On Stage, She Has Many Partners but at Home, Suzanne Farrells Star Is Husband Paul Mejia. In 1. 96. 9 when she fled the New York City Ballet for the Maurice Bjart company in Brussels, Suzanne Farrell became dances first American political defector. The politics, though, were office and sexual. Suzanne was at the time the reigning favorite of the NYCBs artistic director, George Balanchine, who had married five of his previous protgesamong them, the lustrous likes of Danilova, Zorina and Tallchief. Watch Center Stage: On Pointe Tube Free' title='Watch Center Stage: On Pointe Tube Free' />Farrell was to be No. Catholic. Then, unexpectedly, Suzanne married a fellow NYCB dancer, Paul Mejia. Just as suddenly, he seemed to lose any opportunities for advancement as a soloist with the company. For Farrell to forsake her rising New York career for the patently less promising future of her man in Belgium would be somewhat comparable to Senator Javits resigning his seat so that Marion could continue to flack for Iran Air. The disparity in prominence between Mr. Mrs. Mejia is all the more apparent now that they have reconciled withand returned toBalanchine. Paul, 2. 7, is no longer associated with the company and teaches at Skidmore College in Saratoga, N. Archive On Stage, She Has Many Partners but at Home, Suzanne Farrells Star Is Husband Paul Mejia. By Jim Jerome. Posted on February 16, 1976 at 1200pm EDT. Y. with Melissa Hayden, a former NYCB ballerina. Suzanne, meanwhile, at 3. Balanchines nonstar universe, not to mention in the world. Critics acclaim her technique and spontaneity, and one simply called her, the sexiest lady in ballet today. Reign Season 2 Episode 9 Free Online. But Farrell is not the marquee name she could have been with, say, the American Ballet Theatre. In justifying her choice Suzanne explains You must decide which is more importantbeing a star or dancing with the worlds best choreographer. Farrell is an old school ensemble person not only in her art but in her marriage, which has glided smoothly despite their uneven success. They can joke about their 1. Extraordinarily supple, she towered over Paul when she went pointe though at 58 he is an inch taller. Of that one time they danced together professionally, Mejia says, I replaced somebody who replaced somebody else. But I handled her. I tossed her around like a salad, though I kept missing her hand. Suzanne interrupts You did lift me well and you partnered me well. They have not danced together again. Mejia admits he has been fixated by her height since they appeared in a production of The Nutcracker as students at Balanchines School of American Ballet. You were a small boy, she recalls. And you, he answers, played an angel, a taller, older angel. Suzanne got hooked on dance at 1. Cincinnati called Roberta Sue Ficker. Main Street Canonsburg, PA 15317. Southpointe Town Center 7244852026. Open 7 days a week. MondayThursday 11 am to 10 pm, Friday 11 am to 11 pm, Saturday. Find internships and employment opportunities in the largest internship marketplace. Search paid internships and part time jobs to help start your career. She changed her name in 1. At 1. 5, she was moved to New York by her mother, a divorced nurse, along with her older sister, a promising piano student. A year later, she joined the NYCB and within two years was a soloist. I dont regret not going to proms and doing the regular things, Farrell reflects. I had my ballet and thats what I wanted. Kids today know too much. A certain amount of fantasy is good to be creative. Paul discovered dance in his native Peru, where, he recalls, I had to sit through my sisters classes. I figured, why not try it It soon became addictive. His mother, a dance teacher named Romana Kryzanowska, brought Paul to New York to study, like Suzanne. He graduated to the NYCB at 1. Twice at draft physicals I was told to see a shrink when I said my occupation was ballet. Its awful, being a ballet dancerhomosexual or notto be insulted like that. Ballet attracts its wrong types, who just want to be in tights, he concedes, but its not prissy. You must have tremendous power and stamina. Its quite manly. Indeed, the life of a dancer borders on cruel and unusual punishment. The chronic pain and injuries at the NYCB probably exceed those in the NFL. Ballet absorbs most of the Mejias waking life, from daily 1. Suzanne comes home all keyed up after a performance, seven nights a week, and twice a day on weekends. Most of their friends are in the business, says Paul, because only dancers really understand what we go through. The Mejias rarely go out on their occasional free evenings. Instead they prefer to be alone in a handsomely furnished duplex near Manhattans Lincoln Center. Watch The Warrior`S Way Download'>Watch The Warrior`S Way Download. Though she trains harder than comparable superathletes like Joe Namath, Farrell is nowhere near his financial ballpark. I can never hope to make a lot of money, she says. But I only need enough for cat food she has nine and the apartment. Union stagehands get much more for pushing a button than what most dancers get. Demanding performance schedules all but preclude vacations for Suzanne and Paul. Between this years NYCB winter and spring seasons, she will take off for guest appearances in South Africa, and then in Alabama, Texas and Florida. But in summer they do manage to sneak away to a cabin on their two private islands totaling less than three acres which are joined by a bridge, on a lake in the Adirondacks. A family, Suzanne believes, must await her retirement. It would not be fair to be so busy and so nervous about performing and then take it out on a child. When does a ballerina call it quits Peaking, says Paul, means only physically. Emotionally, you continue to grow after the knees and back start to go. I once had to dance a ballet in which my lover and I were separated, Suzanne continues the thought. As he meditates I suddenly reappear. I had never been in loveexcept in ballet. So I did the steps the way I thought it might be. Watch The Battle Of The River Plate Online (2017)'>Watch The Battle Of The River Plate Online (2017). But you cant rehearse emotion. Then, her voice trails off as she fixes her blue eyes on Paul, I grew older and got married. I feel I can do that dance better now, years later, because I have truly had that feeling.