Movie review -  Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse by Edwin Rutsch
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I signed up for Netflix.com. With this service you pay a flat $20 per month and can check out 3 DVD movies over the web at a time. They send the DVDs to your home via first class mail.  Because of this service, I've been seeing a lot of movies and documentaries - up to 20 a month! I especially keep my eyes open for videos that say something about inspiration. I saw a documentary called; Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse.  Suzanne Farrell is a ballerina who became the Muse of the choreographer George Balanchine of the New York Ballet.

In the video, one of Suzanne's dance partners,  Jacques D'Amboise,  talked about her moving into a heightened state of inspiration. He said of her dancing the dream sequence of  Don Quixote, "There is an example of complete abandonment and a demon. It's almost like, I always say, every once in a while you see a dancer, they transcend a person.  They become a conduit for a force, like the muse of dance, or the goddess of dance, using a person as a window, to express or communicate something. And that  person becomes transformed into something bigger than just the beautiful dancer."  He goes on to says he saw her do this several times.  The documentary had some actual video footage of this specific performance. Her dancing was quite amazing.   It's nice to have an actual example of someone dancing with this sense of inspiration. I thought it would be good to have a copy of this dance scene to watch when I'm feeling uninspired or just to sit and study.

Suzanne at one point said about George Balanchine, something along the lines of, "When we got together, he got younger, and I got older and we met in the middle."   I wondered what it  was about Suzanne Farrel that inspired George?  It was probably her dancing talent, beauty, and free spirited energy.  Combined with his knowledge and skill of choreography, they created a special "magic" together. 

George wanted to have a full sexual relationship with her, but she didn't want too since he was married. This eventually caused a falling out between them.  I think the subtitle of the documentary is the Elusive Muse, because George usually ended up having a relationship with his leading dancers and Muses. They talked about him liking to possess his muses.  Suzanne, however, eluded him.  Maybe George should have taken  Judy Collins' advice, "When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movie, talk to a friend, let go...  The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back!"  Would that have helped? Maybe a cold shower? Just a thought.

They did miss working together and 5 years after their falling out, they started to work together again.  However, the relationship changed to a more professional one.