I Was a Dancer - Jacques D'Amboise [0]
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright © 2011 by Jacques d’Amboise
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Judy Collins: Lyrics from “The Other Side of My World” and “Rosebud’s Song,” music and lyrics by Judy Collins. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Nicholas Jenkins: Excerpt from the poem “Patton” and the entire poem “Vaudeville” by Lincoln Kirstein, copyright © 2011 by the New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations). Reprinted by permission of Nicholas Jenkins, Literary Executor of the Copyrights and Papers of Lincoln Kirstein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
D’Amboise, Jacques, [date]
I was a dancer / by Jacques d’Amboise.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59523-2
1. D’Amboise, Jacques, [date] 2. Dancers—United States—Biography. 3. New York City Ballet. I. Title.
GV1785.D23A3 2011
792.8028092—dc22
[B] 2010045356
Front-of-jacket photograph © John Dominis/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
Jacket Design by Jason Booher
v3.1
DEDICATED TO
GEORGETTE D’AMBOISE
AND
CAROLYN GEORGE
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Prologue
The Boss
Washington Heights
SAB
Maria Tallchief, Balanchine, and Marc Chagall
Balanchine and Cranko
Lincoln and Lew
Boss Leaves Pop
Carolyn George
A Honeymoon in Haiti
Apollo
“Miracle” George
Quentin Keynes
Balanchine’s Muses
Lincoln
The Years Leading to Balanchine’s Death
A Close Call with Death
The Years Leading to Balanchine’s Death, Continued
Balanchine’s Burial
National Dance Institute
Death of Lincoln
Death of Milly
NDI Goes On
Dénouement
APPENDIX: THE NOVENA
INDEX
Other Books by This Author
Illustrations
All images without a photo credit are courtesy of the author.
1.1 My mother, ca. 1918
1.2 Family farm in Île Verte, Quebec
1.3 Boss in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, 1917
1.4 My father, Staten Island, 1939
1.5 French-Canadian Spread recipe
1.6 Palm Beach, February 1935
1.7 Drawing of car accident
1.8 Drawing of furnace and cots
2.1 Jimmy Comiskey, ca. 1951 (Courtesy James Comiskey)
2.2 With Abie, early 1950s (Raimondo Borea)
2.3 Smiling at Seda’s flattery
3.1 Kyra Blank teaching at SAB, 1957
3.2 Dancing a hoedown, 1943
3.3 Drawing, David Levine, 1985
3.4 John, 1945
3.5 The candy store, 1941 (Courtesy Irene Rosner Davis)
3.6 Dave, 1941 (Courtesy Irene Rosner Davis)
3.7 Todd Bolender in The Four Temperaments, 1946 (Copyright Estate of George Platt Lynes and Courtesy of NYCB Archive)
3.8 In an alley in Chicago, 1949
3.9 Anatole Oboukhoff, SAB Broadway studios, ca. 1951 (Courtesy of NYCB Archive)
3.10 Adagio class, ca. 1955 (Courtesy of NYCB Archive and Martha Swope)
3.11 In class with Pierre Vladimiroff (Courtesy of NYCB Archive)
3.12 Muriel Stuart, 1959 (Courtesy of NYCB Archive)
3.13 Felia Doubrovska, 1980 (Courtesy of NYCB Archive and Carolyn George)
4.1 My sister and I arriving in London, 1950
5.1 Tanny and I in Afternoon of a Faun, 1953
5.2 Ninette, 1948 (Walter E. Owen)
6.1 Willam Christensen and Lew Christensen, late 1920s (Roxanne Christensen Lazzara)
6.2 Lew Christensen, 1937 (Courtesy NYCB Archive and George Platt Lynes)
8.1 Drawing of Carrie in Times Square, 1946
8.2 Carrie, Seattle, 1962 (John Dominus / Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images)
8.3 Carrie in a café (Cris Alexander)
8.4 In Montreux, Switzerland
8.5 Paul Cadmus’s drawing for Filling Station
8.6 Me in 1953 (George Platt Lynes)
8.7 Janie in LA, 1953
8.8 On tour with Allegra Kent, 1953
8.9 On tour with a pigeon, 1953 (Cris Alexander)
8.10 NYCB in Monaco, 1955
8.11 Ballet garter
8.12 Wedding Day, 1956
9.1 Dr. Mel Kiddon, Patricia Wilde, Diana Adams, and Melissa