| Summary: | New York City Ballet principal dancer (1979-1993) will coach leading roles in The Four Temperaments and Square Dance New York City: November 4, 2019 -- Bart Cook, working with dancers Alexander Peters from Miami City Ballet and Sara Adams and Kristen Segin of New York City Ballet, will coach two roles with which he was closely associated throughout his career: "Melancholic" from The Four Temperaments, in which he was coached by Balanchine and the Sarabande solo Balanchine created on him in 1976 and inserted into the 1957 Square Dance. Elaine Chelton, solo pianist with New York City Ballet, will accompany the coaching, and Jack Anderson will interview Cook at the conclusion of the session, which takes place in New York City Ballet studios at Lincoln Center. The recording will be supervised by Paul Boos, Video Archives Project Associate, aided by Nancy Reynolds, Video Archives founder. The purpose of GBF's Video Archive Series is to document insights of the originators or important later interpreters of key roles in the Balanchine repertory, thus passing on this knowledge, particularly including references to Balanchine's ideas at the time of creation, to the dancers, scholars and audiences of today. The Cook video will become part of this series, which now numbers over fifty and is available world-wide through educational institutions and libraries. The interview segments can be viewed on GBF's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/blnchn.) In 1976, a reworked revival of Square Dance was staged by Balanchine, in which he eliminated the traditional "caller" and on-stage musicians, made minor revisions to the 2nd movement and most importantly added a male solo for Cook before the finale. NY Times' Anna Kisselgoff referred to the restaging as a "renewal" ... Luckily, Mr. Balanchine has also added rather than just subtracted in Square Dance. There is a new solo for Mr. Cook, that has a definite romantic edge. It has the same yearning quality of the male solo in Baiser de la Fee. In response to Cook's acclaimed performance in The Four Temperaments Kisselgoff wrote "Again, the standout was the "Melancholic" variation as danced by Bart Cook. From his debut in the solo four years ago, this exciting and individual dancer has enriched each performance with a fierceness of movement and thoroughness of gesture that make the choreography stand out brightly against an imagined sky. Mr. Cook dances here fearlessly and with a new hint of self-flagellation."
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