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The Harkness Ballet Was Camelot!
By Steven Middlestein
Rebekah Harkness (lft), founder/director of the Harkness Ballet and one of her top dancers, Marjorie Tallchief, a First Person of the Osage Nation. circa 1965. photo: courtesy Keystone Shows THE HARKNESS BALLET BURST ON THE
burgeoning global dance scene in 1964, when the young Joffrey Ballet, in Manhattan, split over a power struggle for artistic control. Bold, brash and controversial, the Harkness revolutionized the way dance is taught and performed until, suddenly, it disappeared.
What happened to the Harkness Ballet, a company that produced two international touring companies, a youth ballet and its very own theater, whose training program sent more dancers into the world of professional dance than any other company of its time? Indeed, the name “Harkness Ballet” has been almost totally eliminated from books on dance history.
“It is one of the great artistic mysteries of the 20th century," filmmaker Leslie Streit told me. Streit works with Robin McCain, as Cinematiks, out of a live-work in the Bayview district of San Francisco, and they decided to investigate.
"That’s why we decided to make a documentary about it, ‘An American Ballet Story’.”
Although ballet history or ballet itself is often considered a little elitist, they found a story they couldn’t resist, after stumbling on it in 2010. That was when the ODC dance school in San Francisco hired Cinematiks to cover a three-month workshop taught by Maria Vegh, the former co-director of the Harkness Ballet School.
When Vegh talked incessantly about the Harkness, that it was a world-class company, that it had danced at the White House and performed for Princess Grace, the infomercial expanded into a much longer project.
Although Streit grew up in New York City, she didn’t see dance or dance herself until her late teens when she suddenly was smitten. Obsessed with ballet and the lives of its dancers she studied not only the art but everything related to it.
Harkness Ballet Company dancers 'Time Out of Mind', 1974. photo: Milton OleagaHer first research, along with partner McCain, led straight back to the Ballet Russe, the notorious Parisian troupe which toured prodigiously between 1909 and 1929. Drawing on the Ballet Russe model of bringing together great artists to create spectacular productions, the Harkness Ballet employed the best minds of the 1960s from not only dance, music and visual art but politics, journalism and Broadway musicals.
The Harkness dancers, choreographers, composers and designers were pioneers and experimenters. Themes of sexual repression, homoerotic love, tribalism and even the aftermath of rape were explored by some of the most famous choreographers of the day, notably Brian Macdonald, Alvin Ailey, Stuart Hodes and Margo Sappington, whose pieces are highlighted in the film.
All of the work and much of the music was original. Modern, jazz, Spanish and Indian dance were also taught at the school. The core ballet curriculum was based on principles of Kinesiology (how the body moves) rather than traditional ballet's learning by imitation.
Founder Rebekah Harkness gave opportunities and scholarships to dancers and students regardless of race, body shape or background. Her philosophy of “dance for everybody” was truly ahead of its time. Both the company and the school reflected a diversity in line with the civil rights movement of the day—a fact that caused problems when they toured the South.
In addition to founding and directing the company, Harkness arranged and composed music, designed pointe shoes and established a foundation that still supports dance today. Her generosity to her dancers was legendary.
But so was the reaction of the art press. Indeed, Harkness was maligned by powerful New York critics who sought to destroy her, particularly Clive Barnes, an Englishman who ruled New York arts from his throne at the New York Times, 1965-77. Barnes had a personal agenda and never let up.
Was it because Harkness was rich and powerful? Or simply because she was a woman? Was he attacking her artistic tastes or the fact that she withdrew funding from the Joffrey Ballet, which he loved?
The Harkness dancers toured the world to high acclaim, circa 1968. photo: courtesy Harkness Archives Although the company was a sensation when they toured in Europe, Barnes’s influence and vituperation were so great, audiences, impresarios and theater owners were forced to take sides.
The drama unfolded year by year, dance piece by dance piece. Stories about conspiracy theories and chaos within the company came out alongside the daring of the pieces and the excellence of the dancers, which are the true legacy of the Harkness Ballet.
The first Harkness Ballet, which began in 1964 with core members from the Joffrey Ballet, was disbanded in 1970 by Harkness for many reasons, which will be explored in the film. They were replaced by dancers trained at the Harkness Ballet School.
But in 1975 the bottom dropped out of her fortune and Rebekah Harkness fell on hard times. Despite drastic cutbacks, economizing, and a last-ditch attempt to solicit public funding, she could no longer support a major ballet company on her own. Donors were reluctant to fund a company on the receiving end of so many negative reviews by Barnes, so the second company came to an end.
The world had clearly changed. Nevertheless, the Harkness Ballet School continued to train dancers for another ten years, until it too closed.
Rebekah died in 1982. The key artists carried on with other companies, creating a post-Harkness world, while the Harkness Ballet’s own accomplishments were buried behind hard-to-access archival walls or legal issues of rights ownership.
Many questions arise: How does funding affect art? Who owns art, creators or funders? Does art criticism determine success or is it “fake news”? Did the walls at the sumptuous Harkness House actually have ears?
Most importantly: What does the Harkness saga mean to artists today?
“An American Ballet Story” went into production in 2015. With little time for pre-production, as the producers learned that some of their interview subjects were dying of old age or disease, they dove in using their own money.
To date they’ve made three production trips out-of-state New York City, Florida and Cincinnati, and three to Los Angeles. When they couldn’t afford travel fees, they sent DIY video kits to their subjects. In this way, more than 70 former Harkness dancers, choreographers, composers, technicians and designers have been interviewed and the project is now in post.
A group of Harkness dancers. photo: courtesy Harkness DancersTheir current plans are to not use a narrator and let film unfold through interviews with the people who were actually there, with each individual story forming a short stand-alone piece.
“It was Camelot!” Marina Eglevsky, a former dancer, told them, while Andrea Cagan, another dancer, who is now a bestselling author, recalled opening night at the Harkness House, a Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue and 75th Street. Looking up the stairs, Cagan spotted painter Salvador Dali swooping down in a black cape and, on his shoulder, an ocelot. “It was magnificent!” she exclaimed.
For many of the former Harkness artists, it was the greatest time of their lives.
It has taken over three years to unearth archival film and video (video was rare in that era), and a growing collection of photos. Amazingly, more films and photos keep showing up.
The film’s score will feature Lee Gurst, a composer and musician who has toured with Barry Manilow and Bette Midler. Additional music is by Marga Richter and Michael Kamen, and even Mrs. Harkness herself, who will accompany archival dance footage. The first rough cut is due in 2019.
Over their more than twenty years, Cinematiks has proved that compelling media can be made on minuscule budgets. Their “VD 2001” is widely recognized as the first dramatic series on the web (1996-97); their “God Wears My Underwear” (2005), an experimental film about the Holocaust, has earned many plaudits.
Their recent feature documentary, “Elly and Henry” (2017), concerns a love story and Holocaust survivors who built the first solar house in America. Distributed by Espresso Media International, it can be seen on Amazon and Amazon Prime. You can also see more about “An American Ballet Story” at its website, which has thirteen short video previews, or on its Facebook page.
Steven Middlestein is a writer, editor and movie fanatic and can be reached .
Posted on Nov 04, 2018 - 08:42 PM
By Steven Middlestein
Rebekah Harkness (lft), founder/director of the Harkness Ballet and one of her top dancers, Marjorie Tallchief, a First Person of the Osage Nation. circa 1965. photo: courtesy Keystone Showsburgeoning global dance scene in 1964, when the young Joffrey Ballet, in Manhattan, split over a power struggle for artistic control. Bold, brash and controversial, the Harkness revolutionized the way dance is taught and performed until, suddenly, it disappeared.
What happened to the Harkness Ballet, a company that produced two international touring companies, a youth ballet and its very own theater, whose training program sent more dancers into the world of professional dance than any other company of its time? Indeed, the name “Harkness Ballet” has been almost totally eliminated from books on dance history.
“It is one of the great artistic mysteries of the 20th century," filmmaker Leslie Streit told me. Streit works with Robin McCain, as Cinematiks, out of a live-work in the Bayview district of San Francisco, and they decided to investigate.
"That’s why we decided to make a documentary about it, ‘An American Ballet Story’.”
Although ballet history or ballet itself is often considered a little elitist, they found a story they couldn’t resist, after stumbling on it in 2010. That was when the ODC dance school in San Francisco hired Cinematiks to cover a three-month workshop taught by Maria Vegh, the former co-director of the Harkness Ballet School.
When Vegh talked incessantly about the Harkness, that it was a world-class company, that it had danced at the White House and performed for Princess Grace, the infomercial expanded into a much longer project.
Although Streit grew up in New York City, she didn’t see dance or dance herself until her late teens when she suddenly was smitten. Obsessed with ballet and the lives of its dancers she studied not only the art but everything related to it.
Harkness Ballet Company dancers 'Time Out of Mind', 1974. photo: Milton OleagaThe Harkness dancers, choreographers, composers and designers were pioneers and experimenters. Themes of sexual repression, homoerotic love, tribalism and even the aftermath of rape were explored by some of the most famous choreographers of the day, notably Brian Macdonald, Alvin Ailey, Stuart Hodes and Margo Sappington, whose pieces are highlighted in the film.
All of the work and much of the music was original. Modern, jazz, Spanish and Indian dance were also taught at the school. The core ballet curriculum was based on principles of Kinesiology (how the body moves) rather than traditional ballet's learning by imitation.
Founder Rebekah Harkness gave opportunities and scholarships to dancers and students regardless of race, body shape or background. Her philosophy of “dance for everybody” was truly ahead of its time. Both the company and the school reflected a diversity in line with the civil rights movement of the day—a fact that caused problems when they toured the South.
In addition to founding and directing the company, Harkness arranged and composed music, designed pointe shoes and established a foundation that still supports dance today. Her generosity to her dancers was legendary.
But so was the reaction of the art press. Indeed, Harkness was maligned by powerful New York critics who sought to destroy her, particularly Clive Barnes, an Englishman who ruled New York arts from his throne at the New York Times, 1965-77. Barnes had a personal agenda and never let up.
Was it because Harkness was rich and powerful? Or simply because she was a woman? Was he attacking her artistic tastes or the fact that she withdrew funding from the Joffrey Ballet, which he loved?
The Harkness dancers toured the world to high acclaim, circa 1968. photo: courtesy Harkness ArchivesThe drama unfolded year by year, dance piece by dance piece. Stories about conspiracy theories and chaos within the company came out alongside the daring of the pieces and the excellence of the dancers, which are the true legacy of the Harkness Ballet.
The first Harkness Ballet, which began in 1964 with core members from the Joffrey Ballet, was disbanded in 1970 by Harkness for many reasons, which will be explored in the film. They were replaced by dancers trained at the Harkness Ballet School.
But in 1975 the bottom dropped out of her fortune and Rebekah Harkness fell on hard times. Despite drastic cutbacks, economizing, and a last-ditch attempt to solicit public funding, she could no longer support a major ballet company on her own. Donors were reluctant to fund a company on the receiving end of so many negative reviews by Barnes, so the second company came to an end.
The world had clearly changed. Nevertheless, the Harkness Ballet School continued to train dancers for another ten years, until it too closed.
Rebekah died in 1982. The key artists carried on with other companies, creating a post-Harkness world, while the Harkness Ballet’s own accomplishments were buried behind hard-to-access archival walls or legal issues of rights ownership.
Many questions arise: How does funding affect art? Who owns art, creators or funders? Does art criticism determine success or is it “fake news”? Did the walls at the sumptuous Harkness House actually have ears?
Most importantly: What does the Harkness saga mean to artists today?
“An American Ballet Story” went into production in 2015. With little time for pre-production, as the producers learned that some of their interview subjects were dying of old age or disease, they dove in using their own money.
To date they’ve made three production trips out-of-state New York City, Florida and Cincinnati, and three to Los Angeles. When they couldn’t afford travel fees, they sent DIY video kits to their subjects. In this way, more than 70 former Harkness dancers, choreographers, composers, technicians and designers have been interviewed and the project is now in post.
A group of Harkness dancers. photo: courtesy Harkness Dancers“It was Camelot!” Marina Eglevsky, a former dancer, told them, while Andrea Cagan, another dancer, who is now a bestselling author, recalled opening night at the Harkness House, a Gilded Age mansion on Fifth Avenue and 75th Street. Looking up the stairs, Cagan spotted painter Salvador Dali swooping down in a black cape and, on his shoulder, an ocelot. “It was magnificent!” she exclaimed.
For many of the former Harkness artists, it was the greatest time of their lives.
It has taken over three years to unearth archival film and video (video was rare in that era), and a growing collection of photos. Amazingly, more films and photos keep showing up.
The film’s score will feature Lee Gurst, a composer and musician who has toured with Barry Manilow and Bette Midler. Additional music is by Marga Richter and Michael Kamen, and even Mrs. Harkness herself, who will accompany archival dance footage. The first rough cut is due in 2019.
Over their more than twenty years, Cinematiks has proved that compelling media can be made on minuscule budgets. Their “VD 2001” is widely recognized as the first dramatic series on the web (1996-97); their “God Wears My Underwear” (2005), an experimental film about the Holocaust, has earned many plaudits.
Their recent feature documentary, “Elly and Henry” (2017), concerns a love story and Holocaust survivors who built the first solar house in America. Distributed by Espresso Media International, it can be seen on Amazon and Amazon Prime. You can also see more about “An American Ballet Story” at its website, which has thirteen short video previews, or on its Facebook page.
Steven Middlestein is a writer, editor and movie fanatic and can be reached .
Posted on Nov 04, 2018 - 08:42 PM
