Click on images with the play arrow to hear interview highlights

Jillana

Edward Villella

Francia Russell

Kent Stowell

Arthur Mitchell

Carol Sumner

Merrill Ashley

Barbara Bocher

Suki Schorer

Jacques d’Amboise

Florence Fitzgerald

Heather Watts

Terri Lee Port

Kay Mazzo

Bart Cook

Violette Verdy

Gloria Govrin

Stephanie Saland

Barbara Weisberger

Patricia Wilde

Helgi Tomasson

Catherine Morris

Victoria Simon

Yvonne Patterson

Victoria Bromberg

John Clifford

Karin von Aroldingen

Daniel Duell

Elise Ingalls

Maria Calegari

Virginia Rich

Robert Barnett

Joysanne Sidimus

John Prinz

Sandra Jennings

Marjorie Bresler Thompson

Giselle Roberge

Colleen Neary

Janice Cohen Adelson

Judith Friedman Kupersmith

Irene Larsson

Lorna London

Delia Peters

Adam Luders

Helene Alexopoulos

Garielle Whittle

Stacy Caddell

Robert Maiorano

Lynne Stetson

Steven Caras

Susan Gluck

Shawn Stevens

Darla Hoover

Christopher Fleming

Diana White

Afshin Mofid

Vida Brown

Helen Kramer

Conrad Ludlow

Yvonne Mounsey

Shaun O’Brien

Lisa de Ribere

Frank Ohman

Bettijane Sills

Toni Bentley

Peter Naumann

Nancy Reynolds

Carole Divet

Deborah Wingert

Christopher d’Amboise

Elizabeth Geyer

Nanette Glushak

Gloria Contreras

Joy Williams Brown

Pauline Goddard

Anne Crowell

Arlouine Case

Edwina Fontaine

Barbara Milberg Fisher

Edith Brozak

Jennifer Nairn Smith

Andrei Kramarevsky

Dianne Chilgren

Nancy Lassalle

Perry Silvey

Marcia Dale Weary

Sheila Rozann

Barbara Sandonato

Hilda Morales

David Hays

IBC Digital Archive

a work-in-progress

with generations of dancers and others who worked with him

50 Interviews

of exclusive studio footage

50 Hours

The In Balanchine's Classroom Digital Archive is an essential resource for anyone interested in the life and work of George Balanchine. Dance is an art memory, and In Balanchine's Classroom captures the memories of so many of the dancers who worked directly with Balanchine. We should be grateful to Connie Hochman for undertaking this vital oral history.

— JENNIFER HOMANS

Historian and Dance Critic
Author of Apollo's Angels: A History of Ballet
Founder and Director, NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts

The IBC Digital Archive is a precious and historical resource that reveals in the dancers’ individual voices what it was like to dance and work for George Balanchine. While there are common denominators in their experience, each viewpoint offers distinct memories and interpretations. This unfathomable treasure trove of 100 interviews, with its range of perspectives, gives a richer and more complete insight into Balanchine’s teaching, his impact on his dancers as artists and people, and the golden age of American ballet.

— MERRILL ASHLEY

Balanchine Ballerina and Repetiteur for The George Balanchine Trust

In Balanchine’s Classroom is a revelation. The vivid stories and memories of how George Balanchine taught and created as recounted by his dancers are priceless parables to be savored and learned from by generations to come.

— DAMIAN WOETZEL

Former Principal Dancer of New York City Ballet
Artistic Director of Vail Dance Festival
President of The Juilliard School

George Balanchine's contribution as a teacher, choreographer, and director is one of the great achievements in the history of art. His legacy is precious to me. From my boyhood training with Patricia McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux, to my time as a dancer with New York City Ballet, my life has been enriched by Mr. Balanchine's dynamic and expansive vision of ballet. The In Balanchine's Classroom Digital Archive is where so much of that vision is recorded. I trust it will educate and inspire for generations to come.

— SILAS FARLEY

Choreographer, Educator, and Former New York City Ballet Dancer
Dean of Dance at The Colburn School

It is an impossible dream of mine to be able to work with Mr. Balanchine. The In Balanchine’s Classroom project will give me a chance to know what it was like to be the experiment that his genius explored. Hearing from his dancers makes this work not only a great teaching tool but a way for Mr. B’s legacy to live on forever.

— SARA MEARNS

Principal Dancer with New York City Ballet

Balanchine’s own dancers teaching class & staging his ballets across the United States and parts of Europe

Please help make the IBC Digital Archive work-in-progress a reality

meet the director

Connie Hochman

Connie Hochman was a professional ballet dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet where she performed many of George Balanchine’s masterworks. As a child in the 1960s, Connie trained at the School of American Ballet and danced alongside the New York City Ballet, with Balanchine at the helm. During these years, she witnessed a profound bond between the master and his dancer-disciples, which continued to inspire and fascinate her. Decades later, a desire to understand more led Connie on a mission to solve a mystery: what exactly happened in Balanchine’s classroom, where he developed the dancers and the dancing to serve his choreographic vision? In 2007, Connie began interviewing former Balanchine dancers to explore the phenomenon of his classroom. Their remembrances form the basis of IN BALANCHINE’S CLASSROOM.

Have Questions About The IBC Digital Archive?

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