CHAPTER 23A Move to “The Bronx” At Southgate Tower it had been steadily increasing every year. I was not only paying that rent, but for two years had been paying rent for an Indianapolis apartment as well. Now that I was no longer receiving an income it had become unbearable. The apartment I moved to in the Bronx was in an Italian neighborhood, close to the magnificent Bronx Zoo and Botanical Gardens, a sanctuary in the midst of what was less than a perfect environment. I went there a lot, between weekly visits to the un-employment office. My unemployment didn’t last long. During August, just as I turned 53, I wrote a letter to Nikita Talin, the new director of Harkness House, to see if it might be possible to return, this time as a teacher. Harkness House was no longer the whirlwind of activity it had been before, filled with creative people. The company had long ago disbanded. David Howard, the reigning force in the trainee program had left, along with his co-director Maria Veigh. David had opened his own studio on Manhattan’s West side near Lincoln Center and was becoming a much-adored master teacher. Veigh had left for California where she got a teaching job, possibly through claiming credits for the Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty that I had staged for her. Both had been rude and arrogant to me in the past. I guess it’s the nature of the game in the dance profession, as in corporate business, to step over those who appear less aggressive. “Bobby” Scevers and Nikita Talin ran what was left of the trainee program. After a brief interview they hired me on the spot and I began teaching classes immediately; one ballet class every evening and two character classes a week. They both seemed impressed with my answer after they asked if I
taught Spanish dance as well as Character. I told them, truthfully,
that I had studied Spanish dance, even while in Spain, but didn’t
feel I was really qualified to teach it. This endeared me to them,
as many, looking for a job, might have claimed to teach everything.
They also were in great sympathy when I told them of my bitter
experience at Butler. To show off the trainees, Nikita had an idea to present various
opera ballets, with an invited audience of dance notables. Bleachers
were set up in the main studio for seating. I choreographed “The
Bartered Bride” as a vehicle for the students that Mrs Harkness said
she liked it best of all, but it led nowhere. She was already dying.
It is a wonderful vehicle to introduce ballet to the uninitiated. There is as much acting as there is dancing, and a thread of humor and slapstick comedy weaves its way through the entire ballet. When the predictable happy ending unites the two lovers, there is one more chuckle the audience can take along with them. The company rented the scenery for the two acts from the Boston
Ballet production. When it arrived there were no instructions as to
how the wagon was put together. The spinning wheel and the maypole
also had no directions. We got by without the wagon, even though we
had the donkey to pull it, but the loosely put together maypole at
the end of Act One, started to topple over during opening night’s
performance and the Widow’s spinning wheel in Act two took some
maneuvering to make it work The Widow Simone is traditionally and always danced comically by a man. His hilarious clog dance is very appealing to audiences and always gets a huge applause. A young man living in nearby Allentown was anxious to do it. Unfortunately, two days before the opening he came down with hepatitis. Nobody had thought of double-casting the ballet so there was no one to replace him. The performance could certainly not go on without this most prominent role so it was left to me to step in and do it. It was the first time I’d ever danced a travesty role, or as the French say, en travestie. It is very common in Europe for men to perform on the stage as grotesque women. The costume, designed after the one worn in the Royal Ballet
version, seemed a good fit. Also the wig. I had to forgo my role as
director of the production in order to have time to rehearse myself.
The clog dance was really the only actual dance I had to do, the
rest was all acting. Having rehearsed the other fellow in the role
for months, I knew it well and had no trouble performing it, along
with the false trips, slides, prat falls and general buffoonery. These two professionals left no doubt about their talent. Degnan, ….. clowned the part of Alain to perfection while performing the dance portion brilliantly. Holden, a seasoned dancer, choreographer, teacher, lecturer and
author, mimed to perfection the fussy and protective mother. It was
a shock to some in the audience when he whipped off his wig at the
final curtain ….”
Balletfore, “Le Carnaval” Photo: Sylvia Nolan and Peter Lewton-Brain in this 1984
production of Le Carnaval Photo from this 1984 Firebird production He worked for Diaghilev’s company, choreographing “Spectre” and “Petrushka” for Nijinsky, among many others. When he came to America during the 1930s , he lived and opened a school on Riverside Drive in Manhattan. George Chaffee, my first proper teacher had studied with him there. After a robbery, Fokine moved to Yonkers, NY, a smaller city along the Hudson River. This was where Balletfore debuted the all-Fokine program In 1985, before going on tour,. Some of Fokine’s relatives were still living there but unfortunately, knew or cared little for ballet, or the works that their famous relative had created. Nevertheless, the local papers made quite a thing out of it. With the success of “Firebird”, Balletfore changed its name to
“New York Theater Ballet” and came under Columbia Artists
Management. They toured my “Firebird” all over the USA and to
Europe. Le Villi, or “The Willis” is not just an opera with a ballet thrown in. It has ballet and character dancing throughout. Basically, it’s a ballet-opera, very much like the romantic ballet, “Giselle”, except Albrecht is a tenor and Giselle a soprano. I used the New York Theater Ballet dancers and also had to stage the leading singers through their actions that had to be worked into the ballet. There were tremendous sets overflowing the park’s band shell and
a full orchestra in the pit. The singers were all professional and
semi-professional. As it was free, it drew an audience of thousands.
All seats were filled and thousands more standing. My dancers
performed it even better than most of the Metropolitan Opera dancers
could have. Photos: Me in the "Colonial" Nutcracker where I was "Samuel
Hinkman" instead of Drosselmeyer. Other traditional Nutcracker
characters were similarly renamed in this adaptation.
However, the historical background of character dance and its relationship to classical, as outlined by the author, will make this book rewarding reading for all interested in dance. In our time, when Art’s indulgence in abstract forms is a
fashion, a book on character dance is welcome indeed. It reminds us
of the origin of dance whose very birth was influenced by the human
spirit that made us move, dance and express”. A few years before, he had lost his studio on Fifty-Sixth Street. His building as well as many other ballet studios during the 70s were condemned and the tenants evicted to clear the way for modern skyscrapers. This was where I had begun his classes after first arriving in New York from Boston so many years earlier. Poor Chaffee. He ended up living in a ninth floor, cockroach infested apartment on Tenth Avenue, known as Hell’s Kitchen. That’s where he died of a heart attack. I returned to New York just in time to attend his memorial
service: I had seen the Ashton version of “The Two Pigeons” in the early
60s but could remember none of it except the two live pigeons that
flew into the final scne and the marvelous team of Antonette Sibley
and Christopher Gable. Rather than copy Ashton’s rendering, set in
Paris during La Belle Epoque, I went back to the original libretto
from 1875. I edited the Royal Ballet orchestration by Lanchberry to
make it fit and went to work. In two weeks it was finished I would
choreograph variations and whole sections while on the bus coming
into Manhattan from the Bronx. After its premiere at the Riverside
Festival, Jennifer Dunning gave it a review in the New York Times. When he heard that I had a tape of the music from the original French version, he made a special visit to me in the Bronx, anxious to listen to it, and perhaps get a copy. I had never met him before but was pleased to find he had full
respect for the ballet’s nineteenth century origins and was
delighted to share with him whatever material I had on La Sylphide,
historical or otherwise. The following day Jennifer Dunning wrote in THE NEW YORK TIMES: Cambodians, newly arrived as immigrants, had actually taken over the building. I tried to help them as best I could but obviously, they were never told how to use any kind of modern American devices, including bathrooms. I often saw them peeing in the hallways. A nice old Italian couple living across the hallway had daily been scrubbing the five flights of stairs. Probably for years the woman had been doing this, just out of desire to live in cleanliness, but after seeing this she finally gave up in disgust. But I got on well enough with the other tenants. The Cambodians even invited me to their Buddhist wedding party of a sixteen-year old boy to a twelve-year old girl. Nevertheless, it was not a comfortable existence. Being basically a pragmatist, I had made the best of it. After all, I’d had plenty of experience living in squalor, but after seven years living in the Bronx I’d had enough. So many of my friends had either died or had left New York. I was approaching sixty. Did I want a future of being remarkably mediocre? Even with the disastrous setbacks such as I’d gone through at Butler, things could still be achieved, or had I completely sabotaged my life? This internal dialog went on almost daily while strolling through the Botanical Gardens or along the Bronx River that wended its way through the Gardens. An ancient Colonial mill still remained on the river bank, with an outdoor restaurant attached. I often sat there contemplating what to do. I found water to be a great teacher. It shows us how to move through the world with grace, ease, determination, and humility. The Bronx River even had a waterfall nearby the restaurant. I watched how the river broke at the waterfall, then how it gained energy and moved on. Like a river, we encounter our own waterfalls. We may fall hard but we always keep moving on no matter what. Water can inspire us to not become rigid with fear or cling to what’s familiar. The river is brave and does not waste time clinging to its past, but flows on, without looking back. With these parameters, I decided to move on too, just as the river flows with its twists, turns and obstacles along the way.
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He
was one of the founders of the Northeast Regional Ballet movement,
spearheaded by Doris Herring. I had once auditioned dancers for his
company, back during the Elmira days.
Teacher
conventions seemed to be a calling card for me. With the
experience of the previous ones, I’d learned more precisely
what was expected of me. There were also regular visits to
Columbus, Ohio to choreograph for a small student company. I
used one of Mrs. Harkness’ arrangements of the Schubert
Variations for my “Rondo Brillante” that I staged there,
along with my “Theme Of Youth” and “Peter And The Wolf”. It
was a busy time.
“….
Richard Holden’s staging (of Carnaval) was brisk and charmingly
caught the “powerful passions” of the moment ….. re-creation was
quite delightful and I’m sure the performance reflected the results
of much painstaking effort and research …”
excellent Laurel and Hardy team and completely caught the spirit of
their respective roles. Firebird was a winner …. it was exciting,
well staged, and the story line was easy to follow. It made sense!
With a reduced company and much imagination, Mr. Holden succinctly
re-created the Russian fairy tale …. ….”
She turned up again in 1984 with her
own company in New Jersey and wanted me to help stage a
“Nutcracker”. She choreographed the first act up until the Snow
scene. From there on it was my choreography. The production went on
for the following eighteen years, as well as “Le Carnaval”,
“Firebird” and a full-length “Cinderella” that I staged for her,
until she sold her company in 2002. 
character was changed quite differently. I was costumed
more like George Washington. Instead of a mice battle it was
replaced by British red-coats and Minute Men.
This started a trend in regionalizing Nutcrackers all over. 
“Mr. Holden’s book on character dance is written for dancers and
dance teachers. It explains well the technique of selected character
dances, and draws proper attention to the importance of expression
and style. No one, of course, can learn to dance by reading a book,
because the information presented must always be interpreted and
physically demonstrated by professional dancers.
Balletfore, now The New York Theater Ballet, needed some more
choreography.
I found a good home for Livingston, my beautiful tabby cat who
had been abandoned in the tenement hallways, and started packing.