The six men who originally interrupted the divertissement pas de deux of George Balanchine’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”: a piece of ballet archaeology.

In spring 2016, an issue of the quarterly Ballet Review (now defunct) had a "Check It Out" paragraph saying that the Balanchine Midsummer Night’s Dream Act Two divertissement originally had a male pas de six dividing the two halves of the great Act II pas de deux:

“The men entered with penchées arabesques, suggesting torchbearers leading the nuptial parade to the newlyweds' bridal chamber."

I had known that the divertissement used to be longer, with a male dance. I did not know it subdivided the pas de deux. In April 2016, after reading this Ballet Review piece, I wrote to a number of friends and colleagues who might remember the original Balanchine Midsummer, choreographed over fifty years before.

I was also curious about the term “penchées arabesques" for NYCB men in 1962. As we know, "penchée" has been defined various ways: it may be determined by the angle of the head and/or/torso and/or eyes, or by the raised foot becoming the topmost part of the body. Arabesque penchée of any kind is rare in any choreography for a male dancer before Frederick Ashton’s The Dream (1964), and especially rare in the Balanchine repertory except where an off-balance lunge gave a backward extension a temporary penchée-like quality. If these male penchées indeed occurred in Midsummer (I asked my correspondents), could anyone recall what kind of penchées they were?

I do not know who wrote that piece in Ballet Review, but when I wrote to that magazine’s editor, the late Marvin Hoshino, he replied (April 2016):

“I never saw the pas de six, but when I read the piece I though that perhaps the references our writer made to the lighting of torches more likely in Balanchine's mind belonged to male erections and all that. It is, after all, an interruption in a wedding pas de deux.”

On checking, I also realised that Arlene Croce, writing in The New Yorker in 1981, had described the passage: “In olden days, there was an astonishing intervention in this pas de deux by the six men of the group, who performed very slow and even développés in arabesque and lunges in arabesque fondue. Ever since Balanchine trimmed the dances to pacify restless Nutcracker-prone audiences, it has seemed too short."  

Memory is such that at least one survivor  of the original 1962 divertissement cast could not remember this passage. But I was helped by Francia Russell, April 2016, by Carol Sumner, and by Croce.

Russell had begun duties as a company ballet mistress in 1962, while her husband, Kent Stowell, had been a rising male soloist. She wrote to me:

“Kent <Stowell> performed the men’s dance before he moved on to dancing the Pas de Deux with Violette <Verdy> and Allegra <Kent> and perhaps other ballerinas.  He just danced part of it for me in our living room! There were many développés to arabesque plié; also sissonnes to arabesque plié. The choreography required a lot of control and was beyond some of the men. Kent remembers enjoying it because it was a different kind of challenge for them. My recollection is that it rarely looked good enough and the men were always trying to get out of it. (I was ballet mistress and had the pleasure of arguing with them.)

“We both think it followed the opening section and preceded the Pas de Deux, but are not absolutely sure.  One thing that is sure is that there was universal agreement that Mr. B. did the right thing by eliminating it. Current male dancers are much more aware of ‘line’ so the dance would probably look a good deal better today.

“Most importantly, there were many high first arabesques in plié but NO penchées. It was very heavy, with many deep plié arabesques which were arrived at after jumping and landing and holding the plain first arabesque in deep, deep plié."

Carol Sumner, who had been a member of the original six supporting women of the Act Two divertissement, also wrote to me in April 2016:

"There were no penchées.... I think what may be confusing you or anybody else, is Balanchine's way of doing a simple first arabesque in plié. Most trainings think the leg should get higher and the body should tip forward when the arabesque is done in plié. Not so with Balanchine, THE PLIÉ GETS DEEPER AS THE ARABESQUE LEG MAINTAINS THE 90 DEGREE ANGLE and only the 90 degree angle with the back staying where it is, no tipping forward. There is a reason for this, in fact two reasons.

"I think the boys' dance could very well have divided the Pas de Deux; not altogether sure, though.

“…Arabesque, according to Mr. B  was quite definite.  First, there was tendu back, then there was arabesque from tendu back raised just slightly off the floor, then there was arabesque at 45 degrees, then there was arabesque waist high 90 degrees,

“AND anything after that was penchée because the body would not be able to stay straight as it was for tendu back as well as for all the other levels of the arabesque positions. According to his training, there was no pitching forward until penchée, and the back never lost its arch as the leg went up before the body had to relinquish itself to going down, most probably into a split or as high as the dancer could get it.

“I always thought arabesque alllongee meant the ARMS were in ecarte allongée position (back arm higher than front arm which is to the side and the head is looking up to the back arm). Yes, there would certainly be a slight pitching forward with the body and a slight raising of the leg in arabesque.... or not.

“In my time with Mr. B, I clearly remember, in class at SAB, that the boys were not required to do penchee arabesque. When the girls did penchee at the barre, the boys were told to stay in 90 degree arabesque and do DEEP plie down down and hold it. They did the same in the center work. I think this male penchée sneaked in after Mr. B was gone, as it became fashionable for the men to become just as flexible as the women.”

And Arlene Croce wrote to me in the same month:

“I think probably they <the men’s arabesques> were allongées, very long, slow, and sweeping, very unusual for GB to give to male dancers. The boys were not torch bearers, even metaphorically; they had the stage to themselves. If you listen to the music, the Mendelssohn string symphony No. 9, you'll understand something of what the dance was like. Yes, it was difficult, and GB well may have deleted it for that reason, or because the boys' shakiness detracted from the  beauty of the pas de deux. We kept expecting him to reinstate it at Lincoln Center, but he never did."

Sunday 1 September

@Alastair Macaulay 2024