Yvonne Patterson turns 100

[Spotswood]

Yvonne Patterson will celebrate her 100th birthday tomorrow. Yvonne was a dancer with Balanchine's company in the 1930s and took part in the premiere of Stravinsky' Jeu des Cartes in 1937. Today she lives in Flourtown, Pa. She swims every morning in the pool at Springfield Township High School, where a group of her friends threw a little party for her today, and where I interviewed her briefly and took her picture for the Sun.  (I was going to post her picture here, but the file was too big. You'll just have to wait until I find a way to knock out a few kilobytes.)
Of course, I had to ask her what Stravinsky was like, but he said she met him only briefly in rehearsal, and he didn't make much of an impression on her.
"I was meeting wonderful people all the time," she said. "He was just one of many."
She quickly reversed herself when she saw me scribbling in my notebook.
"Oh, don't write that," she said. "I don't like that. I won't talk to you if you write that."
She apologized for not being very specific about the past. A hundred years, she said, is a long time.
When I told her that Jeu des Cartes is one of my favorite Stravinsky scores, she didn't know what I was talking about.  I repeated myself, and she pointedly corrected my French pronunciation. I had pronounced the first word as "Zhoo," which apparently was what confused her.
Her life today is dreary, she said. She swims and tends her garden. Then suddenly she remembered she had to get home to look after her dog.
The disturbing thing is, she still drives. A couple of guys washed and waxed her car for her as a birthday present while she was in the pool.
"Well, for an old girl, it's not bad," she said when she saw it.
She could have been talking about more than the car.

[karlhenning]

(I was going to post her picture here, but the file was too big. You'll just have to wait until I find a way to knock out a few kilobytes.)

Have you got Microsoft Picture Manager?  'Tis an easy matter to save a copy at a reduced size.

[Spotswood]

Have you got Microsoft Picture Manager?  'Tis an easy matter to save a copy at a reduced size.

In a word, no.

[karlhenning]

You want to send me the pic and I'll perform the operation?

[Opus106]

ImageShack will do that for you.

Joe, thanks for sharing that experience. For a moment there, I was wondering what a wise man like you was doing working for The Sun until Wikipedia told me that there was another publication of the same name from Hummelstown, Pennsylvania.

[Spotswood]

ImageShack will do that for you.

Joe, thanks for sharing that experience. For a moment there, I was wondering what a wise man like you was doing working for The Sun until Wikipedia told me that there was another publication of the same name from Hummelstown, Pennsylvania.

My Sun is The Springfield Sun ... www.springfieldsun.com. I have no idea where Hummelstown is.

[Opus106]

My Sun is The Springfield Sun ... www.springfieldsun.com. I have no idea where Hummelstown is.

Oh. 

[Spotswood]

ImageShack will do that for you.

I don't know what you mean when you say image shack will do that for me. Do what? I see nothing to help me reduce the picture, though it did give me a way to link to it:

[Opus106]

I don't know what you mean when you say image shack will do that for me. Do what? I see nothing to help me reduce the picture, though it did give me a way to link to it:

Sorry about that. There's a link right beneath the 'Email (Optional)' field which states 'Upload Options/Resizing >>'. You can find a load of resizing options once you click that. Thanks for the photo, by the way.

[Spotswood]

Thanks for the photo, by the way.

And thanks for the advice.

[karlhenning]

Good work, lads!

(And I tried, you know . . . .)

[Spotswood]

Was looking through Elliott Carter's writings this morning and found a passage in which he states he was present at the premiere of Jeu de Cartes: so he saw Yvonne dance the role. He was also involved with Kirstein's Ballet Caravan, for which he wrote Pocahontas. Kirstein and Balanchine knew each other and collaborated, so I'm guessing he saw Yvonne dance on more than one occasion.