Word: ballets
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DIED. Aram Khachaturian, 74, prolific Soviet composer whose works pulse with the rhythms of his ancestral Armenia; after a long illness; in Moscow. A patriot who celebrated the "wrath of the Soviet people waging a struggle for humanity" (Second Symphony, 1943) and a Roman slave insurrection (the ballet Spartacus, 1953), Khachaturian won numerous Soviet prizes, returning one 50,000-ruble Stalin award during the war and asking that a tank be built with the money. From the start of his career in the 1930s, he also involved himself with Communist Party politics, eventually becoming deputy chairman of the Union...
Both men share a common artistic heritage: they trained at Leningrad's Maryinsky Ballet, later called the Kirov. After he left, Balanchine created a revolution in classical ballet, but his newest dancer feels that he is, in a sense, coming home. 'I am entering the ideal future of Maryinsky Ballet," he exults, "two hundred years ahead, but here it is! And now I will find my own new face...
...have spent four years learning taste," he says. "What's good, what's bad." He had first seen Balanchine's work when the City Ballet toured Russia in 1972. He knew then that he wanted to dance his choreography; now he has made the total professional commitment that Balanchine demands...
...known to people close to Mr. B and finally got the call. He went to Balanchine's apartment expecting exploratory talks, and instead was offered a deal to start in July. "He was simple and welcoming," says Misha. Balanchine was also reassuring about his vaunted control over City Ballet. "I don't keep my dancers like horses," he told Baryshnikov. "They are free. We are free." (In fact, Baryshnikov will continue to make lucrative guest appearances during City Ballet's offseason...
...Baryshnikov will learn priceless things at City Ballet, it is also true that he has a great deal beyond star power to offer in return. Edward Villella is almost retired now, and there has been no true replacement for either his dramatic, robust presence in Prodigal Son and Harlequinade or for the wit he brought to essentially abstract works like Rubies. Baryshnikov may well be just the man for these ballets and several others−Symphony in Three Movements, Stars and Stripes. The true suspense lies in what Mr. B will create...