The Party’s Over!
Lisa De Ribere remembers sitting in the darkened State Theater in Lincoln Center as a young New York City corps de ballet member watching George Balanchine conduct company rehearsals. She had always dreamed of becoming a choreographer, and it was hard for her to believe she was actually watching the greatest choreographer in the world create one of his memorable ballets on stage. "Mr. B's rehearsals were my choreography school, though I didn't know it then," she said. "I would also attend the orchestra rehearsals just to listen to Mr. B. and the conductor work out tempi together. I could not get enough of it." At the time De Ribere had no idea that those early experiences of listening to Balanchine's words and observing him at work would guide her when she began her own career in choreography.
When De Ribere was four-years old she would make up dances in her living room in York Pennsylvania, her home town, While most little girls put on pink tutus and whirled around their house dreaming of being ballerinas, she spent time creating movement. However, she soon began to show signs of becoming a gifted dancer herself, and it became evident that her own dance classes would become more important. After two years at the Pennsylvania Ballet School, she was awarded a Ford Foundation grant to the School of American Ballet.
She and her mother moved to New York, and in 1970 she became a member of the New York City Ballet. De Ribere played with choreography occasionally completing a small piece for her friend Marcia Dale Weary at Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet. But with a heavy performing schedule she did not have time to really explore choreography. She did, however, conquer her nerves enough to invite Mr. Balanchine to see a small piece of hers. "And he came," she recalled. "I remember how nervous I was. He sat and watched, but said nothing to me. Later Suzanne Farrell told me he had liked it, but it wasn't until the next day he pulled me aside and said, 'If you are really interested in choreography take any job no matter what, even if it feels stupid or beneath you -- do it. One cannot learn to choreograph on the best dancers in the world. If you can make people who can't dance look good, then you are learning your craft.' I took his advice, and that is how I ended up choreographing a small ballet for a birthday party for a wealthy patron's wife. No one else wanted to do it. I did a ballet performed in a long narrow space between the orchestra and the tables on the Waldorf Astoria roof. I even sewed the costumes. It was nuts, but I did it and was glad I did."
After that she made several ballets for some smaller, relatively unknown companies with mostly adult beginners as performers. "I had to make them look good," she mused. "Mr. B's words were lodged front and center in my head."
After fourteen years of performing with both major New York companies and rising to soloist rank at ABT De Ribere abruptly quit dancing. She was only thirty, but she was plagued with injuries and wanted to take a year off to devote to some serious choreographic efforts. "I wasn't happy at ABT," she admitted. "I was hired by Lucia Chase who left within a year and Mischa (Baryshnikov) took over. I began to feel like something oppressive was sitting on my head, and the endless conversations with Charles France, (Mischa's assistant) about my injuries didn't help. 'This is not a hospital,' Charles would say to me. No, it wasn't, but it probably should have been. It was a bad time at ABT, and it was a good time to be honest with myself about my future."
De Ribere's desire to create work remained important, but now without a job and a paycheck it seemed daunting. Where to begin? "It is one thing to admit I want to choreograph," she noted. "It is another to get work and actually do it. She sent out a mailing, hundreds of flyers, and when the dust settled and no responses were forthcoming, she approached old friends. "It was, as in so many other fields -- who you know," she said. "You need to call up people who have seen you dance and say, "I'm available. I've worked with the best. Are you interested?"
Richard Rein, the head of the dance department at St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, came to the rescue and commissioned her for a ballet every year over a period of nine years. Then, Milwaukee Ballet under the direction of Dane LaFontsee then Basil Thompson gave her commissions. Patricia Wilde, director of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, followed with an offer, and in 1990 De Ribere created "The Mighty Casey," her popular rendition of the "Casey at the Bat" story. Suddenly she had become a choreographer to reckon with. "Patricia had faith in me." De Ribere said. "She was a woman director and had been a fabulous dancer. I was greatly appreciative for her guidance and her support."
By then, De Ribere, (who had married Jay Larkin in 1989 and had had two sons) realized how much was on her plate. Living in a hotel room with a nanny and her first child meant her husband would miss many occasions of the children's growing up years. Once again she needed to make an important decision. She retired in 1996, and except for a grand production of "Nutcracker" for Milwaukee Ballet in 1998 she packed away her movement thinking cap, turned her attention to her family and entered Fordham University. In 2002, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with honors earning a BA in Communications and Media Studies.
Recently De Ribere was offered a commission to choreograph a ballet for Judith Fugate, director of BalletsNY and is playing with comic ideas to Klezmer music. "Usually a company will specify as to whether it be an opener or closer. "I am used to being told where the piece will be placed. Judy said they did not have a comic ballet in their repertory, and would I like to try. I wasn't sure I wanted to do funny, but the music seemed to be dictating that feeling." Though this is a fulfilling turn of events for her a more exciting opportunity has brought her life full circle. With the acceptance by the Balanchine Trust as one of the dancers privileged and qualified to set his ballets on other companies, she will be returning to the ballet world that was once her home. Though she has not yet received an assignment, she has been reviewing tapes, music, and reliving the glorious moments of performing the amazing ballets that were part of her early career. "I'm nervous, of course, I am. But the opportunity to return to those exquisite pieces that were so much a part of my being for so long, well, I am ready to reconnect with this world again. I can't wait for my first assignment."