Behind the Scenes: Super David

It might have been a sign, though. As a businessman, he discovered a love for ballet. But it wasn’t until he retired from the corporate world that David could say that he appeared with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

As a supernumerary.

That means a person who is not a member of the company, but who participates as an extra in performances, to fill out a cast on a big stage like the Benedum Center. You know — a villager in Giselle, a party goer in The Nutcracker, a member of the court in Swan Lake.

What makes this unusual is that David celebrates his 90th birthday today. He looks 20 or 30 years younger — slim, much like Fred Astaire, with warm, dark eyes and a ready smile.

Dorrit and David with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre soloist Corey Bourbonniere

When he talks, it is with the utmost modesty and a dash of self-deprecation thrown in for good measure. Utterly charming.

Let’s pick up when he was general counsel and secretary of Aristech Chemical Corp., part of U.S. Steel. His assignments took him to the Amazon in Brazil, which has the largest iron ore deposits in the world, and exotic Indonesia for a nickel project.

But it was on a flight from New York to London that he met his wife, Dorit, a Pan American stewardess. She was also from Denmark. So it was through her that he saw his first ballet, the Royal Danish, one of the world’s premiere companies

“What a fantastic experience!” he exclaims. As a child growing up, he had enjoyed the Pittsburgh Symphony and Pittsburgh Opera. But it was ballet that captured his heart.

“I think it was the athleticism — it was so precise and enjoyable,” David muses over the phone from his home in Fox Chapel. And when Aristech sent him to London a few more times, he and Dorit took in the Royal Ballet there.

After they married, they enjoyed viewing it all over the world — Paris and Toronto among them. And spanning the United States, with the likes of companies in Chicago, Miami, Seattle and San Francisco.

David has a quiet conversation with Melanie Crockard (upper right corner) while Alexandra Kochis performs as Giselle.
Photo: Rich Sofranko

In the meantime, David retired in 1995. By the next year, he chose to focus on two non-profits, one a child abuse agency, the other PBT, of course, “in order to keep occupied.”

It turned out that artistic administrator Robert Vickrey helped him make the “leap” to the stage as a supernumerary at age 65. “It’s so much different being onstage than in the audience,” he says of his debut. “You see everything when you’re onstage and you can feel what’s going on.”

David can recall an incident where another supernumerary made him laugh during Giselle’s death scene, but “fortunately no one was looking at us.” Don Quixote is another favorite because “we’re on stage when some of the best dancing takes place.”

La Bayadere was the most challenging. “Here I was, a senior member, prancing around the fire. It was hard to keep up.”

Because he enjoyed that ballet so much, David and Dorit were able to see Bayadere in London several times. Ironically he saw PBT’s new artistic director, Susan Jaffe. “I can’t wait to tell her how much I appreciated her performance.”

And I can’t wait to see him back on stage.

Now, David, a selection of “Dance Through the Decades,” so that you can see how ballet got better, just like you!

1930s Anna Pavlova

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZunuLRTPfc0.

1940s and 1950s Tanaquil LeClerq

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgKUfLLALJ4.

1950s Margot Fonteyn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgFPBkiTjfI.

1960s American Ballet Theatre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m098YJmLZ4.

1970s Royal Danish Ballet with Peter Schaufuss