Commercial ballet

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32679, 7 August 1971, Page 12

Commercial ballet

Close your eyes at a ballet these days and you can listen to music ranging from baroque to rock, as the music of Stravinsky and Copland defers to the composition* of Bach and Ellington in new works choreographed by Jerome Robbins and Alvin Ailey. This season, the New York City Ballet will be dancing to one of the most popular refrains in the advertising world, known acronymieally as “PAMTGG,” and in fuU a* “Pan Am Makes the Going Great” It all began about a year ago when the ballet company's artistic direc- * tor and resident genius, George Batonchine, heard the popular airline commercial on the radio one morning, a* usual, but for once really listened to it With Ms mind more on ballet than on th* radio, Balanchine nevertheless could not movent the pantotent theme from Illustrating M* «»■ •ciossßtM. Suddenly an Maa struck him. He commtoatooed a W-yetr-old „ torr aiaatot to comooee a TTaibiuto aaaae based on the Pan Amariean Air-. Inm jtagto and on ‘ another aselody from the With modern’ sets and fMaristie corti—is, the resultant ballet—blendIny law mml classical Muancea —to expected . to become a stool* of the company** repertory, ratoing ths tslwrts of the advertising world to as high a level as they have over readied.