Word: johnna
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When she was three, the Kirklands moved to an apartment on the West Side of Manhattan. There, Jack decided that both girls should be prepared for a life in the theater. He took a special interest in Johnna, whose easygoing gregariousness matched his own. "I was my father's child," says Johnna, "and Gelsey was my mother's child." The younger daughter's obsessiveness taxed a mother's patience. First it was ice skating. Tummy sticking out and a frown on her large face, Gelsey learned to whirl around the Wollman rink in Central Park. "She had no fun doing...
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...
...Johnna was already there. Jack Kirkland's death two months after Gelsey's 16th birthday momentarily brought the sisters together but did not dampen a long-simmering rivalry between the two. Gelsey's determination to be a better dancer than anyone else definitely included Johnna. Soon the sisters did not speak. Balanchine apparently did not help matters. Johnna remembers him asking Gelsey, "Why can't you do an adagio like your sister? Go home with your sister and have her teach you how to do an adagio." Johnna was told to learn jumping from Gelsey. The result was predictable. Says...
Gelsey was to give Johnna plenty of opportunities to grieve. When she was 17, Balanchine devised a version of Firebird for Gelsey. The work took advantage of her speed and youth. "I didn't want a woman," Balanchine explained. "I wanted a bird, one of God's natural creatures." But Gelsey had created a story to prepare herself for her role. "I don't think Balanchine wanted me to do that," she says, correctly. Balanchine's bird was intended as just that, a pure figure of form and movement. The production was a rare Balanchine stumble. Critics blamed...
...question of what Gelsey does when not involved with dance formerly evoked an immediate response: When is that? Now she finds time for friends. She and Johnna, a principal dancer with the Los Angeles Ballet, are on easy if not intimate terms. Schafer lives nearby, and the two regularly dine together. Since both must watch their weight, they order separate appetizers and share a single main course. The new Gelsey has learned to like being naughty, at least once in a while. What does she do when she wants to feel wicked? "I just come home, eat a few good...