Word: darci
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That, of course, is what show biz calls star quality. Darci's precocious fame is not without precedent: at City Ballet, Patricia McBride, Suzanne Farrell and Gelsey Kirkland all came to prominence at about her age. Still the clamor for Darci has surprised the company-which promotes its repertory rather than its stars-and Balanchine. He has forbidden interviews with her. Darci's career is only a few months old, yet her parents are already beset by promoters who are seeking endorsements. That's how fast a new sunbeam travels...
...Darci took on her first major parts in Europe last summer while the company was on tour. In the current New York season, she appears in Bizet's Symphony in C, Raymonda Variations, Valse Fantaisie, Walpurgisnacht and Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3. Of these, the lyrical adagio in the Bizet is the most difficult, demanding regal presence and an enigmatic, almost witchy sexiness. But Darci is a very young princess, and the other quality is still beyond her. Nor did it help when, on the second night, a bodice seam split down to the waist. Darci went right on with...
Within City Ballet, Darci Kistler has been watched closely since her first school workshop performance. During rehearsals for her final student appearance in Swan Lake last May, she had a hip injury, but danced "full out" the whole time. Says a friend: "She covered the pain for two hours every afternoon. It was sheer determination." Says Irina Kosmovska, who began teaching Darci in California when she was eleven: "Darci was a fountain of energy. She tried everything. She was one of my most intense students-she would commit suicide on the floor...
...Darci's grit-required of dedicated ballet dancers-showed up early. Her father is a successful Riverside, Calif., doctor, her mother a former French teacher. Her four big brothers were all wrestling champions. Just to keep pace, recalls a friend, "she had to be one tough little girl." The family supported her ambitions, driving her regularly to a studio two hours away in Beverly Hills. Three years ago, about the time that the decision to go to New York had to be made, her mother took her to a high school football game and told her, "Darci...
...Bizet's Symphony in C becomes more fluent each time she is onstage. Unquestionably she is helped not only by Balanchine but by a younger mentor, her partner Sean Lavery, who is all of 24. Before, Lavery was an elegant dancer and a dutiful partner. Working with Darci has made him an ardent and vigilant one. He talks to her as they perform. If he finds signs of developing nerves like a stiffening body or a tendency to move off the beat, he will mutter, "It's O.K." or "Better hurry up." Says Lavery: "I am struck...