The NYC Ballet in Rehearsal - 1984

From the Dance Vault Dept.: I began my journalism career writing about everything in the arts that appealed to me, including dance. Here’s one of my first such pieces, when I was given an interview with then-New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Heather Watts, one of the true stars of that universe. (Next week I’ll publish my most recent ballet-oriented piece.)

                                                                                               

THE MUSIC IS QUICKLY RECOGNIZABLE as Bach’s Double Concerto: The two violin
soloists stand in the pit, one of them is introducing the first theme with the orchestra. The stage at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center looks enormous, the deep blue of the backdrop matching the color of the surrounding twilight. Eight women, in two groups of four, are onstage. They are dressed in white, their costumes reminiscent of tennis outfits. 

Heather Watts and Peter Martins

With the first solo violin passage, another woman dances on, then another as the second violin begins a contrapuntal statement. That enormous stage is suddenly filled with movement, and two of the special qua1ities of the New York City Ballet are evidenced: talent and presence. They don’t merely occupy the stage: they overwhelm it. This is “Concerto Barocco,” one of NYCB founder George Balanchine’s signature ballets.

It’s a startling contrast to their rehearsal earlier in the day. The music came from an upright piano stage right, and there were no costumes, lights or scenery. The proscenium was ringed with dancers, colorfully dressed in the practice uniforms of tights,, leotards, leg-warmers and such, each dancer with a large handbag nearby. While they watched the rehearsal, some worked on their ballet shoes, some stretched. Nobody talked. Ballet Master Peter Martins sat on a metal stool. He wore blue jeans and a denim shirt with the sleeves pushed up. Beside him, in green tights and leotard, with a white sweater tied around her waist, stood Ballet Mistress Rosemary Dunleavy. She and Martins whispered ideas. She strode hack and forth along the stage, watching, nodding.

Heather Watts was working with a new partner, Otto Neubert, on the second movement, an Adagio. For most of the seven years she has been dancing this piece, Watts has worked with Martins, but he retired from dancing last year. “It takes a long time to get used to a new partner,” she says. “For one thing. Otto is taller – or seems taller – than Peter or Sean Lavery, who I also work with a lot. So in a way it’s like learning the dance all over again.”

Dunleavy stops the rehearsal with two handclaps. Watts and Neubert will repeat a sequence. Dunleavy has proven herself indispensable to the company because of her phenomenal ability to re-create a ballet – and her knowledge of George Balanchine’s choreography seems limitless. “I never thought my memory was anything special.” she says, “until I realized that others couldn’t do what I do.”

After a season in Manhattan, the three weeks the company spends in Saratoga is a holiday, despite the rigorous class, rehearsal, and work schedule. “It’s really very relaxing,” Watts says. “I was a little disappointed at first because the house 1 was supposed to go into didn’t work out, but everything’s fine now. The company is like a family. People group together to do different things in the area while we’re up here, and it’s really nice to be performing outdoors.”

She wears a leotard with red and blue diagonal stripes and a pair of bright red sweatpants. While rehearsing, her face takes on a variety of expressions. When she’s displeased with a step, she shows it; they stop and try it again. You can see the concentration in her eyes, but there also seems to be a little awe, perhaps delight at the litheness of her body and the beauty of the dance. In performance, you see none of this. Her expression then is of rapt serenity.

“It’s hard, sometimes, to keep the excess emotion away,” she confides. “‘Concerto Barocco,’ which I love to dance, and which I think would be any dancer’s dream, has such beautiful music that it would be easy to get swept away by it. Especially in the Adagio, which is so poignant. I suppose what I’m saying is that you have to separate acting from dancing. It’s the dancing which tells the story or puts across the mood.”

“Mozartiana” is another Balanchine opus, on which he worked for many years before arriving in 1981 at the form he preferred. The music is Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 4, a setting of lesser-known themes by Mozart. Tonight’s performance features Maria Calegari, making her debut in the piece. She rehearses in costume, a sheer black skirt and leotard. Working with her are four young dancers from the Saratoga area, recruited especially for the season. “Our company uses more youngsters than most,” explains Leslie Bailey, NYCB’s press representative. “It comes from Mr. Balanchine’s background at the Imperial Theatre, where they welcomed children to learn about and participate in theater, opera, dance – everything they had to offer. The same was true with Peter Martins in his native Denmark, and he’s carrying on the tradition Mr. B. started with this company.”

Sitting beside the rehearsal pianist is Hugo Giorato, who will conduct tonight’s performance. He offers an occasional correction in tempo. Sara Leland is standing by Martins. Recently named Assistant Ballet Mistress, she shares with Dunleavy the responsibility of maintaining the works in the company’s repertory. Calegari is taking over the role from an indisposed Suzanne Farrell, which is a tough act to follow, but it’s part of the challenge of being a recent appointee to the rank of Principal. The appointment was made last year shortly before the death of Balanchine, making Calegari the last of his hand-picked Principals.

A lawn mower kicks into life on the lawn outside. It’s a curious kind of distraction for a dance rehearsal. On a performance day, the dancers take a 90-minute class in the morning: they will rehearse for a maximum of five hours. At SPAC they work for only five days a week – it’s six in the city. Says Martins, “In Manhattan, we’re in a huge white marble building with no windows, and we’re likely to be there from 10 AM to 11 PM. Up here, with light and trees, it’s a luxury.” He casts a look over his shoulder in the direction of the motor. His gaze is so commanding that, had the offending maintenance man been within range he would surely have shut down his machine.

Merrill Ashley and Adam Lüders begin work on their section of “Stars and Stripes, the Fourth Campaign,” to Hershey Kay’s setting of John Philip Sousa’s “Liberty Bell” and “El Capitan.” Ashley is not satisfied with the tempo and adjusts it with Fiorato and the rehearsal pianist. The entire company comes on to practice the energetic finale, which right now looks more like “A Chorus Line” with its fantastic variety of rehearsal clothing.

Finished until the performance tonight, Watts is off to work with a dance class in a local school. “I’m in ‘Concerto Barocco tonight,’” she says, “but I’m also doing ‘Stravinsky Violin Concerto’ tomorrow afternoon, ‘Serenade’ tomorrow night, and so on. I’ll be in almost every performance in some role or other while we’re here, which I like. I enjoy the challenge of having so many different parts to work on. and I’d have to say that my favorite ballet is always the new one I’m learning.”

New ballets this summer will include the Saratoga premieres of “Brahms/Handel,” the Twyla Tharp-Jerome Robbins collaboration that opened in New York in June to enthusiastic reviews; and “Rejouissance,” Peter Martins’s newest ballet, a set of eight dances to a variety of pieces by Bach. There also will be the world premieres of ballets by Assistant Ballet Master Bart Cook and Principal Dancer Helgi Tomasson.

One of the highlights of every summer season is the Gala, to be held this year on Friday, July 13, with the theme “Dancing in the Moonlight.” Not only will there he a full-length performance, the evening also will include music by two dance bands, performances by magicians and circus people, a concert at the gazebo by the New York Chamber Soloists, a champagne reception, dancing under the stars (or in a specially-erected tent, if you prefer), and much more.

It’s now evening at SPAC. The sparkling curtain is studded with a thousand tiny mirrors reflecting colored lights. The curtain rises on an at atmosphere wholly unlike that of the afternoon. Then, to dance was to work. Now it’s a pleasure. The program begins with the charm of “Mozartiana” and progresses to the patriotic splendor of “Stars and Stripes,” in which that ragtag group of dancers now comes on in fiercely disciplined, patriotically costumed ranks. Just prior to that we were treated to the simple elegance of “Sonatine,” danced in tux and gown by Patricia McBride and lb Andersen, to music of Ravel played onstage by Gordon Boelzer. The audience responds with a flood of applause, enraptured by the beauty that only the very talented can bring out of this most demanding of physical skills.

For me, however, the high point is Heather Watts’s ethereal grace in “Concerto Barocco,” which takes on a kind of certain mysticism right before my eyes, something I hadn’t expected after the comparatively dry rehearsal. “You must watch a ballet with your eves and ears – and your heart,” she told me earlier. I often have trouble with that third element, but tonight she captured mine.

– Metroland Magazine, 12 July 1984