Ballet music—one man’s evolution

The older I get, the smarter, wiser and more talented Verdi becomes. Funny how it works that way. When I was about 15, Verdi was basically a purveyor of corny tunes accompanied by oompah-pah. How had he managed to compose that masterly requiem, amid those silly operas? These days, I stand in awe at almost the least of those operas.

It is similar with the ballet. From a musical point of view, ballet was the bottom of the barrel, as far as I was concerned. Ballet music was the equivalent of tutus: frilly, insubstantial, kind of ridiculous. Romeo and Juliet was a masterpiece, no doubt—but I thought of that as an orchestral work, rather than something to be danced to.

Giselle, in particular, I considered a joke. Its composer, Adolphe Adam, scored a hit with “O Holy Night,” but the ballet was something else: a perfumed sleeping pill. Only later did I realize the joke was on me. Giselle, which has lived since 1841, may live to 2141 and beyond, and rightly so.

These thoughts and memories are occasioned by a visit of the Paris Opera Ballet to the Lincoln Center Festival. Attending Giselle, I appreciated the score anew. It is a piece of “program music,” in a way, helping to tell a story. It has coyness, intimacy, anxiety, pomp, gaiety, pathos and, of course, ethereality. It also has longueurs and mediocrity, to be sure—but the gold compensates for the dross.

The next day, the Parisians performed, among other ballets, a work called Suite en Blanc, whose music is taken from Lalo— Edouard Lalo, whom we know almost exclusively for his violin-and-orchestra piece Symphonie espagnole (and also, maybe, for the overture to his opera Le roi d’Ys). I was glad to get to know this music—new to my repertoire.

One reason for my prejudice against ballet music was that I so often heard it performed badly. Who among us hasn’t snickered at ballet orchestras? They are often the Appalachian League of the orchestral world, the bottom rung. Onstage, you will have surefooted dancers, and, in the pit, you will have clumsy instrumentalists.

Years ago, I asked Valery Gergiev, the conductor, “Why do people make fun of Puccini, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff?” He said, among other things, “You can perform anything in an insipid way. Even Mozart. But then the fault is yours, not the composer’s.” Exactly so. Giselle will be hopelessly la-di-da, if you play it that way.

Doing the honors for the Paris Opera Ballet was the New York City Opera Orchestra, a group that has not had much work lately, given the fortunes and misfortunes of City Opera. At worst, the orchestra played respectably, and, at best, impressively. Boléro’s rhythm was imprecise, which was a shame, because the piece is so dependent on rhythm. But not much harm was done.

Some ballet music, I still contend, is beyond hope. During its recent season here, the American Ballet Theatre put on Le Corsaire, whose score is cobbled together from five composers (including Adam). Act I is like a parody of ballet music, invented by ballet haters. But Swan Lake? Honestly, I could see and hear it once a week. Probably twice.

Bolshoi and Kirov vitality preserved 

Legendary Russian dancers show why they are legends in the new DVD Treasures of the Russian Ballet (ICA Classics/Naxos). It contains performances by Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet and (then) Leningrad’s Kirov filmed by the BBC in London from 1956 to 1963, some on stage, some in the television studio.

The longest excerpt in the anthology is Act 1 of Yuri Grigorovich’s The Stone Flower, recorded during the Kirov’s debut London season in the summer of 1961. Yuri Soloviev was 20 and Alla Sizova 21 at the time they were filmed here. But for once we’re privy to young dancers not trying to merchandize their youth, but instead experiencing it. They create a portrait of young love that is irrefutable not only visually but artistically.

Alla Osipenko dances the role of a mythical mountain dweller who bewitches Soloviev’s character. Her role is filled with jumps to suggest ferality and brittle full stops enabling her unsurpassed arabesque to imprint itself. The preserved performance is a fitting birthday tribute to Osipenko, who turned 80 last week.

The Bolshoi’s Raissa Struchkova and Maya Plisetskaya: call them the Life Force ballerinas. Filmed here in excerpts from Cinderella, Struchkova is a quintessential embodiment of the vitality for which the Bolshoi was celebrated. Dancing Kitri in Don Quixote, Plisetskaya transcends soubrette clichés—or is what she’s really doing instead a revelatory distillation of the charm and power of the archetype? Her partner, Vladimir Vasiliev, like Soloviev, and the Bolshoi’s Maris Liepa and Mikhail Lavrovsky, show in this DVD the way they revealed to the world new possibilities for male ballet expression.

Galina Ulanova was a product of the Kirov but was transferred to the Bolshoi at the end of World War II. At 46, Ulanova is quite astonishing in the White Swan adagio from Swan Lake, captured during the company’s debut season in London in 1956. Her performance is technically imperfect by the standards of her day or ours, and yet at any calendar age or historical epoch Ulanova would be the kind of artist about whom quibbles are irrelevant. Every step she takes demonstrates a personal and masterly way of shaping a step, a phrase, a role, a larger metaphor.

Indeed, it’s not possible here to mention, let alone do justice to all the great performances in this collection—let me just say that everything on it is crucial viewing!

Read more by Joel Lobenthal at Lobenthal.com 

Natalia Makarova with Ivan Nagy in Swan Lake

by Joel Lobenthal

Not enough of Natalia Makarova’s high artistic quality nor her particular qualities were on view at the tribute to her staged by Youth America Grand prix late last month. The videos shown of her performances existed almost in a class of their own. I don’t think that this was deliberate, for the performers chosen were top international names. Granted as always that they came from all four corners of the globe and may have been tired, etc., etc., I still missed Makarova’s line—flowing even when she stood absolutely still. I missed her float and illusion of impalpability. I missed her ability to sustain the fiction that a kinetic pulse continued beyond the actual conclusion of a step or an extension.

Of course Makarova would have been extraordinary at any time or place. But watching the videos shown and thinking back to the many times I saw her dance live in the late 1970s and 1980s, something startling was clear: Although individual aspects of ballet technique have strengthened quantitatively, technique as an integrated expression has not really progressed.

But going back 100 years or so, there is no question that what was considered ballet dancing is a world apart from what we think of it today. Recently I was studying with fascination a 1917 silent melodrama, The Dancer’s Peril. Twenty-four-year-old Alice Brady plays both a student at the imperial ballet school in St. Petersburg, and her mother, a lesser-caste sent back to Paris by her grand duke husband once the czar has made his disapproval of their liaison quite clear.

The young dancer goes to Paris with a Diaghilev-like troupe, which could not have been a more timely career path. In the year prior to the film’s release in March 1917, Diaghilev’s troupe had played three seasons in New York and made two cross-country tours of the United States. A title card tells us that “Le Ballet Russe performs Le Ballet Scheherazade”—one of Diaghilev’s greatest hits. On film we see a simulacrum, elaborately staged. It doesn’t borrow steps from Fokine—there were already lawsuits concerning choreographic copyright—but the derivation is explicit.

Non-dancer Brady throws herself with gusto if not finesse into all sorts of dance moves, but she never tries to go on pointe—in class she wears a Grecian tunic while the other women toil in rehearsal tutus and pointe shoes. (Most of what Brady does kinetically is of course framed in medium or long shot.) Moscow-trained Alexis Kosloff is Brady’s instructor, and he’s the male lead in the ballet. He can jump, beat, and boy can he clutch-and-stagger!

In the studio and onstage vignettes we see continuity and rupture between technique then and now. The tutus are much more voluminous than today’s. The dancers’ extended legs are much lower. The women are on the whole shorter than today’s. They are certainly sleek and many are well proportioned. But they have much larger and rounder muscles than ballet dancers have today. I think these dancers may have come from the Metropolitan Opera’s resident ensemble, the city’s major ballet troupe at that time. (Kosloff eventually directed them.) Watching The Dancer’s Peril today, we have the chance to see ballet through eyes of a different public who came long ago to ballet with a very different set of visual expectations.

Read more by Joel Lobenthal at Lobenthal.com

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance, a documentary by Chicago filmmaker Bob Hercules, conveys much of the vigor and individuality that marked the beginnings and development of this feisty troupe. Necessarily, its 90 minutes do not paint a complete picture, and each Joffrey aficionado may find certain crucial elements – such as acknowledgement of its extensive Frederick Ashton repertory, or the unique bi-coastal arrangement that gave it homes in both LA and New York during the 1980s – notably absent. (A fair number of segments that were cut during the final editing will be included in the film’s June DVD release, which will have 45 minutes of bonus material.)

The documentary opens April 27 at Cinema Village – an appropriate venue, since it is a few blocks from where Joffrey opened his school and launched his company in the 1950s. The film emphasizes how Joffrey and co-founder Gerald Arpino carved out a distinctly American profile for their enterprise, which was a clear underdog compared to the far more established and well-supported New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. The earliest repertoire featured works choreographed by Joffrey, but Arpino – a facile, if popular, choreographer – soon took over as resident choreographer. But alongside his works, which often tapped into the cultural zeitgeist and political unrest of the moment, the company began to build an enduring repertory of long-neglected, rarely seen works from the Diaghilev era.

The film features interviews with quite a few former and current Joffrey dancers, including several from the original six-member troupe that set out on tour in a station wagon in 1956. Tellingly, it includes a graphic showing how many current artistic directors of companies around the country had ties to the Joffrey. Hercules emphasizes how Joffrey selected dancers based on their individuality rather than any preconception of classical idea. Certainly the fact that he attended a High School of Performing Arts dance program during the late 1960s, and immediately signed up Gary Chryst and Christian Holder, indicates what a unique eye for talent he had. Both dancers became vividly iconic members of the company as it rode to a new level of popularity and impact, creating memorable roles and interpreting historic ones as well.

There are vivid recollections, and scenes from, the company’s 1963 tour to Russia; they were performing there when JFK was shot, and received wordless expressions of sympathy from ordinary Russians on the street. The company members’ involvement in the anti-war sentiments and protests of the late 1960s, and the defiant tone that performances of Arpino’s rock ballet Trinity, exemplify how uniquely in touch with current events the Joffrey often was.

The film’s chronicling of the role played by Rebekah Harkness, a Standard Oil heiress with pretensions to an artistic career, sums up the double-edged sword of private patronage. Suddenly, in the early 1960s, the company had a comfortable place to commission and rehearse new works, and a new sense of stability. But when Harkness demanded a greater artistic voice and insisted on giving the company her name, a devastating rupture ensued, and Joffrey had to resurrect his company from scratch. Several dancers from that era suggest that he was never the same after that crisis – that he never again could trust, or be as close to, dancers.

The documentary’s repertory excerpts depend heavily on public television’s Dance in America programs, but Hercules did find some unexpected and crucial pieces of footage. Despairing that there was no film of the original cast of Twyla Tharp’s seminal Deuce Coupe, he came across unlabeled Betamax tapes that included rehearsal footage of that work, as well as early rehearsal footage of The Green Table.

For a very different, one-time only ballet experience in a movie theater, head to BIG Cinema on Sunday April 29 for the latest live HD presentation from the Bolshoi Ballet. They’ll be performing Alexei Ratmansky’s delightful, robust comic work The Bright Stream. It’s an opportunity to see it performed by the company for which he made it (with the bold, vivacious Maria Alexandrova in the role she created), just before American Ballet Theatre brings its version to the Met this spring.

Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance

April 27 – May 3, Cinema Village, 22 E. 12 St. (betw 5^th & 6^th Aves.), http://www.cinemavillage.com.  Film info: http://www.joffreymovie.com..

Ballet in Cinema: The Bight Stream

April 29 at 11 a.m., BIG Cinemas, 239 E. 59 St. (betw. 2^nd & 3^rd Aves.).

Almost three years ago, 14-year-old Jesse Manning moved to New York City with no family and the chance to pursue his passion: ballet. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Manning studied at the School of American Ballet near Lincoln Center for a summer as a young teen. The school was so impressed with him that he was invited to continue his study full-time.

Manning, now 17, made the move alone from the Sunshine State to the Big Apple. Until last year he lived in a dormitory at the school; his parents have recently joined him and the Manning clan now lives in the Financial District.

Starting his freshman year of high school in a new city without the presence of his mother and father was understandably challenging. “It was really overwhelming when I first moved here for a number of reasons. I was homeschooled in Florida for 7th and 8th grades, so I had to get used to going to school again as well as the increased workload. I was also pretty homesick because I wasn’t living with my parents. Eventually I got used to it. It wasn’t easy, but it was good because I grew up really fast.”

In the world of dance, the School of American Ballet is known as one of the most rigorous training programs in the country. It is regarded as a feeder school for the New York City Ballet, but even those students who don’t make it into the prestigious company generally end up performing with other top ballet troupes. Manning dances at the school six days a week, three hours a day and his coursework includes everything from technical ballet instruction to weight training.

He has also performed with the New York City Ballet as an extra in a few of their productions, including Firebird and Vienna Waltzes. In addition, he is a student at the Professional Children’s School, which affords him the time and flexibility to pursue dance.

When asked where this passion stems from, Manning said ballet is in his blood: “My mom inspired me to dance. She performed with the Joffrey Ballet back in the 1980s and went to Professional Children’s School, too,” he said.

Although Manning plans to audition for spots with various ballet companies next year, his ultimate goal is to join the New York City Ballet. “When I was living in Florida and learning about the School of American Ballet, I made the decision that it was the only company I wanted to be part of,” he said.

There are several attention-getting big events during New York City Ballet’s four-week autumn season, primarily the world premiere of Ocean’s Kingdom, a Peter Martins work for which none other than Sir Paul McCartney has composed a commissioned score. The six performances of Martins’ Swan Lake that dominate the opening week will—if recent trends and the impact of the film Black Swan continue—lure crowds to the box office. And any performance of George Balanchine’s timeless masterwork Jewels, a full evening of three exceptional, complementary ballets that encapsulate and reimagine various styles of classical dancing, always constitutes an event. NYCB will perform it five times this season, no doubt with intriguingly varied casting in its many lead roles.

Robert fairchild as Apollo in 's Apollo.'s Photo by Paul Kolnik.

But amid the splashier events, there are two evenings that focus on Balanchine’s bracing, musically sophisticated “Black and White” ballets. A larger selection of these works, typically performed in simple black and/or white leotards and tights, provided a momentous week of performances last spring. It was exhilarating to watch the company, with its ever-broadening repertory that relegates Balanchine’s works to a smaller portion of its programming, delve into these seminal, eternally contemporary ballets with such focus and devotion.

On Friday, Sept. 16 and Tuesday, Sept. 20, the program features three seminal Balanchine ballets dating from 1928, 1946 and 1959. Even if the most recent one is over a half-century old, they all remain astonishing in their daringly innovative use of the classical idiom and in the sophisticated musical sensibility required of the dancers. All three display Balanchine’s innovative dialogue with music by major 20th-century composers.

Two are expansive ballets in several sections, with demanding and contrasting major roles. The Four Temperaments, set to a score commissioned from Paul Hindemith, is one of the choreographer’s greatest works, rarely out of the NYCB repertory for long and performed by companies worldwide. From the intricate partnering and sleek, brisk moves introduced by three couples who embody the music’s theme, Balanchine develops an endlessly fascinating series of variations, each named for one of the four medieval “humors” or “temperaments”—melancholic, sanguinic, phlegmatic and choleric. Episodes, set to a series of concise Anton Webern scores, is an edgy, often dark, unpredictable work in which bodies are cantilevered and upended in striking shapes; each section creates its own distinct world.

The program’s central work, Apollo, is the earliest Balanchine ballet that is still performed and represents a landmark work for the choreographer as well as in the history of ballet. It is one of the rare Balanchine ballets for which the program identifies specific characters. But while it has a hero and a subject—the young god Apollo’s growth into maturity as he is guided and inspired by three muses—it does not “tell” a story in the lumbering way that many a much more recent ballet has attempted to do. Rather, Apollo suggests and illuminates, incorporating movement ranging from the athletic to the jazzy within its bold, striking anatomization of classical ballet.

The role of Apollo is one of the greatest to which a male dancer can aspire, and has been performed by a select list of company luminaries. But with the recent retirement of several great interpreters of the role (Peter Boal and Nikolaj Hubbe), the ballet’s return to the repertory necessitated that dancers from a new generation be entrusted with its challenges. On the first “Black and White” evening, Robert Fairchild—whose range and virtuosity in a growing number of roles have been most impressive—takes on the role in New York for the first time. Apollo will have additional performances Sept. 21, 23 and 24, so it’s quite possible that Chase Finlay, a recently promoted young soloist who danced it with eager athleticism and gleaming playfulness last spring, will also perform the role.

Episodes will have additional performances Oct. 1 and Oct. 9, while Four Temperaments only surfaces one other time—Sept. 23, on an all-Balanchine program that veers away from his pristine black and white mode, closing with the expansive (and colorful) panoply of marching, intricate patterning and celebration of all things British that make up his 1976 Union Jack. Other Balanchine works included this season are Square Dance and La Sonnambula.

The Sept. 23 program and an Oct. 6 program of works by Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, are part of NYCB’s “See the Music” series. In this series, one of the conductors (often the charming, witty French music director Fayçal Karoui) will discuss one of the evening’s scores, with the orchestra pit raised so the musicians can illustrate his points. The Sept. 16 performance has special ticket prices, with all seats costing $25 or $50.

New York City Ballet

Sept. 13–Oct. 9, David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, www.nycballet.com; $29+.

Portrait of Lincoln—The Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, led by Alondra de la Parra, opens its New York season with a concert that features actor Chris Noth as the narrator in Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, 1941 Broadway, 212-671-4050; 7:30, $15+.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30

Ballet Preljocaj—Angelin Preljocaj’s company returns with Empty Moves (parts I & II), with music by John Cage. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave., 718-636-4129; 7:30, $20+.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1

Classical Sounds—Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder performs with the Dresden Staatskapelle. Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plz., 212-671-4050; 8, $35+.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2

In the Heights—This heartfelt and high-spirited love letter to Washington Heights features a salsa and hip-hop flavored score by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Open run, Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St., 212-221-1211.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3

History in Quilts—Eugene Von Bruenchenhein’s Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum opens. American Folk Art Musuem, 45 W. 53rd St., 212-265-1040.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4

Editions|Artists’ Book Fair—The premier showcase for contemporary publishers and dealers presents the latest in prints, multiples and artists’ books. 548 W. 22nd St., 212-925-4338; 11 a.m., free.

Disappearing Everglades—Anthony Almeida’s exhibit, The Everglades: Vanishing Splendor, opens. Arsenal Gallery in Central Park, Fifth Avenue & East 64th Street, 3rd Fl., no phone.

Soaking Wet—Now in its eighth season at the West End Theater, Soaking Wet features eight choreographers in a mini-festival of a contemporary battle of the sexes. West End Theater, 263 West End Ave., 212-337-9565; $10+.

Fish Police and Pigeon Revolt—As part of Target Free Thursdays, The Fish Police and Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt perform. David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, Broadway between West 62nd and 63rd streets, 212-875-5000; 8:30, Free.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22

International Sculpture Center Anniversary—The ISC celebrates its 50th anniversary with a cocktail reception, entertainment and an art sale. Metropolitan Pavilion, The Metropolitan Suite, 123 W. 18th St., 2nd Fl.; 6 p.m., $350+.

Bernstein Remembered—On the 20th anniversary of the death of Leonard Bernstein, the quintessential West Side artist will be remembered at Symphony Space. Hosted by WQXR’s Robert Sherman, the evening begins with a concert featuring soprano Harolyn Blackwell, who was handpicked by Bernstein for the 1979 revival of West Side Story, baritone Jubilant Sykes, the ensemble Essential Voices USA, conducted by music director Judith Clurman, and pianist Fred Hersch. Special guests Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein’s children, will participate.The evening concludes with a screening of the classic film, West Side Story and an audience sing-along, introduced by Marni Nixon, the voice of Maria. Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, 212-864-5400; 7:30 p.m., $43.

Skirball Center—In 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests, musicians Dean & Britta perform a live soundtrack during a multimedia performance featuring a selection of Andy Warhol’s otherwise silent portraits of some of the artist’s closest friends and artistic collaborators. New York University, 566 LaGuardia Pl., 212-352-3101; 8 p.m., $20.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23

Midtown Gallery Tour—Come to a guided tour of the week’s top seven contemporary gallery exhibits in the city’s business district. 41 E. 57th St., 212-946-1548; 1 p.m., $20.

Les Ballets C DE LA B—Out of Context—For Pina is an intimate work for eight dancers that narrows the divide between the performers and the audience. The Joyce, 175 8th Ave., 212-868-4444; 8 p.m., $20.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24

Laurie Beechman Theatre—Broadway stars perform songs that end the first act of favorite musicals, as part of the third annual Living For Today concert series. 407 W. 42nd St., 212-695-6909; 9:30 p.m., $10.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27

Portraits of Haunted Houses—Corinne May Botz will give a lecture on her new book of photography, Haunted Houses, which features photos taken over 10 years at haunted places throughout the United States. Her photographs, accompanied by first-person narratives, reveal a rare glimpse into American interiors, both physical and psychological. International Center of Photography, 1114 6th Ave., 212-857-0001; 7 p.m.-8:30 p.m., $15.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28

Scary Movies 4—This Halloween, the Film Society at Lincoln Center reprises their eclectic and invigorating program of both classic and contemporary horror films, including classics such as Carrie and Hellraiser as well as lesser-known works such as Black Death and Dead of Night. Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th St., 212-875-5601; $10.

Modern Life: Edward Hopper and His Time—Anytime the Whitney decides to mount a Hopper exhibit, it seems to be a blockbuster. Since we’re tired of seeing this museum so empty when the throngs are packing other nearby exhibits, it’s about time. And maybe there will be something new to learn from these quiet masterpieces. Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave., 212-5703600; $18.

Alexander Peters didn’t have the chance to dance at his high school prom, but he will soon dance full-time as a member of a professional ballet company.

The West Sider, 19, spends seven hours a day in dance classes and rehearsals, leaving little time for academics or socializing. Alex and classmates Lily Balogh, 18, and Lars Nelson, 19, are three recent graduates of the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.

Alexander Peters, Lily Balogh and Lars Nelson are entering the next phase of their dance careers after graduating from the School of American Ballet

Not long ago, the three found out where their dancing careers will take them after years of studying on the West Side.

Alex will become a member of Kansas City Ballet, an acclaimed regional company, while Lily and Lars were awarded two of the most coveted positions for young dancers: apprenticeships with the New York City Ballet, one of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world.

An apprenticeship is a yearlong trial contract that usually ends with an offer to join the corps de ballet. Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of NYCB, made just five apprenticeship offers this year, down from 10 last year.

Only after completing a grueling four-month long audition season did the duo learn of their good fortune. Lily was entertaining offers from Los Angeles Ballet and Carolina Ballet when Kay Mazzo, co-chairman of faculty at SAB, hinted that she shouldn’t accept either company yet. It was not until mid-June that Mr. Martins assembled his chosen ones and broke the news.

“It was shocking obviously, even though we knew it was a possibility,” Lars said.

Lily has studied at SAB since her mother saw an ad in a paper and brought her to an audition nine years ago. Every year, SAB accepts about 30 children into each class. One or two make it through the ranks of the school to eventually join NYCB.

As a child performing in The Nutcracker, Lily remembers loitering backstage, waiting for the grown-up dancers to go on. Next year, she will be one of them.

“SAB is my second home. The teachers are like second mothers to me,” she said.

“It’s like having children who go off to college,” Ms. Mazzo agreed. “We’re very proud, but it’s hard to let them go.”

Lars, originally from Grand Rapids, Mich., and Alex, who grew up in State College, Pa., moved to New York three years ago to attend SAB. Both started dance at the age of 11. In a profession in which the peak years are in the early twenties, most dancers begin younger; SAB accepts children as young as six.

Lars recalls that he did not have many close friends back in Grand Rapids.

“Going to dance on Friday night, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything,” he said. It was only when he moved to New York and lived with 60 other dancers in SAB’s dorms at Lincoln Center that he felt a part of a community.

Alex, too, prefers New York to his former home in suburban Pennsylvania.

“I like the constant motion, the accessibility.”

Despite their intense commitment to ballet, all three nurse other passions. Lars hopes to study medicine or physical therapy. Alex is interested in architecture, and Lily wants to write.

In the meantime, they’ll have plenty to keep them busy.