Merrill Ashley from I Remember Balanchine by Francis Mason Part 1

Balanchine is still the determining factor in my professional life. I don't feel he is a figure of history. It's as if it were yesterday as far as I am concerned. His principles, everything he instilled in me, his patterns of work for the company, the way the company is run---those habits are still present and important.I still talk about him in the present tense. I catch myself, and I can't believe I am doing it years after his death. I'll see things and I'll think," Well, he'd be saying this you know." I think about him in class, no matter who is teaching it. As time goes on, the dancers at The New York City Ballet may understand less and less why things are done the Balanchine way. At the moment there are enough people who worked with Balanchine and who know why we approach things in a certain way---for example, now people just accept that you are not going to have weeks and weeks to learn a role. You are going to have a few days. It's going to be the last minute. Maybe it's not the way you get the best performance at first. But there is another kind of challenge here. It's very spontaneous, it's not going to be an over rehearsed, dull performance. Anyone coming in from outside who has'nt been through that initiation of being thrown on in the corps all the time is going to be shocked by the approach. I don't think that will change. We'll maintain it with the vast repertoire and the limited rehearsal time. We're not going to have casting months ahead so that you can rehearse months ahead. It will never happen. Part Two tomorrow.