Violette Verdy’s laughter and intelligence endlessly shine through in this discussion with Clement Crisp. She explains how, as dancer and actress, music was the core of her existence. She talks about working with George Balanchine, of doing new pieces with him, his musical sophistication in dealing with difficult scores, and of the spiritual dimension to his work. Jerome Robbins, with whom she also worked, was a complete perfectionist, and in Balanchine’s view, the American choreographer. Yet, at the height of his career and fame, Robbins always regarded Balanchine as his only master.
The interview is introduced by the dance writer Alastair Macaulay in conversation with Natalie Steed.
Violette Verdy, originally Nelly Armande Guillerm, was born in Brittany, France, in 1933. In 1942 her mother took her to Paris to acquire the best ballet training available, studying under Carlotta Zambelli, Rousanne Sarkissian and Viktor Gsovsky. By 1945 she was in the corps de ballet for Roland Petit and then part of his Ballets des Champs-Elysees. In 1949 she starred in Ludwig Berger’s film Dream Ballerina (released in 1950), when she changed her name to Violette Verdy. In 1953 she made her first trip to America, again with Petit and his Les Ballets de Paris. The following year, as well as dancing with London Festival Ballet, she danced at La Scala, Milan, in two ballets by Alfred Rodrigues and also in Coppélia and Giselle with Ballet Rambert.
The next phase of her life began when Nora Kaye asked her to join American Ballet Theatre in 1957. Verdy went on to join Balanchine at New York City Ballet in 1958. While she continued to dance with many companies in many countries, it was with Balanchine and Robbins that her brilliance shone brightest, and where many leading roles were created on her. Her two decades in New York secured her place in ballet history.
Violette Verdy retired from dancing in 1977. She became the first female Artistic Director of the Paris Opéra until 1980. Her directorial skills honed, she went on to Boston Ballet, where she stayed until 1984 and then became Distinguished Professor of Music (Ballet) at Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University. In her later years she undertook guest teaching residences with many of the leading ballet companies in the world, including the Bolshoi, where she was the first foreign teacher to work there since the 1917 revolution. She was given many honours and awards, not least the Légion D’Honneur. She could dance, act, choreograph, direct, teach and, most of all, inspire. But all her answers were in the music and the multiple layers of meaning that imbued her dancing began and ended with that. Violette Verdy died in Bloomington, Indiana in 2016.
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