Masterclass filming for the Balanchine Foundation

Posted on October 25, 2010

Early in November, Violette Verdy and Helgi Tomasson will teach and coach their roles in Balanchine’s La Source for The George Balanchine Foundation’s Interpreters Archive.

The aim of this series is to document the viewpoints of the original interpreters of Balanchine’s ballets, capturing his intentions at the time of creation through coaching sessions with dancers of today. La Source was created for Verdy in 1968; Tomasson performed the ballet with her in the 1970s.

Verdy and Tomasson will work with Sterling Hyltin and Gonzalo Garcia, both principal dancers with New York City Ballet. The two coaches will be interviewed by Robert Johnson, staff dance critic for The Star-Ledger, while the taping will be supervised by Nancy Reynolds, the Foundation’s director of Research.

Verdy and Tomasson have already taken part in the Interpreters Archive series. Verdy has coached her created roles in Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux, Emeralds, Liebeslieder Walzer and the divertissement pas de deux from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Tomasson has coached his solo from Divertimento from “Le Baiser de la Fée”.

Zoe Anderson

Zoë was born in Edinburgh, and saw her first dance performances at the Festival there. She is the dance critic of The Independent, and has also written for The Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman and Dancing Times. In 2002, she received her doctorate from the University of York for a thesis on “Nationhood and epic romance: Ariosto, Sidney, Spenser”. She is the author of The Royal Ballet: 75 Years and The Ballet Lover’s Companion.