Revel in the Israel Ballet’s performance by the iconic choreographer
It has been over a decade since Israel has seen a Balanchine ballet. But thanks to Susie Londoner (Former NYCB dancer and Balanchine repetiteur), Claire Bayliss Nagar (Israel Ballet’s Artistic Director) and Lea Lavie (Israel Ballet’s CEO), the Israel Ballet is bringing him back. George Balanchine, the storied Russian-born choreographer, dubbed the ‘father of American ballet’, co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. He is considered one of the most influential 20th century choreographers. As The Israel Ballet rehearses for their opening event, Susie and Claire explain how they pulled off this balletic feat, what is so special about “Serenade” and what it means to swoosh
Tell me about yourselves:
Susie: I started taking class at the School of American Ballet when I was seven until seventeen. After dancing abroad for a year, I came back to New York to ask Mr. B [Balanchine] to join the company. Long story short, after six months of taking class and touring with them, I was asked to join the NYCB Company. I danced with them for thirteen years.
Claire: I am Claire Bayliss Nagar, I am originally British, graduated from the Royal Ballet School and had a reasonably long dance career all over the world. When I was in the company here in 1997, we danced Balanchine. But after, in the time I was gone, there has been no Balanchine. When I was first offered the job of Artistic Director of the Israel Ballet, my first thought was that I wanted to get Balanchine back.
How did you two come together?
Susie: My life took a totally different course. I married an Israeli photographer, we moved to L.A., I became a mom and eventually we moved here to Israel.
Claire: I think Susie was sent to us from heaven, from Mr. B. It’s amazing. At the same time I was offered the job, she came here. She started coming to the studio, watching our rehearsals, and then we started talking. It started as a far-off dream. But Susie is a powerful woman and she said, “let’s start this whole ball rolling.”
Susie: I made an appointment with the Balanchine Trust. I went with my cache of rehearsal videos to New York and put it in motion.
What did you do when you found out you got the ballet?
Claire: When I got the email from the Balanchine Trust saying we got the license back, I almost fainted. I immediately started thinking of what to put with it. And I thought, Petipa [French choreographer, Marius Petipa]. The two great spheres of ballet: a tutu ballet and a long flowing dress ballet. Both with gorgeous music, both show the versatility of our beautiful dancers.
Serenade NYCB 1980s © Arthur Elgort
What is so special about “Serenade”?
Susie: Historically, it was the first ballet that Balanchine choreographed when he came to the U.S. in the early 1930s. “Serenade” is set to Tchaikovsky music, to whom Mr. B had a great reverence. The piece came out of his school, choreographed for his students. There was no company at that time. He wanted to teach them how to perform, how to dance together, how to present themselves to the world in a stage performance. At the time, the dancers didn’t just take ballet class. They had to work, so they couldn’t always be there. That’s why when you look at the ballet, the opening section has seventeen dancers, other sections have six, five or two dancers…or a girl running in and not knowing where her place is…or a girl falling. He incorporated those real moments into the dance. It makes the structure of the ballet so interesting. He choreographed the piece according to who was present on that day. Most of the dancers in the Israel Ballet today have had no experience with Balanchine.
How have they reacted to learning this piece?
Susie: I heard from a few dancers that it has always been a dream of theirs to be able to dance Balanchine. It’s been an interesting and challenging experience for them. This is a very lyrical ballet, but also one that takes a lot of attack. It is mathematical, lots of different patterns of movement. It is faster than they are accustomed to moving, but they’ve been working very hard. With this piece, once you know your steps and the music, “Serenade” is heavenly to dance. It is half an hour of absolute bliss.
Tell me about the costumes.
Claire: Brand new costumes. Our costume lady is making the original Karinska designed costumes. They are as they were, as they should be. When Susie is teaching them, she talks about “swoosh” and “woosh” which also has to do with the costumes because it ‘swooshes’ and ‘wooshes’.
How would you describe this upcoming show, two different ballets “Serenade” and “Paquita” shown side by side?
Claire: For “Paquita”, we’ve put all the variations in, nine variations in total. It should be rich, regal, glorious, beautiful dancing, stunning music…it’s royalty. It’s got such history since Petipa is the like the father of classical ballet. It’s a five-star meal, all there in one piece. “Serenade” is about the journey, the romanticism, the beauty of the movement and those dresses flowing. The end of the evening is romantic and mysterious as the principle girl is carried off by the three boys with the six girls bourréeing behind. I think the audience is just going to fly.
Susie: Balanchine didn’t intentionally make story ballets, but “Serenade” seems like it has a lot of story. People will ask, “So, what’s it about?” And as Balanchine famously said, “it’s about fifteen minutes.”
Opening Performance: June 17 at 20:30, Herzliya Performing Arts Center, 15 Jabotinski St, Herzliya Tickets: iballet.co.il