I Was a Dancer

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I Was a Dancer

â€œWho am I? Iâ€™m a man; an American, a father, a teacher, but most of all, I am a person who knows how the arts can change lives, because they transformed mine. I was a dancer.â€

In this rich, expansive, spirited memoir, Jacques dâ€™Amboise, one of Americaâ€™s most celebrated classical dancers, and former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for more than three decades, tells the extraordinary story of his life in dance, and of Americaâ€™s most renowned and admired dance companies.

He writes of his classical studies beginning at the age of eight at The School of American Ballet. At twelve he was asked to perform with Ballet Society; three years later he joined the New York City Ballet and made his European debut at Londonâ€™s Covent Garden.

As George Balanchineâ€™s protÃ©gÃ©, dâ€™Amboise had more works choreographed on him by â€œthe supreme Ballet Masterâ€ than any other dancer, among them Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux; Episodes; A Midsummerâ€™s Nightâ€™s Dream; Jewels; Raymonda Variations.

He writes of his boyhoodâ€”born Joseph Ahearnâ€”in Dedham, Massachusetts; his mother (â€œthe Bossâ€) moving the family to New York Cityâ€™s Washington Heights; dragging her son and daughter to ballet class (paying the teacher $7.50 from hats she made and sold on street corners, and with chickens she cooked stuffed with chestnuts); his mother changing the family name from Ahearn to her maiden name, dâ€™Amboise (â€œItâ€™s aristocratic. It has the â€˜dâ€™ apostrophe. It sounds better for the ballet, and itâ€™s a better nameâ€).

We see him. a neighborhood tough, in Catholic schools being taught by the nuns; on the streets, fighting with neighborhood gangs, and taking ten classes a week at the School of American Ballet . . . being taught professional class by Balanchine (he was â€œsmall, unassuming, he radiated energy and total commandâ€) and by other teachers of great legend: Anatole Oboukhoff, premier danseur of the Maryinsky Theatre (â€œSuch a big star,â€ said Balanchine, â€œpeople followed him, like a prince with servantsâ€); and Pierre Vladimiroff, Pavlovaâ€™s partner (â€œSo light on feather feetâ€). Vladimiroff drilled into his students, â€œYou must practice, practice, practice. Onstage, forget everything! Just listen to the music and dance.â€

Dâ€™Amboise writes about Balanchineâ€™s succession of ballerina muses who inspired him to near-obsessive passion and led him to create extraordinary ballets, dancers with whom dâ€™Amboise partneredâ€”Maria Tallchief; Tanaquil LeClercq, a stick-skinny teenager who blossomed into an exquisite, witty, sophisticated â€œangelâ€ with her â€œlong limbs and dramatic, mysterious elegance . . .â€; the iridescent Allegra Kent; Melissa Hayden; Suzanne Farrell, who Balanchine called his â€œalabaster princess,â€ her every fiber, every movement imbued with passion and energy; Kay Mazzo; Kyra Nichols (â€œSheâ€™s perfect,â€ Balanchine said. â€œUncomplicatedâ€”like fresh waterâ€); and Karin von Aroldingen, to whom Balanchine left most of his ballets.

Dâ€™Amboise writes about dancing with and courting one of the companyâ€™s members, who became his wife for fifty-three years, and the four children they had . . . On going to Hollywood to make Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and being offered a long-term contract at MGM (â€œIf youâ€™re not careful,â€ Balanchine warned, â€œyou will have sold your soul for seven yearsâ€) . . . On Jerome Robbins (â€œJerry could be charming and complimentary, and then, five minutes later, attack, and crush your spiritâ€”all to see how it would influence the dance movementsâ€).

Dâ€™Amboise writes of the moment when he realizes his dancing career is over and he begins a new life and new dream teaching children all over the world about the arts through the magic of dance.

A riveting, magical book, as transformative as dancing itself.
Country USA
Manufacturer Knopf
Binding Hardcover
ReleaseDate 2011-03-01
UnitCount 1
Format Deckle Edge
EANs 9781400042340

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Knopf
Binding	Hardcover
ReleaseDate	2011-03-01
UnitCount	1
Format	Deckle Edge
EANs	9781400042340

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