Prominent American dancer Jacques D'Amboise is among the top ten most famous ballet dancers of the twentieth century. His talent was appreciated at the New York City Balle Theater, where he served for over thirty years. He himself founded the National Institute of Dance, in which he became a teacher.
He was a student of the great master of ballet - Balanchine, and he never gets tired of repeating that the history of American classical ballet originates from the ballet of the master “Serenade”. And that it was this brilliant teacher who discovered this art form for America and made him what he is now. Therefore, Jacques is trying with all his might to continue the work of Balanchine.
Biography
Jacques D'Amboise was born in 1934 in Massachusetts. His older sister went to a ballet club, and Jacques had to wait for her in the ballroom. This is how it all began - at the age of seven he had already started dancing.
Everything turned out due to the fact that Jacques's mother always dreamed that her children would become comprehensively educated people: they would understand art and themselves, perhaps, learn to dance and play music. She was from a large peasant family, worked hard since childhood and did not want the same fate for the children. She worked in a shoe factory, and in her free time she took care of the house and read a lot, especially French novels. This romance pushed her to action: after moving from Canada to New York, she was looking for any opportunities for the development of children.
She found a cheap ballet school and sent her eldest daughter there. Then the torment of Jacques began in anticipation of his sister from class. He did not like this state of affairs very much, he was nervous and interfered with his studies as much as he could - mostly he just made noise, making different sounds. However, at the same time, the sharp children's mind absorbed everything that was said and done in the classroom, where there were only girls.
Once, when the boy made a lot of noise, the teacher drew attention to him and said that rather than being naughty, it is better to show how you can jump. Jacques got into position and began to make jumps. The girls were delighted, the teacher also liked it, but Jacques himself liked this lesson most of all. The teacher promised that in the next lesson he would jump again, and the future dancer began his "rehearsals". He jumped at home all day long, making loved ones upset, and he loved it terribly.
When he went to the next lesson with his mother and sister, he jumped at every traffic light while the red light was on. And there were a lot of traffic lights on the way.
So he began to study with his sister. Jacques gradually supplemented his jumps with hand movements, head turns and other gestures. The teacher saw clear progress, and when my mother asked to enroll her son for next year in the same class, she advised taking the boy to the School of American Ballet, where George Balanchine was teaching at that time. So at the age of eight, Jacques became a student of the great master from Russia.
A variety of children studied in Balanchine's group, and they not only practiced ballet positions - they immediately began to dance in performances.
D'Amboise recalled in one of his interviews how George staged a small production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for his students, and he danced surrounded by elves. Then the boy saw the sponsor of his teacher - Lincoln Kirstein. And he was struck by the rich businessman's respect for Balanchine. A group of maestro's students showed their performances on an open stage in the courtyard of Kirstein's house. He paid the children ten dollars a week and sent a car for those who lived far away.
This inspired Jacques even more to take ballet classes, and he stubbornly rehearsed and willingly studied ballet art.
When D'Amboise was fifteen years old, Balanchine took him into his troupe as an artist with full content, and the guy had to leave school. But ballet captured him so much that he could not think of anything else as dance. Now this collective is called “New York City Balle”, and then it was just the Balanchine school.
Dancer career
Two years later, Jacques was already entrusted with the main roles in the performances, and this was the best motivation for further improvement. A few years later, he began a career on Broadway, and a little later they began to invite him to the cinema.
All this, as D'Amboise says, he owes to Balanchine. They were friends for over thirty years, and during this time the teacher personally composed many roles for Jacques. And he brought him to the circle of leading American ballet dancers.
Probably, if Balanchine were a different person, none of this would have happened. As the dancer himself says, he has a very independent character, and he simply would not get along with a leader of a more voluntaristic mind.
And Balanchine always went to meet the troupe. For example, Jacques could gather artists and go on tour in the outback to earn money. And the leader rehearsed with those who remained in the theater. Or he could go away for a few months to shoot a movie and get away with it.
Gradually, eight films appeared in the filmography of the actor D'Amboise, the best of which is considered the 1954 film "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers".
And at the New York City Ball, he was the undisputed star and danced all the leading roles.
Now D'Amboise is burdened with various doctoral degrees, he has the title of professor and is welcomed as a welcome guest in every city in the world where there is a ballet school.
Personal life
Jacques D'Amboise married one of the girls with whom he danced in Lincoln Kirstein's garden in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her name was Caroline George and she danced well. She was also very good at photographing, and in the house of Jacques there is now a whole collection of her photographs.
Sadly, his wife passed away in 2009
And Jacques himself teaches children ballet, talks about Balanchine and tries to convey to his students his attitude to dance.
