Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) Dancing Ballets by George Balanchine to Polkas by Igor Stravinsky

The idea of ballet-dancing elephants came from the entrepreneurial mind of John Ringling North (August 14, 1903 – June 4, 1985), as:

• Junior-year dropout from University of Wisconsin and Yale University, 1924;
• New York stock broker, 1924 – 1926, 1929 – 1936;
• Salesman at Uncle John Nicholas Ringling’s (May 31, 1866 – December 2, 1936) real estate company, Sarasota, FL, 1926 - 1929;
• Heir of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows Inc., 1936-.

John always considered audience preferences and staff capabilities. He helped his five circus owner-operator uncles holidays, summers, and vacations by tackling everything, from popcorn sales to tax records. He identified animals as key attractions. Their entertainment, military, and transport feats inspired his making elephants center-ring attractions.

John Ringling North accessed George Balanchine (January 22, 1904 – April 30, 1983). George boasted dance, piano, and theory expertise from:

• Imperial Theater Ballet School, 1913-;
• Petrograd Conservatory of Music, 1920-;
• State Academy of Opera and Ballet, 1920-.

He danced with:

• State Theater of Opera and Ballet, 1921-;
• Principal Dancers of the Soviet State Ballet touring troupe, 1924;
• Serge Diaghilev’s (March 31, 1872 – August 9, 1929) Ballets Russes, 1924 – 1929.

He had choreographed for:

• Monaco’s Ballet Russe, 1930 – 1933;
• School of American Ballet, 1934-, and American Ballet, 1935-, with co-founder Lincoln Kirstein (May 4, 1907 – January 5, 1996);
• Metropolitan Opera, 1935 – 1938;
• Broadway musicals, 1936-;
• Hollywood films, 1938-;
• American Ballet Caravan touring South America, 1941, with co-founder Lincoln.

George Balanchine enlisted Igor Stravinsky's (June 17, 1882 – April 6, 1971) help. The young Igor had completed St. Petersburg’s law school program. But he had decided upon a career in composition after:

• The death of his bass opera-singing father Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky (June 20, 1843 – December 4, 1902);
• The realization of an apprenticeship with orchestral master composter Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (March 18, 1844 – June 21, 1908).

He then had determined the course of twentieth-century music with:

• Russian romanticism in Symphony no. 1 in E Flat, 1905 - 1907;
• Russian expressionism in The Firebird, 1910;
• Musical modernism in The Rite of Spring, 1913;
• Neo-classicism in The Rake’s Progress opera, 1951;
• Serialism in the 12-tone writing of Requiem Canticles, 1966.

George Balanchine choreographed Igor Stravinsky’s composition for:

• 50 ballerinas;
• 50 elephants.

Eva Brigitta Hartwig (January 2, 1917 – April 9, 2003) headed the ballerinas. But excepting friends and husband George Balanchine, nobody knew Brigitta as such. Brigitta let her name stand while:

• Attending Berlin’s Lyceum for Girls;
• Enrolling in Nikolai Legat’s (December 30, 1869 – January 24, 1937) and Olga Preobrajenska’s (February 2, 1871 – December 27, 1962) dance classes;
• Performing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1929, and The Tales of Hoffmann, 1931.

But Sergei Diaghilev and Léonide Massine (August 9, 1896 – March 15, 1979) persuaded Brigitta to perform as Vera Zorina in Monte Carlo’s Ballet Russe in 1933. As Zorina, Brigitta received a seven-year Hollywood film contract in 1938.

The Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) Modoc (1897 – 1975) headed the pachyderms. She held circus superstar status because of:

• Acute senses;
• Astute observation;
• Native intelligence;
• Natural grace.

She learned quickly and retained permanently because of Walter McClain’s (1898? – 1942) understanding of:

• Elephant skill sets;
• Tear and wear of concrete on pachyderm feet bottoms.

Walter took Modoc and the other 49 elephants through all the paces despite initial pachyderm confusion over and resistance to musical dissonance. He was considered one of the most beloved and successful of modern elephant trainers. It was deemed a great personal loss and professional tragedy when Walter died from the impact of a runaway wagon during the circus train’s reloading in Jacksonville, Florida.

George Balanchine and Zorina became acquainted with the elephants at John Ringling North’s winter quarters. The Greatest Show on Earth exited Sarasota, Florida in April 1942. Arrival in Madison Square Garden two days later preceded countrywide repeat performances of:

• Modoc circling while lifting each foot one by one before waltzing with Zorina;
• Modoc and Zorina grazing the blue sawdust-covered ring with their foreheads while bowing;
• Modoc lifting Zorina into her curled-up trunk;
• Zorina stroking Modoc’s eyelid and scratching a front foot’s sole.

Modoc’s and Zorina’s dance was succeeded by all 50 elephants:

• Chain-marching;
• Dancing with all 50 ballerinas;
• Resting front feet on another elephant’s back;
• Swaying trunks in musical time;
• Using trunks to hold onto another’s tail.  

Asia is the homeland of elephants such as Modoc even though their earliest known ancestors come from sub-Saharan Africa. Wildlife-loving amateurs and professionals on both continents know of ancient and modern elephants’ love of the arts. Elephants like to use their trunks to:

• Arrange pebbles;
• Retrieve sticks to sketch in the sand;
• Sway with music.

People in Asian cultures preserve memories of elephants dancing in forest clearings. Rudyard Kipling’s (December 30, 1865 – January 18, 1936) The Jungle Book recalls such traditions in the story of Kala Nag and rhythm-stomping elephants. Sustaining domesticated and wild populations will give us more chances to ascertain how closely George Balanchine’s and Igor Stravinsky’s Circus Polka communicates the real dances of elephants.

In memory of Raja the Baby Elephant on the Indonesian Island of Sumatra and with respect for Raju the Elderly Elephant in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

circus scion John Ringling North (right) with wildlife collector/hunter Frank Howard Buck (March 17, 1884 – March 25, 1950)
Frank Buck, All in a Lifetime (1941): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buck_ringlingsm.jpg

Ringling Circus choreographer and director of ballet of elephants George Balanchine in Sarasota, southwestern Florida: April 1942 portrait by Joseph Janney Steinmetz (October 7, 1905-September 6, 1985)
Joseph Janney Steinmetz Collection, State Library and Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, northwestern Florida: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons@ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Ringling_Circus_choreographer_George_Balanchine.jpg

Portrait de Stravinsky (Portrait of Stravinsky): 1918 oil on canvas by Robert Delaunay (April 12, 1885 – October 25, 1941)
German Ryan Collection, The New Art Gallery Walsall, West Midlands, west central England: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Delaunay_-_Portrait_of_Stravinsky.tif

AllPosters image of Vera Zorina
*moved image to bottom with Amazon products
*Replaced with:
Prelude to George Balanchine's choreographing and directing elephant ballets and Vera Zorina's ballet dancing with elephants
George Balanchine and Vera Zorina in rehearsals for Warner Brothers musical On Your Toes (1939)
Dec. 23, 1939, photo/Hulton Archive: Beautiful Ballet @BeautifulBallet, via Facebook Jan. 23, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/BeautifulBallet/posts/341620279653160

On November 11, 1942, terrorized by barking dogs while awaiting the cue for trio pachydermous act with Judy and Empress, Modoc bolted, seeking refuge first in Bradley Brothers drugstore, where the smell of roasting peanuts lured her.
mural of Modoc free ranging in city of Wabash: painted by Indiana muralist Kenny Martin on Bradley Building, first site visited by Modoc during her six-day self-guided tour.
Modoc's Market, 205 South Miami Street, Wabash, Noble Township, Wabash County, north central Indiana: Holthouse Family (Gisele_Holthouse), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/holthouse/7576511180

Elephant whisperer Walter McClain (1898? - November 25, 1942) taught ballet steps to Modoc and her 49-member pachydermous troupe.
Trainer Walter McClain and his elephants at the Ringling Circus, Sarasota, Florida: ca. 1940 photo by Joseph Janney Steinmetz (October 7, 1905-September 6, 1985)
Joseph Janney Steinmetz Collection, State Library and Archives of Florida, Tallahassee, Florida Panhandle: No known copyright restrictions, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/8429975814/

"The Greatest Show on Earth presents 50 famous elephants with beautiful girls in an original ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky, staged by George Balanchine": 1942 poster by Edward McKnight Kauffer (December 14, 1890-October 22, 1954)
via AllPosters @ https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Circus-Poster-1942-Posters_i16367166_.htm

In Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book story of "Toomai and the Elephants," seeing dancing elephants is supreme confirmation of handler's bravery and skill: such a rarity was achieved by Walter McClain and George Balanchine.
"There are great cleared flat places hidden away in the forests that are called elephants’ ball-rooms, but even these are only found by accident, and no man has ever seen the elephants dance." (p. 518)
Rudyard Kipling, The Two Jungle Books (1895), opp. p. 506: ". . . he made Kala Nag lift up his feet one after the other.": Not in copyright, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/twojunglebooks00kipl/page/507/mode/1up

Elephant Family. "Baby Raja" (0:39). ~ Afterword: "Baby Raja died all alone, chained to a tree, crying out for his mum." YouTube, June 20, 2013, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8iLDJwXmoI

PatrynWorldLatestNews. "50 years a Slave: Raju The Elephant Cried Tears Of Joy After Being FREED" (8:51). YouTube, July 7, 2014, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhrjTFSDqTU

Modoc historical plaque commemorates Modoc's six-day self-guided tour of Huntington and Wabash counties.
The other side of Modoc's historical plaque remembers Thomas Fletcher Payne (August 23, 1826-May 26, 1918), who constructed the original building, renovated in 1920 as the New Bradley Brothers Building, where Modoc sampled food in 1942.
southeast corner of West Market Street and South Miami Street, Wabash, Noble Township, Wabash County, north central Indiana: Holthouse Family (Gisele_Holthouse), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/holthouse/7576522836/

amm019. "Tribute to Modoc" (7:58). ~ musical and poetic tribute to Modoc (1897-1975) by Ralph Helfer (born April 9, 1931), animal trainer, safari leader, and writer whose California ranch was final haven for Modoc. YouTube, September 14, 2009, @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy8d1tJSWW4

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