George Lee, 88, sits calmly behind a blackjack table, dealing cards — a job he has been doing for more than 40 years at the Four Queens Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
It's like what I was doing in 2022, when filmmaker Jennifer Lin was examining old photographs at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, wondering what had become of a dancer with a prominent place in ballet history. A publicity photo for the original production of “George Balanchine's The Nutcracker,” in the role known as Tea, featured a young Asian dancer, George Li.
For Lin, the image raised intriguing questions. In 1954, when the photo was taken, it was rare to see dancers of color on the stage of the New York City Ballet. Who was this young man, this pioneer?
Just over a year later, Lin completed a short film, “Ten Times Better,” which tells the unexpected story of Lee's life: from his childhood in Shanghai in the 1940s, where he began his career in stage; to a refugee camp in the Philippines, where he fled with her mother, a Polish ballet dancer, in 1949; to New York City and the School of American Ballet, where Balanchine cast him in “The Nutcracker”; to “Flower Drum Song” on Broadway, the first of many musical theater appearances; and finally, to Las Vegas, where he left dancing to devote himself to the blackjack table in 1980 (he changed the spelling of his last name in 1959, when he became a US citizen).
The film recently premiered at the Dance on Camera Festival at Film at Lincoln Center in New York. Lee was in the City for the occasion.
“I haven't done ballet in many years,” Lee said. “And suddenly Jennifer arrives and she tries to bring everything up. “For me it was like a shock.”
By age 12, Lee was earning public praise. In a preview of a recital in Shanghai, the North China Daily News called him an “extremely promising young Chinese, whose technique is of a very high level.”
During World War II, Lee's father, a Chinese acrobat, was in Kunming, western China; he died in an accident on the way to visit Lee in 1945. Lee's mother, Stanislawa Lee, who had danced at the Warsaw Opera, was his first ballet teacher.
Fearing the Chinese Communist Party's seizure of power in 1949, the two headed to the Philippines. In 1951, an American friend of Lee's father sponsored them to go to New York, where he introduced Lee to the School of American Ballet, the school affiliated with the New York City Ballet.
Before emigrating, his mother issued a warning. “You go to America, everyone is white, and you better be 10 times better,” she remembers her telling him. “Remember that: 10 times better!”
Lee danced in “The Nutcracker” as a student; he was never invited to join the New York City Ballet. To make a living, he turned to musical theater, with roles in shows like “Baker Street” on Broadway.
He was in his 40s when a blackjack dealer friend suggested he go to dealer school. “I can't dance my whole life,” he remembers thinking.
In retrospect, Lee said he was grateful, above all, for his mother. “It makes me feel better to look at the sky and say, 'Look, mother, now you see what's happening, what you did for me,'” he said.
“I haven't done ballet for many years. And suddenly Jennifer arrives and she tries to bring everything up. “For me it was like a shock.”
By: SIOBHAN BURKE
THE NEW YORK TIMES
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7113230, IMPORTING DATE: 2024-02-13 23:48:04
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