Broadway, Balanchine & Beyond: A Memoir

In this memoir of a roller-coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet’s greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years.

Sills recounts her years as a child actor in television and on Broadway, a career choice largely driven by her mother, and describes her transition into pursuing her true passion: dance. She was a student in Balanchine’s School of American Ballet throughout her childhood and teen years, until her dream was achieved. She was invited to join New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet and worked her way up to the level of soloist.

Winningly honest and intimate, Sills lets readers peek behind the curtains to see a world that most people have never experienced firsthand. She tells stories of taking classes with Balanchine, dancing in the original casts of some of his most iconic productions, working with a number of the company’s most famous dancers, and participating in the company’s first Soviet Union tour during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis.

She walks us through her years in New York City Ballet first as a member of the corps de ballet, then a soloist dancing some principal roles, finally as one of the “older” dancers teaching her roles to newcomers while being encouraged to retire. She reveals the unglamorous parts of tour life, jealousy among company members, and Balanchine’s complex relationships with women. She talks about Balanchine’s insistence on thinness in his dancers and her own struggles with dieting. Her fluctuations in weight influenced her roles and Balanchine’s support for her—a cycle that contributed to the end of her dancing career.

Now a professor of dance who has educated hundreds of students on Balanchine’s style and legacy, Sills reflects on the highs and lows of a career indelibly influenced by fear of failure and fear of success—by the bright lights of theater and the man who shaped American ballet.

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"It tells Sills’s story from young childhood to her current role at Purchase College (staging, among other works, revivals of many Balanchine pieces), with the bulk of the book treating her time at City Ballet."

-- Helen Shaw, The New York Times (2019)

"Sills doesn’t explain how she learned to be a ballet teacher and coach. But copying and correcting are an essential part of a dancer’s life in a big ballet company; the smart ones can learn a lot, even if they don’t plan to make it their career. This book is the story of a girl growing up, who finds her independence without losing her ideal."

-- Marcia B. Siegel, The Art Fuse (2019)

"There are moments of humor, particularly in what the dancers said among themselves. For instance, one passage of Serenade where they repeatedly touch their foreheads is called the 'aspirin dance.'"

-- Wendy Perron, "Notable Dance Books of 2019" (2019)

"Sills’ story does not have the struggling artist “hook” but that is what makes it interesting. Her success is due to hard work. And her failures sometimes occur in spite of her hard work. Her memoir allows us to see the person behind the artist."

-- Nicole McClam, Journal of Dance Education (2019)

"[A] memoir by a dancer who attained a level of prominence, but who was never a household name in the ballet world, provides a unique perspective. Sills’s recollections of her personal interactions with Balanchine are a valuable addition to Balanchine history and lore."

-- Meghan Race, Los Angeles Review of Books (2019)