d'Amboise was one of the brothers in
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and in movies (sometimes uncredited) and TV shows in the '50's and '60's when he'd take leave from NYCB to film. Balanchine had worked in Hollywood and Broadway in the '30's and '40's, and while he wasn't thrilled to lose a tall partner, often at the last minute, he understood about the money. d'Amboise was in a number of ballets that were aired on TV, and some were later released on DVD, including "Jacques D'Amboise: Portrait of a Great American Dancer," which had some rare footage.
Dance boom or not, he was far wider known in the NY area for his National Dance Institute program in the NYC public schools and for having police participate. They performed at the Felt Forum (part of Madison Square Garden) at least in the early years, with 1000 kids onstage. The great dance director Emile Ardolino directed the award-winning documentary, "He Mades Me Feel Like Dancing", about NDI and there were lots of local news stories at the time:
Winner of the 1984 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, this uplifting film captures the joy with which world-famous ballet dancer Jacques d'Amboise c...
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The Kennedy Center Honors segment gives a snapshot of his career and highlights his solo from Carousel:
National Dance Institute (NDI) is a non-profit arts education organization founded in 1976 by ballet star Jacques d'Amboise, who received America's highest c...
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Balanchine created so many roles for d'Amboise and cast him in just about all of the iconic ones. Plagued by knee injuries, he was out more and more towards the end of his career, which ended in 1984, the year after Balanchine died, but Balanchine created an auto-biographical partnering/dramatic role for d'Amboise in one of his very last ballets, Robert Schumann's Davidsbundlertanze (which is on film), in which d'Amboise chased Balanchine's last muse, Suzanne Farrell, nearly 30 years after Balanchine created Meditation, in which d'Amboise chased Balanchine's last muse, Suzanne Farrell. But he partnered every great female dancer in the company for decades, and with his small pick-up companies, he'd tour the country with young dancers, giving them invaluable stage experience and opportunities -- Merrill Ashley writes wonderfully about it in her book -- and he also did lecture demos at schools and local arts series while he was dancing.
He came to Seattle in 2014, when he was nearly 80, to coach "Diamonds," and while he joked about his physical condition throughout this public coaching session, snippeted at the following link, his engagement and energy were infectious:
Artistic Director Peter Boal has invited the original interpreters of George Balanchine’s Jewels to coach PNB dancers for the Company’s revival of the 1967 m...
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It was his book, "I Was a Dancer," though, that shows the reasons he should be made a posthumous member of FSU: it was full of snark and dish and energy and insight, and it opens with pithy chapters about his
paternal maternal, Quebecoise grandmother, ETCorrect: and "The Boss." (his mother).