Responding to what Laura and I parley-ed about Serenade, Anna Dembowski writes:
“I would love to write like Laura. However I disagree with her. Balanchine may have been ‘stylizing away from the moment’ in the 1970’s. But Diana Adams’ performance in the CBC telecast is not evidence of this. I saw Serenade on the State Theater stage in 1978, and in video recordings on youtube that simulate the point of view of sitting in a large theater.
The telecast of 1957 gives me the impression that the dancers are in a small dark gym, their faces and figures revealed by flickering fluorescent lights. I am watching them in a gallery one floor above. I love it. But is it a record of a theatrical performance of Serenade in 1957?”
Was Adams’ performance emotionally hyped for the cameras? I couldn’t say. But I do know that Balanchine used to tell various Waltz ballerinas: “Look at her like she’s your mother,” about that moment when, as Adams shows us so eloquently, the Waltz lady goes to a corps de ballet member for solace.