#Balanchine's Nutcracker

[balanchine-ballet-master]

The Story of the Original "Tea" Dancer

There was a delightful story in the Times on February 4th about George Lee, on whom Balanchine created the Tea variation in The Nutcracker. Here it is.

From Ballet to Blackjack, a Dance Pioneer’s Amazing Odyssey

George Lee was the original Tea in “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker.” A documentary filmmaker found him and a lost part of ballet history in Las Vegas.

By Siobhan Burke Feb. 4, 2024

Among the blaring lights and all-hours amusements of downtown Las Vegas, in a sea of slot machines at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino, George Lee sits quietly at a blackjack table, dealing cards eight hours a day, five days a week, a job he’s been doing for more than 40 years.

Lee, 88, was likely in his usual spot when the filmmaker Jennifer Lin was sifting through old photos at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in 2022, wondering what had become of a dancer with a notable place in ballet history. Pictured in a publicity shot for the original production of “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker,” in the role known as Tea, was a young Asian dancer identified as George Li.

For Lin, a veteran newspaper reporter turned documentarian, the picture raised intriguing questions. In 1954, when the photo was taken, it was rare to see dancers of color on the stage of New York City Ballet, the company Balanchine co-founded. Who was this young man, this breaker of racial barriers, this pioneer? Was he still alive? And if so, what was he up to? “I became absolutely obsessed with trying to find out what happened to George Li,” Lin said in a video interview.

In just over a year, that obsession has blossomed into a short film, “Ten Times Better,” that chronicles the unexpected story of Lee’s life: from his childhood in 1940s Shanghai, where his performing career began; to a refugee camp in the Philippines, where he fled with his mother, a Polish ballet dancer, in 1949; to New York City and the School of American Ballet, where Balanchine cast him in “The Nutcracker” to “Flower Drum Song” on Broadway, his first of many musical theater gigs; and ultimately, to Las Vegas, where he left dance for blackjack dealing in 1980. (He changed the spelling of his last name in 1959, when he became a United States citizen.)

The film will have its premiere on Feb. 10 as part of the Dance on Camera Festival at Film at Lincoln Center. Lee, who last visited New York in 1993, will be in town for the occasion, an opportunity for long-overdue recognition.

“So many years I haven’t done ballet,” Lee said over coffee at the Four Queens on a recent Sunday, after his shift. “And then suddenly Jennifer comes and tries to bring everything up. To me, it was like a shock.”

George Lee today. He has been a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas for more than 40 years. Photo: Saeed Rahbaran for The New York Times

But Lin’s interest has been welcome. “Jennifer is so perfect, she knows exactly everything,” he said. “She knows my background more than I do.”

Lin was not the only one who had been searching for Lee. In 2017, while organizing an exhibition on “The Nutcracker,” Arlene Yu, who worked for the New York Public Library at the time and is now Lincoln Center’s head archivist, was puzzled by the relatively few traces of him in the library’s vast dance collection.

“I think I’d tracked him down to 1961, but after that, it was really hard to find anything,” she said. “Whereas if you look at some of his peers in ‘The Nutcracker’ in 1954, they went on to careers where there was a lot more documentation.”

Lin’s fascination with Lee emerged through her work on another film, about Phil Chan and Georgina Pazcoguin, the founders of Final Bow for Yellowface, an initiative focused on ending offensive depictions of Asians in ballet. The role of Tea, a divertissement historically rife with such stereotypes—in Balanchine’s canonical version of “The Nutcracker” and others—has been a flashpoint in those efforts. Chan, too, had been struck by the 1954 images of “The Nutcracker,” which he came across during a library fellowship in 2020.

“I’m like, wait, there’s actually a Chinese guy,” he said — as opposed to a non-Chinese dancer with the saffron makeup or heavily painted eyes or even the artificial buck teeth worn in some old productions. “Who is this guy? And why do I not know about him?”

The "Tea" variation in The Nutcracker at City Ballet in 2015. The dancers are Ralph Ippolito, Claire Von Enck, and Baily Jones. Photo: Andrea Mohin for The New York Times

Lee, in his heyday, was a dancer to know. At just 12, he was already winning public praise. In a preview of a recital of the King-Yanover School in Shanghai, the North China Daily News called him an “extremely promising young Chinese boy, whose technique is of a very high standard.” A reviewer wrote that he “already may be said to be the best Chinese interpreter of Western ballet.” (Lee saved these newspaper clippings and shared them with Lin when they eventually met.)

Born in Hong Kong in 1935, Lee moved to Shanghai with his mother in 1941, when Shanghai was under Japanese occupation. During World War II, his father, a Chinese acrobat, was in Kunming in western China; he died in an accident on his way to visit Lee in 1945.

Lee’s mother, Stanislawa Lee, who had danced with the Warsaw Opera, was his first ballet teacher; as a child, he would follow along with her daily barre exercises. Shanghai had a significant Russian population, and with that a robust ballet scene. To earn money, Stanislawa arranged for her son to perform in nightclubs—“like a polka dance, or Russian dance, or sailor dance,” Lee said. The clubs would pay them in rice.

Little George Li in his Shanghai days. Photo: George Lee private collection via the NY Times

Fearing the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover in 1949, the two evacuated to the Philippines. An expected four months as refugees turned into two years. In 1951, an American friend of Lee’s father sponsored them to come to New York, where he introduced Lee to the School of American Ballet, City Ballet’s affiliated school.

As Lee narrates these twists and turns in the film, one memory anchors his recollections. Before they immigrated, his mother issued a warning. “You are going to America, it’s all white people, and you better be 10 times better,” he recalls her saying. “Remember that: 10 times better!”

The footage of Lee in his 20s suggests he took that advice to heart. In television appearances — with the company of the ballet star André Eglevsky, and in a number from “Flower Drum Song” on the Ed Sullivan Show — his power and precision dazzle.

“He was good; he was really good,” Chan said. “Clean fifth, high jump, polished turns, stick the landing—the training is all there. He’s already 10 times better than everybody else.”

In a 1979 interview heard in the film, the former City Ballet soloist Richard Thomas, who took over the role of Tea, raves about Lee’s peerless acrobatic jumps: “He was wonderful! Balanchine choreographed a variation for him that none of us have ever been able to equal.”

As Lee remembers it, Balanchine spent 15 minutes with him in the studio. “He said, ‘What can you do good? Show me what you can do good,’ so I show him something,” Lee said. “I did things like splits and double turns, down and up, turn again like a ball, and that’s it. He picked up some things and put them together.”

George Li as a student at the School of American Ballet. Photo: George Lee private collection via the NY Times

He recalled that during a “Nutcracker” dress rehearsal, the City Ballet makeup artist put him in full yellowface, and Balanchine insisted he take off the makeup. “He is Asian enough! Why do you make him more?” he remembers Balanchine saying. Lee was costumed in the Fu Manchu mustache, queue ponytail and rice paddy hat often associated with the role, now widely critiqued as racist caricatures. But he said he didn’t take offense. “Dancing is dancing,” he said.

Lee performed in “The Nutcracker” as a student; he was never invited to join City Ballet. But he clearly excelled in his classes and onstage. For that, he credits his strong foundation of Russian training in China — and his mother’s exacting standards. He can still see her standing in the studio doorway at the School of American Ballet, observing closely.

“She was watching the class and then would go home and tell me, ‘You did this wrong or that wrong, you got to do it this way,’” he said. “So I really worked hard, and I was good.” (His favorite teacher at the school was the demanding Anatole Oboukhoff: “He always wanted more, and that’s why I liked him very much.”)

To make a living Lee turned to musical theater, performing in shows like “Baker Street” on Broadway and the cabaret “Carol Channing with her 10 Stout-Hearted Men,” which opened in London. He pieced together jobs for more than 20 years, often unsure of what would come next.

Lee in flight in a production of “Flower Drum Song” in Las Vegas in the early 1960s. Photo: George Lee personal collection via the NY Times

He was dancing in a Vegas revue, “Alcazar de Paris,” now in his 40s, when a blackjack dealer friend suggested he go to dealer school. “I can’t dance all my life,” he remembers thinking. He decided to give dealing a try and soon landed a job at the Four Queens. Aside from four years at another casino, he has worked there ever since.

In December 2022, he got a voice mail message from Lin. With her reporting skills and some crucial assists from Yu, she had determined that he lived in Las Vegas. Of the five phone numbers she found for George Lees, four led nowhere; his was the last she tried.

When they finally connected, she put her other project on hold to focus on his story; she and her small creative team had a final cut by November. “George is 88, and I wanted him to be able to enjoy this moment, where people recognize him for his dancing,” she said.

As he prepares to return to New York, Lee said he felt gratified, most of all, for his mother.

“I’m proud for her that I didn’t let her down,” he said. “It makes me feel better to look up at her and say: ‘Look, mother, now you see what’s happening, what you did for me. You gave me all the good foundation, everything. Through you, I’m here now.’”

George Lee today. Photo: Saeed Rahbaran for The New York Times

#Balanchine #George Lee #George Li #Nutcracker ballet #Balanchine's Nutcracker #Asian stereotypes #Nutcracker Chinese Dance #New York City Ballet #NYCB #Ten Times Better #ballet film #Saeed Rahbaran #Andrea Mohin

[newyorkthegoldenage]

“It’s almost like you’re actually floating. When you see it, you’re going to be like, wow, amazing.” Ksenia Ilyusha, 8, center, with Scarlett Cepler, 9, left, and Lynn Sakagawa, 10.

From the NY Times

#Balanchine #Nutcracker ballet #Balanchine's Nutcracker #The Nutcracker #Nutcracker angels #video #NYCB #New York City Ballet #Ksenia Ilyusha #Scarlett Cepler #Lynn Skagawa

[costumeinperformance]

Costumes for George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” designed by Barbara Karinska

from The New York Public Library Digital Collections

#ballet #costumes #costume design #ballet costumes #the nutcracker #george balanchine #barbara karinska

[staticsnowfall]

the nutcracker (1993)

*ੈ‧₊˚ ❆ .ೃ࿔*

corps de ballet of the new york city ballet performing “waltz of the snowflakes”

dir. by emile ardolino, choreo. by george balanchine

#posting bc i saw daniel ulbricht and emma von enck in the nutcracker pas de deux today (i cried so hard) #staticsnowfall #art #dance #ballet #photography #film #fashion #the nutcracker #nutcracker #nutcracker ballet #new york city ballet #george balanchine #balanchine #balletcore #ballet aesthetic #tchaikovsky #pyotr ilyich tchaikovsky #snow #winter #wintercore #winter aesthetic #coquette #90s #90s films #gif #my gifs #aesthetic #coquette aesthetic #girl blogging

[bebemoon]

macaulay culkin, jessica lynn cohen & bart robinson cook as godfather drosselmeyer in “the nutcracker” (1993), dir. emile ardolino .

#a classic a favorite a seasonal must-watch<3 #ballet #the new york city ballet #the nutcracker #film #90s #george balanchine #macaulay culkin #jessica lynn cohen #bart robinson cook #emile ardolino

[holyinnocent]

Mira Nadon as Dewdrop in The Nutcracker with New York City Ballet, photo taken by Erin Baiano in 2021

#nutcracker #ballet #dance #classical ballet #nycb #new york city ballet #dewdrop #tchaikovsky #mira nadon #George Balanchine #Erin Baiano

[contemplatingoutlander]

The Tiny Dancers Who Make ‘The Nutcracker’ Sparkle

The tree, George Balanchine knew, was not going to be cheap. But when he created his version of “The Nutcracker” for New York City Ballet in 1954, he fought for it, saying the ballet “is the tree.”

Watching the tree grow, even with its creaks and trembles — will it make it this time? — is an emotional experience. The tree produces feelings! But “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” is also about something else: the children of the School of American Ballet.

If last year’s production proved anything, it was that size and spirit matter. The littler the children are, the more enormous the stage seems, lending the tale enchantment. Yes, there are memorable adult characters: the Sugarplum Fairy and Dewdrop, Mother Ginger and the Mouse King. But the kids are the ballet’s heart, the glue — what guides us down that path to feel the feelings.

This year, rejoice! The tiny bodies are back — though, because of the pandemic, they have little experience. Of the 126 in the production (there are two casts) 108 are first-timers in the show.

Dena Abergel, City Ballet’s children’s repertory director, sees “The Nutcracker,” which opens Friday at Lincoln Center, as Balanchine’s training ground: It teaches children of the City Ballet-affiliated school how to become performers.

This is a festive NYT holiday article by Gia Kourlas. It is filled with colorful videos and still photos of the children, taken by Erik Tanner. I highly recommend reading the entire article, which you can do even if you do not subscribe to the Times, because the link above in the title is a “gift link” that allows readers access to the article. Enjoy!

[edited]

______________

The gifs above are edited versions of Erik Tanner’s videos/photo; the captions (with formatting edits) are from the article.

#the nutcracker #school of the american ballet #george balanchine #new york city ballet #lincoln center #child ballet performers #gia kourlas #erik tanner #the new york times #my gifs #my edits

[shadowxamyweek]

(Fuck Balanchine, all my homies hate Balanchine)

#I didn't mean for this to turn into a balanchine-drag but uuuuh yeah fuck this guy #you don't get to hurt people in the name of art and then use that art as an excuse for the damage you have caused #also your Nutcracker is basic I've seen a hundred better performances with more heart and class #and fuck your nut boat #anyway sorry that should be the last balanchine post in the dinner and a chao chapter of this story XD XD XD

[ballet-symphonie]

On your previous ask... The thing that I personally LOVE in Balanchine's Nutcracker is flowers. Especially the role of Dewdrop... I find it magical.

Yes, yes YES to Balanchine. Flowers can sometimes be a bit of a drag but Balanchine's choreography really keeps it moving.

One of my favorite moments is the big double rond de jambe + pique attitude entrance Dewdrop does at 3:20. Bold, musical and also a very sneaky reference from Balanchine, subtly quoting Petipa, albeit with slight changes.

Where is he referencing? Take a look :)

#ballet #balanchine #ballerina #ballet ask #nutcracker #sleeping beauty

[marnz]

ballet au lol 🩰

YES THANK YOU ANON WOW

Derek is a dancer coming back from rehabbing a horrible injury (lower back?? fucked up his knee??) and has a chip on his shoulder because a) he totally has stage fright! b) has a reputation for being surly and overly intense. Pre-injury he was a rising star in the ballet company and had a lot more confidence but now he is a man humbled, quiet, relieved not to be in charge, but he also feels like he has a ton to prove! Especially since his mom and his older sister are famous dancers.

The ballet troupe is smallish and Stiles is in charge of logistics and MARKETING! Because he is a noted uncoordinated klutz. He's all about strategy and reviewing data and making things happen, and he is the absolutely bane of Derek's existence. He wants Derek in photoshoots, he sometimes coordinates with the artistic director (Lydia) on people's roles, Derek finds the way he talks about engaging customers manipulative, and tbh Stiles can be abrasive and annoying! So smart but so mean!

Derek has a recognizable everything face so once he has returned Stiles wants him to do an ad photoshoot so they can slap his picture on the side of a bus and this just makes Derek feels even more pressure. Resents Stiles for this and also because it's compromising Derek's anonymity. His only respite is teaching children's ballet classes, which is something he started doing while rehabbing his injury and also because the pay to be a ballet dancer isn't great at this small troupe!

Derek thinks once his career is over he would like to teach

But sometimes, when Derek is teaching these first graders, who do not care if he is weird and quiet, he notices Stiles watching. He thinks at first Stiles is going to want to use this for marketing but Stiles never says anything about it, just stays to watch Derek and the kids.

Then at some sort of holiday dance event Derek runs into his horrible ex, Kate Argent, who is a principal at a much larger and more prestigious company, and panics...only for Stiles to appear, wrap an arm around Derek like they're dating, and say "hey babe, who's this?"

#answered #ask meme #i do not know how ballet companies or marketing works. sorry to everyone who is like 'you are so wrong' sorry omg #teen wolf #sterek #LOOK i just think in this instance fake dating would be perfect #derek is so tongue tied and so grateful that he can't help himself melting into the arm hold and is like 'she was just leaving' #even though stiles surely knows about derek and kate's infamous and very public break up #it was a PR nightmare and stiles was an assistant at the time #so he can only be snubbing kate. and kate probably knows this. and derek does not know why stiles is rescuing him #and that night he goes home and he can't stop thinking about it. and that's when stiles goes from annoying to intriguing #meanwhile stiles had a hate attraction thing for derek since day 1 and then HORRIBLY he saw derek teaching first graders and CAUGHT FEELING #this is like a 40k fic i do not have time to write i already have 2 teen wolf wips help #also shout out to the les mis ballet/opera au that i think about daily #edit scott is also a rising ballet star and he and derek hate each other #the argents do run their own company maybe? the prestigious one? huge scandal when allison leaves it to join derek's troupe #the artistic director is thinking about making their nutcracker balanchine and derek supports this bc #he likes balanchine and he finds it classic and traditional #and stiles is like you're a fucking idiot. it's tired. it's boring. we need to do what PNWB did #we aren't a carbon copy of new york city ballet. #derek doesn't speak to him for weeks

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Four WACs of the Month, having demonstrated outstanding traits of leadership, initiative, and alertness in the performance of their duties, were treated to a three-day "Special Monday" in New York, December 11, 1952. They attended a performance of The Nutcracker by the New York City Ballet and afterwards went backstage to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy, Maria Tallchief.

Photo: Sgt. Wallace via the National Archives

#New York #NYC #vintage New York #1950s #WACs #New York City Ballet #NYCB #The Nutcracker #Maria Tallchief #Nutcracker ballet #December 11 #Dec. 11 #Balanchine

[thunderheadfred]

hey so you can watch the entire NYC Ballet / George Balanchine version of The Nutracker for free on YouTube, which I think is pretty neat

#ive watched it twice lmfao #while baking and stuff #what little christmas nostalgia i have is tied up in this ballet #name a more iconic christmas moment than Big Tree Gets Bigger #….. maybe Jesus I guess #the nutcracker #george balanchine

[minamotosousuke]

love how making things gay… makes it better…

#yea this about the nutcracker #it was just a ditzy little holiday story #like the Balanchine ballet is cool and I love that and it holds meaning to me #but the story itself is lame #little girl getting stupid (not a) toy and then having a dream where she runs off with it? uhm okay #but NoWwwwww when it’s gay it’s a boy getting stuck with a doll as a gift and then from that breakage in gender conformity having a dream #where he rescues said boy doll and runs off with him and marries him #needless to say when kou wakes up he’s gonna be #panicking #but yes yes yes finally a story that’s GOOD

[youreverydaygae]

"this playlist is a vibe" I say as I listen to the entire George Balanchine's The Nutcracker playlist

#the nutcracker #ballet #classical music #george balanchine #I love ballet lol

[mnisw]

this will be the last of my tchaikovskyposting for tonight i prommy but the fact that the balanchine choreography is not one of the first results when you search the nut pas on youchube is RIDICULOUS. look at this.

#tchaikovsky nutcracker pas de deux #yes i know balanchine already gets his dick sucked enough but look at this #the pirouettes into the cambres #the little arabesque sequence at the end #ballet #Youtube

[danzadance]

#SuzanneFarrell como Sugar Plum Fairy y #PeterMartins como Cavalier, en una producción del New York City Ballet de "The #Nutcracker". (Nueva York) @nypl_lpa @nypldance #elcascanueces #bailarines #bailarín #bailarina #nycb #balanchine #danza #dancers #dance #danzadanceorg https://www.instagram.com/p/Cd9CQqcPUZf/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#suzannefarrell #petermartins #nutcracker #elcascanueces #bailarines #bailarín #bailarina #nycb #balanchine #danza #dancers #dance #danzadanceorg