Photo courtesy of Lexington Ballet.
Lexington Ballet is days away from debuting Fabric of Dance III, its
fall program that showcases different styles of dance, from classical
to avant garde; but the school took time from its rehearsal schedule
last week for a very different kind of dance instruction.
Jacques d'Amboise, the onetime principal dancer of the New York City
Ballet and founder of the National Dance Institute, taught the students
in a one-day workshop, which led to a performance this weekend. When I
interviewed him on Friday with another reporter, he had no music and no absolute choreography
in mind. He had a percussionist they'd found that morning, a beginning
and an ending.
His own beginning as a artist led him to a different kind of
understanding of dance and music. He began dancing as a child, and by
age 12, was performing with the group that would become the New York
City Ballet. He had only one year of high school, then left to pursue
dance full time. He worked with George Balanchine starting as a
teenager -- "At 16, Balanchine taught me how to have tea with the
Queen. Hold the saucer, pick up one lump of sugar, use a silver spoon,
make a half turn. The worst was to make sound. Always leave tea in the
cup." -- and was dancing in stage and film within a few years.
While d'Amboise enjoyed making films like Seven Brides of Seven Brothers and Carousel,
he thought Hollywood too undisciplined. If call was at 8 a.m., he'd be
there hours earlier to stretch up and warm. By 8 a.m., he'd be drenched
in sweat and still the only one on set. "The discipline of ballet is
extraordinary," he says. "It's not there in the movies. I'm so glad I
did all those movies, I would do them again, I would do them
differently, but I missed the discipline and commitment of the ballet."
He began teaching dance while he continued to perform. Even without a
high school diploma, he has taught at several colleges and
universities. He continues to work with students, like those at the
Lexington Ballet, because he likes "working with children, whether 1 or
2 or 90. I like to find the child in everyone and engage that child's
imagination."
Art, he realizes now, is an expression of emotion, wonder and play. "If you stop to think of play, it's a form of preparing someone for life," he says. "Winning and losing, teamwork, independently trying to be better. It's an exercise in survival."
Read on for a Q&A with the dancer, choreographer and teacher.
