NYC Ballet forges the art form's future

The following script is from "The New York City Ballet" which aired on Nov. 25, 2012. Lesley Stahl is the correspondent. Ruth Streeter and Terry Manning, producers.

The New York City Ballet is America's largest and, some would say, finest ballet company in the world. The dancers are like the New York Yankees in tutus and tights.

They are artists and athletes at the same time and it is a marvel to see them up close, as you will tonight. Most of them are home grown in the U.S.A.

Full disclosure: I am a big fan and even served on the board of the New York City Ballet, which was founded in 1948 by the great choreographer George Balanchine. He revolutionized classical dance and ushered in a golden age as ballet master of the company.

Now, at a time when many cultural institutions are under stress, we went behind the scenes to see how this company is keeping this elegant art form alive.

The dancers at the New York City Ballet epitomize the beauty, athleticism, the seeming effortlessness and the grace of classical ballet. Saving it from becoming a dying art form has fallen on the shoulders of this man, Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of the NYC Ballet since 1983.

Martins teaches and trains. He's one of the Company's top choreographers, he oversees fundraising and marketing. If the ballet were the Yankees, he'd be both the general manager and the coach!

But when he first took the helm, just about everyone thought the ballet could not survive the loss of George Balanchine.

Lesley Stahl: How hard was it to be the ballet master after the great genius of all time? What kind of a burden was that?

Peter Martins: I felt an obligation, if that's the right word to try and take care of all the things he had done and he'd created.

Peter Martins: That if you didn't really commit yourself to preserve and protect, it'd fall apart. I thought, you know, "Somebody has to devote their life to this."

And so he has. He's managed not only to bring the company into the 21st century introducing new choreography, more than any other company in the world. He has also succeeded in sustaining the legacy of the great Balanchine.

What better person to preserve Balanchine than one of his favorite male dancers. Mr. B brought Martins to New York from the Royal Danish Ballet. And he became a star, linked romantically to one ballerina after the next. People used to go to the ballet just to see him. But Balanchine believed Martins' great value was showcasing his ballerinas.

Peter Martins: I took great pride in making her look better. It appealed to me.

Lesley Stahl: You once said you didn't even like performing that much when you were a big star.

Peter Martins: Yeah, I did not. It was not my great thing. I think it was sort of a strange shyness. You know, when you walk out of that wing, and you know there's 2,500 people looking at you, like, "Don't look at me."

Lesley Stahl: How interesting for a performer.

Peter Martins: Maybe that's why I liked to be behind the girl.

But being behind the girl didn't always mean that Martins liked the girl.

Lesley Stahl: You once said about ballerinas, "They're always bitches. They're all tough, merciless, self-centered."

Peter Martins: I was probably young when I said that.

Lesley Stahl: Well.

Peter Martins: I would be a little more moderate now. But it's fundamentally true.

But to be good enough to dance for Peter Martins' company a ballerina has to be driven a nd tough minded.

Peter Martins: The great challenge for a ballet dancer is to show the beauty and grace of ballet without showing the effort.

And for virtually all of the dancers in the company today that challenge started at the nearby School of American Ballet.

[Peter Martins: You guys are very good.

Kids: Thank you.

Peter Martins: You're very good now, but be careful not to be mechanical. Know what I mean by that? A little more elegant. You don't want to go...like this. But you want to be on the music. One, two, three, four, five, six. Perfect...perfect...perfect. OK, good luck.]

All but nine of the 83 dancers in the company are American from all over the country...and all of them have now been hand picked by Peter Martins.

They go to class every morning where they're drilled in the Balanchine technique - which is fast and a little off kilter.

They rehearse every afternoon, often with Martins working them and himself hard. And then they perform at night. They're at it more than eight hours a day, making them as fit as top athletes of any sport.

Peter Martins: We all cannot lose touch with the difficulties of mastering classical ballet to the extreme utmost beauty. It is such an impossible task. You will never attain it. And we know it. But you have to strive for it.

NYC Ballet, whose home is at Lincoln Center, is the mother ship for ballet in America. There are nearly 150 companies around the country; many of the larger ones run by alumni from here, but classical dance is suffering and so is the temple of Balanchine with attendance down considerably from his day. The audience is graying. Young people tend to see classical ballet as stuffy and inauthentic.

Lesley Stahl: But there's a lot of interest in dance. We have "Dancing with the Stars." People are watching more dance on television.

Peter Martins: Right. Right.

Lesley Stahl: But not ballet.

Peter Martins: I have a theory.

Lesley Stahl: What's your theory?

Peter Martins: Because the Soviet Union fell. The greatest popularity ballet had probably in history was when-- with Russian defectors. When Baryshnikov and Nureyev defected it gave it a mystery. When Baryshnikov danced for the New York City Ballet, we had sold out houses all the time.

The Russian defectors made ballet part of the Cold War, going to see them was going to see heroes. So what's Martins doing now to bring those big audiences back?

[Peter Martins: Ladies and gentleman can I introduce you to Sir Paul McCartney.]

If anything's going to attract a new crowd it'll be a Beatle. Martins commissioned Sir Paul to compose the music for a new ballet that he choreographed.

Paul McCartney: The most exciting thing for me personally was seeing the dancers start to bring the whole thing to life. You know, it's kind of goose bumps time. It's like, "Whoa."

We were there when he came for a rehearsal of "Oceans Kingdom," a fairy tale about two lovers separated by an evil king.

Paul McCartney: People kiss in ballets? They do? It's OK then.

Opening night onstage, there's the fairy princess and the evil king with his henchmen. It's a night with leaps of fantasy and a happy ending, sort of.

Lesley Stahl: You go to Paul McCartney, which was partly to bring in a new audience, and you're criticized for it.

Peter Martins: Did you think that I thought I wasn't going to be?

Lesley Stahl: Did it work?

Peter Martins: Oh, it packed the theatres. Absolutely it worked.

Lesley Stahl: But the critics. Oh my God, Oh my God. I mean here's what some critics said about the McCartney piece.That it was a gimmick and that you were just pandering to the audience to bring him in here. They say that your ballets are unemotional and unexciting.

Peter Martins: So?

Lesley Stahl: It hurts.

Peter Martins: When you say "hurts," that would suggest that you always think that they know better, that they know what they're talking about. What matters really is what you think.

Lesley Stahl: Balanchine said that ballet is woman.

Peter Martins: Well, he preferred women, but he knew he needed us.

Promoting the male dancers is part of Martins' push to woo young people with his own young dancers like 25-year-old Robbie Fairchild who, the night we were there, was making his New York City debut in Balanchine's masterpiece, "Apollo," a role Martins made famous. Fairchild has wanted to perform it since he was the only boy in his ballet school.

Robbie Fairchild: I came from Utah, so God help you if you told people you did ballet. And I got, like, you know, razzed for it. But it's kind of, if you love something so much no matter how s- how much someone teases you for it, you gotta follow it.

Moments before the curtain went up, Robbie was still rehearsing for his performance in "Apollo."

Robbie Fairchild: Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. I had a year leading up to this moment just thinking about this role. It's the one thing I was like, "God, I want to do that so badly."

Apollo is a physically demanding role of jumping and leaping. And it calls for strength and stamina.

After 20 minutes of non-stop exertion, Robbie gets his first break backstage and collapses.

Robbie Fairchild: You come off, you have to just basically fall asleep for the little chance you have so that when you got back you can have as much as you can.

Lesley Stahl: You looked as though you didn't have another ounce left in you.

Lesley Stahl: And then you got up and went out and looked fresh, looked calm.

Robbie Fairchild: I think I have to make myself go in a complete opposite of how I feel.

[Robbie Fairchild: Thanks guys.

Peter Martins: You did beautiful.

Robbie Fairchild: Thank you very much.

Peter Martins: You did really beautiful.

Robbie Fairchild: Thank you.]

But two minutes later, Martins is correcting his performance.

[Peter Martins: You just need to show if it's like this. It doesn't show much.

Robbie Fairchild: That I can do.

Peter Martins: Just a little bit.

Robbie Fairchild: Thank you very much.

Peter Martins: You did beautiful.

Robbie Fairchild: It was a lot of fun.]

Lesley Stahl: You could see it on your face. You were just so pleased. And pleased for him. And two minutes later you're correcting something he did.

Peter Martins: Well, it's my job.

Lesley Stahl: No, but here he did this brilliant thing.

Peter Martins: You mean I could have waited till the next day? Well, this is-- that's a good point. But it's what I do.

What he does is push his dancers, worry about the future of ballet and occasionally take a bow.

Peter Martins: Doesn't mean we're perfect every night. But God, look at the dancers. Look how often we dance. Look at the pleasure we give 2,500 people every night. There's a lot to be proud of.