Dance historian Nancy Reynolds thanks Mr. B and Mme. T

Dance

On October 7, 2013, at the Apollo Theater in New York, amongst the other “Bessie” Awards bestowed on dancers and choreographers, a dance writer, Nancy Reynolds, director of research for The George Balanchine Foundation, was honored with a Bessie for her Service to the Field. Nancy shared her acceptance comments with arts·meme:

nancy reynolds bessie“First I’d like to say how pleased I am that dance history, documentation, and preservation have been recognized by The Bessies. I believe this is a first.

Next, I’d like to thank Mme Terpsichore herself for providing so many opportunities in the dance field in addition to the expected ones of performing, teaching, choreographing and staging. I have certainly benefitted from this. And I would like to thank two mentors—George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein—Balanchine for the aesthetic reasons you all know about but also for establishing such high standards of behavior both on and off the stage. We used to say that in addition to showing us how to dance, he showed us how to live. And to Lincoln Kirstein, the irascible, for revealing by example a pathway to writing about dance history in a meaningful and substantive way—a pathway I have tried to follow.

In my present work making videos, in which those who originated Balanchine roles teach and coach those roles with dancers of today, I’d like to thank my video crew, my editor,  who is here tonight, and all the wonderful veteran dancers, hand-picked by Balanchine, who have lent their lifetimes of experience to our work.”

The George Balanchine Archive Video projects overseen by Nancy Reynolds are catalogued here.

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