By David Michonski
At the January 24 meeting of the RMA, Bob Rimmer introduced Jennifer Homans, PhD, who spoke on her book “Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century.” Travis Milliman, the performing arts librarian at Greenwich Library, conducted the interview while Ms. Homans was on Zoom from Los Angeles.
Dr. Homans wrote her book about Balanchine because she viewed him as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. She wrote about him both from a personal and professional point view, and also within the context of 20th century politics and culture in Russia, Europe, and America. It took her 10 full years to research and write the book, and she traveled all over the world and the US, including visits to Harvard where the Balanchine papers are housed. She traveled to St. Petersburg and other places where Balanchine worked to get the full presence of him and to immerse herself in his world. Balanchine was a great reader who read Shakespeare, Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and other great authors.
Balanchine was tough to write about because he did not write a lot down. What we have are little scraps and it is not easy to uncover his inner thoughts and desires. His taste in music was grounded in music like Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, but he also liked Bach and Mozart. He was eclectic in his tastes. He had a close relationship with Stravinsky up until the composer’s sudden death in 1971. Balanchine was worried that he might not be able to carry on. Stravinsky was a kind of “father figure” for Balanchine and was a guide to his artistic development. But when Stravinsky died, Balanchine bounced back with a two-week Stravinsky Festival that was extraordinary.
Hardships, revolutions, and health scares all influenced his work. He was just a child when the Russian Revolution happened, and was part of all the violence that came after it. He was cut off from his family and was a wanderer in the streets, and these were all formative influences. He saw the whole format and hierarchical nature of society fractured. He started with a destroyed societal body, could not go back, and had to start anew. There was no longer a body center for him; he had to find balance and keep moving forward. He was on the edge of dance and pushed it forward into the new reality of the 20th century without the guard rails that had existed in society worldwide. He said that he was living in the “radical now” and he wanted to make something that was totally alive and energetic. He would tell his dancers who might not feel the energy, “What are you saving your energy for? You could be dead tomorrow!”
Regarding the women in his life, Jennifer devoted a whole chapter to each woman. He went through a lot of women, but he cared passionately for each even though he could write scathing letters to them, because he loved them so much. The idea of love and woman was essential to his art work and himself as a man.
He was married five times and could not settle down the way stable people might. He fell in love with women who were great dancers and he had a romantic heart. The form that his relationships took was that he would fall in love with a dancer, marry her, and use their love to bring out what he could from her. He was interested in bringing out their personalities in dance, but over and over again in his marriages, his wives would want something else, like having children or going out to dinner, and not just focus on work. He was singularly focused on work, and that affected not just his wives, but all the women who worked for him. All the women played a part in his creative process. Balanchine could be cold and cruel to his wives because he always put his art first. He was also fascinated by the occult, mysticism, and spiritualism, and he weaved through all of them.
Jennifer had first-hand experience with Balanchine because she danced for him. She was a student in the school and she could peek in to see his rehearsals, and was an extra in some of his dances. Balanchine died in 1983.
Hollister Sturges asked why is ballet so important in Russia versus in the US? And how does she account for its passion? Balanchine made ballet important in Russia and he capitalized on the passion, mysticism, freneticism, and romance of Russian society and augmented all those traits.
The talk can be viewed by going to the RMA website at https://greenwichrma.org, and clicking on “Speakers.”
The RMA’s upcoming presentation, “Moving beyond nudges: The role of behavioral science in solving some of the most complex social and economic issues of our time,” by Josh Wright, is scheduled for 11 AM on Wednesday, February 7, 2024.
From reducing unnecessary arrests and jail time, to combating the opioid epidemic, to boosting college graduation rates, to reducing extreme poverty in the developing world, and combating the harmful narratives we hold about those living in poverty, applied behavioral science—the study of human behavior—has proven remarkably effective in helping solve complex problems.
ideas42 was founded in 2008 in a small lab at Harvard by a group of leading economists and psychologists who sought to harness groundbreaking new research about human behavior in order to ignite positive social impact. Shortly after its founding, ideas42 helped launch the White House Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, lending its experts to guide the use of behavioral insights to improve federal government services for millions. These successes led to the establishment of behavioral design teams within the mayor’s offices in Chicago and New York. Then in 2017, ideas42 co-founded Behavioral Scientist, a non-profit digital magazine that offers readers original, thought-provoking reports from the front lines of behavioral science.
Josh Wright is the Executive Director of ideas42 and a recognized leader in applied behavioral science. He advises governments, non-profits, foundations, and private companies on behavioral science. He will provide an overview of behavioral science, explain how it has moved the needle on many issues, and share unexpected insights from the field. Josh will also speak to the applicability of behavioral principles to a broad array of disciplines and professions of relevance to RMA members.
Before leading ideas42, Josh led the Office of Financial Education and Access at the US Treasury Department. He also held previous leadership positions at the Center for Community Change, Random House, Inc., and Booz Allen Hamilton. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.
To stream the presentation by Josh Wright at 11 AM on Wednesday, February 7, click on https://bit.ly/30IBj21. This presentation will also be available on local public access TV channels, Verizon FIOS channel 24 and Optimum (Cablevision) channel 79.
Note: The views expressed in these presentations are those of the speakers. They are not intended to represent the views of the RMA or its members.
RMA speaker presentations are presented as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees, regardless of gender. Any member of the public who would like to receive a weekly email announcement of future speakers should send a request to members@greenwichrma.org. The RMA urges all eligible individuals to consider becoming a member of our great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer, and community service opportunities which the RMA offers to its members. For further information, go to https://greenwichrma.org/, or contact members@greenwichrma.org.
