"More Athletic, Less Poetic"

Backstage in London's Covent Garden, the 46 young dancers were scared stiff. For one thing, in rehearsals they had found the stage floor rather rough. Said one dancer: "I've never had to darn my toe shoes so much." And the British balletomanes they were to face for the first time were rumored to be even rougher. Wailed 20-year-old Dancer Melissa Hayden: "Gee, my stomach--I'm in real pain. I don't know how I can use my legs. I just want to hunch up and cry."

After opening night last week, they felt all right. British balletomanes, out in force, found George Balanchine's New York City Ballet Company "not quite what we're used to," and his dancers "more athletic and less poetic." But, nonetheless, determined to reciprocate the sellout welcome that the U.S. gave Margot Fonteyn and the rest of Britain's Sadler's Wells Company (TIME, Nov. 14), they produced a heart-warming welcoming din.

Much of the cheering was for Choreographer Balanchine himself, whose ballets are not often seen in Britain (the Sadler's Wells does only one, his nine-year-old Ballet Imperial). His flowing Serenade (1935), fluidly danced, got a big hand. So did Jerome Robbins' new (1950) Age of Anxiety, danced to Leonard Bernstein's jazzy symphony score. By the time the first-night curtain went down on another Balanchine number, his piston-precise Symphony in C, the audience had been captured. The whole company had to skip on & off stage for 17 curtain calls.

The only cry of anguish came from the company's prima ballerina, part-Osage Indian Maria Tallchief (the fourth Mrs. Balanchine) who tore a ligament, was later replaced during an exit by Melissa Hayden. Maria would be out of action for at least a week, but even Maria could take comfort in the fact that the British were queuing up for seats for the rest of the company's six-week stay.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.