Mr. B by Jennifer Homans

Mr. B Reviews

• 
  Barry Pierce

  yes yes yes yes yes
• 
  G.G.

  So far as I can recall, I’ve never seen even one of the four hundred and some ballets choreographed by George Balanchine (1904-1983). Reading Jennifer Homans’ profoundly insightful account of his life and work makes me want to go somewhere I can— preferably New York!
  
  Among the many exquisitely expressed insights in Homans’ biography are these:
  “His light-suffused memories [of St. Petersburg] stayed with him; they were the jewels he would sew into the hem of his mind and carry with him out of Russia.” (p.29)
  
  On his early choreography: “He had internalized the driving revolutionary ambition that was all around him. He wanted to make ballet “progressive,” and it upset him when artists he liked saw it as a remnant of a dying imperial world.” (p.85)
  
  Building the repertory of the New York City Ballet during the 1960s:

  He instinctively turned back to Russia and the imperial past. Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Petipa, early Stravinsky, and the full-length narrative ballets of his childhood at the Imperial Theater. It was a conservative turn, not nostalgia so much as a way of giving his young dancers the education he had received. (p.431) […] He was a great builder for the same reason that he was a great artist: he gave them all a purpose greater than himself. Greater than themselves.” (p.436)

  
  
  Homans manages to find the language to describe a number of Balanchine’s important ballets, among them Serenade (1934), to music by Tchaikovsky; The Four Temperaments (1946), to music by Hindemith; Agon (1957), to music by Stravinsky; Don Quixote (1965), to music by Nicholas Nabokov; and his last, Adagio Lamentoso (1981), to the final movement of Tchaikovsky’s sixth symphony.
  
  The Four Temperaments “elaborated a central theme,” Homans writes:

  that the body could itself be made divine, not through magic or the touch of the gods but through work—rhythm, harmony, and dissonance; joint, muscle, flesh, and clay in hand.” (p.273)

  Adagio Lamentoso was performed only once, and later

  no one could quite remember these dances, or what they had all done that night. […] It was as if the tissue of the ballet dissolved in their bodies as they performed it, leaving no trace…” (p.603)

  
  
  On Balanchine’s many fraught relationships with women, Homans suggests that he and the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) “shared an illusion—a woman holds the key to an artist’s gift” (p.93)

  He gave himself to women by making love to them in dances. It was in this sense a secondhand heart, or at least a heart once removed from the source. For a dancer, it was irresistible. For a woman, it was not quite enough. (p.153)

  
  
  Of his relationships with dancers during his NYCB years, Homans observes:

  We could say that sex is power, but that would only be an inch of the truth. The mile would be that the whole premise of the NYCB was that Balanchine’s love of women, of them, including the ones he didn’t love or court, promised to give to them their best possible selves in dancing, a seduction few refused. This didn’t mean their most moral selves, or their most pure selves, it meant their deepest “Yes, that’s me” selves. The real allure lay in the work, their bodies daily before him, his soul nightly before them in his dances. These were women willing to give everything for that.” (p.442)

  
  
  Yes, one feels, that must surely be what it felt like. And of course Homans knows what she is writing about: she was there, at least towards the end; and she has read everything and interviewed what seems like everyone still alive who worked with him and for him. There’s not a misplaced step in this marvelous feat of empathetic recreation.
• 
  Becca Hansen

  This biography is extensively thorough, and explores the dynamic George Balanchine in depths that we’ve never seen before. It was absolutely fascinating to learn about the connection between the complexities and difficulties in Balanchine’s life and his choreography. I will say, however, readers who are not either from the dance world, or appreciators of the art, may have a difficult time getting through it, because it is LONG and dense. Growing up as a dancer and learning Balanchine’s methods, I was absolutely fascinated. Entranced, even. Homans’ depth of research is something to be marveled.
• 
  Ruth

  This is the most detailed and exhaustive biography of George Balanchine I've ever read. Jennifer Homans previously wrote Apollo's Angels, documenting the history of ballet. In this tome, at nearly 800 pages, she revisits "Mr. B"'s dramatic life. She begins with his family ancestry and history of Russia during the past few centuries. She continues through details of his childhood, his tragic experience during the war, and eventual migration through Europe. Homans parallels the loves and conflicts of Balanchine's life with the ballets he choreographed. This is a fascinating read. It is several hundred pages until he begins his ballet dynasty with Lincoln Kirstein (whose own history is extensively detailed). Her travels throughout Europe and the many, many Balanchine associates she interviewed are evident throughout the telling of the influential genius' life.
• 
  Samantha

  Prepare yourself: This is a long haul. But worth it.
  
  It took me several months to get through this, in part because it’s not something you can burn through in a binge-read approach if you want to get the most out of it and, and of course because it is both very dense and very long. I think the audiobook is something like 24 hours long.
  
  This is a very thoroughly researched and highly detailed account of Balanchine’s life and career. Parts of it are riveting, others less so, but on the whole it’s exceptionally well constructed and well told.
  
  I think if asked to choose I would say I preferred Apollo’s Angels, mostly because it’s the history of ballet in general rather than one individual specifically. That said, the books feel like companions to one another, and if you love ballet and/or want to educate yourself on the subject, an immersive tome on Balanchine feels necessary.
  
  *I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
• 
  MadeleineWP

  A tour de force book on the long complicated life of George Balanchine. This biography succeeds in both providing exhaustive detail about his artistic and personal life but manages not to exhaust. How I wish I could watch his most celebrated pieces, fresh from the knowledge gained having read this book. Kudos to the author!
• 
  Arthur Williams

  This is my second book by Jennifer Homans on ballet, and my god did her writing style improve between the first book and the second. The way she writes about ballet is just immaculate, and you can tell she is a dancer. She writes about dance like a dancer, like someone who has lived it, someone who knows what it is like to perform the very dances she writes about. I could read her prose on ballet literally all day, it's genuinely beautiful and if you don't get what the hype is about dance (don't worry that used to be me) she makes it so clear. How she writes about the movements, the performances, the philosophy of dance, just everything was so ethereal where I didn't need to see a single secon of the dance to have such a clear idea of what was trying to be conveyed. She took an art absent of words and found the most perfect way to express it through words. Sheer artistry.
  
  And now for the second part, the man she writes about. I definitely related to and loved his origins in Russia, and escaping after the Revolution, and surviving it. Also him returning to Russia during the Cold War, I have read many biographies and that whole section was genuinely haunting and just a step above. She knows who to make a biography compelling, she knows how to keep the reader present and engaged, she knows how to make you feel like you were right there.
  
  He was absolutely an immensely talented dancer and choreographer but a heavily flawed man. He used women as instruments for his dances, and the entire story is essentially him going through one wife after another, crushing and doting on one girl after another (yes girl there are usually like 30 year age gaps here). Also how he treated certain women, like abandoning a wife after she became a cripple and firing his favorite dancer because she got a boyfriend, was just...hard to read. Honestly at a certain point he had built up a cult of women centered around himself, and just how possessive he was, and how reliant they were on him for their careers, it definitely had some uncomfortable undercurrents. Women were simultaneously everything, art, dance, fate, but they were also seemingly disposable as they grew older or fell out of his favor.
  
  I would recommend the book however, as it cover's a good section of the 20th century, both world wars, the cold war, all that through the lense of ballet which is SO unique! Though I can't help but wish a book of this style and caliber had been written about one of the ballerina's themselves rather then the man at the top. I really hope she releases a third book about ballet because I will be the first to read it.
• 
  Meredith

  This is a superbly researched and highly absorbing biography. I find Balanchine to be one of the most fascinating people in history, and as a frequent NYCB patron, I am constantly reminded of his unparalleled genius. The biographies I have previously read of him did not delve as deeply into his family history and childhood in Russia (and Finland), so this one breaks new ground in that area. I thought that part might be dry but Homans brings his time in Russia to life, and I have a much deeper understanding of what he endured during and after the Revolution - and how much he lost when his mother country was overtaken by communism. I also had not known before how deeply faithful Balanchine was, and how much Russian Orthodox theology and iconography influenced him. This book conveys a great deal about Balanchine's intellect, his sense of humor, the depth of his love of women, and his humble daily routines and lifestyle. I'm so glad that Homans is a former dancer so she has a great command of ballet terminology and can convey so much about his dances on paper.
  
  One thing I found very interesting was reading through the bibliography at the end and seeing who did *not* participate in Homans's research. She spent over a decade researching and interviewing people for this work, yet perhaps the most significant absence is Peter Martins. I have to assume that he declined to be interviewed. He would have such a unique and specific perspective, having been selected by Balanchine to run the company after Mr. B's death, that it's a real shame not to have his first-hand account included here. Perhaps he is working on a book of his own. Or maybe the events of the past few years, during which he was unceremoniously dethroned as the head of NYCB, have made this too difficult to talk about. I'm very curious about that. But overall, this was a really terrific book, and after reading it I feel even more fortunate to have had the experience of learning some Balanchine ballets when I was a young dancer, even though I never got anywhere close to SAB or NYCB. To dance Balanchine's ballets is to know him - and after reading this, I understand him more.
• 
  Melody

  An excellent, informative, very in depth and interesting book on a master choreographer!!!
• 
  Jen

  My main comment here is that you should REALLY be a fan of ballet if you want to read this book. I mean REALLY. I love the ballet. I danced it when I was younger and have gone to multiple seasons of our local professional ballet. But I found it really hard to get through the pages upon pages of descriptions of ballets in the book. The parts that talked about Balanchine the person were EXCELLENT. And yes, I know that his ballets are as a big a part of him as anything else, but I just felt like it could have been maybe a hundred or so pages shorter if there weren’t so much description of these ethereal dances. But the research level is astounding by the author.
• 
  June

  paint time with bodies
  no sin through dancing
  love his women, ballet is feminine....
  
  The book is a fealty to Dance (modern ballet) - through Mr. B (and history of 20th century) - transforms the transient and visual art form to lyrical and long lasting words.
  Though my upbringing was immersed with modern dance and theatre, I'd regretted not having lived in Mr. B's period to watch the original choreographies until now when I'm pleased to read this book.
  I haven't read dance nor music (along with literature and faith), esp. of esoteric form, being interpreted in such a poetic and profound way.
• 
  Bookworman

  DNF. The history of the ballets and the formation of the NYCB was really interesting. However, I started getting impatient with all of the dysfunctional relationship issues even though I was familiar with many of them before reading this book. I guess it didn't bother me so much when I was younger. Anyway, the final straw was a quote from Balanchine using really foul and disgusting language.
  
  
• 
  Laura

  An incredibly well researched and detailed book by Jennifer Homans. I took time to read and retain as much as possible - taking notes and researching some on my own. Balanchine is a complex artist and Homans does a phenomenal job of bringing to life his art, his dance, his lovers, and his dancers ! Just enjoyed my time with this book.
• 
  Sophia Luu

  I loved this book so much. I was always intrigued by George Balanchine and curious about his background. Homans has pulled from so many sources to make a riveting work about a human, but very divinely gifted, artist.
• 
  Marks54

  I really miss not being able to attend the ballet for some time due to COVID. Jennifer Homans is a gifted historian, the dance critic of the NYT, and former dancer herself who wrote “Apollo’s Angels” - a ;history of ballet. It is an amazing book that got me to go see Giselle. Her current book - Mr. B. is a biography of George Balanchine, perhaps the most legendary choreographer of the ballet and a cofounder of the American Ballet Theater. I do not always rush into long critical biographies, especially of such great artists. This is an amazing book, however, and it is doubtful that anyone could have written a more engaging book about Mr. Balanchine.
• 
  kerrycat

  would have been a five except for the author's extrapolations/speculations, which were often judgmental and definitely unwelcome
• 
  Angelina Schneider

  so well written. now i know everything
• 
  Patricia

  Jennifer Homans can describe a ballet with such clarity it is almost as good as being there. Reading her book, with its many detailed descriptions of Balanchine's ingenious dances made me hungry to watch them again, in person, in a theater. But the book is about much more than the dances themselves, which distinguish Balanchine's career.
  
  The biography covers his whole life, beginning with his brief happy childhood in a family whose mother, not exactly married to his father (he was already married, with another set of children), won the lottery and bought a house in Finland where Georgi and his siblings grew up. As he showed his ability in music and dance, he went to a military school in Petersburg Russia just as the revolution began. Georgi was without mother and father, and left to keep his wits about him until he could survive on something more than the dead rats left in the street. These years are harrowing to read about, and explain how Balanchine learned to carry on through many other crises, including tuberculosis.
  
  He was an artist formed by the history of Russia in the early 20th century, Paris, Weimar in the 20s, Diaghilev's support, and made money in Hollywood, but never lost his ambition to create something new. Part of what he created besides the dozens, even hundreds of dances, formed under a close and watchful eye over his ballerinas, was the company that survives to this day. New York City Ballet is a testament to his and Lincoln Kirstein's ability to take what they knew -- making ballets, organizing the company-- and establish a theater. Lincoln Center was new. The Ballet had its own building, with lights and seating according to Balanchine's wishes. Balanchine was always the dance master, instructing his company how to perform, and as a musician, tweaking the compositions to fit the movement of the dance.
  
  I confess I grew tired of his needing to be in love with his ballerinas to compose his great works. By marriage number five, and the introduction of Suzanne Farrell, 40 years his junior, I put the book down for a bit. Even though Balanchine was an undisputed genius, the complications of his flawed character could get to one. Still, I end up admiring him, even in his later years, as he accepts his own death, choreographing a final work better than any funeral, that ends with a small boy in a white blouse center stage with a candle, blowing it out, leaving the theater dark.
  
  That Peter Martins took over the company is a shame, but Balanchine did not have much business sense. He knew how to raise money, but not how to leave his legacy in the best hands. It is all fine now, as I attended a recent performance of the current company dancing three of his signature works, and they were all wonderful. The music was wonderful. Everything worked.
  
  This biography is deeply researched. I spent great patches reading the back matter, and only by reading the index at length did I find the chronological listing of the dances created by the master.
  Though I have not read any of the other biographies of Balanchine, I cannot imagine but that this one is definitive.
• 
  Jennie

  Mr. B, for those who do not know, is George Balanchine. Mr. B was a Russian born, American Ballet choreographer. He was know for discovering/making the major ballet dancers of the 20th century. He choreographed dancers like Jacques D'Amboise, Allegra Kent, Maria Tallchief, Arthur Mitchell, and Suzanne Farrell. Mr. B created the New York City Ballet.
  
  This biography will tell you all that and so much more. And I mean so much more. Homans goes into great detail about relationships (both romantic and professional) as well as very detailed descriptions or ballets that Balanchine created including ones that no longer exist.
  
  This is a very long biography that takes a lot of effort to get through. Part of the reason for that is that the book feels like two books, Balanchine the man and Balanchine's ballets. While some of these stories are not mutually exclusive the very detailed descriptions of the ballets bog down the story of the man causing the book to drag on. Now with that said, if you are a ballet fan, lover of Balanchine (although his ballets are not performed much anymore I do not think, after the closure of the Suzanne Farrell Ballet Company), or a fan of arts history you might enjoy this biography or at least parts of it.
• 
  Allyson

  I would recommend this doorstopper of a book to any Balanchine/ballet/NYCB fans. Despite having read many books about Balanchine previously I still learned more about key events such as Balachine's experiences during the Bolshevik revolution, his visits to Georgia, NYCB's first USSR tour, and more about his tumultuous relationship with Suzanne Farrell. The author's extensive research really comes through in this book. The chapter with extensive research into his collaboration with Stravinsky to create Agon is delightful.
  
  However, this book really felt more like a recounting of events than an in-depth exploration of Balachine's mindset. This made me think of the classic writing rule "show, don't tell". I wanted this book to be more like "Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins" where I felt I really understood who Robbins was as a person. I didn't get that same feeling from this book. I understand that was probably much more challenging for the author given that Balanchine didn't have a journal like Robbins. I found the quotes used from Lincoln Kirstein's journal throughout the book more of what I wanted from Balanchine.
• 
  reader

  Very uneven book saved by the fact that people in it are all very fascinating. Jennifer Homans is a racism, homophobia and misogyny apologist, an anti- Suzanne Farrellist, and actively seems to envy any woman that her subject was ever close to. Parts of this are so gratuitously cruel to Karin Von Arlingoen that it feels personal, and Gelsey Kirkland does not exist whatsoever, though Baryshnikov inexplicably gets a huge glowing airbrushed appearance. I am still moved by the people described but came away with the distinct impression the biographer is a cowardly, priggish, undercover white supremacist.
  
  Useful for interesting bits of gossip about Balanchine's private life. Learned a lot of new information about Paul Mejia. The descriptions for why Balanchine's dances are important were beautifully written. But the man deserved someone who was a better thinker than this author. I would have loved to see Ron Chernow have a go at Balanchine.
• 
  Bri

  Massive, incredibly detailed account of Balanchine's life - very readable despite its 600+ pages. It is a journey through some of the most events in 20th century history, and yet it doesn't lose its laser focus on the person of George Balanchine.
  
  Homans paints a portrait of a very human and idiosyncratic genius, and does so without judgment. This biography is probably not for those who would examine Balanchine's conduct (particularly those of a sexual/romantic nature) with 21st century standards. Homans does a good job bracketing that conduct (5 wives, lots of womanizing) in the context of his artistic philosophy, centered on elevating woman in dance.
  
  The writing is lyrical but not too rhapsodic, and Homans slips easily between evocative descriptions of ballet scenes and attention to Balanchine himself. There is a good balance between the art and Balanchine the man - an impressive achievement in a biography of this size.
• 
  Lukia

  Homans is a great writer and a sweeping biography of Balanchine is long overdue. There are some omissions: The Nutcracker, Who Cares, & Jewels—all his longest ballets—being one. I feel you also miss the innovation of his choreography. Maybe Homans feels it is not her point to make, but I could’ve used more examples of how he revised ballet for the American audience and invented a new way of moving. Let alone the sheer superiority of his choreography. I do also feel Homans wasn’t entirely forthcoming with the scope of Balanchine’s malevolence.
  
  However, I loved the early chapters about his childhood and later on, the great anecdotes about the company visiting Russia. The fact that I plowed through 600 pages and somehow laughed during some of it is a testament to the ultimate success of this biography. What a strange man!
• 
  Lauren

  This incredibly, incredibly detailed book delved deep into the life of arguably the man who brought modern ballet into the spotlight - especially into the Americas. Balanchine is the name one associates with ballet when one doesn't know much about it, and this book gave new life to the man behind (literally) the curtain. I grew up dancing ballet and Balanchine was always a mysterious figure who was always seen as impacting everything even after his death. This book was a heavily detailed but informative read. Some readers might find this too in-depth, and if that's the case they can skip around to parts that may interest them the most. A lovely read. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC!
• 
  Charles Stephen

  I got bogged down in this dense biography a couple of times, especially when Homans was describing in words a choreography of Balanchine's that I had not yet seen. Luckily, there were Youtube videos of many of these works that helped me appreciate her descriptions. There were some chapters so engrossing that they read like page-turners. Every aspect of this work paid careful, almost loving, attention to detail. Somehow, she even made Balanchine's precarious boyhood in Russia during the Revolution very readable and interesting to me. I am very glad I stuck with this book until its conclusion (around p. 615. Then there were 150 more pages of notes, bibliography, end matter, and an index.) Any aficionado of American ballet will want to read this book.
• 
  Kathleen

  I both loved and hated that I learned a lot of new things from this book…. Glad to see my childhood idol (Farrell) remained essentially untarnished for me; but also the author doesn’t seem to be much of a fan—described more than once as childish (used as an insult)—never mind the fact that she was essentially a child at the time. But I’ll take childishness over perversion any day—which abounds a plenty in this book, though thankfully not especially graphically. Balanchine is painted as even more deplorable a character than I already knew him to be, although I was interested to know more about his background.
  The pace and level of description in the book is uneven and I could have done without the author’s philosophical and religious takes.