TOUR
Feld Ballets/NY will visit
the Music Hall and
Macomb Center next weekend.
SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
E
liot Feld would pre-
fer not to talk about
the 79 ballets he has
choreographed.
Rather, he wants
people to see them and move to
their own conclusions.
"It's in the seeing of the bal-
let — the beauty of the dancers,
the coherence of the bodies, the
organization in space — that
the audience can make the only
relevant judgment," said Mr.
Feld, who is bringing his troupe
to Michigan and nine other
states.
Metro Detroit audiences will
have the opportunity he rec-
ommends Oct. 1-2 at the Music
Hall and Oct. 3 at the Macomb
Center for the Performing Arts.
In addition to 20 dancers, the
company travels with technical
staff and computerized lighting
and sound systems.
"I think we've been to Detroit
four or five times in the past 10
years,". said the 51-year-old
founder of Feld Ballets/NY.
"When I was younger I danced
with my company, but I don't
any longer."
Mr. Feld, who recalls being
on stage at the Music Hall, con-
tinues to work at the ballet bar
every day as his personal ex-
ercise regimen.
"Michigan will be the princi-
pal state on this tour because
we're visiting 10 cities here and
we're not visiting more than two
cities in any other state," ex-
plained the choreographer, who
established his current compa-
ny in 1974, three years after his
first failed.
The Michigan Non-Profit
Presenters Association has or-
ganized the engagements in
Michigan, supported in part by
grants from the National En-
dowment for the Arts, the
Michigan Council for Arts and
Eliot Feld is coming to Michigan.
Cultural Affairs and Arts Mid-
west.
"I always knew I wanted to
be a dancer, and I began taking
classes when I was 11," ex-
plained Mr. Feld, who moved
back and forth between ballet
and modem dance studies.
"I was studying two months
at the School of American Bal-
let when they made me the lit-
tle prince in the first production
of Balanchine's Nutcracker, and
I've been trying to recreate the
thrill that I had then ever
since."
While enrolled at the High
School of the Performing Arts
in New York, Mr. Feld joined
the Broadway cast of West Side
Story and appeared in the role
of Baby John in the film version.
He also was on Broadway in I
Can Get It For You Wholesale
and Fiddler on the Roof.
A former dancer with the
American Ballet Theatre, he be-
gan his transition to choreog-
rapher in 1966. The first ballet
he created, Harbinger, was for
the American Ballet Theatre,
and he went on to work with the
Joffrey Ballet, the National Bal-
let of Canada, Royal Danish
Ballet and others.
"Dancing is a wonderful tool
for learning because you're
learning about yourself," said
the artistic director, who estab-
lished the New Ballet School in
1978 to provide New York City
public school children with tu-
ition-free, professional ballet
training.
Darren Gibson, the first grad-
uate of the New Ballet School
to join the company, has been a
featured performer and has
helped run rehearsals.
Mr. Feld makes educational
initiatives part of the tour pro-
gram by providing outreach ac-
tivities for young people
through open rehearsals, ques-
ON TOUR
page 78