I Was a Dancer - Jacques D'Amboise [31]
Todd Bolender in The Four Temperaments, 1946 (image credit 3.7)
To this day, I consider Todd Bolender among the greatest dance artists I’ve ever seen on the stage, not just for The Four Temperaments, but in every role I saw him perform. His genius was in giving full value to every gesture of the dance, as if it were the only movement he would ever make, the beginning and end of the universe. Each movement, Todd imbued with drama and theater, as if the music and gestures contained dialogue, silent words holding secrets of Shakespeare and Chekhov.
I ended up dancing in Four Temperaments when I was seventeen, then eventually dancing the Sanguinic sections with Maria Tallchief. Lincoln loved Four T’s. “Buster, go out front and watch Balanchine’s invention in just bringing people on- and offstage.” Generally, you don’t dwell on entrances and exits; you look at the meat of the ballet. But the entrances and exits of Four T’s are distinctive—varied, and, at times, goofy. Melancholic enters with a leap, lands on one leg, relevés and balances on the ball of his foot, twists, then collapses to the floor. In Sanguinic, the man stalks on from stage left and assumes a heroic stance. The ballerina, from stage right, enters as if answering a question. She perches on pointe, puts one leg behind her, and slants way back, almost to the point of falling. They repeat, as if engaged in call and response, arriving at center, where they begin a thrilling conversation in dance. It never occurred to me in those Ballet Society days that someday I would be up there doing that entrance with those great dancers and sharing the stage with Todd. I never danced Todd’s role, Phlegmatic. I would have refused, even if Balanchine had asked me. Todd was the zenith.
AHEARN TO D’AMBOISE
I have no idea how she did it, but in September 1946, just before rehearsals for the first season of Ballet Society commenced, my mother persuaded my father to change all our names from Ahearn to her maiden name, d’Amboise. “It’s aristocratic, it’s French, it has the ‘d’ apostrophe. It sounds better for the ballet, and it’s a better name.”
Andrew Patrick Ahearn became André d’Amboise
Georgiana d’Amboise Ahearn became Georgette d’Amboise
John Ahearn became Jean Achilles d’Amboise
Patrick Ahearn became Paul d’Amboise
Madeleine Ahearn became Ninette d’Amboise
and
Joseph Ahearn (me) became Jacques Joseph d’Amboise.
To this day, I am dumbfounded that Pop acquiesced. Maybe using d’Amboise as a professional stage name for the children might have made some sense. But to legally change the names of the entire family—including himself—is bizarre.
Lawyers were paid. Papers were signed, notarized, filed, and returned. A done deal. Afterward, I never heard Pop tell anyone he had once been “Ahearn.” He introduced himself saying, “I’m Andy. Andy Damm-boyze,” mispronouncing it with glee.
BALLET SOCIETY—SECOND SEASON
The creative forces at work during the two years of Ballet Society’s existence were mind-boggling. Eight programs were presented, including premieres of sixteen new ballets. The finest artists in New York came together to realize the programs: Balanchine, Stravinsky, Lew Christensen, Isamu Noguchi, Merce Cunningham, John Cage—the list of collaborators goes on and on. The amount of choreography, productions—one program after another, one ballet after another—gives only a glimpse of the energy and passion in the proving ground that was Ballet Society.
The first time I danced for Balanchine, little was expected of me. I was not yet nine years old, a child doing a role