"Two Masters Met-A Double Whammy1

BETWEEN rehearsals and performances of the Stravinsky Festival at Manhattan's Lincoln Center last week, Choreographers George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins talked with TIME'S Rosemarie Tauris about the great Russian composer whose work they were honoring.

Why was Stravinsky so important for the ballet?

BALANCHINE: He invented a modern rhythm for us. That kind of music is exactly what makes us move right. You see, a dancer cannot invent his own time; a composer can. He can write the rhythms slowly and then divide them. The human body cannot do that. We need an exact time to set our different types of movements. That intrigued Stravinsky immensely, and he invented new balletic time for us just as Tchaikovsky did in his day. If Tchaikovsky had not invented this wonderful little time of music, ballet would probably have gone in a different direction. There probably would not be any ballet. Only Delibes, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky composed in this balletic way. I must say also Verdi. You can dance Verdi from beginning to end.

ROBBINS: One of the things that appeals to me tremendously about Stravinsky's music is what I call the motor. There is always a pulse, a tremendous motor going that is attractive to dance to. It almost carries you, takes you along with it. It's almost irresistible. I always feel there is architecture and strength, there is no fat on his work. It is not bulging over his girdle. It is absolutely lean, as essential as it can be. And it's never sentimental, though it is moving.

How did you and Stravinsky work together on ballets?

BALANCHINE: Take Orpheus. I went to Hollywood and we talked about it. Stravinsky would ask, "What do you want to see?" I said, "Well, I suppose Orpheus will be in the middle of the stage looking down." "O.K.," he said.

Sometimes Stravinsky liked to do the end first. He said, "I woke up this morning and I had an appetite for the end, when Orpheus dies." I also often do the finale first. Then I know where I'm going.

But Stravinsky and I never spent much time talking about music. It went very fast. "Do this, this, this." That's all. Mostly we spent our time drinking. He would come to the door with a bottle in his hand and say, "Everyone must have Scotch. It's the best drink in the world." Then later when he rearranged his stomach and drank Bordeaux, he would say, "Everyone must drink Bordeaux." So I spent a lot of time drinking with Stravinsky, and we talked Russian about this and that.

How did Stravinsky influence the world of dance?

ROBBINS: Largely through Mr. Balanchine. This is not to deny Stravinsky's early works, which were tremendous. Ballet was changed immediately by his rhythms. But when Balanchine began to compose extensively to Stravinsky's music, the influence deepened. There is not a choreographer who has not been influenced by Balanchine. So two masters met, and it has affected the whole body of the art they are involved in. It was a double whammy, the combination of Balanchine and Stravinsky.

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