Frederic Franklin

Tuesday, 13 June, was the 92nd birthday of Liverpool native Frederic Franklin, CBE, a man of a thousand gifts, among them a photographic ­memory for choreography, music, names, and other elusive details. Recently, he was described by a prominent dance administrator as having “the ­greatest memory of anyone in dance in the 20th century,” and you can look it up, too.

Franklin has left extensive evidence on videotape (in his many reconstructions and coaching sessions for The George Balanchine Foundation), on audiotape (in “The Franklin Library,” cosponsored by the Balanchine Foundation and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts: a 41-transcript oral history of his career, from his first job as a chorus boy in
Paris for Josephine Baker), and in films (such as “Ballets Russes,“ the ­touching and successful recent documentary by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller).
A favorite of Léonide Massine, Franklin was a star for 20 years with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (1938-58), where he created major roles in ballets by Massine, Balanchine, and Agnes de Mille (he was the original Champion Roper in her Rodeo) and served as partner extraordinaire of Alexandra Danilova. He has been a ...