Eerie coincidences while reading Farrell book

[Ceeszi]

I just finished reading the Suzanne Farrell autobiography, "Holding On To The Air." I enjoyed reading the book very much and I appreciate the fact that it gave me a better appreciation for the person of George Balanchine. Suzanne Farrell obviously adored him and admired him. The only other picture that I had of him in my mind was the extremely negative one of Gelsey Kirkland in "Dancing on My Grave."

Farrell comments on Kirkland's criticism of Balanchine and how his ballets "destroy dancer's bodies." Farrell is quick to defend him, but that is before the first of her two hip replacements.

Anyhow, back to some eerie coincidences. I just finished reading the section of her book on the creation of "Don Quixote" last Saturday night. The next day, there was a front page article in the Sunday New York Times Arts and Leisure section on Farrell's staging of Balanchine's Don Quixote at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

The other eerie coincidence - when I finished reading the book, I popped a VHS tape of "Kirov Classics" into my VCR. The first ballet on the program is "Les Sylphides" with Altynai Asylmuratova, Konstantin Zaklinsky, and Yelena Pankova. Pankova is the ballerina that Farrell coached in the ballet "Scotch Symphony" when she went to (then) Leningrad in 1989.

One question for those who have read the book. In the last part of the book when she talks about her experiences with coaching the Balanchine ballets for the Kirov, she mentions the ballet mistress, "Gabriela", who was a former ballerina. Is this Gabriela Komleva? Farrell never mentions her last name.

[carbro]

It's a small ballet world, isn't it, Ceeszi? And getting smaller, it seems, all the time.

[Marga]

Is this Gabriela Komleva?  Farrell never mentions her last name.

What a coincidence! I have Farrell's book at my elbow right now and was just rereading parts of it over the weekend (I read it through once years ago and find myself continually referring to it). Mainly, I was reading about her Russian coaching adventure and read the part you mention. I am quite sure she is referring to Komleva.

[carbro]

See what I mean?!!!

[Farrell Fan]

These are just further instances of Suzanne's supernatural powers.

[Becca_King]

Hi Ceeszi,

Have you read Toni Bentley's other book, Winter Season? She danced for Balanchine and the diary is fascinating: that season, she was trying to decide whether to give up dance. I read it after having loved her Suzanne Farrell biog.

[Hans]

Didn't Farrell also coach a young Larissa Lezhnina in Scotch Symphony? If so, she is also on the Kirov Classics tape, dancing the Fairy Doll pas de trois and a variation from Paquita. I can't remember whether Lezhnina is the same age as Pankova.