Watching American Ballet Theatre dance Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading in a 1984 performance, broadcast over Japanese television during ABT’s season there in the fall of that year.
I’d forgotten what the full impact of this ballet can be. It’s not that the dancers are more talented than today’s. It’s not that everybody there gives my ideal performance. It’s that without being pompous, they present themselves as figures of importance, and the entire ballet acquires an extra increment of seriousness. The cast is drawn from dancers at every stage of their careers, but they are unfailingly adult. There’s nothing cutesy or sentimental about it, even the first younger-than- springtime duet. The underlying somber, bittersweet quality is always manifest. The dancers’ carriage is so vibrant, so fully engaged that every step they take becomes meaningful.