Streaming file 1, October 11, 2022 (approximately one hour and 35 minutes). Kay Mazzo speaks with Robert Greskovic about the origins of her nickname Kay, her place of birth (Chicago, Illinois), and the fact that she was adopted at nine months of age; her (adoptive) family's background and her childhood homes in Rogers Park and Skokie; her parents including her exposure to music through her father's love of opera and her mother's playing of the violin and piano; beginning ballet lessons at a local ballet school with Bernadine Hayes; her summer taking class with Edna McRae; her daily schedule including dance class six days per week; her first experiences seeing ballet in performance including George Balanchine's The nutcracker performed by the New York City Ballet on tour; reminiscences of how Vida Brown, Betty Cage, and Carrie [Caroline] D'Amboise used to practice Tai Chi; auditioning successfully for Balanchine's The nutcracker on tour in Chicago; her memories of watching Act II from the wings; reminiscences of how Balanchine worked with her and the other children; seeing the New York City Ballet perform Balanchine's The firebird and [Lew Christensen's] Filling station, the latter with Jacques D'Amboise; an anecdote about her reaction upon seeing the Royal Ballet and Margot Fonteyn perform [Michel Fokine's] The firebird; her mother's unwavering and uncritical support of her dancing; her two summers at SAB (School of American Ballet); some of her teachers including Melissa Hayden, Stanley Williams, and Felia Doubrovska; when she was 13, moving with her parents to New York to study at SAB fulltime; (briefly) her impressions of her teachers including Anatole Oboukhoff, Muriel Stuart, and André Eglevsky; Williams' pas de deux class where she was partnered by Edward Villella; (briefly) reminiscences of Natasha Gleboff and Natalie Molostwoff; life in New York City with her parents during this time; the extent to which she was aware of Balanchine's presence at the school including an anecdote about Balanchine, Doubrovska, and Doubrovska's dog; (briefly) Gloria Contreras; some of the dancers she saw in Williams' class including Allegra Kent; Lincoln Kirstein's focus on the company rather than the school; auditioning at age 15 for Jerome Robbins' company Ballets: U.S.A. including the large pool of applicants; Balanchine's approval of her dancing with Ballets: U.S.A. for the summer; the dancers' schedule including daily class followed by rehearsals; an anecdote about Robbins' apologizing for how slowly he choreographed; touring in Europe beginning with Spoleto (Italy); some of the dancers and administrative staff on the tour including Susie [Susan] Borree; performing in Robbins' Afternoon of a faun in Paris; John Jones; after the European tour performing for two weeks in New York City; an anecdote about Lucia Chase trying to hire her away from New York City Ballet for American Ballet Theatre and Robbins' advice to stay; returning to SAB and Rhoades (her high school) in September; joining New York City Ballet in 1962; her parents' differing attitudes toward her choice of career; Robbins' detailed and tireless coaching of her in Afternoon of a faun; her perception of how the older dancers in the company viewed her and the other younger dancers; reminiscences about Balanchine's company classes including an anecdote about being told to stay in the back; Balanchine's dissatisfaction with the way the male dancers waltzed in Le valse; her feeling that (as a dancer with New York City Ballet) she was in the best place she could be.
Streaming file 2, October 12, 2022 (approximately one hour and 48 minutes). Kay Mazzo speaks with Robert Greskovic about classes she took in addition to company class including jazz dance with Arthur Mitchell and tap dance with June Taylor; Balanchine's company classes including the reasons she found them so difficult; the studios at [New York] City Center where company class was held; more about Robbins' coaching of her in Afternoon of a faun including his emphasis on the narcissistic gaze of the dancers; her feeling that current performances of Afternoon of a faun and Robbins' N.Y. export, opus jazz are more dramatic than Robbins would have liked; names Igor Schwezoff and Thomas Abbott as two of the company class teachers at Ballets: U.S.A.; tells a rehearsal anecdote about Balanchine's [Stravinsky] violin concerto; reminisces about some of the roles she performed during her early years in the company including John Taras' Shadow'd ground and Mimi Paul's role in Balanchine's La valse; her role in the courant sicilienne of Balanchine's Don Quixote in 1965; John Prinz, her first partner in The nutcracker including Balanchine's telling him not to drop her; more on Don Quixote including Balanchine's disappointment with the music; performing in the corps of Balanchine's Allegro brillante as a ballerina's dream; Merce Cunningham's Summerspace including the rehearsals with Cunningham; her promotion to principal; her shock when Suzanne Farrell left the company; Robbins' Dances at a gathering including the long and exhausting rehearsals and an anecdote about Villella; her confrontation with Robbins about having to dance in Dances at a gathering the same night she was in Swan lake; her role in the Valse melancholique of Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Suite no. 3 [Theme and variations]; Conrad Ludlow as her partner in this ballet and others; an anecdote about Sean Lavery, her partner in Midsummers' night dream; how Valse melancholique is now performed with more dramatic affect than in Balanchine's time; Robbins' In the night including the costumes; Tony [Anthony Blum], her partner in this ballet; the challenge of learning and performing certain roles with Jacques D'Amboise as her partner, in Diamonds [from Balanchine's Jewels] and Balanchine's The firebird; Balanchine's support and encouragement of her in these roles; performing in Balanchine's Movements for piano and orchestra for a Canadian television production; D'Amboise as a choreographer; dancing Balanchine's Agon, with Arthur Mitchell as her partner including an anecdote about Millie [Melissa Hayden]; reminiscences of Mitchell dancing Agon with Diana [Adams]; her approach to her role in Balanchine's Apollo; why she likes the birth scene, later dropped by Balanchine; the Stravinsky Festival (1972) including why she found her pas de deux in Stravinsky violin concerto awkward at times and her suggestion that Peter Martins (rather than D'Amboise) partner her; confirms that Balanchine had described Martins' arm as being like an elephant's trunk; Balanchine's Duo concertant including the costumes; Balanchine's Scherzo à la russe; Balanchine's Donizetti variations including the costumes designed for her and Villella; Balanchine's Square dance including how Bart Cook came to dance in place of Peter Schaufuss; Balanchine's PAMTGG" (Pan Am Makes the Going Great); Chopiniana [also known as Les sylphides; choreographed by Alexandra Danilova after Michel Fokine] including being rehearsed variously by Danilova, Frederick Franklin, Taras, and Balanchine; Balanchine's Union Jack including why she admires this ballet so much; the Merry Widow [the Gold and silver waltz section from Balanchine's Vienna waltzes]; Balanchine's taking D'Amboise out of the ballet because he had trouble waltzing; an anecdote about Lincoln Kirstein's instructions to her about her stole; the beauty and simplicity of Vienna waltzes.
Streaming file 3, October 12, 2022 (approximately one hour and 40 minutes). Kay Mazzo speaks with Robert Greskovic about her longtime residence, Lincoln Towers, and Dorchester Towers where she lived with her parents; what the neighborhood was like when she first lived there; Balanchine's ballet Robert Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze including its underlying mood of sadness; her partners including Adam Lüders and Ib Andersen; the sheer variety and number of her roles as her "favorite role"; (briefly) Balanchine's Scheherazade; her husband Albert Bellas including how he became involved with the School of American Ballet (SAB); how they met (as she understood it) with Balanchine's approval; the combination of factors including the birth of her son Andrew that led her to retire from New York City Ballet; her transition to teaching; Balanchine's generosity including his bequest to her of Duo concertant; Balanchine's very light guidance with respect to her teaching: in effect, "just teach what you know"; after her second child, Katherine (Katie) was diagnosed at 13 months with Type 1 diabetes, taking a leave from teaching in order to care for her; Andrew's three years at SAB and his roles in The nutcracker including an anecdote about his classmate Macaulay Culkin and Culkin's father; her daughter Katie's time at SAB and roles in The nutcracker; how the relationship between the staff at SAB and the children's parents has changed over time; the significant commitment of time required of parents whose children are in The nutcracker; Lincoln Kirstein's deep concern about the future of SAB in the post-Balanchine era; Kirstein's support of Peter Martins in his role as director of the company; the factionalism in the SAB board including unsuccessful efforts to remove Kirstein; the AIDS crisis and the toll it took on the company; Joe [Joseph] Duell and his suicide; in the wake of Natasha Gleboff's retirement and Williams' death, becoming co-chair of the faculty; after Martins left, becoming chair; her belief that Martins was the only person who could have successfully led the company at the time he became director; her and Martins' having more or less the same standards as to which teachers they thought were a good fit for SAB; some of the challenges Martins faced as the director of the company; her feeling of greater closeness to the faculty and their concerns now that she is a teacher compared to when she was an administrator; some of her responsibilities and challenges when she was an administrator; the annual SAB workshop performances; more on Scherzo à la russe; SAB and diversity including outreach efforts; how the written syllabus for the children's classes at SAB came into being; her thoughts on Sara Mearns' performing a work created by Justin Peck for Anthony Huxley; some upcoming projects; Darla Hoover, her successor as Chair of Faculty; her current commitment as a fulltime teacher (four days/week) at SAB; names the classes at SAB beginning with "girls, one through five"; an anecdote about Huxley, now a teacher at SAB.