THIS IS FUNNY

In Marseilles during New York City Ballet’s 1955 European tour, Balanchine was rehearsing Maria Tallchief in his one-act Swan Lake, which she had created four years earlier. As was his wont, Balanchine was making changes to what he’d originally staged that were not always welcomed rapturously by his interpreters. Tallchief was resisting Balanchine’s tweaks to the ps de deux. “No, no, no,” Balanchine insisted. “Oh, George,” she replied, “you just don’t know what’s beautiful!”