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He is working now on the Schumann, which is really 18 brief pieces. Says the choreographer: "I wanted to do Schumann long ago, but I waited. When you are young, you are not advanced mechanically. Then you get better. Finally, it takes time to understand that you are ready to I do it."
Besides choreography, Balanchine works on everything from posters to hairpieces. He must al ways compensate for emergencies and injuries; the company is hard-hit right now. On the night of the Ballade premiere, both men who dance The Steadfast Tin Soldier, also on the program, could not perform. The company got a little help from an old friend, Mikhail Baryshnikcv. Watching him cavort through the part, one could not help thinking that he, as much as any other dancer, suffered lost opportunities because of Balanchine's illness.
But no dancer is indispensable to the company, as its leader never tires of saying. He works with the artists he has, and he demonstrates exactly what he wants them to do. Says Karin von Aroldingen, for whom he has created many parts: "He shows every movement He cannot use a move unless he knows what it feels like.
It must go through his body before he can impart it to us." Or as Balanchine puts it, "I am the mother in this world of dance."