Conversations from the Cullman Center: George Balanchine’s 20th Century: Jennifer Homans with Claudia Roth Pierpont
George Balanchine’s 20th Century: Jennifer Homans with Claudia Roth Pierpont
Arguably the greatest choreographer of all time, George Balanchine was also a cultural titan of the 20th century. Born in Russia under the last czar, Balanchine experienced the upheavals of both world wars, the Russian Revolution, exile, and the Cold War. Co-founder of the New York City Ballet, he pressed ballet in the United States to the forefront of modernism, transforming it into a popular art. With full access to Balanchine’s papers and many of his dancers, Jennifer Homans now gives us a vast history of Balanchine’s life and times.
Jennifer Homans researched and wrote Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century during her 2016–2017 Fellowship at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers. She will discuss the book with New Yorker writer Claudia Roth Pierpont.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Jennifer Homans is dance critic for The New Yorker and served as dance critic for The New Republic for more than a decade. A former professional dancer, she is the founder and director of the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University, where she is also on the faculty. Her previous book, Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet, was named one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times. She was a Cullman Center Fellow at The New York Public Library in 2016–2017.
Claudia Roth Pierpont is a long-time staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of American Rhapsody: Writers, Musicians, Movie Stars, and One Great Building; Roth Unbound: A Writer and His Books; and Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World. She was a Cullman Center Fellow at The New York Public Library in 2000-2001.
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In-Person
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The Cullman Center is made possible by a generous endowment from Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman in honor of Brooke Russell Astor, with major support provided by Mrs. John L. Weinberg, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Estate of Charles J. Liebman, The von der Heyden Family Foundation, John and Constance Birkelund, and The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, and with additional gifts from Helen and Roger Alcaly, The Rona Jaffe Foundation, The Arts and Letters Foundation Inc., William W. Karatz, Merilee and Roy Bostock, and Cullman Center Fellows.