Word: balletic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Kirkland mugs like a trouper, perfectly attuned to the broad style of "classical vaudeville" that Baryshnikov chose for his tribute to this sturdy war horse of Russian ballet. When she is in the presence of Gamache, the unwanted suitor pressed upon her by her father, her eyes roll in exaggerated disdain. She transforms her snapping fan into an épée to prod this fopling across the stage and out of her sight. Her face flares in coquettish outrage at brash Basil's proffered kisses; she singes and melts at the same time. When she is onstage with the demented...
...pure dancer in Gelsey could be seen last week when A.B.T. opened its New York season with a new production of Balanchine's Theme and Variations, a ballet as precise as Don Q is broad. David Howard, one of Gelsey's two current instructors, describes the challenge: "Theme requires diamond sharpness, tremendous speed, a glittering technique. The Balanchine style is small, sharp, quick footwork." Gelsey's performance was in the way of a reprise. When she first conquered the ballet's fiendish demands at 17, she gave notice that she could do anything. Nothing she does now suggests otherwise...
Nobody stood over little Gelsey with a knife and forced her to have aspirations. All accounts agree, including hers: she did it to herself. John Clifford, director of the Los Angeles Ballet company, knew the young Gelsey and was not entirely charmed. "Gelsey was born mad at the world," he says. "She was born ready to kill." Former Dancer Meg Gordon, one of Gelsey's few close friends, remembers the same thing in softer focus: "Even when we were little, her mother used to joke about it, saying, 'You must have come out of your mother's womb marching...
Next came horseback riding, at summer camp in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Johnna had begun taking dance lessons at the prestigious School of American Ballet. An idle observer at first, Gelsey was soon trying steps in front of a mirror. Weiss remembers her as "the little sister who always hung around and got in the way." Before too long, Gelsey decided that Johnna's way belonged...
...recalls her tryout for the School of American Ballet with amusement she did not feel at the time: "I believe that I had a black leotard on, red tights and saddle shoes. I had a huge stomach, teeny little legs and this tremendous head. The teacher came up to me and lifted my leg to see how limber it was. I was desperately holding on to the barre, and the foot I was standing on went right out from under me. I was so tight, so really unsuited for dancing." Admitted to the school despite her pratfall, she renounced skates...