Suzanne Farrell

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Suzanne Farrell (neé Roberta Sue Ficker; born 1945) was a versatile classical ballerina who performed with Balanchine and the Ballet of the Twentieth Century. During her almost 30-year career she performed 75 roles in 70 ballets.

Roberta Sue Ficker, who later selected the name Suzanne Farrell from a phone book, was born on August 16, 1945. She was the third of three daughters of a lower-middle-class family who lived in Mt. Healthy, a quiet town outside Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents divorced when Farrell was nine. Her main concern was her mother's happiness, and she claims this experience taught her to be adaptable at an early age.

Farrell always dreamed of being a clown but began to dance when she was eight to overcome being an imaginative and spunky tomboy. She and her sisters frequently invited neighbors to attend carnivals held in their garage or back yard. It was not unusual for Suzanne to have choreographed a dance in which her partners were kitchen chairs. By age 10, she had organized the New York City Ballet Juniors, a group of girls from her dance classes. Her first stage experience, at age 12, was with the Cincinnati Summer Opera where she performed in various ballets.

Succeeding in the Arts

Farrell's mother recognized her daughter's talents and was determined that she succeed in the arts. She studied ballet at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music after her school day at Ursuline Academy. Her mother supported her interest in performing and in attending concerts. She once wrote an excuse for her to miss school so she could see the New York City Ballet dance in Bloomington, Indiana. After seeing "Symphony in C," Farrell decided she wanted to dance with that company, where she felt she would fit in. The company seemed more alive and energetic than other companies.

One day Diana Adams, a scout from the School of American Ballet in New York, observed Farrell and invited her to audition for entrance to the school. In 1960, at age 15, Farrell was one of 12 students to be awarded a full Ford Foundation scholarship into their preparatory program for professional dancers. Without money or housing, her family moved to New York, a strange city to them, and lived in a one-room apartment. Farrell's mother worked 20-hour shifts as a night nurse to support them.

As a "small fish in a big pond," Farrell realized that only she was in charge of her life. The program's major goal was to develop the technical strength and the unique creativity of each student. George Balanchine, head of the school, stressed that what they did with the technique was important. Having it was not enough. Within a year, Farrell joined the company while attending high school at Rhodes. She made her corps de ballet debut in Todd Bolender's "Creation of the World" and George Balanchine's "Stars and Stripes." At 19, she was the youngest principal dancer to dance a solo while in the corps. She was the Dark Angel in "Serenade." Two years later she performed in the world premiere of "Jewels," a signature work.

Balanchine

One cannot talk about Suzanne Farrell without discussing her relationship with Balanchine. Very early, he began to give her opportunities to learn ballets and parts, sometimes superseding more veteran dancers. He collaborated with her on choreography by pushing her to take risks and allowing her to express herself through the choreography. Until she left four years after becoming a star, she was central to him and he to her. Often referred to as his "muse," she attributed this to her strong belief in him and what he was doing. He trained and perhaps molded her as he wanted. Farrell embodied his ideal and this became the norm for the company. Long-legged, gorgeous, and extraordinarily musical, she became known for her backbends, high extensions, and versatility.

Balanchine had not separated his art from life in the past and Farrell, who was immature, was very focused on her dancing. Pleasing him on stage was all she thought about, and in fact she said later that it was like the child for whom time and distance do not shake the ties he has with his parents. She described him as a feminist celebrating the independence of women while he had them on a pedestal. Some say some of his choreography, such as "Don Quixote" and "Meditation," were autobiographical, reflecting the blending of their private and professional lives. Farrell was referred to as the "5th Mrs. B" since Balanchine had previously married four of his ballerinas. They never married but other company members resented their relationship and some resigned from the company. Farrell became isolated. Despite this friction, she danced with and appreciated the uniqueness of each of her many outstanding partners, claiming that each brought out something different in her dancing. They included Balanchine, Jacques d'Amboise, Peter Martins, Edward Villela, and Jean-Pierre Bonnefeux. She performed in numerous premiers, including "Tzigane," "Caconne," "Union Jack," and "Vienna Waltzes," as well as in "Meditation," "Mozartiana," "Don Quixote," "Four Temperaments," and "Apollo," to mention only a few which are considered to be some of the most dazzling ballets of this century.

Self-imposed Exile

In 1969 her marriage to Paul Mejia, a young company dancer from Peru, created some confusion for her and affected his career. (They divorced in the mid-1990s.) He felt Balanchine was not casting him appropriately and finally, in mid-season in May of that year, they left the company with their three cats, Top, Bottom, and Middle. Maurice Bejart had seen Farrell perform the first full length "Swan Lake" with the National Ballet of Canada and sent her a telegram inviting her to join his company. They joined his Brussels-based Ballet of the Twentieth Century the following year. They both enjoyed touring and the experience of working with a style and approach which in its theatrically and reputation for being avant-garde was a dramatic departure from Balanchine's classicism. Even though Farrell performed in over 30 ballets which were composed or revived for her, she referred to this time as "exile."

A series of knee and hip injuries which had begun 20 years before developed into severe and increasingly limiting arthritis. By the 1970s doctors predicted that Farrell would never again dance. After a hip replacement and the emotional, psychological, and physical struggle involved in a prolonged hospitalization and rigorous program of physical therapy, she did in fact return to perform on pointe.

Reconciliation and Return to New York

After seeing the New York City Ballet perform again in 1974, she asked to return and did so in 1975. She also reconciled with Balanchine, and from it came the late masterworks created for Farrell: "Chaconne," "Davidsbundlertanze" and "Mozartiana." Farrell demonstrated her versatility by dancing leads in ballets choreographed by Jerome Robbins, Jacques d'Amboise, and Stanley Williams and to choreographically innovative ballets with a variety of scores, such as serial music of Stravinsky and "chance" music of Xanakis.

Blanchine died in 1983 and Farrel gave her last performance six years later, at the age of 44, on November 26, 1989, in a performance of "Vienna Waltzes" and "Sophisticated Lady." Farrell made her last bow to "Mr. B" in the presence of Lincoln Kirstein and Peter Martin. She commented that it was easy to get there but difficult to stay there or to hold on to the air. She now restages Balanchine ballets all over the world. Their famously unconsummated relationship lives on in an Oscar-nominated Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse - a relationship so consuming, that she says she considered suicide.

According to Arlene Croce, she was thought of as "the supreme classicist of our time." She had a reputation for versatility, having performed 75 roles in 70 ballets, starred in three feature-length ballet films, and performed in the Dance in America series and nationally telecast concert at the Kennedy Center in honor of Balanchine. In 1965 she was the recipient of the Merit Award of Mademoiselle magazine and the Award of Merit in Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Cincinnati. In 1979 Farrell received New York City's Award of Honor for Arts and Culture for a record of distinguished achievement in the world of dance, and in 1980 Brandeis University's Creative Arts Award.

Further Reading

Holding On To The Air (1954) by Suzanne Farrell with Toni Bentley is the only book about her. Objectivity is a problem, particularly where Balanchine is involved. A sense of overwhelming debt to him pervades the book and may cloud her account.

Farrell, Suzanne (orig. Roberta Sue Ficker;b Cincinnati, 16 Aug. 1945). US dancer. She studied locally and at the School of American Ballet, making her debut with New York City Ballet in 1961. A tall, almost regal dancer, with a lyrical musicality and a capacity to push her technique to seemingly dangerous limits, she became Balanchine's last great muse—the instrument with which he conducted his final experiments into neo-classical dance (he used to refer to her as his Stradivarius). In 1965 she was promoted to principal and as well as dancing the standard Balanchine repertory she created several new roles, for example in Movements for Piano and Orchestra (1963), Don Quixote (which was almost a love-letter from choreographer to dancer, 1965), Variations (1966), Jewels (in which her classical qualities were crystallized in the ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux, 1967), and Slaughter on 10th Avenue (New York City Ballet staging, in which her capacity to move on a large, even vulgar scale was exploited in the role of Striptease Girl, 1969). In 1969 she married the dancer Paul Mejia which strained relations with the possessive Balanchine to breaking-point. A year later she left to dance with Béjart's Ballet of the 20th Century, where as the company's new star she created roles in several of his works, including Sonate (1970), Nijinsky, clown de Dieu (1971), and I trionfi (1974). In 1975 she returned to NYCB where, dancing with an even greater technical authority she assumed many of her old roles as well as creating several new ones, for example in Robbins's Piano Concerto in G (1975) and Balanchine's Union Jack (1976), Vienna Waltzes (1977), Davidsbündlertänze (1980), and a new version of Mozartiana (1981). During this time she also performed as an international guest star, for example with the Royal Danish Ballet (1976), and appeared in many television dance films. Since retiring from the stage in 1989 she has taught at the School of American Ballet, staged several Balanchine works including Scotch Symphony for the Kirov Ballet in 1988 and also founded her own company, Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Her autobiography Holding on to the Air, written with Toni Bentley, was published New York, 1990.

Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine in Don Quixote

Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is an eminent 20th century ballerina and the founder of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

She was born as Roberta Sue Ficker in Cincinnati, and received her early training at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. In 1959, she was selected to study at George Balanchine's School of American Ballet with a Ford Foundation scholarship; she started there in 1960, and joined the New York City Ballet (NYCB) in 1961.

Contents 1 Career 1.1 Early career at NYCB 1.2 Career as a dance teacher 1.3 Career at the Kennedy Center 2 Media 3 Awards 4 Further reading and viewing 5 Quotes 6 References 7 External links 8 Movie reviews

Career

Early career at NYCB

Initially part of the corps de ballet at NYCB, Farrell soon moved on to dancing featured roles. The first roles created especially for her came in 1963, and in 1965 she was promoted to principal dancer. George Balanchine quickly fell in love with his "alabaster princess", and created many roles for her. In 1965 he created Don Quixote, thought to be a valentine to his newest "muse." In 1968 he cast her as the lead in the "Diamonds" section of his three-act plotless ballet "Jewels".

Balanchine was married to the polio-stricken former ballerina Tanaquil LeClerq, however, and Farrell was a Catholic. Though Balanchine divorced LeClerq to pursue Farrell, she instead married fellow dancer Paul Mejia.^{[citation needed]}

When she married Mejia, another dancer in the company, in 1969, her bond with Balanchine suffered, and they left the New York City Ballet in 1970.^{[citation needed]} After a spell in Europe, she eventually returned to Balanchine and the New York City Ballet in 1975, where her partnership with Balanchine lasted until his death in April 1983; his last works were solos for Farrell.

Career as a dance teacher

She had an unusually long performing career for a ballerina. After 28 years of an occupation which takes a tremendous physical toll on the body - began to come to an end in 1983. She started to develop arthritis in her right hip and despite two years of varied treatments, by 1985 (at the age of 40), her career on stage was almost over. She struggled for several years, but retired from performing in 1989.

She then moved on to passing on the ballets of Balanchine to the next generation of ballet dancers, working with famed companies around the world, such as those in Berlin and Vienna, as well as the Paris Opera Ballet, Kirov Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. In 1993, the New York City Ballet dismissed her from her teaching position with the company.^[1]

Career at the Kennedy Center

Main article: Suzanne Farrell Ballet

In 2000 Suzanne Farrell started her own company, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, now a full-fledged company produced by the Kennedy Center.

Farrell's engagement with the Kennedy Center began in 1993 and 1994, when the Center offered two series of ballet master classes for students with Farrell. This series provided intermediate-to-advanced level ballet students, ages 13 to 17, an opportunity to study with one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Due to the uniqueness of Farrell's place in the ballet world and the quality of her teaching, the Kennedy Center expanded the program to a national level in 1995 in order to fulfill the Center's mission to enhance the arts education of America's young people. This three weeks long yearly initiative of intense study grew into a full-fledged program, Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell.

In the fall of 1999, Farrell received critical acclaim for the successful Kennedy Center engagement and East Coast tour of Suzanne Farrell Stages the Masters of 20th Century Ballet. Following the Kennedy Center's debut, the newly named Suzanne Farrell Ballet, a group of professional dancers hand selected by Farrell, has since performed at the Kennedy Center during engagements in 2001 and 2002, been on an extensive East Coast tour, and returned to the Kennedy Center as part of the 2003-2004 Ballet Season following a 7-week national tour. Suzanne Farrell was selected as one of the five recipients of the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors, one of the highest honors for lifetime artistic achievement.

Media

Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell is an initiative of the Kennedy Center Education Department and is made possible in part by the U.S. Department of Education and the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund. Additional support is provided by the Margaret Abell Powell Fund. Suzanne Farrell was prominently featured in Balanchine (2004) a documentary about the life of George Balanchine.

Awards

President George W. Bush and Laura Bush pose with the Kennedy Center honorees, from left to right, actress Julie Harris, actor Robert Redford, singer Tina Turner, ballet dancer Suzanne Farrell and singer Tony Bennett on December 4, 2005, during the reception in the Blue Room at the White House.

Farrell has received honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University, among others. She has also been a tenured professor of dance at Florida State University since 2000, and in 2003 she received the National Medal of Arts.

She was recently celebrated in 2005 at the Kennedy Center Honors as one of the most influential ballerinas of the 20th century, among such talents as Tina Turner and Robert Redford. She also was the 2005 recipient of the Capezio Dance Award.

Further reading and viewing

• Suzanne Farrell, Toni Bentley, Holding on to the Air (Summit Books, New York, 1990)
• Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse, a 1996 documentary film
• Suzanne Farrell - Elusive Muse, (Directed by Anne Belle and Deborah Dickson 1990)

Quotes

• "I'm thought of as a cool unemotional dancer but inside I'm most certainly not. As soon as I hear music something in me starts to vibrate."
• "When you get on a stage you can do anything."
• "When I first met Peter [Martins], I said to Mr. B, 'Well, at least he's tall.' I did not even think about how handsome he was. And he was very handsome."
• "In my youth I have always been drawn to dance. It made me feel sexy and have confidence."

References

1. ^ Dunning, Jennifer (4 August 1993). "City Ballet Breaks Off Its Long Relationship With Suzanne Farrell". NY Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2D81731F937A3575BC0A965958260. Retrieved 2008-03-23. 

External links

• The Suzanne Farrell Ballet
• Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell
• Photos of Suzanne Farrell courtesy of Getty Images
• The Ballerina Gallery - Suzanne Farrell
• Horstman, Barry M (1999-04-19). "Suzanne Farrell: She shaped new generation of dancers". The Cincinnati Post (E. W. Scripps Company). Archived from the original on 2007-05-17. http://web.archive.org/web/20070517104605/http://www.cincypost.com/living/1999/farrel041999.html. 
• Capezio Dance Award - Suzanne Farrell 2005

Movie reviews

• New York Times, October 7, 1996

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