she has just been born!"
He began to see Suzanne differently from that time on, and though called to Europe he choreographs a romantic Pas de Deux later for her and Jacque , and sends her a little poem of love and inspiration :
She reads his letter in the Bio for us :
Dear Suzanne,
Here is the poem promised to you before I went to Hamburg,
this is how you should feel when Jaque is dancing the Pas de deux with you :
" I can't forget this blessed vision when ,
in front of me you stood my love
like instant moment of indecision, like
spirit beauteous from above
through landour , through dispair and sorrow
through clamour and through resltess face
I heard your voice from night to morrow
and dreamt and dreamt of darling face
The years of storm compell surrender,
dispel and scattered dream of mine
and I have lost your voice so tender
and face so heavenly divine.
PS: I hope by now you are thin and beautiful ...and light to lift...see you soon,
your GB.
Suzzane hid the letter in her drawer, being very embarrassed as to what it this meant ..and they never spoke about it , ever in their lives....
The dance he created for them was called "Meditations", she was only eighteen , and her she was dancing a solo with her armchair idol Jacques d'amboise.
Jacque recalls the dance was special , about Balachine's \ statement on life , brushing next to beauty and an ideal , which in a man's life he attempts to possess it , and may possess and touch for a moment , but was doomed to to lose it . And Jacque (now in his 50's) remarks that it is
necessary to lose it ...otherwise there is no striving for anything better any more .
Once you have achieved what you have dreamed of ....
Really a nice little Bio , "The Ellusive Muse " ...
rent it if you get the chance , SusieQ
( my Ellusive Muse)
Here she is now , at the JFK teaching for the School of
Performing Arts
kennedy-center.org
such a life well lived , and life goes on ... |
