58 replies to this topic

[Gina Ness]

From SFB, retired ballerina, Evelyn Cisneros, and her husband, just retired Stephen Legate.  Ms. Cisneros is the new AD of Ballet Pacifica in Southern California.

[carbro]

• Patty McBride and Jean-Pierre Bonnefous/x, occasional partners
  
• Kyra Nichols and Dan Duell (I wonder what dancing together was like when their marriage ended)
  
• Jenifer Ringer and James Fayette
  
• Judith Fugate and Mehdi Bahiri, in guest engagements
  
  and in the not married but together (for a while) category
  
• Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov

[canbelto]

Did Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart ever dance together?
Also:
Mikhail Fokine and Tamara Karsavina (although sadly that didn't last)
Irina Kolpakova and Vladinen Semenov (still together)

[ami1436]

Jonathan Cope and Maria Almeida (I was waiting for someone to put that up, then I realised that I'm probably the only ridiculously obsessed one) - both former RB principals.

[Helene]

Margaret Tracey is married to the Kaiser brother who danced with NYCB, but I can't remember his first name.

Speaking of brothers, Phil Otto and Rachel Butler, who danced with PNB, are married.

[Treefrog]

Getting back to the original question of partnerships that work well and possibly are audience draws ... Willy Shives and Maia Wilkins at the Joffrey have an absolutely wonderful partnership.  They always appear to be madly in love with each other.  So much so that my husband remarked just other night that he wonders if their respective spouses (Wilkins' husband is Joffrey dancer Michael Levine) get jealous.

[Helene]

Treefrog, on Jun 22 2006, 08:10 AM, said:

Getting back to the original question of partnerships that work well and possibly are audience draws ... Willy Shives and Maia Wilkins at the Joffrey have an absolutely wonderful partnership.  They always appear to be madly in love with each other.  So much so that my husband remarked just other night that he wonders if their respective spouses (Wilkins' husband is Joffrey dancer Michael Levine) get jealous.

That's a topic that was brushed upon in the Q&A after PNB's performances of Susan Marshall's Kiss, which is a very sensual piece.  Casey Herd and Kari Brunson were in a post-performance Q&A, and Brunson was describing being worried how her parents, who had come to a rehearsal, would react.  Herd, who's married to dancer Jodie Thomas, said, "It's just work."

[Lovebird]

Farukh Ruzimatov and Diana Vishneva, both Kirov Ballet, were a couple and also danced together. Their performances together were great

[Jane Simpson]

Lovebird, on Jun 24 2006, 05:13 AM, said:

Farukh Ruzimatov and Diana Vishneva, both Kirov Ballet, were a couple and also danced together. Their performances together were great

Not always, though - I saw them do a Nutcracker together about 10 years ago during which he not only never once looked at her, but never let the smallest touch of expression cross his wooden features, even during the curtain calls: one of the reasons why I rate him less highly than do many others!

[Drew]

Jane Simpson's Vishneva/Ruzimatov anecdote recalls a remark of Erik Bruhn's--a partnership should be a 'love affair on stage' (underline 'on stage') not a 'bad argument.'

[dirac]

Rowena Jackson and Philip Chatfield, a married pair formerly of the Royal Ballet.

[canbelto]

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova (confirmed in Gelsey Kirkland's book). But they are a unique case where they continued to dance together even after their breakup.
In most cases, it seems as if when the offstage relationship ends, so does the onstage partnership. For instance, do Ruzimatova and Vishneva ever dance together anymore?

[Helene]

canbelto, on Jul 3 2006, 09:56 AM, said:

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Natalia Makarova (confirmed in Gelsey Kirkland's book). But they are a unique case where they continued to dance together even after their breakup.
In most cases, it seems as if when the offstage relationship ends, so does the onstage partnership. For instance, do Ruzimatova and Vishneva ever dance together anymore?

Where the dancers have say in their partners -- for example, where they are on contract -- this might be the case, but in any company where there are long-term members, there are inevitable break-ups, and those dancers aren't segregated forever.  It makes little sense to partner people where emotions are still raw or animosity is great, but part of being a professional in a tight-knit community is working with one's exes.  I once heard it said about Iceland is that since everyone knows everyone else and there's a limited dating population, it would be a tough place if divorced and broken-up people couldn't get along over time.

[Kanawha]

Here's one that no one has mentioned. I don't know if it was one that drew an audience but I always found a special chemistry was evident when Leslie Browne and Ricardo Bustamante danced together. Their Romeo & Juliet was danced with passion and abandonment even in a rehearsal I once saw.

[fandeballet]

Marcia Haydee and Richard Cragun, were a magical partnership when they were dancing with the Stutgardt Ballet in the 1970's.  But when their offstage relationship ended, the onstage relations ended.  But, they were magic together!!!!!!!