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∙SUZANNE FARRELL (nee Roberta Sue Picker), 19, was president of the New York City Ballet Fan Club in Cincinnati just five years ago. "Now I practice right next to Maria Tallchief," she says. "I can't believe it!" She started dancing at eight to overcome her "tomboy habits," has since blossomed into a softly lyrical dancer, marvelously expressive in the pas de deux to Tchaikovsky's Meditation. Says Balanchine: "She is an alabaster princess; you couldn't design a better figure."
∙GLORIA GOVRIN, 21, has been in tutus since she could walk. As a Newark schoolgirl, she haunted the backstage of the New York City Ballet collecting autographs. Now she is a veteran soloist, a fine comedienne in Stars and Stripes and Western Symphony. Her role as Queen of the Amazons in Midsummer Night's Dream was type casting; she is the tallest (5 ft. 7½ in.) girl in the troupe. Thick-legged and saucer-eyed, she is a steady, remarkably effortless performer whose spectacular leaps put some of the male dancers to shame. "Gloria is beautiful and strong like a Clydesdale horse!" says Balanchine. "Her leg extension spans light-years."
∙MIMI PAUL, 21, daughter of a Washington physician and a fashion designer, trained in Washington and abroad before joining the New York City Ballet in 1960. She is cast in the classical mold, a perfectly proportioned ballerina of ravishing grace and serene lyricism. Her expressive arms, arching back, and regal stage presence lend grandeur to a role, as exemplified by her Adagio in Symphony in C.
∙PATRICIA MCBRIDE, 22, was born in Teaneck, N.J., rose meteorically through the ranks to the coveted plateau of principal dancer at 18. Her versatility and repertory, from the affected beauty in La Valse to the man-eating insect in The Cage, are unmatched by any dancer her age. Petite (5 ft. 3 in.), she relies more on speed, beauty of line and polished precision than strength. She frequently tours independently in tandem with the company's acrobatic male virtuoso, Edward Villella.
With a recently awarded $5,925,000 Ford Foundation grant, Balanchine & Co. figure to be skimming off the cream of U.S. dancers for years to come. But with so many gifted young dancers already on hand, there is scarcely any room at the top.