critics needed to make sure that people understood gerald arpino is a b-rated choreographer and george balanchine is "a." woman: what gerry arpino did was he took the classical vocabulary and he then stretched it in a way which was very american and very modern, to be more exaggerated to be faster to be more dynamic. it was really trying to find a way to hold onto that tradition of classical ballet but to give it that modern american sensibility. kisselgoff: the thing is that, he choreographed for the moment. he was of his time. some works died very soon, but some did not. weiss: gerry was an eclectic choreographer. he didn't really have one style. at that time, ballet was the conservatory and i think by breaking out of that, he probably threatened some people, and also, frankly, there were moments when he went overboard. mckenzie: i always had a love/hate relationship with gerry in the studio. in retrospect, he broke down a "holier-than-thou" approach to ballet that i had. he said, "come on, baby, you can't be precious about this. you've just got to get down, get physical," you know. and i wasn'