Lauren King
MERRILL ASHLEY coaches excerpts from WHO CARES? for the GEORGE BALANCHINE FOUNDATION VIDEO ARCHIVES
New York City: On April 7, 2025, in the New York City Ballet studios at Lincoln Center, former New York City Ballet principal dancer Merrill Ashley will coach excerpts from Who Cares?, including the “My One and Only” solo variation and the “Embraceable You” pas de deux. She’ll work with NYCB principals Indiana Woodward and Gilbert Bolden lll. Elaine Chelton, NYCB Solo Pianist, accompanies the session, and at its conclusion, Faye Arthurs will interview Ashley. Paul Boos, Director of the Video Archives, will oversee the filming with Founding Director Nancy Reynolds.
The two songs which are the focus of this coaching were related in that Balanchine choreographed both on the same dancer, to be performed at different times in the ballet. The lush melodies of "Embraceable You" were followed later by spritely tunes to which he set a variety of virtuoso turning steps. In 1976, some years after the premiere, critic Clive Barnes of The New York Times wrote "At this performance, I was particularly intrigued by a newcomer, for me, in the role created on Marnee Morris, Merrill Ashley. She was super."
The GBF Video Archives document the insights of dancers, often principals from original casts or those who worked closely with Balanchine. The Archives mission is to preserve this knowledge and pass it on to today's dancers, scholars, and audiences. The Archives are available world-wide through public and university libraries, and digitally through the George Balanchine Foundation website for those working in the dance field and using these resources in their work. In addition, the interview components can be accessed on the Balanchine Foundation's YouTube channel.
MERRILL ASHLEY was awarded one of the first Ford Foundation Scholarships to attend the School of American Ballet. In 1967, Balanchine invited her to join the New York City Ballet and in 1974 promoted her to soloist. In 1977, the year Balanchine choreographed his first ballet for her, Ballo della Regina, Ashley was promoted to principal dancer, and in 1980 Balanchine created Ballade on her. Ashley retired on November 25, 1997, at a gala celebration. In summing up her career, the Wall Street Journal said, "she basically taught the world how ballet is danced." Currently, Ashley stages Balanchine ballets and teaches at schools and companies all over the world. For the Interpreters Archive she previously taught and coached Ballo della Regina, Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2, Diamonds with Jacques d’Amboise and Ballade with Adam Luders.
INDIANA WOODWARD, born in Paris, France, began her dance training in Venice, California, and continued her studies at SAB. In 2012 she joined NYCB and was promoted to soloist in 2017 and principal in 2021. Her repertory includes works of Balanchine: Nutcracker (Sugar Plum, Dewdrop); Apollo (Calliope); Liebeslieder Walzer; Ratmansky: Solitude; Robbins: Four Seasons (Spring), Dances at a Gathering; and Martins: Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) and La Sylphide. For the Video Archives, has been coached by several luminaries, Patricia Wilde in her roles from George Balanchine's The Nutcracker® (Marzipan), Caracole, Western Symphony and Swan Lake (pas de trois); in addition, Allegra Kent coached Woodward in Stars and Stripes (Corcoran Cadets) and Patricia McBride in the Tanaquil Le Clercq role from La Valse.
GILBERT BOLDEN III is a New York City Ballet principal and favored partner. Born in San Diego, California, he began dancing at the age of nine in Las Vegas and continued his studies at The Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia, PA. In 2014, Mr. Bolden enrolled at the School of American Ballet. He became an apprentice with the NYCB in August 2017, a member of the corps de ballet in August 2018 and he was promoted to soloist in 2023 and principal in 2025. As a danseur noble, his repertory includes George Balanchine's The Nutcracker® (Cavalier), Intermezzo from Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet, and Concerto Barocco.
FAYE ARTHURS is a former ballet dancer with New York City Ballet. She chronicled her time as a professional dancer in her blog, Thoughts from the Paint. Arthurs graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in English from Fordham University. Her reviews on dance can be read on the Fjord Reviewwebsite: https://fjordreview.com. She lives in Brooklyn with her partner and their sons. Arthurs has interviewed Susan Pilarre for the Video Archives recording of Valse Fantaisie.
NANCY REYNOLDS is the founding director of the George Balanchine Video Archives. She is a former dancer with New York City Ballet and has been Director of Research for The George Balanchine Foundation since 1994, when she conceived the Video Archives program. Among her books are Repertory in Review: Forty Years of the New York City Ballet; No Fixed Points: Dance in the Twentieth Century (with Malcolm McCormick); and Remembering Lincoln. In 2013 she received a “Bessie” award for “outstanding service to the field of dance.”
PAUL BOOS, Director of the Video Archives since 2021, is a former dancer with NYCB and répétiteur for the George Balanchine Trust. His work for the Trust has been presented at several theaters, including the Maryinsky, Bolshoi, Paris Opera, La Scala, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Boston Ballet. He is the director of Rye Ballet Conservatory’s pre-pro division as well as a guest teacher abroad and locally.
The George Balanchine Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1983 with the goal of creating programs that educate the public and further Balanchine’s work and aesthetic. Among the GBF’s major initiatives are the Video Archives, in which dancers who worked closely with Balanchine teach and coach their roles with the dancers of today (Interpreters Archive) or recreate sections of ballets that are rarely performed or in danger of disappearing (Archive of Lost Choreography). Legendary dancers who have taken part in this project include Alicia Alonso, Jacques d’Amboise, Suzanne Farrell, Frederic Franklin, Melissa Hayden, Allegra Kent, Alicia Markova, Patricia McBride, Maria Tallchief, Violette Verdy, Patricia Wilde, Edward Villella, and others, working with dancers from such companies as New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, and San Francisco, Boston, Pacific Northwest and Suzanne Farrell ballets.
In 2007 the Foundation announced a major initiative, the online publication of the Balanchine Catalogue, a fully searchable database giving first-performance details of all known dances created by Balanchine and supplemented by lists of companies staging his ballets, a bibliography, a videography, reference resources, a database of roles Balanchine performed, and related information. The project was made possible by a leadership grant from The Jerome Robbins Foundation. An expanded and updated version, enhanced by visuals, was introduced in June 2022 (www.balanchine.org).
The George Balanchine Foundation expresses its profound gratitude to the following donors: Agnes Gund, Barbara D. Horgan, The New York State Council on the Arts, the Pettit Foundation, Nancy R. Reynolds and The Rockefeller Brothers Fund; and to Robert Brenner, Leslie Tonner Curtis, Russell Vaille Lee, The National Endowment for the Arts, Meryl Rosofsky and Stuart H. Coleman, The Evelyn Sharp Foundation, Denise Littlefield Sobel, Resa and Heiner Sussner, and I. Peter Wolff.
