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Workshop for Experiment. Much of the company's inventive outlook is directly traceable to its patroness. St. Louis-born Rebekah Harkness, 52, launched the troupe in 1964 with $2,000,000 from a foundation set up with the Standard Oil legacy of her first husband, William Hale Harkness, who died in 1954. Mrs. Harkness, who by family request retired as a dancer at 19, has long made her summer home at Watch Hill, R.I., a workshop for ballet experiments. Until 1964, its showpiece was Robert Jeffrey's troupe (TIME, Oct. 6), which she cut adrift when her new company was formed.
Before the French Revolution it was the accepted responsibility of well-heeled aristocrats to pick up the tab for the creative arts, enabling them to flourish without financial cares. As ballet's reigning Lady Bountiful, Rebekah Harkness is a throwback—in the best sense—to those gallant times.