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39 8 Ballet Theatre, a Un]vers]ty of Dance, and More . . . What happened during your tenth year in New York? In the autumn of 1947 we returned to New York for what would be my last season with Ballet Theatre. The lineup included Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and the world premiere of George Balanchine’s Theme and Variations, which took place on November 26 at City Center. Balanchine had wanted to evoke the golden era of Russian classical ballet, and he commissioned elegant set designs that turned the stage into a grand ballroom, adorned with red drapes and candelabras. He choreographed the piece to the fourth movement of Tchaikovsky’s The Suite in A Minor. Woodman Thompson designed the sets and costumes. Balanchine set the work on Alicia and Igor Youskevitch as the lead couple. I danced with Melissa Hayden in one of the four soloist couple variations. Others in the cast were Anne Cheselka, Paula Lloyd, Cynthia Riseley, Eric Braun, Fernando Nault, and Zachary Solov, as well as the corps de ballet. In the final weeks of the season I danced in Agnes de Mille’s The Three Virgins and a Devil. The virgins were The Fanatic One, The Lustful One, and The Greedy One, and they met the Devil on their way to church. As much as they tried to resist him, they succumbed to temptation. I really enjoyed dancing that Devil! In eight years with Ballet Theatre, your repertoire expanded to include many pieces that are still danced today. What are some of the others? I also danced La fille mal gardée and Rodeo. I received permission to take the Fille mal gardée score back to Cuba so that we could present the final act there. Alicia and I sat on a bench in New York’s Central Park, and Alicia handed me the pages as I photographed each one with my camera. The rest Part I. Antes (Before) 40 was easy. In Cuba, my mother copied it onto paper lined with music staves, but we found that we were missing the part of Alain (the foppish butterfly catcher). So I whistled the music as my mother transcribed the melody for piano. I also danced in Rodeo, Filling Station, and Barn Dance. Agnes de Mille’s Fall River Legend opened on April 22, 1948, at the Metropolitan Opera House. The Lizzie Borden libretto is a one-act work with eight scenes and a prologue, and I consider it one of de Mille’s best ballets. It investigates the relationship between Borden and her parents, and her motivation for murdering them. It was my New York farewell performance. How did it feel to leave a company that had offered you so much? Ballet Theatre had proven to be an exceptional training ground, and not only for dance, but that is where I got much of my political education. I’d get together with the company musicians to play chess, and we would end up discussing politics. Eventually, I got to know the orchestra conductors and directors, Max Goberman and Benjamin Steinberg. Their political views and dissatisfaction struck a chord with me as an echo of my own experiences with social injustice. They shared books and pamphlets on socialist ideas with me. Together with other company members and myself, they would discuss the political issues of the day. So, when the company ran into financial trouble and decided to make budget cuts, I spoke up and insisted that the management adhere to union rules so that the dancers wouldn’t be the ones to shoulder the burden of those cuts. Lucia Chase went so far as to suggest that I raised these issues because of my communist political outlook rather than the company’s threats to renege on the union contract. In 1948, I began giving public talks in Cuba on political subjects. It was ironic that later on I would have difficulty entering the United States because the U.S. government had labeled me “a foreign communist.” My political views were actually made in the U.S.A. What else did you carry back from your time in New York? From an artistic point of view, there were eight years of day-to-day work with the dancers, set designers, musicians, choreographers, and writers. It all amounted to an education of inestimable value. There was an ongoing exchange of ideas and experiences, and direct contact with so many different approaches. All of this contributed...

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