On the West Coast, San Francisco Ballet, consid-
ered one of the most prestigious regional compa-
nies, underwent deep restructuring. As artistic di-
rector, Michael Smuin’s greatest accomplishment
had been to get the company’s full-length ballets
televised onDance in Americaand to redefine the
boundaries of ballet by incorporating everything
from leather jackets in the television specialTo the
Beatlesto live buffalo inSong for Dead Warriors.Criti-
cized for having gone “too far,” he was replaced in
1984 by Helgi Tomasson, whose efforts concen-
trated on reviving the classics, attracting a number of
outstanding dancers from world-renowned compa-
nies, and transforming San Francisco Ballet into the
leading ballet company of the western United States.
Departure from Classicism Alonzo King, a chore-
ographer with a unique vision who saw ballet as both
a science and a language, appeared on the dance
scene of San Francisco with his company Lines Ballet
in 1982. King’s outstanding contribution to the field
was his holistic approach to it. Where dance previ-
ously had been seen as imitation of external shapes
and forms, King viewed it as self-discovery, bringing
to the foreground ballet’s long-ignored spiritual as-
pect. His work can be said to be primitive and ritual-
istic, designed to discover the truth of dance and to
dig hidden talents out of a dancer’s spirit.
Smuin, after leaving San Francisco Ballet in 1984,
dedicated his inventiveness, creativity, and theatrical
vision of ballet to the creation of Smuin Ballet.
Smuin’s work has been called “choreographic the-
ater personified.” Combining his expertise in both
theater and ballet, he managed to depart far enough
from both genres to give birth to a unique style that
differed completely from King’s style, rapidly win-
ning him a name and reputation in San Francisco
and among the leading choreographers of the de-
cade.
Les Ballets Trockadero de Montecarlo, a transves-
tite group featuring hairy-chested men on pointe
wearing tutus, performing parodies of the work by
major choreographers, including Balanchine, Rob-
bins, Martha Graham, Agnes De Mille, Paul Taylor,
and Kurt Jooss, among others, brought a humorous
tone to the ballet scene. From the outrageous stage
names of the company members to the mocking of
technique and choreography, their spoofing of clas-
sical and modern dance was well received by audi-
ences worldwide. Seen by many as a manifestation of
the gay liberation movement, its humor, inventive-
ness, and critical approach to an art form that until
then had only been taken seriously, gained both sup-
port and approval.
Ballet on Film Two ballet films helped raise interest
in classical ballet,White Nights(1985) andDancers
(1987), both starring Baryshnikov. The latter was a
melodrama involving ballet dancers who performed
Giselle. (Baryshnikov had already dancedGiselleon
film for a 1977 television broadcast, aired as part of
theLive from Lincoln Centerseries.) InWhite Nights,
Baryshnikov played a Soviet ballet dancer who had
defected to the United States and who finds himself
back in the Soviet Union when his airplane is forced
to make an emergency landing there. The film’s au-
tobiographical elements combined with Baryshni-
kov’s collaboration with tap dancer Gregory Hines
to makeWhite Nightsan immediate success. The in-
clusion in the film of an outstanding staged perfor-
mance of Roland Petit’sLe Jeune Homme et la Mort
(1946; the young man and death) raised its artistic
merit considerably.
The Dark Side of Ballet Acquired immunodefi-
ciency syndrome (AIDS) took the lives of many
dancers in major ballet companies such as the Jof-
frey Ballet and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte-
carlo. Professional ballet dancers were accustomed
to deal with the fleeting nature of dance and the
brief life of their performing careers, but AIDS now
added another aspect to their transient profession.
Similarly, cocaine and other drugs, which had made
their way backstage at ABT, came to light in 1986,
when Gelsey Kirkland published her bookDancing
on My Grave.
Impact The 1980’s witnessed the introduction of
external elements from modern dance and culture
generally into classical ballet. Ballet was popularized
through its serious if melodramatic portrayal in film,
even as it was spoofed mercilessly by Les Ballets
Trockadero de Montecarlo. The decade ended with
a sense of the dance form’s greater possibilities, as
the classical companies demonstrated that they
could stage traditional ballets alongside more radi-
cal or irreverent departures from tradition.
Further Reading
Garafola, Lynn.Legacies of Twentieth-Centur y Dance.
Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press,- An evaluation of the lasting contributions
The Eighties in America Ballet 89