NEW YORK CITY BALLET CELEBRATES HOMECOMING REUNION FOR FORMER MEMBERS.

It was huge. In concept, in organization, and in no end of exuberance. Former members of New York City Ballet greeted each other with joy, squeals of recognition, excitement, and remembrances--some happy, some sad. The homecoming reunion, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of NYCB as a company, was held on a dark-theater night, November 22, 1998, at the New York State Theater. More than eleven hundred people attended, including two hundred and fifty former dancers of the company, who came from as far away as Korea to mark the debut date of the company at the City Center Theater in 1948.

There were silent, personal moments, too, as memories of tours and lovers, hurts and disappointments intruded upon the ConVersations. All were quickly dissolved in the loud music, in the surprise performance of a quirky takeoff on Balanchine's ballets, and the arrival of a four-tiered birthday cake, as confetti and streamers poured down on the promenade level.

Opening night of NYCB's fiftieth season, November 24, 1998, found the alumni in the fourth ring of the New York State Theater watching the repeat of the first program at City Center from 1948--Concerto Barocco, Orpheus, and Symphony in C. One could expect the current dancers to be nervous with an audience of former dancers so familiar with the roles. Many of the dancers in the reunion group found the changes in the choreography and the casting disappointing. This underscores a fact that we have all learned--all things change with time. For better, sometimes, or for worse.

In honor of Tanaquil Le Clercq, the epitome of the Balanchine dancer, the program opened with photographs, footage, and audio of the ballerina's past and included a film clip of the late Jerome Robbins praising her. Ballet master in chief Peter Martins led the audience in a vodka toast, a ritual initiated by Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein at the Stravinsky Festival in 1972. A program finale ended with all the former dancers onstage greeting the audience as the audience greeted them through a shower of balloons and gold paper confetti.

Although some former dancers are still performing elsewhere, most have blossomed in other careers: four are physical therapists; one is a chiropractor; forty-four are teachers; seven are ballet masters or ballet mistresses; fourteen are artistic directors of their own companies; one is a professor of psychiatry; three are psychologists or counselors; one is an organic farmer; one is a horse trainer; several have written books.

Will they keep in touch with each other now that they have reunited? Or will they remember each other as they still are--no longer as young, but still beautiful and talented?