Oct 19, 2020
Host Silas Farley is back with another Hear the Dance episode,
devoted to the creation of George Balanchine’s tale of toy romance,
The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Farley is joined by former Principal
Dancers Patricia McBride and Peter Schaufuss, on whom the ballet
was created. The Steadfast Tin Soldier was the first ballet
Balanchine made on Schaufuss, who danced with the Company for just
three short but very formative years; this marked the second ballet
for which Mr. B cast McBride as a doll, following 1974’s Coppélia,
and she highlights here the differences in performing the two
roles. Reunited for the first time after more than 40 years, the
pair's recollections of the ballet's 1975 premiere in Saratoga
Springs are as fresh as if it were yesterday. (1:06:28)
Reading List for The Steadfast Tin Soldier:
My Theatre Life by August Bournonville and Patricia
McAndrew
Letters on Dance and Choreography by August Bournonville
and Knud Arne Jurgensen
My Dearly Beloved Wife!—Letters from France and Italy,
1841 by August Bournonville, Knud Arne Jurgensen, et al
The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography by Hans
Christian Andersen
Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics Edition) by Hans Christian
Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller by
Jackie Wullschlager
Dance in Saratoga Springs by Denise Warner Limoli
Balanchine’s Ballerinas: Conversations with the Muses by
Robert Tracy
Dancing Across the Atlantic: USA-Denmark, 1900-2014 by
Erik Aschengreen
Music:
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major (1931) by Igor
Stravinsky
Jeux d'Enfants, Opp. 22-26, nos. 6, 3, 11, 12 (1871) by Georges
Bizet
Overture and Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream, opp. 61
(1842) by Felix Mendelssohn