RE-RELEASE: Patricia McBride, beloved Balanchine ballerina
We are going back into our archives from the first few years of the podcast and re-releasing some of our favorite episodes. Today we are restoring our 2016 interview with the legendary Balanchine ballerina, Patricia McBride to our feed, and if you missed it the first time, now is the perfect time to catch up. Patty, as she is affectionately referred to by her many fans, peers and students, tells us some truly memorable stories about a legendary time for dance in America with her signature radiance and charm. This episode was recorded in 2016 when Patricia was in Miami working with Miami City Ballet.
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TRANSCRIPT
This transcript was generated automatically. It’s accuracy may vary.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:00:59]:
I'm Rebecca King Ferraro.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:01:00]:
And I'm Michael Sean Breed and you're listening to conversations on dances.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:01:09]:
Hey, everyone. Since we've become a member of the Acas podcasting community, we've been having a blast rereleasing older episodes of Conversations on Dance. We hope you've been enjoying them as much as we have. Today. We are restoring our interview with the legendary Balanchine Ballerina, Patricia McBride, to our feed. And if you missed it the first time, now is the perfect time to catch up. Patty, as she is affectionately referred to by her many fans, peers and students, tells us some truly memorable stories about a legendary time for dance in America with her signature radiance and charm. We hope you enjoy.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:01:40]:
This episode was recorded in 2016 while Michael and I were still both dancing with Miami City Ballet and Patricia was in town working with the company.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:01:54]:
We are so lucky to have Patricia McBride, one of the most beloved dances of the 20th century, at New York City Ballet, with us today. So, thank you for joining us.
Patricia McBride [00:02:03]:
Oh, thank you so much for having me. This is so much fun.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:02:07]:
So let's just get right into it then. Could you tell us a little bit about your dance training and when you first encountered Balanchine?
Patricia McBride [00:02:15]:
Yes. Well, I started in a tiny little local school in Teaneck, New Jersey, and when I was about twelve years old, my teacher that I just loved, Ruth Vernon, she taught ballet, tap and acrobatics, and I took all three when I was seven with her. And when I was twelve, she asked me if I wanted to be a professional dancer. And at that point, I had never seen a professional ballet company, and I didn't know what it was, but I said yes. And then I went to a local school in New York City. My mom took me there, and I had a Russian teacher. And while I was there for eight months, because while I was there.
Patricia McBride [00:03:06]:
Mother or a friend was sitting next to my mom, and they said, you look like a Balanchine dances. And my mom said, who is he? We had no idea. My mom sort of felt it was important that I experienced this George Balanchine. So we went to the performance, and that was it. I saw the serenade. The curtain went up with those extraordinary dancers. I was 13 and going to New York and to Sonya Dobrovinskaya, and from there I auditioned. And I believe I went to a summer course. And then I was accepted on a full scholarship because my mom could not have afforded to give me those classes. So that's when I was a student and I was 14 years old in the School of American Ballet, george Balanchine school, that I got my first glimpse of Mr. Balanchine. And it was a revelation just seeing him. And because the school was connected, like you here in Miami, you could see the principal dances, you could see Mr. Balanchine going from studio to studio, choreographing, and he would come and terrify us. He'd come and watch class. He'd watch Failure Dubrovsky's class, or Muriel Stewart or all the great teachers. We had Madame Tumkovsky. We had a lot of Russian and English. We had Muriel Stewart, who was one of Pavlova's little students, and Pierrevla Dimarov, who danced with Anna Pavlova and was with George Balanchine at the Old Marinsky in Russia. And Failure to Roscoe was such a beautiful inspiration, and they all were magnificent teachers. But it was so exciting to see him firsthand. I had read books, and by that time I'd had seen lots of his ballet. And I was dreaming about because everyone wanted to join the company and you didn't know if you had talent or nobody would tell you anything, that you were talented or you just never knew. So then I apprenticed, like when I was 15 or something or 16, I apprenticed, and I joined the company at 16 and stayed 30 years. And it was amazing because I thought, here is the genius of all times looking at him, and he was such a humble, gentle gentleman, a real gentle man, who was his genius was just so obvious when you'd see him or you'd work with him. So I got to work with him from I was 16 till my whole career, practically, while I danced, maybe six years after with Peter Martins in the company. But I stayed 30 years within the company, and I never lost that awe for him that I had the first moment I saw him, because working, dancing, his ballets were so they made you the dancer you are, where you became. And I learned everything from him because he would teach class every single day. Every day he teaches. So the theory of how he wanted you to do a glee side, or the preparation, or how you use your arms or your head or your apomo and plus the fast footwork or the very slowest of the slow movement. And I felt blessed all those years to have been there.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:06:47]:
So what were your first few years like that culminated in your promotion to principal in 1961?
Patricia McBride [00:06:54]:
Well, I was so lucky because I was 17 when he picked me out, and I had no idea. I stayed a year in the corps, and he choreographed he did a ballet called The Figure in the Carpet, and I was doing little solos. He picked me out like Symphony and C. I do a demi solo, but I didn't really have the title yet. And then they promoted me to, when I was 17, to junior soloist. There were three divisions, the core, the junior soloists, and then the principal. So when I was 17, I was doing, like, third movement, symphony and C with Edward Villella. So there was an inkling, but I had no idea, so I was just so shocked. But he made solo for me, and he did the first choreography when I was 17. And this was Nicholas Magalanis, my first partner. And then I was cast. He cast me when I was 17. I did a lot with Edward Villella, one of my favorite partners, because I looked up to him as such. He was a great star, and I was just this young dancer looking in with open eyes at all. The ballerinas at the time were so extraordinary, and you learn from all the people ahead of you. I was used to going to the ballet and seeing them dance. He made me the dancer that I am. I became by the roles he gave me all those years. He would he molded my career, so to speak, and the roles kept coming then. And then the next year, I was promoted. At 18, he promoted me to a principal, and then I started doing so many so many ballets and all different. I wasn't molded in I used to do a lot of fast footwork, subrette kind of roles, and then later on, I got to do many more different kind of roles, like Sonombula or doing a lot of lyrical, but it was a mixture of many different. The tarantella came when I was very young. A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was the original Hermia when I was 18.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:09:11]:
Balanchine, also, he revived La Valse for you, and you were, I guess, the first person to do it after Tanny, right?
Patricia McBride [00:09:19]:
That's right. How did you know that they stick?
Michael Sean Breeden [00:09:26]:
And you were very young when he revived it for you, so he was obviously seeing you in many different ways. And I love that you brought up Edward, of course, because we worked under Edward for years, and he's very special to us. But your partnership with him is one of the most famous in the company's history. And Balanchine did so many varied works like Harlequinad and Rubies and Tarantella. But what about this pairing made it so successful.
Patricia McBride [00:09:55]:
Well, I think we both just love to dance. We were so passionate about it, and he just gave me a smile, and I give him a smile back. And because we not only did the ballets that were made directly on us by Mr. Balanchine, we had a lot of big repertoire there that we would dance together. And you become a partnership only by dancing a lot with a person. And because of our size, because I was petite, I got to dance with Edward. We just seemed people like to see us, and I love dancing with him. I was wonderful, and he never was nervous, and I kind of looked up to him because I was 17 and he was maybe six years older than I was. So I had such admiration, and we just laughed and had fun in rehearsals and tried to work really hard, and he would take me and do concerts. Outside of that, I did many things with him, and I feel really thankful because it made me feel even more relaxed when I dances inside of the company with him. And he would dance. He was one of the most famous dancers in America, the greatest dancers America had ever seen.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:11:13]:
Right.
Patricia McBride [00:11:14]:
And his spirit and I just tried to keep up with him and match his spirit, and I loved it. And he brought me here the first time to do the jewels, when he staged the jewels for the company, and I was the original Rubies with him. And he brought Violet Verde in, who was the original emeralds, and he brought Suzanne Farrell, who was the original diamond. So he just brought the women. And it was such a great joy, because I wouldn't have had a chance to see Miami City Ballet if I hadn't come. And it's such a wonderful experience for me to come here. That's why I'm so happy to be here with Lord. It's so wonderful that she invited me.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:12:04]:
Yeah. I'm sure our audience and I know that Rebecca and I would love to hear about the creation process of some of these ballets you mentioned, like Rubies and Tarantella. What was what was it like being in the studio, creating these works?
Patricia McBride [00:12:19]:
Well, I think when you're a dances, you just want to get inside of the body visually, I could see exactly what Mr. Balanchine wanted. Mr. B moved so extremely beautifully, and it was so easy, and he was so easy to work with. He never imposed anything on you. He wanted you to be yourself, which I try to do with people when I'm staging his works. I want people to be themselves. And you felt his trust in you. He would dance a whole variation, but I was always nervous that I wouldn't retain it fast enough, because his speed of he was such a natural choreography. He could stage something in 45 minutes, and it would be done. So it's your job to remember everything because he would do it and then it was yours and you'd have to remember it. And you were the curator of his works. Often when he do something, I'd ask the pianist to write a little note here and there on the musical score. He always worked with his pianist, Gordon Bellsner, who is on his right side. So Gordon was always there and they worked musically. There was no one more extraordinary than George Balanchine, musically. The steps just fit the music so well and there was no experimentation. He would dances it for you with the music. Gordon would play the piano and he'd roll up his sleeves, he'd dance it and you'd do it. And I was behind him and I was always amazed at how he knew what a woman could do in point shoes. He knew what was possible. There was no experimentation because he knew it all right. And I heard somebody told me a story about Mr B, that when he was very young in the Marinsky, he would peek in and watch the point classes, the women's classes, and he just knew. And it was never, I'm going to try something unique and have the dances going the uncomfortable way. It was always the most comfortable way and the most musical and the rate of speed. I could teach a variation and a variations class, and it would be as fast as Mr B staging a ballet for me to follow him on in the same you know, he was so natural and he used to say, I don't prepare, I come in and I take it from the dancers. But he'd come in and he would be ready. And it was done, like, so easy. He never lost his temper in all the years I worked for him. It was a dream working with him. I just cherished and loved and I knew how extraordinary he was. I just wanted to please him and dance for him and have him proud of me. And I always felt you never knew. Sometimes he would say, oh, that was very good, but you always wanted to please him and be the best you could. He never raised his voice, he never screamed. He was such a gentle man and it was just such an easy process. And he did many different kinds of valleys during my whole time with him, and it was always a great gift. I always say, It's better than diamonds, having a ballet made for you. You're part of the recreation. And I always felt like a tool. I was his tool and I wanted him to be proud of me and what I did. The focus was trying to do what he wanted. I think every dancer felt that way who was in the company, and I just feel so blessed to have had that in my life. He's with me every day, every single day.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:16:25]:
So I love that you brought this up one of the things that Balanchine is sort of famous for is kind of not being not giving a lot of heavy coaching. He was sort of elusive in that way. But is there a specific instance of coaching? What's your favorite experience where he was working one on one with you in that way?
Patricia McBride [00:16:48]:
Every single time? There is just such an amazing every time I'm trying to think there was one time, and he did it so many, and I was usually with Edward Villella, and so usually it was fast paced and Harlequin Nod was really beautiful. And the coaching, he worked on the coaching because it's columbine and you have to act. But he showed me through the movement, if you just see him in action showing you how to move, it was so clear, and because the musicality was so important, that was I was trying to learn that, but I'd say Brahm Schuremberg was like, very different because he never asked me who I wanted to dance with, ever. My whole career, maybe once for a nocer, whenever my partner was injured and there was like, nobody but in Brahms, he asked me who I wanted to dance with, and I said, oh, Mr. Balanchine, and I can't do that, I can't do that. Then he kind of sniffed. He went, Maybe I'll pick Conrad and not Edward Eddie Villella, because he said it'll look different, and it was more different. He could not have choreographed that particular movement, the second movement, which was all lifts and beautiful partnering, and it was something that the partnering was really unique and special. One movement flowed to the other. But so he picked Conrad because he said it would be different. And I was dancing practically everything with Edward, and I did have other partners, too, but the partnership was there that was very special. And he had a little problem and he went away a week. He came back and the movement just flowed. And I remember he asked me to do a sote with a partner in front of me and do a sote front, like, and I should land forward. But I fell back and he said, oh, do that. That's wonderful. And it's one of the most beautiful movements that evolved. It evolved. But he wasn't like Mr. Balanchine. Never forced you to do something that wasn't natural? Very rarely. Well, there were a few times, but mostly of the times he knew exactly. And I always felt he cherished. Each and every one of us were all Balanchine ballerina, but we all were so different. And the ballets, something that wasn't dawn of man suited them to a T. His ballet made the public see you, how he wanted you to look. And I did a lot of coaching that I got from him on other ballets that weren't made on me, that I had the opportunity. I did over 100 ballets with him, or it was a lot, and I could be thrown on. He'd throw me on, and you'd have a week. He didn't like to prepare you.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:20:00]:
I wanted to bring this up because I went and watched this with Rebecca at the library in New York. It's probably my favorite old video from New York City Ballet in Balanchean's. Heyday. And it's of you and Edward in symphony and three movements.
Patricia McBride [00:20:14]:
No, I never saw that. I didn't know. I only did that a short time.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:20:20]:
I was wondering, did you get thrown into that? Because I think it may have been the second performance ever.
Patricia McBride [00:20:26]:
Well, that was interesting because it was made on Sarah Leland and I loved her in it. And I never would have wanted to take it away, but I learned it because she had broken and she was in a cast, so she couldn't teach me. There was no one to teach me. So we had a choreologist. York Balanchine, who Mr Balanchine brought from he was Swiss to do the Benish notation. So I learned that ballet, but I had seen it, and I love Sally in it, so he taught it to me from Benish notes. So that's how I learned it. And I went into it in a flash. I didn't have a lot of time, but I did so many ballet I've done agon and all those other ballets that prepared me, episodes, and I learned everything really fast. And I was thrown on in, like, a week. Sometimes he didn't like to give you weeks to prepare. Sometimes the name would go up on the board. And I said, I don't know that I better learn it. So then you get thrown on. And I know he said one day, he said to me, he said, you know, God gave you this natural talent, you know. And so he didn't want to he just trusted, I guess, certain people he he trusted to do it on their own. And he knew that I would probably find a way somehow to do it. And it was fine, and it was fun. It was fun to do. But I don't know. I did it one summer in Saratoga. I remember learning it.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:21:59]:
I'm almost sure the video is from Saratoga.
Patricia McBride [00:22:00]:
I never saw it in New York. Really? Well, our generation never got a chance to really see themselves. I was horrified the first time I saw my oh, my goodness. So it's a wonderful tool because you can correct yourself a lot of times. I didn't really get a lot of corrections, a lot of coaching. You wouldn't ever have that much time because the repertory was so vast. There was so much going on that you'd have to write out a request rehearsal to put in. But he always liked the challenge of seeing what you do on your own when you weren't spoon fed. So you'd be, I guess, most natural in it. And his trust and loving might be the first cast of his ballet you do it, and he was so loyal to everyone. You do it for years and years, and you got to develop and get a chance to grow in those roles on the stage. But also there is a spirituality with him, and you could feel it. And he was so prolific with the ballets he gave the world and how he changed the view of ballet. I think without balancing, we wouldn't have contemporary ballet at all. It wouldn't be in the state it's in without him. The influences and then the influence he had on hundreds, thousands of dancers and choreography. Thank goodness. The fate of Lincoln, christine Lincoln met him, and that was such a fateful collision course.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:23:55]:
We might not have had dance in America, at least not certainly not in the same way it wouldn't have looked, Lincoln and balancing, meeting like that.
Patricia McBride [00:24:03]:
And I've read the books and how hard how hard those times must have been. And just even performing a lot. I think also in the 1964 Lincoln Center emerged, and a lot of art centers all over America was thriving. And then we could perform so many we had three month seasons, eight performances a week, dancing a different repertoire. It was extraordinary. And Balanchine was there every single day. He would teach class. He would teach us so much. I mean, he's still with me. He'll be with me forever. And everybody thinks of a Balanchine as heartless and wrists and all that, but it's so much more than that. He didn't want zombies dancing around, just staring at themselves and stiffness. He wanted the body to move and flow, travel in space, attack all his ballies, made all of the dances of the time beautiful. And he put women on such a pedestal. It was amazing to have that. And we had just a wonderful repertory. All the ballerinas were so beautiful. I know the generation before I joined the company, I would go every night, and they were all so special in their own way. And that's how the young generation learns from the generation ahead of them. Exactly.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:25:42]:
And each ballerina kind of influenced the time that he was famously in love with certain ballerina at certain times, and that kind of influenced his style. And so how did this affect your career as he kind of went through maybe different phases with who he liked and how that changed his choreography? How did that change your career, being there for 30 years?
Patricia McBride [00:26:00]:
Well, I just went ahead and I absolutely adored my repertory because I had so many different kinds of balancing valleys who always kept me in good shape. Theme and Variations, piano Concerto Number Two and Alden Rubies and all of those. And I feel like I went through Symphony and C doing various movements of it, and Serenade and I've even did Agon and all those many things that doing Bugaku and Jerry different. But we also had Jerome Robbins, and I worked a lot with Jerry, too, when he brought dances at a gathering to the company in 1969 69. And Who Cares was done right then about the same, right before he started dances, because I went from doing Who Cares? With Jacques Dembois and Corn Von Aralding and Marty Morris. The three of us with Jacques. And then the next thing is Jerry. Mr Balanchine said, Jerry is good. That's why I want him to come to the company. And I had done a lot of his ballets the Afternoon of A Fawn the Cage, when I was very, very young and I had worked a little. Eddie and I went to his apartment. He had a brownstone with a bally studio on top. And we worked with Jerry when we weren't in the company. But I had done mr B cast me in all of Jerry's ballies. So then when Jerry came, he started the dances at a Gathering, which became an amazing work. Did they do this here in Miami? Isn't it great? So I was the original pink girl and Eddie was the brown. And then he started doing so many interesting ballet, and the work process was so different. He would give Jerry all the time. He wanted to create his valleys because he was very different kind of choreography, and he needed the time, and he would have so many different versions of the steps, ABC and then you do B one day and you go back to A and then you know, to figure so it was a very different process. But they were both extraordinary. As a dancer, there was nothing I just count my blessings every time I think of them. And they work so beautifully together.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:28:33]:
I love that we were actually going to bring both of those up together to talk. No, it's perfect, because I think you had dances, all this repertoire in the world, and you'd done all these beautiful ballets, and then ten years into your career or so, you get these two masterpieces that I think many people would say capture you better than any other ballets. So you have pink girl, like how Jerry sees you and then man, I love how Balanchine sees you. What was the creation process like for these ballets from two such different men.
Patricia McBride [00:29:08]:
Like Night and Day? Well, the first with Jerry, when he started dances, he started with Edward and I, Eddie Valel and I myself. And we did a punitive and Mr Beat came in. He invited. Mr. Beat came to see it. So he said, Wonderful, two more. So he brought in another person. I think Kay Maso came in and then he asked for a few more. Vielet came in and they kept growing to be five women and five men, originally. And it was an hour long with Chopin, beautiful Chopin music. And I was enthralled with watching, and I just watched Jerry, and I was in heaven watching him at work with the dancers, but we worked 13 weeks, 5 hours a day, 5 hours a day. It was a long process, and he would experiment and try different things, and we learned everything. We learned everybody, learned everybody. And we didn't know till, like, I don't know, a week or two before what roles we would actually be doing. And the order there was ABCDEF, the order of the program. We tried all these different things. But I love it because it was a really intense, very intimate even Mr. B, when you're alone with the choreography, he's gathering you. Mr. Balanchine partnered me. Everything he saw, he did with me, he lifted me. And the same thing with Jerry Robbins. It's hard to describe it, but it's very intimate, sometimes a lot of fun. We could laugh with Jerry. Sometimes it could get him laughing. But he had a very keen sense of what he wanted, which was different than balancing, sometimes not in dances at gathering, because it was made on me. But I know when I did the cage, I was coached from when I was 18 till I was the last show I did, the last week I did it. He was, like, coaching every little finger. And there was a lot of coaching with Jerry. Once you did the first performance, he wanted it to be like that. Or once he made a ballet, he wanted you to really dances at a gathering. I had freedom, and I could just be free and be me, because he didn't want me to be anything but me. So the process was slower, and he was much more demanding than Mr. Balanchine, and he needed more time to work on things. But he was so talented that he could have opposite parts of the choreography. He would have, like, two different versions of something. And I was always baffled because I thought one was as good as the other. How can he pick? They all were good. And I loved working with Jerry, and it was more dramatic, and he wanted us to do less in dances. He didn't want you to sell it for the audience. He wanted that intimate feeling on stage, on this big, huge stage, to be as intimate as the studio. Like an afternoon of fawn, too. He wanted he didn't want you over selling, or it would have to be he'd always say to people, not to me, but he said a lot of times, less. Relax, relax, like you do it in rehearsal. I've heard him say that people I'm.
Michael Sean Breeden [00:32:44]:
Curious to know I had read that about so many people learning, let's say, the windwalds in dances at a gathering, that there would be, like, 50 different couples in the room. But what sections did you learn that you didn't end up making it on stage with? And how did that get whittled down to decide who did what?
Patricia McBride [00:33:03]:
Well, he asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I. Want to do everything because he started with Eddie and I, and then he said, oh, change your hair. Go in and do what I couldn't because I was in everything. And I was like he took out a dance for Sally and I. That doesn't exist. We did it, I think, the first performance. And then there's a two boys dance. There was a two girls dance and he took it out. But I was in the grand walls, which I begged him to get out of because I had so much. I had too potted as a wind. So I got out of that and he wasn't happy about that. But then he said, okay, because I had a lot and there were other dancers who weren't doing that much in it. And I had a lot, but I love being in it. And we felt like we love our cast, kay and Sally and Violet and allegra. We were the cast. We got along and we also different. And Sally just asked to be in it. She just wanted to see what Jerry was and she ended up being in it. Right? And she was like, I think, a blue girl. She just had, like, a run on in the beginning and then she got to do more and more. And of course, Violet had that fabulous solo that he did and, oh, it's a great solo. And she was amazing in it allegrator. Got to do that one, too. And Kay was beautiful in that. And we had a good time together. And I love my partner. I did one with Eddie and one with Anthony Blum, who was a wonderful partner. So I got the very lyrical one, which I love because I love the music. Got to do that.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:34:51]:
So fast forwarding to today. You are currently the associate artistic director and master teacher at Charlotte Ballet. So what do you hope to impart on future generations of dancers as you work there or in your work, when you're coming here or coaching around the country?
Patricia McBride [00:35:06]:
Well, I want them to feel confident within themselves so they can be free, so they can trust. And like Mr. Valentin used to tell us, go for it. Don't hold back. I don't care if you fall, but just go for it. Do the maximum that you can do. You have nothing to lose by just throwing yourself into it. Don't play it safe. And I'd say I love staging. I work on staging for a company for Charlotte Ballet. And we've done many of the balancing works, and that's my favorite thing to do, coaching and working with the dances. And I also always every year I stage a George balancing work for our school every year. And then in Chautauqua, jean Pierre has a summer course in Chautauqua, upstate New York, where Charlotte Valley is in residence all summer. But we have a big summer program and I stage the balancing also. And I just love passing on when it's taken me so long to have learned myself to be able to pass it on to the future dancers. And I love it. I love it because sometimes I feel like the musicality and the intent has to be there and it's mainly the musicality and the freedom and the energy. I know when I was Jerry Young, I was so lucky to have had dancers who created the role pass it on to me. It was a wonderful experience to have their expertise. They wouldn't let me change a step, by the way. But it was wonderful that passing on of the tradition and passing on, it's something that I just love to do. I love it because I want it to be right the way Mr. B would have wanted it. And I wanted it to be them. I don't want them to be anybody other than themselves. I want them to be themselves. I don't want them to be me. I just want them to do the musicality. How they use their upper body. Sometimes there are little details that you feel that Mr. Bouncier would have wanted. I always look at it, oh, I hope I'm doing this right. I want to do it how I feel. Mr. B would have wanted it to be passed along by. It's such a responsibility and such a joy. I get more nervous for them when I go and if I stage something and I'm in the audience, you want them to feel good about themselves. There's so much beauty in the younger generation. It's very extraordinary what they're doing now. All this contemporary dances and balancing was all the beginning of that. And it's come even a step farther and the bodies are more beautiful now. Athletics is important and being able to do everything full out. And Mr. B would be so happy to see all the men in dance from when he was there, because I've seen such they were always such beautiful women. Every generation has had them. But to see he always like he imported my husband, Jean Pierre Banfu and Peter Martins, and helgi Thomason at one period because we didn't have enough. And he made these extraordinary ballet. When you think how he did Apollo and Prodigal Son and all these he did great things for man. And now to see that a more balanced so I think the last time I went to see the New York City Valley oh, what wonderful boys to match those gorgeous girls. And it's very you know, I I feel balancing is still relevant absolutely in the dance world. And it teaches it teaches dancers who have never had dance, you know, how to dance that way, clarity and movement and the technique is very special. But all the New York City Ballet, he didn't really have to show that much because we took class with him every day. So he didn't say when he was rehearsing, watch your feet. Or do this or we always had to do it every single day in his classes. And they were an extension of his choreography, what he wanted. So we all knew the style because he was there giving it to us. And now that's why they have so many dances who dance during his generation. Teaching it everywhere. To carry on his legacy is such a wonderful thing.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:40:20]:
Well, I'm sorry, I wish we're out of time. I wish we had more time.
Patricia McBride [00:40:25]:
We could forever. Well, this is such fun to reminisce.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:40:29]:
Thank you so much for sitting down and doing this with us. It was such an honor for us.
Patricia McBride [00:40:34]:
It's such a joy for me, really. I love being here. It's been wonderful for me to see the company and to work with your dancers are such a joy for me. It's great to see the young, talented people and dancers are such special people, really.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:40:55]:
We're excited to sit in on it. Tomorrow we're going to peek in on.
Patricia McBride [00:40:59]:
Well, you know, I'm an old lady, but I get so inspired and I cry in the shows. I get so inspired in Charlotte ballet. I love our dancers and I say, wow, that was so great. I haven't tired. I'm not tired. I'm bored watching it's. Still ballet is beautiful. Still.
Rebecca King Ferraro [00:41:31]:
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