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Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is an American ballet dancer, and one of the best classicists of her generation. Kirkland was reportedly inspired to dance by watching a performance of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age fifteen, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was promoted to soloist in 1969 and principal in 1972. She went on to create leading roles in many of the great twentieth century ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Antony Tudor. These include Balanchine's revival of Firebird, Robbins' Goldberg Variations, and Tudor's The Leaves are Fading.

She joined the American Ballet Theatre after meeting Mikhail Baryshnikov, who would become her perennial partner. She was practicing when she received a phone call from Baryshnikov's entourage asking whether she would like to dance with him. ^[1] She is perhaps most famous to the general public for dancing the role of "Clara" in Baryshnikov's 1977 television production of The Nutcracker. She left the ABT in 1984.

Books

In 1986, Kirkland, with then-husband Greg Lawrence, published Dancing on My Grave, a tell-all autobiography detailing her struggles with eating disorders and drug addiction. Her second autobiography, 1990's The Shape Of Love, dealt with her move to England to dance with the Royal Ballet, her attempts to get a fresh start with her first husband, and her return to ABT with a clean slate and a fresh outlook of life itself.

Current career

Kirkland has since departed from the stage (and divorced her first husband), but now coaches younger dancers. She coached dancers at Classical Ballet Academy of Ballet Minnesota. She currently lives in Australia, but spends some time in New York, with her second husband, dramaturge Michael Chernov, who was also with the ABT. In 2006, she was awarded the Dance Magazine Award.

She is currently a member of the guest faculty at the Broadway Dance Center in New York City, a guest artist at STEPS on Broadway, and has recently choreographed (with Chernov and ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie) a new production of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, in which, after a more than twenty years absence from the stage, she danced the role of "Carabosse, the Wicked Fairy".

Trivia

• Baryshnikov called her "The best ballerina of her generation".
• Had professional and romantic relationships with Mikhail Baryhsnikov, Peter Martins, Patrick Bissell, among others.
• Dear friend of Royal Ballet members such as Anthony Dowell and Patricia Georgeson.
• She appeared as guest artist with the Royal Ballet 1980-86.
• Her father was Jack Kirkland, a renowned playwright who penned the adaptations for "Tobacco Road" and "Torilla Flat."
• Her sister Johnna Kirkland took ballet at the School of American Ballet herself. Johnna Kirkland also danced with the New York City Ballet.
• Had lots of cosmetic surgery—her earlobes trimmed, her nose reduced, silicone in her lips and breasts as well.
• Among her injuries throughout her career, she broke her foot, had a hairline fracture, and her feet swelled up due to lack of proper circulation from pointework.
• Refused the role of Emilia Rodgers in The Turning Point. Even made herself sick to avoid working in the film, citing she wanted "no part of Hollywood."
• Was on the May 1, 1978 cover of Time.
• Edward Villella described her as having "steel-like legs that are doing the most fantastic technical feats while the upper body is soft and lovely as though nothing were going on underneath" in Time magazine.
• Balanchine rechoreographed his version of Stravinsky's The Firebird specifically for her.^[2]

References

1. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919577,00.html
2. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919577-5,00.html

Further reading

• Kirkland, Gelsey, and Greg Lawrence. Dancing on My Grave. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1986 (ISBN 0-385-19964-3).

• Kirkland, Gelsey, and Greg Lawrence. The Shape of Love: The Story of Dancing on My Grave Continues. New York, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1990 (ISBN 0-385-24918-7).

External links

• Internet Movie Database

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