Lincoln's Legacy
George Balanchine may have given ballet in America its signature look and rhythm, but it was Lincoln Kirstein who provided the push that made it all possible. This month and next, New York pays homage to the grandfather of American ballet with a biography, exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the New York Public Library for the Perfoming Arts, among other institutions, and, perhaps most fitting for this co-founder of the New York City Ballet, an entire NYCB season, "Kirstein 100: A Tribute," dedicated to the man who brought Balanchine to America in 1934. The season, which runs between April 24 and June 24 at the New York State Theater, opens with "For Lincoln: 10 Modern Classics," a week of programming that rotates 10 different Balanchine ballets.
Kirstein's life was colorful enough to warrant theatrical adaptation itself. He was married for decades, but was frank about his homosexual involvements in his final works of memoir. Advance reviews of Martin Duberman's new biography, "The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein," promise a full treatment of Kirstein's psychological and sexual crotchets, probably more than some people might wish, but surely it is unfair to Kirstein to simply or sanctify him. He was eccentric in the extreme, a fact brought to life by the fact one had to have been a bit mad to think in 1934 of establishing a major ballet institution patterned on the ancient, state-supported troupes of Europe and Russia. In America, ballet was still considered something so precious, so hothouse, so sexually ambivalent and thus suspect and threatening that Kirstein might have been just about the only resident who could have envisioned what became NYCB.
Kirstein's vision of ballet was quite different than Balanchine's, however. Kirstein was partial to the formula that Diaghilev had established in his Ballets Russes, to which Balanchine had subscribed in his work for the master impresario during the 1920s. Movement, music, sets, costumes, and an explicit plot or at least theme were each accorded equal importance. But by the time NYCB was founded in 1946, Balanchine was, somewhat to Kirstein's chagrin, moving further and further away from the Diaghilevian model and toward a marriage of dance and music that made all other elements secondary. Nevertheless, Kirstein's support of NYCB was unwavering and he was personally involved in the creation of a number of Balanchine works to be performed this season.
In 1948's "Orpheus," for example, it was Kirstein who chose Isamu Noguchi to design sets and costumes. Kirstein was a great admirer of Martha Graham, and Balanchine's "Episodes" was originally paired with a work by Graham, both choreographed in 1959 to Webern music. Kirstein's invitation to the Japanese Gagaku dancers and musicians to perform in New York in 1959 undoubtedly influenced the creation of "Bugaku" in 1963. And Kirstein, a lifelong Anglophile as well as admirer of regimental parade and pageantry, urged Balanchine to choreograph "Union Jack" in 1976.
But Kirstein didn't just engender NYCB, he also helped create the training ground for the company, the School of American Ballet. On May 1, NYCB artistic director Peter Martins will bring those two institutions together in honor of Kirstein, in a new production of Prokofiev's three-act ballet "Romeo and Juliet," using NYCB's dancers as well as faculty and students from SAB.
Finally, NYCB's spring season will return "Jewels" to the repertory, commemorating its 40th anniversary on June 12. If a newcomer to Balanchine's work asked me what ballet of his to start with, I would easily recommend this ballet. The three one-act ballets, "Emeralds," "Rubies," and "Diamonds," are set to the music of Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, respectively. "Jewels" could be seen as an homage to the music and ballet cultures of Paris, New York, and St. Petersburg, where Balanchine was trained in the Imperial ballet of the Mariinsky theater.
And the season will also showcase many works by Jerome Robbins, including revivals of his "Moves," which is performed in silence, and his "Dances at a Gathering," which is performed to Chopin and began his long series of ballets to Romantic piano music. On June 22, NYCB ballerina Kyra Nichols, who joined the company in 1974, will retire in a farewell gala performance. Ms. Nichols gave some beautiful performances last season.
In addition, on June 8, Christopher Wheeldon will show his new ballet, based on the Oscar Wilde fable "The Nightingale and the Rose" and performed to a commissioned score by Bright Shen, NYCB's composer in residence. It sounds rather Diaghilevian, and surely Kirstein would have approved.
