I'm reading Maria Tallchief's autobiography.

For the first time, I'm learning about a Balanchine muse other than Suzanne Farrell.

According to this book, Balanchine made many important ballets on Tallchief (she lists Firebird, Swan Lake, Symphony in C, Scotch Symphony and The Nutcracker). He continued to do so even after they were no longer married.

In addition, she seems to have had unprecedented training as a Balanchine dancer. Balanchine spent one summer giving class to just Tallchief and her partner at the time (Nicky ??? -- can't remember the last name).

Why does Suzanne Farrell get so much more recognition as Balanchine's muse and interpreter?

Balanchine had serial muses, some of whom, like Tallchief, he married. But, as Jacques d'Amboise says in the film "Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse," "Suzanne was the last great muse of his life." And the story acquires more poignancy, perhaps, because she declined to be another in the long line of Mr. B's ballerina wives. It's also worth noting that he choreographed more ballets for Suzanne than for any of his earlier muses.

Nicky was Nicholas Magallanes, a long-time stalwart of NYCB and its predecessor companies.

Good question, fendrock! In addition to what Farrell Fan posted, I think that it often happens that history remembers the latest as the greatest. But Tallchief was extremely important, not just to Balanchine and NYCB, but to American Ballet in general. A friend of mine who's been watching NYCB since the early 1950s told me that Tallchief was Balanchine's first true ballerina, and that's why he staged "Nutcracker" -- before, he'd had people who could do the steps, but no one with a ballerina aura.

Given that Farrell and Tallchief were not contemporaries, is it possible to compare the two in the sense of the "type" of muse they were?

How did Farrell and Tallchief differ in the way in which each inspired Balanchine?

I didn't see Tallchief, so can't really comment -- I'm sure someone here has. Conjuring atm

Was Tanaquil LeClercq in between the two (Tallchief and Farrell)?

It's a pity there doesn't seem to be many "muses" anymore

Well, women have a few more options now.


It's possible that Balanchine may have made a few more roles for Farrell, but that in itself wouldn't make her more significant to the Balanchine oeuvre than Tallchief. Otherwise our Muse Supreme might very well be Karin von Aroldingen. (I wonder, also, if Balanchine's later ballerinas didn't benefit, in a sense, from his declining health – Kyra Nichols notes in the most recent issue of Ballet Review that he was working only with people who knew him very well at that point.) Also, if you factor in roles that were restaged or revived for her, Tallchief might very well come out ahead. It's also generally conceded, I think, that the ballets made especially for Farrell were by and large not masterpieces. I'd also argue that Balanchine made roles for Tallchief that were at least as crucial to the repertory as the ones he made for Farrell, if not more so – she was Odette, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Firebird – you might say he was rethinking the ballerina canon through Tallchief. And she was the first homegrown American ballerina to become an international star.



I'd hazard that the two have in common that they were both company figureheads – the Chosen Ones whom Balanchine presented as exemplifying The Balanchine Way, the ballerina for our time, so to speak. Patricia McBride, for example, was a great ballerina but does not seem to have served in that function. ( I bet that if Balanchine had made "Diamonds'" in Tallchief's time, it would have been Maria's part.)


Le Clercq fits in between Tallchief and Diana Adams, and you have to squeeze Allegra Kent in there, too. There's a funny scene in Tallchief' s autobiography where she confides to her good friend Tanaquil that her marriage is not in the finest shape. Little does she know, etc……………

I also like the exchange where she tells a fellow dancer that George has proposed to her.

The friend's response: "George who?"

Farrell and Tallchief were totally different dancers. Farrell was about excess and in that way redefined the look of the company. I think Tallchief certainly lead the NYCB in the fifties, and I think she was one of its first stars (it was her presence on the first international tours that gave it legitimacy.) I'm not sure she shaped the look of the company in the way that Farrell did. It doesn't make her "better" or "worse" but I think Farrell gets the attention she does partly (in agreement with Alexandra) because she was the last, but also because of her impact. She was archetypal in a way Tallchief never was.

For those new to the field, or who simply want to read further, there is a very good book called Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations with the Musesby Robert Tracy (S&S, 1983). It is out of print, but many libraries own it, or can get it. The picture of Allegra Kent in The Couch Pose is worth the search ......

Yes, I agree the Robert Tracy book is worth the search. He lists no fewer than nineteen, count'em, 19 Balanchine Muses. There are interviews with them all, action shots, and lovely portrait photographs. The complete list:

Alexandra Danilova
Tamara Geva
Felia Doubrovska
Tamara Toumanova
Ruthanna Boris
Elise Reiman
Marie-Jeanne
Mary Ellen Moylan
Maria Tallchief
Melissa Hayden
Diana Adams
Allegra Kent
Violette Verdy
Patricia McBride
Suzanne Farrell
Kay Mazzo
Karin von Aroldingen
Merrill Ashley
Darci Kistler

The front-jacket photograph is of Farrell and Balanchine. A different photo of them adorns the title page. The Farrell chapter begins: "Suzanne Farrell is the paradigm of the Balanchine ballerina, in her size and speed, her physical proportions and beauty, the spontaneity and musical sensitivity of her performances. Arlene Croce called her 'probably the most important dancer who ever entered Balanchine's life.'"

There's also a video, "Dancing for Mr. B: Six Balanchine Ballerinas," that's very illuminating. The six are Tallchief, Moylan, Hayden, Kent, Ashley, and Kistler. One of the noteworthy things about this excellent film is how Farrell figures in the remarks of several of them. And the filmmaker, Anne Belle, went on to devote her next film entirely to the Elusive Muse.

I think there were a lot of Tallchief imitators dancing around in the 1950s -- that was a different age, less media coverage, etc., but she was a prototype, in the sense of model, THE model one strove to imitate at that time.

I recall Barbara Walczak talking about a generational change that happened right around the time of the creation of Agon, which coincided with Tallchief's final years in the company. The dancers he was taking into the company (the Nearys, Mimi Paul, Farrell) looked very different than the some of ones that had been there. To me, his choices show a fascination with a certain facility and type from Doubrovska through to Adams and LeClercq to Farrell. In 60 years, one is not closed-mindedly consistent, and there were certainly always the Danilovas and Tallchiefs (and Verdys and von Aroldingens for that matter), but I don't think they were archetypical.

Tallchief was important and her import spreads well past Balanchine (which may be another reason I think of her as less archetypical of Balanchine), but I'm having a hard time naming her "descendants" at NYCB. She was a smaller, strong dancer with a grand scale to her (Firebird, Scotch, Sugarplum, Gounod Symphony), and I'm guessing, but I'd say the dancer "before" her was Marie-Jeanne. In one sense her heir might be Verdy, but I may be stretching to say that, especially as I think Verdy was even more independent than Tallchief.

I didn't mean that she had descendants at NYCB but that she was a model for her generation across companies. If one look at Dance Mag during that period, one will see dancers with her silhouette -- and she is in many of the little collections of articles about dancers made into books at that time. One could certainly argue that Fonteyn was THE ballerina type in the West, but I think Tallchief was there, too.

And we mustn't forget Mary Ellen Moylan, the original "Sanguinic" girl (that role went to Tallchief when Moylan left).


It's true that Tallchief's look and style were not imposed on the company as Farrell's were, but then for much of her time the company wasn't yet the company, strictly speaking. Leigh, I understand what you're saying about Balanchine's perennial fascination with The Look, and it's true that Tallchief didn't have that. But does that leave her as far outside the Balanchine mold as Verdy? I still don't think so. I'm inclined to agree with Alexandra about time bias playing a role here. ( And Croce does say "probably.")

Here's a game: which ballets are the most explicit messages from Mr. B to his muses? Certainly Don Quixote when he felt too old to be with Farrell, similarly Midsummer Night's dream. Tzigane when she came back from exile (you gypsy!... the first time whe wore red on stage). These just off the top of my head.

I have read that his creative flourish right after there was no more hope that Le Clerq would dance again changed the whole relationship between men and women in his ballets.

Fascinatingly, Farrell and Tallchief overlapped slightly at NYCB, in the early 60s when the former was a soloist, and the latter returned to reprise some of her old roles, and also, it seemed, to dance Balanchine's "Swan Lake" with Erik Bruhn. That's all he seemed to do that season, and moved on right after it. I recall a program containing both "Raymonda Variations" and "Firebird" in which Farrell danced one of the former, and Tallchief the title character of the latter.

I do wonder if Dream is as much a "letter to the Muse", (at least in the person of Farrell), as some of the others, as it was set on Melissa Hayden. I saw it back at City Center, then next again during opening week at State Theater. Suzanne had already started to make the role her own, and a couple years later, when Hayden returned to her original role for an occasional performance, it was such a contrast!

I believe Titania was originally begun on Diana Adams, who had to drop out for another one of those ill-timed pregnancies, and became Hayden's by default.

That's correct, dirac. Balanchine left Midsummers to Adams in his will so I think his inspiration for Titania can be guessed from that.

Which actually brings me to a heretical observation about Farrell: I mean in no way to diminish her impact or greatness, but I do think the best ballets she danced in (rather than her best roles) contained roles she assumed or reinterpreted, (Symphony in C, Agon, Midsummer, Monumentum/Movements) rather than ballets choreographed at the time she created the role (I'd even include Diamonds in this, though I am sure others would not.)

As archetypical and inspiring as she surely was, to me, she wasn't the one who was there when Balanchine made the masterpieces.

You know, you're right about Adams! I had forgot about the pregnancy, which caused a casting shakeup at the company for awhile. Things got even less predictable than they were previously in that season, and substitutions in both casting and program became the rule. And if I recall right, sadly, that pregnancy didn't work out, and she lost the baby.

She did, poor thing. I think the pregnancy that caused her withdrawal from Movements for Piano and Orchestra also ended prematurely. Fortunately she did have a daughter eventually, named Georgina, if I'm remembering right. But I wander afield of the topic.

I don't feel it's exactly afield of the topic, as it marked her retirement from the stage and her full-time attention could then be paid to the directorship of SAB. Balanchine then had a synoptic eye in the school, at which, by the 60s, he had started to become less comfortable. Having Adams there, his standards and practices for NYCB could be worked into the program, and his technical reforms, love them or hate them, could be regularized into the curriculum.

So I'm still curious as to how the "look and style" of Tallchief would be described in contrast to that of Farrell.

I have watched Tallchief f rom her early beginnings with the Denham Ballet Russe from 1944 on to Ballet Society and NYCB. She was a wonderful soloist then and had an exalted free way of performing--not to worry about positions or correct technique--just dance in an exhilarating way! To this day I can remember with fondness how she led the pas-de-sept in Le Bourgeoise Gentilhomme, the second ballerina part in Ballet Imperial and the Fairy in the Fairy's Kiss. Using the analogy of horses; think of the beauty of seeing a free horse roaming the plains, and then a much in control racehorse. Both beautiful conceptions! Balanchine saw all this talent and turned her into a thoroughbred. As much as I admired the outcome of Balanchine's influence, whenever I saw her dance I would think---just this once, break loose.

As to being a muse---I'm not so sure. Balanchine needed a ballerina for his Company (Maryellen Moylan was no longer around, having left, I think, as early as her Ballet Society days). She filled a necessary need.

As to the list of the 19 would-be muses, I have seen all of them except Geva and Doubrovska. I wouldn't classify the remainder as Muses---of course with the exception of Farrell---I think he waited all his life for her.

Leigh's point about great Farrell roles being originally created for others is well-taken. On the other hand, Suzanne originated roles in Balanchine's last two masterpieces, Mozartiana and Robert Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze.

As to her look, I would recall a "Balanchine dancer" type, moving toward the mannerist profile, long of leg, and small of head, but not there yet. Kay Mazzo became the epitome of this type. Tallchief was, in her generation, a tallish dancer, but by the sixties was sort of a compact model of where the dancers of that decade were headed.

I do recall reading, though, that Moylan left in part because she felt Balanchine's attention had already turned decisively to Tallchief (although who knows what might have happened if Moylan had toughed it out)?

Fendrock -

As said before, Farrell and Tallchief were physically very different. From what I can tell from descriptions and films, Farrell was a larger dancer, and a more plastic one than Tallchief. Both were in some senses "heroic"; they both danced big. Farrell had a more extravagant line, Tallchief was considered a virtuoso. Tallchief herself does not have the kindest things to say about her facility; she describes her feet when beginning to work with Balanchine as being "like spoons". It isn't that Farrell was the caricature of a Balanchine dancer either (she had one foot that did not point well, and she was not built to be rail-thin) but her lines and extensions were part of what dirac referred to as The Look.

I've seen clips of Tallchief in Scotch Symphony and I recall her more clearly in the Bell Telephone Hour specials (maybe doing Flower Festival with Nureyev?) She dances with authority; she's older at that point, and she dances like a Star. It's a performance of someone comfortable with performing.

There is a tape of Farrell doing a truncated version of the pas de deux from Agon with Arthur Mitchell. Her effect is the polar opposite; that of someone completely innocent of the effects she produces. Think of what Lolita would have been like if she had no clue what she did to Humbert. She had this amazing physicality, but danced like an innocent.

I was under the impression that Balanchine made more of his masterpieces on Tallchief than on his other muses... Is this true? Anyone care to make a list?

Here is a description by Anatole Chujoy from the book "Dancers and Critics." (Each critic got to pick a dancer. Wish Chujoy posted on the internet from Heaven. He begins his essay by explaining that there's a difference between a musician and someone who whistles "Yankee Doodle", and between a craftsman and an artist." He thought of Tallchief "how close she comes to the standard of the perfect artist."



In his 25 year career as a choreographer, Balanchine has not found a greater executant of his ballets, a more fluent and eloquent interpreter of his choreogrpahic ideas or, stylistically, a more perfect creator of flesh-and-blood images of his artistic conceptions."

He said she wasn't a dramatic dancer, but "a classic dancer with all the technical perfection and absence of histrionics this term implies."

This is his picture of Tallchief at 25.

Amy -- I gave away my copy of "Conversation with the Muses" so I can't check, but that would have a list of her created roles. Chujoy lists Symphony in C -- he doesn't say which role -- and the Siren in Prodigal as the ones in which she made an impression.

Another Balanchine muse -- and, I think, archetype, since he once said that he wished everyone in the company moved as she did -- was Diana Adams, a dancer who's always interested me more than Tallchief (not fair; I haven't seen either of them except on bits of film).

Tallchief and Adams are from the pre-Farrell (and pre-Agon) world of Balanchine.

Who was the Diaghilev, pre-American prototype? Doubrovska? Danilova?

The catalog of work suggests it was Danilova; she's in almost every new work of his in the Diaghilev era. I recall reading somewhere he also had a fascination with Spessivtseva, but as far as I can see, the only role she created was in La Chatte.

Post Diaghilev, there's also the Baby Ballerinas, Toumanova in particular.

I think Adams is awfully important to the canon - she figures in the creation of a lot of the masterpieces. (original cast of Agon, Divertimento No. 15, Liebeslieder Walzer, Monumentum Pro Gesualdo, both Movements for Piano and Orchestra and the role of Titania were created on her though she did not dance their premieres. . .)

To me, Marie-Jeanne was one of the underrated ones, and Allegra Kent coiuld have been even more central than she was.

Amy Reusch is correct. According to "Conversations with the Muses," it isn't even close. Balanchine created 31 roles for Tallchief. Farrell, with 23, is tied with Melissa Hayden -- for third place! Diana Adams is second, with 24. Apologies -- my devotion to Suzanne led me astray.

These are the numbers: Danilova 18; Geva 12; Doubrovska 10; Toumanova 9; Boris 12; Reiman 13; Marie-Jeanne 11; Moylan 7; Tallchief 31; Hayden 23; Adams 24; Kent 8; Verdy 13; McBride 21; Farrell 23; Mazzo 10; von Aroldingen 18; Ashley 4.

According to the Tracey book, these are the ballets in which Balanchine created roles for Maria Tallchief:

Danses Concertantes -- pas de trois
Le Bourgeois Gentilomme -- danse Indienne
Night Shadow -- Coquette
Raymonda -- pas classique Hongrois
Divertimento (Haieff) -- ballerina
Symphonie Concertante -- allegro maestoso; andante; presto
Symphony in C -- first movement
Orpheus -- Eurydice
Carmen: Act II Tavern Scene Ballet -- lead
Aida: Act II, Scene 2, Triumphal Ballet -- lead
Princess Aurora -- Bluebird pas de deux
Don Quixote and Swan Lake (Black Swan) Pas de Deux -- ballerina
Firebird -- firebird
Bourree Fantasque -- prelude
Prodigal Son -- siren
Jones Beach -- hot dogs
Sylvia pas de deux -- ballerina
Music and Dance -- waltz from Naila
Pas de Troix (Minkus)
Capriccio Brillant (Mendelssohn) -- ballerina
A la Francais -- winged sylph
Apollo -- Terpsichore
Swan Lake -- Swan Queen
Caracole -- one of five ballerinas
Scotch Symphony -- sylph
Harlequinade Pas de Deux -- Columbine
The Nutcracker -- Sugar Plum Fairy
Pas de Dix (Glazunov) -- ballerina
Allegro Brillante -- ballerina
Gounod Symphony -- ballerina
Panamerica -- Section VIII: Cuba

Obviously, some listings (Prodigal Son and Apollo) are for their NYCB premieres. I have no idea what's meant by "Don Quixote and Swan Lake," nor can I imagine what dancing hot dogs looked like. Does anyone remember? Anyhow, I'm sorry I never saw Tallchief dance. The subtitle of her autobiography, "America's Prima Ballerina," is more than justified.

I'd like to add that, as valuable and attractive as is "Balanchine's Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses," it is not definitive. For whatever reasons it omits two muses who were also wives: Vera Zorina and Tanaquil Le Clercq. Tanny's NY Times obituary on January 1, 2001, noted that she created 32 roles for Ballet Society and NYCB. She was also the only one of Balanchine's muse/wives or almost-wives, who did not publish her memoirs. Instead she wrote a book about their cat.

To bring up a more sensitive area (and one where I'm making a lot of conjectures, feel free to correct my facts if they're wrong!); one quality of a muse is the fact that you've linked your ambitions and aspirations to someone else's success. I think we should be grateful to the muses out there, but I could certainly understand someone else not wanting the job. Tallchief's first recital consisted of her first playing a piano concerto, then dancing. She was an accomplished woman who credits Balanchine with completing her development as a dancer, but everything I've read suggests someone with a very strong sense of her own identity as well. The consequences of this can certainly be discussed but it seems Farrell was more willing to accept the role of muse; and this becomes no longer a question of who was the better or more inspiring dancer, but who was more willing to accept someone else's identity as defining their own.

Also, I think (and I've only seen Tallchief on tape) that Farrell's influnence is the one we see reflected - however dimly - in NYCB today.

I think that's true -- although by now the Whelan prototype is taking over.

What's interesting about the Farrell Week in DC is that it seemed to be a throwback to the Tallchief era. There were no Farrellisms!

It's certainly true that Farrell was not only willing to accept the role of muse, but eager for it. In both her book and the Elusive Muse film she says of Balanchine, "He was choreographing my life and that was fine with me."

But in her book The Lives of the Muses: Nine Women & the Artists They Inspired, Francine Prose differentiates Farrell from the other women in her book. "Perhaps uniquely in the lives of the muses, the partnership of Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine suggests that the roles of inspired and inspirer CAN be divided and shared between a man and a woman, two artists collaborating to produce work that neither could accomplish alone."

Alexandra, forgive me for playing dumb: What is a Farrellism?

calliope, calliope, come back.....

FF, there's an essay by Croce called "Farrell and Farrellisms" where she complained -- or pointed out -- the changes in style that were creeping into the company in the 1970s, because the corps women were imitating Farrell's idyosyncracies (the arms, the hands, the off-center poses). I was struck by how clean and, well, old-fashioned the dancing looked in DC. Happily so, I might add (I liked Farrell's style for her, but grew tired of seeing it cloned.)

sorry, trouble with site for me, switched to wireless, pinging problem I think. okay, back to a static line
Would Whelan be Wheeldon's muse?
I'd certainly consider Kistler to be Martins' muse and Margaret Tracey as well.
I think times have changed and we have so few muses because we've had so few (as Leigh said) who are willing to take the "job" and too few choreographers who feel the need to have one. Perhaps the muses were the first "stars" of ballet and again, the lack of them now is depressing.

Farrell Fan, where's LeClercq in that listing? Surely she had more than 4 done on her to qualify her ;)

Calliope -- In the NY Times obituary it said "Ms. Le Clercq created 32 roles for Ballet Society and City Ballet." But that doesn't necessarily mean she beats out Tallchief for the most Balanchine roles created, because she also danced Robbins and Ashton. This numbers game is silly anyway, and confusing. But for some reason neither Le Clercq nor Vera Zorina were included in the Tracy book.

Might I suggest that very many choreographers have muses but sometimes they become afraid of them? The power issue? Is the choreographer in charge? Will the muse overstep his/her role in the relationship? Will the muse become more important than the choreographer? I think many choreographers could mention a dancer or two that embody their choreographic intents more clearly and quickly than anyone else. But there is that ego issue, and I think for the creative juices to flow properly the choreographer must feel secure... Balanchine doesn't seem to have been too worried about that with his female dancers. [Although Gelsey Kirkland seemed to feel the door shut permanently on her when she left NYCB. And Farrell had a hard time of it when she married Mejia.] All the same, it seems like he had a different sort of relationship with his male muses. (I assume one can have a male muse?)

Perhaps it is hard for dancers to be as giving as choreographers need them to be.

And it must be unnerving for management to have dancers have that much power.

Amy wrote"; (I assume one can have a male muse?)

Interesting. Nijinsky/Diaghilev for example?

I think the reason for the lack of "Farrellisms" is that Suzanne does not encourage them. When she coaches, from what I remember, she teaches the steps to the music (not her own mannerisms) and then tries to bring out the dancers own personal qualities. I remember watching her coach the pas de deux from Agon, and when one of the dancers pointed out that Suzanne's execution of the steps on the video differed from what she had taught, she said that that had been the music as she felt it at that moment... a personal mannerism. She did not allow imitation.

Thanks, leibling.

Thank you for that, liebling -- that's just what it looks like, too

Keith, I'd nominate Anthony Dowell as one of Ashton's Muses -- onstage Muses, I hasten to add.

Let us not forget, while breaking down the numbers, that timing, character, and circumstance play an important role here. For example, if Allegra Kent had not resisted Balanchine and insisted on having all those babies, Farrell might well have found the muse spot securely occupied when she arrived.

I think the balance of power in the creator/muse relationship is finally in favor of the creator, and while women traditionally have been better able to adjust to playing the secondary role, sometimes even glorying in it, after awhile others chafe. It's even harder for men, as Erick and Martha could tell you.

i dont feel that the Whelan prototype is taking over city ballet... i think if anything the women are more varied in body types than they have been in the past 2 decades. maria kowroski ( LOVE HER ) is 6 foot on pointe, while ashley bouder is shorter than me at 5'4.... one is long and lanky the other is shorter and has powerful legs. (nowonder she can jump so darn well) most of the girls i went to school with that are now in the corps are fairly short.... but they arent as small as wendy.... shes just one of a kind!

I think one of the advantages the later muses had regarding their place in history was that they were able to dance Balanchine's entire rep. We know what Farrell was like in Tallchief's roles (Scotch Symphony, Allegro Brillante, Swan Lake, Nutcracker), but we've never seen Tallchief dance, say, Chaconne or Walpurgisnacht Ballet.

Plus, recordings of Farrell are more readily available (until the two Tallchief tapes were recently released). Farrell also was a star during the "Ballet Boom." Descriptions of her in many books that came out during the 70s and 80s, especially in the collected reviews of Arlene Croce. Also, Farrell's story has a gothic allure. I think Croce wrote in her review of Farrell's autobiography that it was the perfect story for an anti-romantic age.

I don't like comparing the muses - they're all wonderful But this thread reminded me of an interview from Ballet Review called, "Diana Adams on Suzanne Farrell" with David Daniel. It's interesting to read one great ballerina commenting on another. Here's a few of Adams' responses regarding the place Farrell had as Balanchine's muse.

"The simple fact remains that no one has ever worked with him the way (Farrell) has. I remember saying to Mme (Nathalie) Gleboff (of SAB) - it was towards the end of Suzanne's third year in the company - "no wonder he wants her to do everything. All you have to do is look at a class. She's the only one who does everything he asks."

Adams spoke about how difficult Balanchine's class was, "But Suzanne! She just did it -- everthing -- as if she didn't know or care that it was supposed to be difficult. ... If Balanchine said to do something, she never bothered to consider its difficulty or impossibility. She assumed it was possible, and did it. If he made a suggestion to her she applied it immediately and without question. She didn't hold back, didn't argue. She never even said, `But...' Now that may not seem unusual to you, but I've seen dancers argue with Balanchine about the correct way to do a plie. ... The intensity of her concentration was almost terrifying to watch. He'd give one of his paralyzing combinations; you'd be exhausted even before the music started. but Suzanne would zip through it without batting an eye. She didn't even sweat. Whatever quirky movement or odd rhythm he gave, she'd take it in and feed it back to him. He began to make things harder and harder. Suzanne inhaled and kept going. Balanchine was thrilled to have a dancer like that, and he often said so."

On her gifts: "Suzanne is unusual for the sheer qualities of her physical gifts. Yes, she's a natural adagio dancer, but she's also naturally very speedy." ... "Almost any dancer, regardless of her gifts, begins her career by accepting a limitation about herself. By the time she is in terms of her physique and personality, she has typed herself as a soubrette, or an allegro, lyric, dramatic, adagio, or whatever ... Suzanne didn't; she bypassed the idea of self-classification according to type as if the idea never existed, which meant that every ounce of her talent was available to Balanchine. She refused to limit herself. Whatever Balanchine thought was possible, she thought was possible. ... There wasn't anything she couldn't do. Her range is unheard of. I remember once, a few yeas after I stopped dancing, I remarked to Balanchine that in one week Suzanne had danced ballets from the reperatories of virtually every important dancer he'd ever worked with besides dancing pieces he'd made for her. He just sort of nodded and said, `Well, you see, dear, Suzanne never resisted.'"

That last comment is possibly why Farrel is often put ahead of the muses.

I also came across an opinion of Tallchief in an old interview I just read with Andre Eglevsky in Ballet Review with Baird Hastings.

"(She was) quite lovely. Clean -- technically brilliant. In Sylvia, in the coda, she did releves en attitude en avant, (turning) both arms closed at unbelievable speed, and this is what Balanchine set. Really unbelievable speed, really she was brilliant. Clean, neat, feet nice. Very musical."

"You can see (the musicality) in certain parts, especially in something like Allegro Brillante, the ability to go from allegro to adagio work very easily, the transitions from very fast little steps to more expansive work."

"She was a finished dancer. She had quality. she had excessively fast technique. She could fouette with eyes closed. Her balance was exquisite. ... Balanchine always choreographed things where Maria was just balance -- Scotch, Sylvia, Nutcracker, everything, the ends, just balance -- everything was balance for Maria."

And the great thing is, you can see Sylvia Pas de Deux now and it does have many balances. Just as Diamonds shows off Farrell's ability to be off balance/yet stay on balance, or Allegra Kent's flexibility and remoteness in Episodes and Bagaku, or Melissa Hayden's swagger in Stars and Stripes. Or the 2nd movement of Symphony in C, which I had seen many times before seeing a picture of Tamara Toumanova in a tutu. When I did, I saw she had great, strong, thick legs. And then I thought about the moment in the second movement when the ballerina in a supported arabesque, slowly bends her knee and then gets up slowly and then repeats it in the other direction. Balanchine used those strong legs and made something beautiful that ballerinas would have to contend with for years.

I also agree with Leigh that there is a link or a "lineage" of the muses that is even relected a little bit today - Toumanova to Leclerq to Adams to Kent and Farrell to Kistler and a little Calegari to, I don't know Kowroski and Meunier?

Or Marie-Jeanne or Mary Ellen Moylan to Tallchief to Wilde and Hayden to Verdy to Ashley to Nichols (who does have a little bit of the Toumanova line in her) to Wheese perhaps, although Margeret Tracy did a lot of the Tallchief rep.

Weese and Tracy also did a lot of the Patricia McBride rep. Who came before McBride?

A bit of O/T here - the sheer number of various dancers who had work set on them by Balanchine starts to remind me of the finale of the Thornton Wilder play, The Skin of Our Teeth. "Miss A Muse, Miss B Muse, Miss C Muse....";)

And now back to our topic.