day by day: a blog
November 23, 2008
falling
[Kirstein (left) and Balanchine in the sitting room at Kirstein's house on East 19th Street, New York; photo: Tanaquil Le Clercq, New York City Ballet Archives, Tanaquil Le Clercq Collection]
When, perhaps 15 years ago, we sat chatting in his kitchen, just behind the sitting room in his beautiful old house, I would sometimes tell Lincoln Kirstein about things I had screwed up or done badly. Lincoln had a very complex understanding of the meaning and possibilities of disorder. And when I said things of this kind, he used to tell me, with his usual, unruffled, subtle smile, that Balanchine had never minded when a dancer fell over during a performance -- "it showed they were trying".
How can I apply that lesson to my life today? I know I need to.
Posted by njenkins at November 23, 2008 06:32 PM
With the exception of interspersed quotations, all writing is © 2007-09 by Nicholas Jenkins