Word: ballets
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...Endearment, would win an Oscar, and so would she; that her book on spiritualism, Out on a Limb, would become a bestseller; that a revamped version of her nightclub act would score a hit on Broadway. Anything can look possible to a woman who once danced an entire ballet on a broken ankle. But that almost greedy welter of ambitions might have seemed outlandish if it had been voiced in public by an actress whose early glory had faded in bad films and a scattershot career and who had said that politics or travel or a search for self-awareness...
...never stopped studying dance, and her first heartbreak in life came when she grew too tall for the title role in the Washington School of Ballet production of Cinderella. On the advice of her teachers, Shirley at 16 shifted to musical comedy and traveled to New York City where she tried out for a production of Oklahoma! that toured the boroughs. She was cast as the center postcard girl in the ballet by a director who addressed her as, "Hey! You with the legs...
There are plenty of ballet jokes, but they work for non-fans too. The dancing master who instructs the ugly stepsisters starts his lesson with the opening phrase of Balanchine's Theme and Variations. The girls are played by male dancers (Johan Renvall and Thomas Titone) performing, Tchikaboumskaya-style, on pointe. In the ballroom scene, Renvall even tosses off some free-swinging fouettes, a bow to the legendary Pierina Legnani, who stunned St. Petersburg in 1893 by doing 32 fouettés in Cinderella...
Though the choreographers cooperated on all aspects of the piece, Baryshnikov's mark is on the corps de ballet work in the ballroom scene, and he has clearly progressed since the tame groupings in the Nutcracker seven years ago. Prokofiev's waltzes are drenched in melody, yet edged with dark, thrilling shivers, and the choreography exploits their almost crude drama...
...truth this is the Prince's ballet-call it Prince Charming? Cinderfella?-and in an enterprise that seeks to shed conventional trappings, that may not be all bad. It should be noted that in his squabble with the A.B.T. board, Baryshnikov insisted that his presence onstage should not be counted upon for fund raising, so he must take satisfaction in producing a solid hit in which he has not yet appeared. But even if he never dances the role, Baryshnikov's offhand drollery and mildly subversive comic presence animate the part. This Prince is not a romantic sufferer...