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All this hovered in the functional atmosphere of the taping. Nancy Reynolds, Director of Research for The George Balanchine Foundation, arranged the April 21 session of Helgi Tomasson’s teaching Gonzalo Garcia, San Francisco Ballet’s 22-year old wunderkund principal dancer, the solo George Balanchine created for Tomasson in Le Baiser de la Fee for New York City Ballet’s 1972 Stravinsky Festival. San Francisco Ballet’s pianist Michael McGraw provided admirable accompaniment. Following the coaching, Sheryl Flatow, who has provided San Francisco Ballet with articulate program notes and is now curating an exhibit PALM will mount for the Balanchine birth centennial (1904-2004), interviewed Tomasson. It is the first time the Balanchine Foundation has taped one of its sessions in San Francisco.

Simultaneously, Houston Ballet auditions were being conducted in another studio. One of the candidates had come from The Royal Ballet School to participate, leaving her aunt Dolores in the lobby. Aunt Dolores informed me that her niece’s training was entirely on scholarship and that she took a San Francisco Ballet company class taught by Ashley Wheater. “He pushed them, and they were entirely up to it.”

Rita Felciano, dance critic for the weekly S.F. Bay Guardian, and Janice Ross, former Oakland Tribune reviewer now on Stanford University’s faculty, arrived together. Alan Farley, who reviews dance on a local educationally-based radio, and Octavio Roca, San Francisco Chronicle critic, plus Maritza Gueler, Web Editor-Publisher of Danza Revista,comprised the attending press corps. Pat Te Roller, San Francisco Ballet Board member, long-time stalwart volunteer and former company member, completed the observers along with Kyra Jablonsky and Jennifer French of the public relations department, plus Elizabeth Healy who handles public relations for The Balanchine Foundation.

In the lobby, Janice Ross mentioned attending the Easter weekend conference on Popular Culture held in New Orleans. Nancy Reynolds blocked space for reports on The Popular Balanchine Project from the eight dance scholars who had been assigned a movie or Broadway musical which George Balanchine choreographed. Ross said it had been hoped that enough material would emerge from the interviews conducted to provide material for taping. Ross mentioned that Mary Ellen Moylan recalled while dancing in The Song of Norway Balanchine was busy rehearsing the works which Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo would premiere during his two year sojourn with the company.

Tomasson started the taping session demonstrating the simple tendus which started the solo and included en haut , a la seconde and attitude port de bras as the body assumed similar positions in an easy, informal style. Then Balanchine had inserted turns which caught the body in etched positions, back to the audience, an arm echoing Bellini’s statue of Mercury. Pirouettes were minimal at this stage, with much of the emphasis on an accent in the phrasing.

Garcia followed, briefly marking, mostly dancing full out as he grasped the sequence. About Tomasson’s height, Garcia’s muscular definition and phrasing seemed to intuit the feeling behind the steps, even though the exchange between the two was largely limited to the vocabulary of the steps, with Tomasson interjecting comments on style or timing. Garcia’s movements could have provided the model for the nineteenth century texts by Carlo Blasis.

As the session progressed, Tomasson commented, “I told you it would get more difficult and more intense.” The solo required a circular ménage punctuated by quick little tours accented by a back/front turning of the head. The accents for this sequence required several repetitions; Tomasson suggesting Garcia compress the circumference of his circle to aid the timing for juxtaposed movements in the choreography. Garcia exclaimed in his Spanish-inflected English, ‘That’s the hardest thing I have ever done,” and Tomasson responded, “I know it’s difficult.’

Tomasson commented that Balanchine had mentioned this as the fortune teller’s sequence, indicating gestures suggestive of the shuffling of cards, gestures repeated twice. Tomasson used the word mystery on two or three occasions, ‘You’re searching for something.” At another point he asked Garcia to crystallize his attitudes sooner and also commented, ‘Don’t be afraid of stillness.”

There were two or three five-minute breaks and one or two pauses when tapes had to be changed, but otherwise the session went on, easily, for two hours. Tomasson mentioned that Balanchine had created the work in an hour and twenty minutes, asking Tomasson to show it to him. Tomasson related that Balanchine said, “Now, you work on it.” “That was the thing about Balanchine,” Tomasson recalled, ‘He gave you responsibility to see what you could do with it.” He added Balanchine never looked at the solo again until two days before the premiere, when Tomasson performed it on stage. Balanchine looked at it and said, “It’s good.”

Garcia was dancing full strength through most of the taping, marking with his fingers and hands primarily to assure himself of the sequence. Towards the end of the taping, working once more on the demands of the ménage Garcia asked, “Do you change your spotting?” There was a brief consultation while Tomasson went through the positions as he had learned them before uttering “Yes” to Garcia’s question.

At the end when Garcia asked for a reprieve, Tomasson remarked with quiet understanding of the stamina required, “It’s very deceptive. It looks so easy, but it’s not easy.”

After the break Sheryl Flatow interviewed Tomasson for additional memories of the production and the context of the creation of the solo. This session, like the others which Nancy Reynolds has supervised, will find its way to the Dance Collection and probably PALM in San Francisco. Companies can purchase copies and other institutions which limit and impose selective access to the material.

Obviously, we had experienced a privileged afternoon.