Word: gelsey
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...world can match. Consider last week's second world premiere, John Neumeier's Hamlet Connotations. Hamlet was played by Mikhail Baryshnikov, who with every performance is proving himself not only a wonderful classical dancer but also a superb actor. Ophelia was his frequent partner, the elfin Gelsey Kirkland. Gertrude was danced by Marcia Haydee, prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet, who is appearing for the first time with A.B.T. this season. Denmark's Erik Bruhn, in his prime a great danseur noble, was Claudius...
...second act of Swan Lake. It was a strained performance but also a tender portrayal of the Swan Queen, and the audience gave her nearly 20 minutes of cheers and bravas. For those in search of novelty, there was a first look at a potentially exciting new partnership. Gelsey Kirkland was dancing, for the first time ever, in a showy pas de deux from Le Corsaire, with that ubiquitous guest artist Rudolf Nureyev. All smoldering fire, Nureyev and the ethereal Gelsey, a lass with a very delicate air indeed, looked well together, and the audience loved them...
Just three weeks ago, Gelsey Kirkland, 22, stepped onstage at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center. She was dancing her first Giselle, the role that is the ultimate test for a ballerina. When the curtain came down, Kirkland was established as America's newest prima ballerina. She evoked memories of Makarova's lyrical lightness and the authority of Plisetskaya. But her speed is her own. Gelsey on points flies like a swallow...
...doll with huge blue eyes fringed with black lashes. Her face reflects the determination to survive in a profession that allows no respite: "If I miss one day of dancing, I can feel it." At age 15, after she had entered George Balanchine's New York City Ballet, Gelsey developed tendinitis. By the time Mr. B. selected her to dance in Firebird two years later, dancing had become unbearably painful. "I had forced a great deal." She almost gave up. Instead, in an effort comparable to Rubinstein's retraining himself at age 45, Gelsey re-evaluated her technique...
Leaving Balanchine for the rival A.B.T. was a wrench, but Gelsey has matured fast. Immersing herself in long romantic ballets has made her stage personality stronger. But what really gives Gelsey's dancing the sense of surprised delight is her energy. That was what first brought her to Balanchine's attention. Surveying a class of eleven-year-olds, he told them to do a step "with great energy." Gelsey was so sprung she fell flat. "That's right," beamed Mr. B., and he skipped her a whole division...