Glen Tetley

When did the dance come into your life?

I never knew that there was such a thing as professional dancing. I never knew that there was um a world of of theatrical dancing. Until I was 18 years old. ... I had enlisted in the US Navy ... and I was involved in in my pre-med studies. And I saw American Ballet Theatre do a performance of Anthony Tudor's Romeo and Juliet and well it was extraordinary to me. I wanted to be part of that world knowing it was probably too late.

What happened [with your studies and the Navy]?

This was during the Second World War, and I didn't have much choice about not staying with the Navy. I finished my pre-med and I was then sent on to Columbia Medical School, and the war ended. They gave me this choice whether I wanted to go on as a civilian or enlist for a further ten years and become a Navy medical officer. And in the interim, making up my mind and being in New York City, I began to take some dance classes and knew then I would shift the whole thing, that I thought, well, I will become a dancer.

Who did you study with?

If I can tell this story briefly, the incredible thing was that I had one or two lessons, I had no money. I went down to a theater where Jerome Robbins was uh putting together a show called On the Town. To borrow money from a singer I knew who was in the show, and Jerry Robbins saw me there and he said, Are you auditioning? and I said, No. I knew I had not enough technique. He said, Well, you look like a good type. So. He said, Come and do this and I did a few movements and he said, Give him a contract. Uh he not only gave me a contract, he he gave me a solo role in the show.

Was your main interest in dancing at that time purely modern? Had you the intention of studying classical dancing as well?

Well, actually I started in classical. My first lessons were with a Russian teacher named Helen Platova and in classical dance. It was a teacher that Jerome Robbins had been studying with and he sent me to her and she was a wonderful, marvelous woman, very eccentric, very eccentric, very choreographic. But starting so late, I felt I had more security going into contemporary.

When did you change your mind [about wanting to be a choreographer]?

It came about gradually. ... I had um been with American Ballet Theatre as a principal and uh with Drum Robins Company and uh I decided I was going to stop performing. I took an entire year off. I refused any contracts ... But uh a friend of mine, a a young friend of mine in New York, offered to give me the money to do my own concert ... and I spent a year choreographing four ballets ... and uh it was nineteen sixty one that I I really began choreographing.

How long did you work on [The Tempest]?

It's been a long time. I I've never put this much work into any single project. The Schwetzingen Festival gave me the commission for it four years ago. ... Arna [Nordheim] and I began three years ago actually breaking the Tempest down into scenes and discussing how it should be done. ... I said, From you I want a really beautiful musical structure and then I can make the choreographic structure from that. And that's the way we've worked.