• Dance impresario Paul Szilard once saw ballerina Nora Kaye wearing lots of jewels, and he asked her, “Nora, are these faux, or are they real?” She replied, “Darling, they’re real.” The fabulous jewelry had come from rich man Harry Winston, who unfortunately did not pay for it, and who later asked for it back. Ms. Kaye did not want to return the jewelry. This led to a lawsuit, and the judge ruled against Ms. Kaye, forcing her to return the jewelry. When Mr. Szilard asked what had happened, Ms. Kaye replied simply, “Well, my dear, I f**ked for nothing.”
• Martha Graham once lectured at a Texas university where Tommy Tune was studying. She told the dance students in a lecture, “All great dance stems from the lonely place.” One of the dance students said, “Miss Graham, you said that all great dancing stems from the lonely place. Where is the lonely place?” Ms. Graham replied, “Between your legs. Next question.” According to Mr. Tune, “We were never the same again.”
• American dance pioneer Ted Shawn once choreographed the bawdy ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, in which the Spartan and Athenian women decide to stop the Peloponnesian War by declining to have sex until the war ends. According to Mr. Shawn, the young dancers of his company claimed to have “learned about life from the birds, the bees, the flowers, and the Lysistrata ballet.”
• While watching David Lichine dance in L’Apres-Midi d’un Faune, photographer/writer Gordon Anthony never wondered why the nymph ran after dropping her scarf!
• Ford Madox Ford once told a story about an old lady who, after watching a couple dance the tango, said, “I suppose it’s all right — if they really love each other.”
Swan Lake
• Cynthia Gregory was able to dance the role of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake in only her second year with American Ballet Theatre when David Blair of The Royal Ballet staged a new production. She was chosen to be one of the dancers who would understudy the role. Three of the dancers had to stop understudying the role, then a fourth understudy became pregnant. This left the ballerina and two understudies, including Ms. Gregory. However, tickets for Swan Lake sold briskly, and ABT decided to add two more performances and let all three dancers undertake the role.
• Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn were wonderful partners in ballet, but they differed artistically. Before they first performed Swan Lake together, Mr. Nureyev was worried. While dancing in Swan Lake, Ms. Fonteyn used much mime, telling the story in gestures, and Mr. Nureyev worried that he “would feel silly standing about” in the mime scenes, and so he told her, “I am afraid I will ruin your Swan Lake.” Looking him straight in the eyes, Ms. Fonteyn (amiably — but firmly) replied, “Just you try.”
Tap Dance
• Peg Leg Bates lost his leg when he was a child working in a cottonseed gin during World War I. However, he didn’t let it stop him. His uncle made a peg leg for him — possible because his leg was amputated below the knee — and he learned how to tap dance, using the peg leg to create a heavy, distinctive beat. He was so successful that he appeared on Ed Sullivan’s variety television show a total of 21 times — more than any other tap dancer.
• Back in the glory days of tap dancing, dancers would sometimes try to “steal steps” from other dancers. Tap great John Bubbles enjoyed playing a practical joke on other tappers. He would sit in the front row of a vaudeville theater, and when the tap dancer performed Mr. Bubbles took out a pencil and a notebook and pretended to diagram the dancer’s steps. Often, the dancer would speed up to stop the “thievery.”
• Comedian Lily Tomlin used to do some weird stunts when she was starting out in show business. For example, she used to tap dance while barefoot — after gluing taps to the soles of her feet.
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