TV REVIEW : ‘Dancing for Mr. B’ Celebrates Balanchine on PBS

Rich in anecdote, emotion and insight, “Dancing for Mr. B.: Six Balanchine Ballerinas” illuminates the careers and personal lives of major artists to get at something larger--the creation of American masterpieces and a company to perform them.

Directed by Anne Belle, the 90-minute PBS “Dance in America” telecast is scheduled tonight at 9 on Channels 15 and 24, at 9:30 on Channel 28, Sunday at 9 p.m. on Channel 50.

Interviews with Mary Ellen Moylan, Maria Tallchief, Melissa Hayden, Allegra Kent, Merrill Ashley and Darci Kistler trace a 40-year history of American dance from before the founding of New York City Ballet to the present, post-Balanchine era.

But there’s more: intimate details about working (and living) with Balanchine, plus discussions--often illustrated with vintage films--that help isolate the components of Balanchine’s style.

Tallchief calls Moylan “the first great Balanchine dancer” and, indeed, Moylan’s memories of the 1940s--”pioneering days for the ballets of Balanchine across the United States”--convey a sense of wondrous discovery.

Beyond recalling her marriage to Balanchine, Tallchief speaks candidly about how he reshaped her as a dancer to suit his choreographic needs. Hayden talks of the evolution of a New York City Ballet physical type (“elongated, like a racehorse”) and both women are very eloquent when remembering how Balanchine’s interest turned away from them to younger dancers.

Kent’s unsparing self-appraisals are even more intense (“At times, I was too out of this world”), dramatizing the conflict between a private life and a dance career that Tallchief also cites.

Ashley celebrates Balanchine the teacher, emphasizing the elements of “exaggeration and repetition” in his classes. And she summarizes his creativity in the most direct terms: “He just took everything that he saw and used it to his advantage to get more from us.”

Kistler proves especially valuable when describing Balanchine as coach (“What he ended up doing was always giving me myself”). Each of these women highlights a facet of Balanchine’s genius that helps us see even his most familiar ballets more clearly.

Not merely recommended, but indispensable: enlightening for dancers and audiences alike.