Stepping into the Balanchine-Stravinsky Continuum


“Ecarte, all of you!” choreographer Silas Farley called out, showing position she asked, extending an extremely long arm (6 feet-5 tall), tilting her shoulders, head and neck to the side, and curling her hand up decoratively. “This much!” The New York Ballet dancers’ new dance embellished the movement with this detail, as she enthusiastically told Architects of Time.

“It’s great to work with the company, because you can enjoy classical ballet and such nuances without regret,” said Farley, 27, backstage after rehearsal. Then he laughed. “I’m a total ballet nerd.”

Adjusted to one score by David K. Israel, “Architects of the Time” has excellent nerds. The music is based on an acrostic poem written by choreographer George Balanchine as a birthday present to composer Igor Stravinsky in 1946. Having studied music in his youth, Balanchine placed the poem in a simple melody, which Stravinsky then elaborated. The manuscript is in Stravinsky’s hand: “George Balanchine’s birthday choral melody, harmonized by Igor Stravinsky, Hollywood, California, 18 June 1946.”

Israel found a photocopy of the manuscript in the Harvard Theater Collection in 1993. And now, almost 30 years later, this birthday gift-inspired ballet from Farley’s will premiere Thursday at City Ballet’s spring premiere. The company’s two-week Stravinsky Festival commemorates the outstanding 1972 festival organized by Balanchine in honor of the composer.

“I have great love for this history, the creative relationship between Balanchine and Stravinsky, the 1972 festival and the extraordinary works that have come out of it. It was an honor to be commissioned, but to have something to do with these historical resonances is extraordinary.”

He said the ballet’s name came from something Balanchine said in the documentary “In Balanchine’s Classroom.” Farley gave the line in a thick Russian accent: “The composer is the architect of the time, and we must dance with him.”

Tend to speak in full, quotable paragraphs, Farley is exceptional for his clarity, drive and ambition. a former City Ballet dancer, Left the company at the age of 26, saying that she wanted to be a leader “in a really important way in art form” just as she was starting to take on soloist roles. Less than a year later, Trudl was appointed dean of the Zipper Dance Institute. at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

“To have a successful ballet career, you have to give her everything,” Farley said as she walked across a boardroom with her 6-month-old son to his wife, Cassia, a former dancer who was designing costumes for the new ballet. piece. “I did not want to devote my youth to this. I wanted to put my energy and enthusiasm into growing as a teacher, scientist, choreographer.”

Farley was introduced to ballet at age 6 when a guest ballet company performed at the church her parents attended in Charlotte, NC (she is the youngest of seven children). “It was the power and poetry of the male dancers that impressed me.” she said. At the North Carolina Dance Theater School, his teachers included former City Ballet stars Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux.

One day, while browsing ballet books in the library, she saw a photograph of McBride. “I realized through my teacher that I was directly related to the Balanchine man I keep reading about!” said. “I thought I wanted to be in the New York City Ballet, to be a part of this lineage. I felt a sense of search.”

At the School of American Ballet, Farley didn’t just immerse himself in dance. He choreographed for workshops, taught lectures, read greedily, haunted the Metropolitan Museum, and applied to Harvard. (She was accepted on a full scholarship, but chose to join the City Ballet instead.)

Farley was still a member of the City Ballet in late 2019 when the company’s artistic director, Jonathan Stafford, and assistant director, Wendy Whelan, asked if he would choreograph a score based on the Balanchine-Stravinsky alternation. They had heard of the discovery of Israel through Zippora Karz, a former City Ballet dancer who knew Israel, and decided to give a score for the commemorative Stravinsky festival. “Given this history, I thought Silas would be an excellent collaborator,” Stafford said.

In an interview, Israel said that he wrote the first musical sketches right after he found the draft. He quoted the poem “Name day and birthday/Guests, noise and animation/Get drunk at the Grand Marnier/Don’t forget a glass for me”, explaining that the first letter of each line is spelled “Igor” in the original Russian. He said that the melody that Balanchine used for the poem was very beautiful. “This can’t just sit here,” I thought.

He returned to New York, where he worked as an editor for the Bernstein estate, and composed many passages that were variations on the original theme. Over the years, she continued to work on the piece as her meetings with choreographers and ballet companies proved fruitless. “I thought someday someone would ask for it,” he said.

That day came when Whelan called Israel to submit the score for the upcoming Stravinsky Festival in 2019. “I blacked out!” Israel said.

He and Farley worked on Zoom together, reviewing musical sketches and choosing which ones to develop. Then Farley listened to the music over and over again. “I determined which parts would be solo, pas deux, or group dances and the numbers for the dancers, but the real breakthrough of movement was very instinctive and instantaneous,” he said in the studio.

Claire Kretzschmar, a dancer on the study, said that Farley “really used ballet vocabulary with particular attention to the Balanchine style we grew up with, something that isn’t always the case with choreographers today.”

He added: “It’s very clear, very musical, very encouraging, but not afraid to criticize. You feel it’s because he loves the craft and appreciates you as a dancer.”

Farley said there are many moments in ballet that refer to other works in the repertoire. “Sometimes it’s a deliberate reference, like a move Calliope did in ‘Apollo,’ but for the most part they just came out organically,” he said.

Lars Nelson, another dancer in the work, said, “Without removing the wording, she brings together this beautiful movement with a constant respect and thanks to the great dancers and ballets that have come before.” said.

Farley said she didn’t feel particularly nervous about her ballet. “It’s something that will bear fruit and its origins are something someone else did,” he said, adding that Balanchine and Stravinsky knew “the ideas they used were part of a continuum, not their own.”

The important thing, he said, is to honor the two men. “Hopefully the piece will show that the ideas they’re dedicated to are eternal, alive, and vital right now.”



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