Suzanne Farrell | |
|---|---|
 Farrell in 1965 | |
| Born | Roberta Sue Ficker (1945-08-16)August 16, 1945 (age 80) Cincinnati, Ohio, United States |
| Alma mater | School of American Ballet |
| Occupations | Ballerina; Masterclass Dance Teacher |
| Years active | 1960–1989; 1989-2017 |
| Known for | Dance Career; Dance Guru |
| Spouse | |
| Honours | Kennedy Center Honors (2005) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005) |
Suzanne Farrell (born August 16, 1945) is a former Americanballerina and the founder of theSuzanne Farrell Ballet at theKennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Farrell began her ballet training as a child inCincinnati. In 1960, she received a scholarship to theSchool of American Ballet. Her first leading roles in ballets came in the early 1960s. A muse ofGeorge Balanchine, she left theNew York City Ballet in 1969 and subsequently moved to Brussels to dance forMaurice Bejart'sBallet of the 20th Century.
In 1975, Farrell moved back to the United States, where she collaborated with Balanchine until his death in 1983; she retired from ballet six years later after ahip surgery she had due toarthritis. Farrell had an unusually long career as a ballet performer, and since her retirement in 1989 has acted as a teacher in numerous ballet schools. She held a teaching position with theNew York City Ballet until 1993, and has been a professor of dance atFlorida State University since 2000; the same year, she founded her own company, theSuzanne Farrell Ballet, which disbanded at the end of 2017.[1]
The recipient of several honorary degrees, Farrell remains well-known and respected in the world of ballet and has been recognized for her influence on dance with several awards and honors, includingKennedy Center Honors and thePresidential Medal of Freedom, the latter being the highest civilian honor in the United States. She was presented in 1987 with the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement at a ceremony in Scottsdale, Arizona.[2][3] She was also elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2016.[4]
Farrell was bornRoberta Sue Ficker in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her early training at theCincinnati Conservatory of Music.[5]: 29–30 In 1960, she was selected to study at choreographerGeorge Balanchine'sSchool of American Ballet with aFord Foundation scholarship.[5]: 44 Suzanne, Beverly (the younger of her two older sisters) and their mother moved toThe Ansonia apartment-hotel in New York City.[6] In 1961, she joined theNew York City Ballet (NYCB) and became Balanchine's muse for many of his ballets.[5]: 54
Initially part of thecorps de ballet at NYCB, Farrell soon moved on to dancing featured roles. The first ballet choreographed for her wasPassage, nowArcade, byJohn Taras in 1963. Balanchine first paired her withJacques d'Amboise tochoreograph hisMeditation, which debuted in December 1963. One of her most notable roles was Dulcinea in Balanchine'sDon Quixote, which premiered in May 1965; Balanchine's creation of that ballet was thought[who?] to be avalentine to his newest "muse", and Balanchine performed in the role of Don Quixote on opening night.[5] In 1968, he cast her as the lead in the "Diamonds" section of his three-act plotless balletJewels.
She re-scaled many ballets and expanded them to a new level of technique.[7] In 1965, she was promoted toprincipal dancer. Her first role in her new title wasAgon withArthur Mitchell at theParis Opera.George Balanchine quickly fell in love with his "alabaster princess" and created many roles for her. Farrell described learning choreography from Balanchine as a collaborative process, saying, "When Mr. B was working on a ballet, something would just spill out of his body; he could rarely duplicate it, so I tried to see precisely what he wanted the first time."[8]
Balanchine was married to the polio-stricken former ballerinaTanaquil Le Clercq, however, and Farrell was a Catholic. Though Balanchine divorced LeClercq to pursue Farrell, she instead married fellow dancer Paul Mejia. This caused the relationship of Farrell and Balanchine to fracture. There was enormous tension between them, which caused Farrell and husband Mejia to leave the company.[9] Mejia and Farrell were married from 1969 to 1997.[10]
She and her husband later joined the European companyBallet of the 20th Century of the French choreographerMaurice Béjart, based in Brussels. With this company she danced leading roles, some created for her, for four years, exploring a style of choreography completely different from Balanchine's. During this time, Farrell found herself often paired with the Argentine dancer, Jorge Donn. She eventually returned to Balanchine and the New York City Ballet in 1975. Balanchine continued to create new ballets for her, such asChaconne,Mozartiana,Tzigane andRobert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze. While living in New York City, she appeared in the 1979-1980 season of the children's television showSesame Street.
Farrell's partnership with Balanchine lasted until his death in April 1983; his last works were solos for her. She retired from the New York City Ballet at age 44 on November 26, 1989, after being fired by Martins due to her three-year long absence from the stage, which was caused by her arthritis.[11] She performedSophisticated Lady andVienna Waltzes. Farrell gave her final bow at State Theater with New York City Ballet co-founderLincoln Kirstein by her side.[5]
Twenty-eight years of an occupation which takes a tremendous physical toll on the body began to come to an end in 1983. She started to developarthritis in her right hip and despite two years of varied treatments, by 1985 (at the age of 40), her career on stage was almost over. She struggled for several years but ultimately retired from performing in 1989.[citation needed]
She then moved on to passing on the ballets of Balanchine to the next generation of ballet dancers, working with companies around the world, such as those in Berlin and Vienna, as well as theParis Opera Ballet,Kirov Ballet and theBolshoi Ballet. In 1993, the New York City Ballet dismissed her from her teaching position with the company.[11]
In 2000, Farrell began teaching in the Dance Department atFlorida State University (Tallahassee, Florida).[7]
In 2000, Farrell started her own company, theSuzanne Farrell Ballet, which became a full-fledged company produced by theKennedy Center but was disbanded in 2017.
Farrell's engagement with the Kennedy Center began in 1993 and 1994, when the Center offered two series of balletmaster classes for students with Farrell. This series provided intermediate-to-advanced level ballet students, ages 13 to 17, an opportunity to study with one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Due to the uniqueness of Farrell's place in the ballet world and the quality of her teaching, the Kennedy Center expanded the program to a national level in 1995, in order to fulfill the center's mission to enhance the arts education of America's young people. Farrell's students learned to "turn up the technicolor in [their] movement", in order to achieve greater amplification in their dancing.[8] This three weeks' long yearly initiative of intense study grew into a full-fledged program,Exploring Ballet with Suzanne Farrell.
In the fall of 1999, Farrell received critical acclaim for the successful Kennedy Center engagement andEast Coast tour ofSuzanne Farrell Stages the Masters of 20th-century Ballet. Following the Kennedy Center's debut, the newly named Suzanne Farrell Ballet, a group of professional dancers hand selected by Farrell, has since performed at the Kennedy Center during engagements in 2001 and 2002, been on an extensive East Coast tour, and returned to the Kennedy Center as part of the 2003–2004 Ballet Season following a seven-week national tour. Farrell was selected as one of the five recipients of the 2005Kennedy Center Honors, one of the highest honors for lifetime artistic achievement.
In 2007, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet formalized the creation of the Balanchine Preservation Initiative. This initiative introduces lost or rarely seen Balanchine works to audiences. As a result, ballets likeRagtime (Balanchine/Stravinsky),Pithoprakta (Balanchine/Xenakis) andDivertimento Brillante (Balanchine/Glinka) were recreated and performed.[12]
Despite positive reviews and an annual budget ranging from $1-$1.4 million, the center announced in September 2016 that the company would be disbanding at the end of the 2017 performance season.Deborah Rutter, President of theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, noted that the center would be undergoing a new expansion project to include additional performance and rehearsal space. Farrell's new role in the organization remained unclear, however, Rutter emphasized that Farrell would continue to be an "artistic partner" at the center.[13]
