Category: History

Ladies of the Dance

I recently explored the Lords of the Dance. Dance performance and participation is overwhelmingly female… Artistic Direction (AD) in dance, not so much. There’s a fascinating case to explore of modern dance rising as a reaction to this gender dynamic in ballet, but that’s not today.

Today is about current female artistic leadership in large-budget American dance companies.

First, it’s important to state that this is just one job title, and only looking at a very few, very large companies. This doesn’t explore executive leadership, board participation, choreographers, or the people running the studios and rehearsals… and this is all binary-gender, because I can’t find any evidence of any gender-expansive humans in the AD position at these organizations (Dance Data Project did, but not in the United States [and no longer in 2023…]. Get your budget up, trocks 🙂 ). I’m going to use pink and blue gender associations in chart. Also, this is based on pre-pandemic FY2019 budgets, and only companies with budgets of $5 million or more. It’s an arbitrary cutoff. There are 41.

Female Artistic Direction

Today, just under 32% of the largest United States dance companies have female-identifying artistic directors, which is up a bit in recent history.

Since 2020, 9 of these companies changed artistic directors, making a remarkable 22% (and it’s going to be at least 24%) turnover in just three years (there’s more to explore about the pandemic and other recent shocks as an impetus…) and five of those were women.

More interestingly, four of those women replaced men, and in three of those cases, these women were the first female artistic directors in their company’s history.

In the same period, two men replaced women, and both of those women stepped up, not out. Susan Jaffe left Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for a much larger ballet station at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) and is replaced by Adam W. McKinney, and Alejandro Cerrudo replaced Hope Muir at Charlotte Ballet in 2022. Hope Muir also landed at a larger ballet station, the National Ballet of Canada – more than triple her previous charge (in US dollars), but outside the United States, so… she escapes the rest of this discussion.

This year (2023) Dani Rowe becomes the first woman to hold the position at Oregon Ballet Theatre in its 34 years and Jodie Gates assumed the AD position, succeeding Victoria Morgan at the Cincinnati Ballet after 25 years. Robert Garland will replace Virginia Johnson at Dance Theatre of Harlem in July – he’ll be the 10th post-2020 AD transition.

Last year (2022), Tamara Rojo replaced Helgi Tómasson at San Francisco Ballet (a position held for 37 years), becoming the first female AD in that company’s 90 year history, and Susan Jaffe replaced Kevin McKenzie, who held the position for nearly three decades at American Ballet Theatre.

And in 2021, Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell assumed the artistic director position at Hubbard Street Dance, becoming the first woman to do so in that company’s 45-year history.

This post-pandemic female AD cohort joins the ranks of Lourdes Lopez at Miami City Ballet, Julie Kent at Washington Ballet, Jodie Gates at Cincinnati Ballet, Stoner Winslett at Richmond Ballet, Brenda Way at ODC Dance, Janet Eilber at Martha Graham Dance Company, Virginia Johnson at Dance Theatre of Harlem (for a few months), Karen Russo Burke at Dayton Ballet, and Gina Gibney at Gibney Dance. The fact that this list is short enough to fully enumerate reveals several challenges for dance in America.

Women of the Baby Balanchines

I also recently explored the “Baby Balanchine” companies. As a tiny case-study in female artistic leadership, these are interesting. Women (well, more precisely, Balanchine women…) were deeply involved in most of these, and held the role of artistic director for half of the babies in 1963. I’m not counting New York City Ballet as a baby (it’s the “parent”), and Mr. B did not let go of his ballet station… and it’s been men the whole time.

Boston had E. Virginia Williams, who started teaching at age 16 and founded the New England Civic Ballet in 1958. Under her direction, the Boston Ballet explored rock ballet with Louis Falco‘s The Gamete Garden (1971). In 1974, she took a bold chance on the then-10-year old Winterbranch by Merce Cunningham – and managed to chase some of the audience out of the room. Williams is succeeded by Violette Verdy (also deeply connected with Balanchine) in 1983, and then by Bruce Marks (from Ballet West) in 1985. Anna-Marie Holmes brings the feminine back to Boston as a co-artistic director for several years before a brief 3-year run as AD starting in 1998. Since 2001, it’s been Mikko Nissinen.

Houston had Tatiana Semenova who started a ballet school in 1955. In 1959, Robert Irving, New York City Ballet’s principal conductor (those Balanchine connections run deep…) led the Houston Symphony for the world premiere of Semenova’s Enigma. There was some drama, and part of the Ford Foundation funding was lost with her departure in 1966. After a somewhat complicated transition, Nina Popova held the AD position until 1975.

The National Ballet never had a female artistic director, but had Jean Riddell as president of the National Ballet Society. It’s Washington, D.C., so things get complicated, and the company folded in 1974.

Perhaps the deepest Baby Balanchine connection was Barbara Weisberger, founder and artistic director of the Pennsylvania Ballet until 1982, and who also founded the Carlisle Project and served as an artistic advisor for Peabody Dance in Baltimore. Pennsylvania Ballet (now Philadelphia Ballet) hasn’t seen a female artistic director since she left in 1982.

But that auspicious recognition of women in artistic leadership roles among the Baby Balanchines would erode… Houston’s AD was male by 1976, and by 1985, men ran them all, with a brief respite from 1993-2001 in Boston. AD gender at the Balanchine-legacy companies (including NYCB) looks like this:

Just a hint of pink at the far-right in that image, Tamara Rojo brings a Spanish (by nationality) and British (Royal Ballet and English National Ballet) sensibility to the San Francisco Ballet – a change away from both male gender and Balanchine, with a powerhouse $57 million annual budget (much more than double the English National Ballet’s $23 million).

Perhaps worth noting here, Balanchine shared his perspective on gender in ballet… the “ballet is woman” quote is often attributed to him – but there’s more.

But if you watch the stage you will see something more beautiful. The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.

“Mr B Talks Ballet,” George Balanchine, Life Magazine, 11 June 1965, page 97.

… a sentiment that maybe does not age all that well.

Budget Equity

The new ADs represent significant cultural changes in each company, but the post-2020 net change is only +2 for the ladies – so far (that will drop to +1 in July). There’s a very different story if you look at the economic change these women represent.

The four women that replaced men now direct more than $120 million a year to their artistic vision, almost doubling the financial resources available to female ADs at these top-tier dance companies. Jaffe’s transition from Pittsburgh to ABT gives her access to more than four times the budget (although it’s in a city that’s much more expensive…).

I don’t have data to support any sort of “first time in history” claim, but this huge shift in resources appears to have achieved AD gender “budget equity.” For at least a few months of 2023, the 32% of companies with female artistic directors represent 32% of the aggregate annual budget at the largest 41 dance companies in the United States.

Congratulations

Congratulations to the new female artistic directors of American dance (and you too, Hope Muir!). May your tenures be amazing. Please don’t forget to reach back and offer a hand-up. We need more of you.

Breadcrumbs…

Dance Data Project US Artistic Director History Data Byte [pdf] is only ballet companies, and based on the largest 50 by budget, so different base data set, but it has an interesting point of comparison. Their data says 46% of the largest 50 ballet companies were founded by female ADs – but only 30% are lead by female ADs as of July 2021. The erosion of female artistic leadership seen in the Baby Balanchines looks more widespread.

Where are the Women in Ballet (WBUR, 2015)

Sexism in dance: where are all the female choreographers? (The Guardian, 2013)

Agnes de Mille’s Artistic Justice (The New Yorker, 2015)

Last year, 69% of works performed by the 50 largest ballet companies — including Joffrey and Hubbard Street — were choreographed by men. Women in dance are trying to change that. (Chicago Tribune, 2021)

Leading Ladies (Dance, 2016)

Update (26 May 2023) – added note about Dance Data Project Global Leadership Report 2023.

Lords of the Dance (the Artistic Directors)

Today I offer an excursion into artistic authority – Who gets to decide how the resources of American dance companies are applied? (I use “lords” advisedly – it’s mostly men at this scale, more on that later).

The Biggest Companies

Limiting myself to the largest non-profit dance companies in the United States (because my sanity requires some limits), and using pre-pandemic budgets (because nothing newer makes any sense yet…). There are just 41 companies operate in the $5+ million annual budget range (there’s some wiggle room – some of these are not just dance companies). Those companies had a combined FY2019 budget of just over $660 million, and more than a third of that is with New York City Ballet and the Baby Balanchines.

The average age of these companies is 57.6 years (with some room for interpretation). Average age of the artistic directors is just about the same – 57.9 (also missing a few data points here…).

Btw, start planning to celebrate Martha Graham Dance Company’s 100th in 2026…

Captains of the Ballet Stations

Artistic directors tend to stick around a long time, sometimes a very long time, and this makes perfect sense. Once you’ve got a “fully armed and operational ballet station” at your disposal (apologies to both Emperor Palpatine and the few not-“ballet” companies below…), there aren’t many reasons to give that up (especially if the company has your name on it).

CompaniesYears with Current AD
ODC Dance52
Mark Morris Dance Group
Richmond Ballet		43
Alonzo King LINES Ballet41
Gibney Dance32
Tulsa Ballet28
Nashville Ballet*25
Ballet Arizona
Ballet Austin		23
Boston Ballet22
Milwaukee Ballet21
Houston Ballet20
Martha Graham Dance Company
Pacific Northwest Ballet		18
Colorado Ballet17
Ballet West
Joffrey Ballet
Sarasota Ballet		16
Ballet Hispanico
Dance Theatre of Harlem†		14
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Dayton Ballet‡		12
Miami City Ballet11
Ballet Metropolitan (Columbus)
Kansas City Ballet		10
Philadelphia Ballet9
Atlanta Ballet
Washington Ballet		7
Nevada Ballet Theatre6
Paul Taylor Dance Company5
Carolina Ballet
New York City Ballet		4
Hubbard Street Dance
Orlando Ballet		2
American Ballet Theater
Charlotte Ballet
Cincinnati Ballet
San Francisco Ballet
Texas Ballet Theater		1
Oregon Ballet Theatre
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre		0
* Nick Mullikin will replace Paul Vasterling in June 2023. 
† Robert Garland will replace Virginia Johnson in July 2023.
‡ Dayton Ballet is advertising the position of artistic director.

Change Has Come

Since the pandemic, the rate-of-AD-change seems to have picked up significantly – two new ADs in 2021 seems fairly normal, but there were five in 2022, and we’re not even halfway through 2023, and there are already two, with at least two more coming…

This isn’t just the pandemic (that does make a convenient point-of-reference) – there are tectonic social, economic, and political forces at work in this early-21st Century world. We live in interesting times.

Interesting times are ripe with confusion and drama. Also, opportunities.

Are You Next?

If you’re interested in being one of these artistic directors, the search is on to replace Karen Russo Burke at the Dayton Ballet.

Struggling with a Balanchinian Legacy

The George Balanchine legacy is complicated, and I’m not even going to pretend to grasp its varied dimensions. That said, one interesting bit I’ve come to call the “Baby Balanchines” changed the landscape of dance in America profoundly more than half a century ago. The resources applied at this inflection point would commit much of dance in America to Balanchine’s style for generations – and at great expense to others across the universe of dance in America.

The Immigrant and the Impresario

Today our story begins in 1904 with the birth of George Balanchine in St. Petersburg in the Russian Empire, the son of an opera singer and composer. Three years later, Lincoln Kirstein is born in Rochester, New York, son of a salesman. George spent his youth in ballet training, Lincoln’s wealthy family sent him to private school and eventually Harvard.

The two intersect in London when Kirstein sees Balanchine perform as Koschei in Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballet Russes Firebird. Kirstein eventually convinces Balanchine to come to the United States, and together with Edward Warburg and Vladimir Dimitriew, they form the School of American Ballet (SAB) in 1934. Kirstein’s support of Balanchine’s vision was complete, enabling him “to do exactly what he wants to do in the way he wants to do it.” Balanchine, and thus SAB, fully embraced the Russian Imperial Ballet School (now Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet) approach to ballet training.

Balanchine and Kirstein spawn a number of ballet ventures (including the American Ballet, Ballet Caravan, and Ballet Society which would eventually consolidate into the 1948 formation of the New York City Ballet (NYCB), but before they do, American Ballet and Ballet Caravan merge into American Ballet Caravan, and Nelson Rockefeller (as Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs) arranges a tour of South America.

Just a few years later, Kirstein would become managing director of New York’s City Center, and with this engagement, brought the resources of the Rockefeller Foundation to ballet (and opera).

In 1950, Lew Christensen becomes NYCB Ballet Master, and just three years later, relocates to the west coast to direct the San Francisco Ballet.

Space to Dance

By the 1960s, the New York City Ballet is well-established, having toured North America, South America, Europe, and Asia (more than once with U.S. State Department support) and even a couple televised Nutcrackers (see the 1958 version).

New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller signs a bill in 1961 authorizing the construction of the New York State Theater for the 1964 World’s Fair – with a combined state and city allocation of $30 million (this would be over $300 million today). This space, would become the new home of the New York City Ballet, was designed to Balanchine’s specifications and completed at a cost of $19.3 million.

Essentially simultaneously, work begins on the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), which opens in 1966 and becomes the official “summer home” of the New York City Ballet.

Artistic Concentration – The “Baby Balanchines”

In 1963, the Ford Foundation launched three national arts and humanities initiatives – one to “increase the supply of quality curators and directors for the nation’s museums of fine arts,” one to strengthen “the role of independent arts schools and conservatories of music in setting standards for professional training”, and, most interesting here, one to “develop the country’s training and performing resources in ballet.”

The Foundation appropriated $8 million for a national program to help develop training and performing resources in ballet, a medium that only in the last three decades has become an important American art form. The major components of the program are:

  • strengthening of the School of American Ballet as a national center for advanced professional training;
  • support of a cooperative system between the School of American Ballet and ballet teachers in different parts of the country to improve the professional preparation of promising young dancers;
  • strengthening the role of the New York City Ballet as a national company. The increased funds will help the New York City Ballet perform services for professionally developing companies elsewhere, and will provide partial assistance to new works needed in the company’s repertoire.
  • assistance to the San Francisco Ballet Company and School through a matching grant for their long-term development;
  • matching support for new professional companies and schools in Boston, Houston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
Ford Foundation Annual Report, 1963, page 12.

Ford backed Balanchine’s own New York operations (School of American Ballet and City Center of Music and Drama with almost $6 million, and picked five (eventually six) companies based largely on Balanchine’s recommendations and extended massive funding – Boston Ballet ($144k), Houston Ballet ($174K), National Ballet ($400K), Pennsylvania Ballet (now Philadelphia Ballet) ($345K), San Francisco Ballet ($644K), and Utah Civic Ballet (now Ballet West) ($175K) was added in the following year.

This $8 million ballet program (though only $7.8 million was disbursed) represented more than 6% of new project appropriations by the Ford Foundation in 1963, and in today’s dollars would exceed $78 million. Balanchine offered his advice, music, costumes, and choreography, and the artistic leadership of these institutions were deeply connected to Balanchine, the person, and so the “Balanchinian” legacy was baked-in from the beginning.

By the mid-1960s, Balanchine’s individual concept of dance stood on a foundation of at least seven of the best-funded schools/companies in the country and two performance venues.

Economic Concentration

Even with the loss of the National Ballet in 1974, the remaining six Balanchine-legacy companies represent a combined annual budget around quarter-billion dollars, and half of the ten largest dance companies in the country (and Ballet West is #12, which is pretty extraordinary given its home city). Economic concentration just happens in the absence of intervention (for a fun diversion, check out the Yard Sale Model), and this works in at least a couple ways for these companies – these are big cities (#24, #4, #23, #1, #6, #17, and #122 by population today; #13, #7, #9, #1, #4, #12, and #65 in 1960 – Salt Lake City is definitely an outlier in this group), so they generally have access to sizeable audiences (and patrons). At the very top, the New York metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is home to some 20 million people, each providing an average of about $4.56 to this one company every year (the Salt Lake City MSA is much more generous – about $10.75 per person per year for Ballet West).

All of these companies are the biggest ones (by budget) in their local regions:

The Big CompanyBudget RatioThe Second Biggest Company
Boston Ballet15Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre
Houston Ballet45Metdance
Philadelphia Ballet14Koresh Dance Company
New York City Ballet2American Ballet Theatre or Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
San Francisco Ballet9Alonzo King LINES Ballet or ODC Dance
Ballet West15Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company

This disparity isn’t unique to the Baby Balanchines – it’s true throughout dance economics (and economics in general…). Washington, D.C. lost the National Ballet, but its big company is now The Washington Ballet, 6 times larger than Step Afrika! and Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet is about 17 times larger than Spectrum Dance Theater.

Dive Deeper

This is but a hint of the Balanchine legacy – for a contemporary view, checkout Harper’s Magazine, September 1964, “Ballet in America: One-man Show?“

Life Magazine, June 11, 1965, “Mr. B Talks about Ballet“

Vanity Fair, December 1998, “Balanchine’s Dream“

Dollars for Dance: Lincoln Kirstein, City Center, and the Rockefeller Foundation

New York Times, May 8, 1977, “Kirstein The Man Who Brought Us Balanchine“

National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities, Vol 37, Issue 1, “George Balanchine and the United States“

Changing History – A Different First Dalcroze Eurhythmics

The Johns Hopkins Peabody Preparatory dance program is, rightfully, proud of its more-than-100-year history. In 2015, the Peabody Post ran a feature story on this history, which includes this:

Peabody Dance was born in December 1914 when the Peabody Institute decided to offer classes in Dalcroze Eurhythmics to teach musicians about music through movement of the body, says Melissa Stafford, the program’s director and department chair.

The first ongoing eurhythmics classes to be offered in the United States, they were taught by Portia Wager and then Ruth Lemmert, both of whom had studied under Emile Jaques-Dalcroze himself.

Rachel Wallach, “Raising the Barre,” Peabody Post, Spring 2015.

Peabody was close, but not quite the first ongoing Eurhythmics class in the United States. The first was just over a year earlier, about 90 miles to the northeast.

On October 1, 1913, Placido de Montoliu started teaching 15 students at the newly-opened Phebe Anna Thorne Model School at Bryn Mawr College. Montoliu served as an assistant to Émile Jaques-Dalcroze for years before coming to the Thorne School in Pennsylvania and remained on faculty for nine years. Eurhythmics instruction continued at the Thorne School after his departure.

Placido de Montoliu is listed in the 1912-1913 Annual Report of the President of Bryn Mawr College page x, and the 1914 Bryn Mawr College Calendar, Volume VII, Part 2, March 1914, page 14, as an instructor for Jacques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and a graduate of the Jacques-Dalcroze College of Rhythmic Training, Hellerau, Germany. In the 1913-1914 President’s report, Señor Monotliu is listed as “Teacher of Jacques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics (Singing, Dancing),” which may be more notable, given that Bryn Mawr is a Quaker institution and the Quaker views of both singing and dancing

Interestingly, Placido de Montoliu came to Peabody on February 16, 1918, giving a demonstration of Eurhythmics at the Peabody Concert Hall, assisted by his wife and Ruth Lemmert.

Some readers, Arts Summit 2020, and Broken History

I’m getting close to a next revision of “Dance in the Baltimore Region,” and once again looking for a few good readers. This revision is up to about 100 pages, about half of which will be mostly familiar to previous readers. So, if you’ve got some time on your hands and feel like telling me what I’ve gotten wrong so far, please be in touch.

This is also Maryland Arts Summit week. This is an all-virtual event, using Crowdcast and Google meeting, and recorded versions of the sessions will be available after the live event. Sorry I didn’t get this out ahead of the first day, but… MSAC probably has you on their radar already. In case they don’t, information is here: https://mdarts.org/summit/

Something that’s been in my notes for a while went public last week – an exploration of the first Nutcracker in America, and I imagine it’s not the one you’re thinking of… https://www.inthedancersstudio.com/2020/05/changing-history-a-different-first-nutcracker-in-america/

Please #BRDS2020 and bring friends to #BRDS2020 ( https://inthedancersstudio.com/brds2020 )
Please stay home.
Please keep dancing.
Please reach out to people directly and personally. They will miss seeing/dancing/working with you. I will miss you.
Simple acts of kindness do matter. Point out beauty when you can. Bring a little joy to someone.
If there is something I can do, please let me know.

Changing History – A different first Nutcracker in America

If I have to recommend a Nutcracker, my personal go-to is the 2004 San Fransisco Ballet version by Helgi Tomasson, so I very much appreciate the San Francisco Ballet (and not just because they’ve got the third-largest budget for a dance company in the country). It is widely published, and generally acknowledged that the San Francisco Ballet presented the first full-length Nutcracker in America. The idea that the Nutcracker in America started in San Francisco is, well, everywhere.

Ballet being ballet, the matter isn’t entirely settled. Some point to the 1940 Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo Nutcracker, with choreography by Alexandra Fedorova, after Lev Ivanov, which premiered on October 17, 1940 at the 51st Street Theater in New York City. New Yorkers do have their pride, and the Boweryboys (among others) aren’t afraid to lay claim to that first Nutcracker. This is an abridged one-act version, so not being “complete,” this one rarely gets full credit. Still, publications like the Los Angeles Times, Dance Spirit, and Pointe Magazine give the Ballet Russe a quick nod before breaking out the San Francisco title.

nutcrackerballet.net, like most places, doesn’t hesitate, putting San Francisco’s claim right on the front page. Variations of this story are everywhere, and it’s probably the history you know. No less an authority than Time Magazine, in 2014, says to us “When the San Francisco Ballet company performed the first complete version of The Nutcracker in the U.S. on Christmas Eve, 1944, they had no way of knowing that in time it would become as American as leaving the milk and cookies out for Santa.” This production, with choreography by William Christensen, working with George Balanchine and Alexandra Danilova, usually gets the credit.

The San Fransisco Ballet, of course, makes its claim boldly and prominently, “Founded in 1933, the company staged the first full-length American productions of Coppélia (1938) and Swan Lake (1940) and, in 1944, we launched an annual holiday tradition when we produced the first full-length production of Nutcracker in the US.” They’ll even give you a nice, concise version of their Nutcracker’s story.

Let me tell you a different story…

On June 2, 1935, news of the the Bekefi-Deleporte Institute of Dance Spring recital appears in print…

Senora de Azcarate, wife of the military attache of the Mexican Embassy heads the list of prominent patrons for the forthcoming Spring concert of the Bekefi-Deleporte Institute of Dance Sunday evening, June 2, at 8:30 o’clock at the Community Center Auditorium at Sixteenth and Q streets. Among other patrons and patronesses are Mrs. John Francis Butler, Mme. Natalie Rimsky-Korsakoff, Mr. And Mrs. Richard W. D. Jewet, Mr. Frank La Falce, and Mr. William Nelson.

There will be many out-of-town guests for this colorful dance event, for the group of artist and students dancers to be presented by Mr. Theodore Bekefi, Mr. Maurice Deleporte, and Mr. Billy Lytell includes more than a hundred Washington dancers who are interested in the recital and who will participate in the varied program of ballet and character numbers, opening with the first presentation in the Capital of the entire “Nutcracker Ballet,” by Tchaikowsky, from which the often-seen Nutcracker Suite is but a part.

Evening Star, Washington, D. C., May 20, 1935, page B-4.

The announcement made, more details follow the next week…

Theodore Bekefi, prominent dance director of Washington will present Tschaikowsky’s “Nutcracker Ballet” as the opening feature of the Spring recital of the Bekefi-Deleporte Institute of Dance next Sunday night at 8:30 o’clock at the Community Center, Sixteenth and Q Streets. Victor Neal, concert pianist of this city, will play the accompaniment for the ballet, which will be danced by a large group of classical and character dancers in the leading roles, including Boydie Barry, Dorthy Ann Goodman, George Filgate, Boofie Barry, with Bekefi himself as Dreselmeyer, the leading character role.

In the ballet will be seen also Virginia Barry, Charlotte Bolgiano, Mary Bolgiano, Theresa Clancey, Ronnie Cunningham, Margaret Mary Edmonston, Margie Gibson, Mary-Beth Hughes, Ethel Mevay, Elise Pinckner, Marguerite Reese, Lila Zalipsky, Dorthy Barry, Josephine Parther, Mary Renkel, and May Tenn.

Evening Star, Washington, D. C., May 26, 1935, page F-6.

I include this list of performers, first to afford them some credit in this 21st Century, but also to point out that (it seems) Lila Zalipsky would go on to make many ballet things happen, particularly on the west coast, as Lila Zali. The others in this performance didn’t ring any immediate bells for me, so that’s some research for a future date.

This is “just” a spring recital for a local dance school, but before the show, there’s a third piece in the Evening Star, this time with some casting details…

For the first time in Washington, the complete production of Tschaikowsky’s “Nutcracker Ballet” will be staged by Bekefi: opening the program of the occasion, with Bekefi in the leading role of Droselmeyer, and included in the dancers, Boydie Barry as the Nutcracker; Dorothy Ann Goodman as Clara, George Filgate as the King of Mice, Boofie Barry as the Doll and a large group of little girls, mice and soldiers.

Evening Star, Washington, D. C., June 2, 1935, page F-6.

Finally, at the end of this thread, we have a review.

The program, in four parts, any two of which would have made a delightful entertainment, was late in beginning and very long. Tschaikowsky’s “The Nutcracker Ballet,” staged and directed by Theodore Bekefi opened the program. The pantomime was well carried out and the cast included, in addition to Mr. Bekefi, Dorthy Ann Goodman, Boydie Barry, Mary Boudren, Barbara Culley, Mary Coen, Lois Heckinger, Betty Jamison, Mary Renkel, Sonya Samkow, Izetta Simon, Boofie Barry, Bill and Jack Smoot, Melvin Goldberg, Bernard June, Phyllis Schwartz, Mary Quick, Edith Klee, Eleanor Klee, Barbara Ramey, Barbara Schwartz, Jackie Smith, George Filgate, Dorthy Barry, Josephine Prather, May Tenn, Elise Pickney, Marguerite Reese, Virginia Barry, Charlotte Bolgiano, Ronnie Cunningham, Mary Bolgiano, Mary-Margaret Edmonston, Marie Gibson, Mary Beth Hughes, Ethel Mevay, Lila Zalipsky and Bernice Susser. In the finale of the first act of their pantomime, a choir composed of members of Mme. Zalipsky’s vocal studios was heard from behind the scenes.

Evening Star, Washington, D. C., June 4, 1935, page B-20

And the clue that ran me down this rabbit hole? the Bekefi-Deleporte Institute of the Dance presents the “Nutcracker Ballet” on June 20, 1935 at Lehmann Hall in Baltimore, Maryland:

Dozens of Dancers Whirled and pirouetted on the stage of the Lehmann Hall last night as Theodore Bekefi, a former soloist with the Diaghileff Ballet Russe, brought a company of his dancers from Washington to perform the “Nutcracker Ballet.”

The story, a fantasy of Christmas Eve, told a tale in dance of a nutcracker toy, which came to life, killed the king of mice after a duel, and then journeyed through the land of snowflakes to the palace of sweets. The dancing throughout was smooth and expert, especially in the snowflake scene.

R. L. W., “Nutcracker Ballet,” Baltimore Sun, June 21, 1935, page 10.

So there you have it… a new first Nutcracker in America, this one performed nearly a decade before the commonly-accepted first complete Nutcracker in America and five years before the Ballet Russe in New York.

A Christmas ballet. In June. At a Jewish Community Center. In Washington, D. C. Maybe that’s why nobody noticed…