From the current issue…
Paul Boos on Jewels
by Larry Kaplan
Paul Boos: Almost immediately on joining New York City Ballet, I was called to be part of the eight corps couples in Diamonds…
BR: Who danced Diamonds when you were in the corps?
Boos: It was almost always Suzanne [Farrell] and Peter [Martins]. Occasionally Merrill [Ashley] and Kay [Mazzo]… Adam [Lüders] and Sean [Lavery] also alternated in the ballet… Dancing in Diamonds educated me about…what [Suzanne] did onstage musically, a lesson in art… For example, in the finale there was a particular step in the fugue – I have not seen anybody but Suzanne do it since – a triple pirouette from fourth that just seemed to come out of nowhere… The moment occurs when the ballerina is exhausted, and yet Suzanne could somehow pull it off…
BR: Several years after Diamonds, you were cast in Rubies.
Boos: Rubies was kind of a surprise… I had been understudying the role for about a year or so, not expecting to be cast any time soon, …then all of a sudden my name appeared on the casting sheet. So, I was thrown on. I knew it, of course, from the sidelines, but it is different when you’re in it…
We all understood that the choreography speaks for itself but if you’re doing steps, it’s just not enough. There has to be something extra, a relationship to the people that you’re dancing with. And then of course there’s the music… That must sound really corny, that the music tells you what to do. But it really does. Mr. Balanchine opened our ears…[and] taught us to listen to and to hear it…
BR: What were the challenges for you in Rubies as opposed to Diamonds?
Boos: As a dancer I related to the Stravinsky ballets and the Stravinsky music easily. For some reason I enjoyed it, I responded to it. It made sense to me. I found it easier to learn the Stravinsky ballets than some of the others. You really have to be concentrated on the changing rhythms, and that fascinated me… With the Tchaikovsky [Diamonds], you’d have sets of eight where you’re standing on the side and then you come in and you do eight measures of music and then return to the sides. It was eight, eight, eight, eight – all variations of eight – which…confused me. With Stravinsky the rhythms are constantly changing… That’s not just challenging; it’s exciting. For me, that was the thrill of dancing Balanchine.
To see a preview of what is coming
in the Summer issue, CLICK HERE
|
