0:03

There is no need for the outside world because

0:05

we are removed from it and

0:07

apart from it and in our own

0:10

universe. For

0:12

My Heart podcasts and Rococo Punch,

0:15

this is the turning room of mirrors.

0:18

Well, it completely wanted all of our attention

0:20

and all of our devotion. Not unlike

0:23

the convent. What you're doing is

0:25

larger than yourself, almost like a religion,

0:27

Like this is bigger than you. He used

0:30

to say, what are you looking at, dear?

0:32

You can't see you, Only I can

0:34

see you. He could do no wrong,

0:37

like he was a god. In

0:39

the US, there is ballet before George

0:42

Balanchine and ballet after George

0:44

Balanchine. Balancine

0:46

grew up dancing for the Czar in Russia. He

0:49

survived the Russian Revolution. He

0:51

turned classical ballet into something

0:53

new. His movements were fast

0:56

and big. They colored outside

0:58

the lines of traditional ballet. They

1:00

vaulted him to a position of power few

1:03

artists ever reach. There

1:05

are not very many of us left

1:07

around that actually grew up with balancing.

1:10

It was like I grew up with Mozart. Balancing

1:13

made dancers feel chosen, like they

1:15

were part of something bigger. It was

1:17

intoxicating and demanding.

1:20

It was really about risk. He

1:22

would request things that could be almost

1:25

undoable. Most

1:28

of it was really challenging our willingness

1:31

to risk. It gets

1:33

a different kind of quiet. I

1:35

could feel the audience like you're in

1:38

a vacuum together, that really

1:40

dynamic connection between us.

1:43

Nothing like it. But what

1:46

was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets

1:48

to life where the lines between the professional

1:51

and the personal were hazy and often

1:53

crossed, Their bodies used as

1:55

tools, scrutinized and pushed to the

1:57

breaking point. He was obsessed with

1:59

women. I think throughout his whole life

2:01

balancing did not like star female

2:04

dancers to have children. He would famously

2:06

say, like any woman can be a mother, but

2:08

only you few select people can be ballerinos.

2:12

How far does balancing shadow extend

2:14

beyond himself. You don't

2:16

have a voice in ballet.

2:19

You literally aren't supposed to speak, and you

2:21

learn not to and you learn to push things down. So

2:23

many people have developed a really dysfunctional

2:25

relationship with exercise and with

2:27

food, simply because most

2:30

people in the ballet world, I'm interested

2:33

in their experience of

2:35

watching it, then in the dances experience

2:37

of executing it. Listen

2:44

to the Turning Room of Mirrors on the I Heart

2:46

Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

2:49

get your podcasts.