Gelsey Kirkland--'80s

[tutu]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place. This is the first time I've started a topic.

There's a YouTube video from the '80s of Gelsey Kirkland and Anthony Dowell performing the R&J Balcony pas. (It's the first result in a search for "Gelsey Kirkland Juliet") The performance is beautiful. Did any BTers see her during Kirkland engagement with Royal Ballet? or, for that matter, any recollections of any Kirkland performances? What was it like to watch her onstage "in real time"?

[Mashinka]

Yes, I saw her in both R&J and The Dream dancing with Wayne Eagling. Her physical appearance came as something as a shock to most as we’d never seen anyone that thin at the time, she looked rather like an olive on a stick I seem to remember. The general opinion was that she wasn’t significantly better than most of the RB principals.

[Simon G]

Yes, I saw her in both R&J and The Dream dancing with Wayne Eagling. Her physical appearance came as something as a shock to most as we’d never seen anyone that thin at the time, she looked rather like an olive on a stick I seem to remember. The general opinion was that she wasn’t significantly better than most of the RB principals.

Mashinka

I think that's slightly unfair, Britsh audiences have always had a tendency to take umbrage and be somewhat ungenerous to those they perceive as interlopers; and in this case the civic pride of audience members wasn't in accordance with the critics. Indeed when Kirkland first appeared with the company the RB was definitely heaing towads its most lacklustre state in decades.

The critics however, didn't agree, having read the reviews from that period they showered her with superlatives and couldn't praise her highly enough. Indeed Ashton and De Valois were of the same opinion, and hoped to form a longterm relationship with her sabotaged by her much publicised problems.

I was actually far too young in the 80s when she danced to have seen her, so I can only go on reports and reviews, however I will say one of the ballerinas of that time once described her to me and her working methods in terms that went well into the bitchy and scathing - which led me to think that there was more than just a tad of jealousy and envy.

In films I've seen of Kirkland from that period and the 70s one thing can't be denied she was a phenomenal one off.

[Jane Simpson]

The general opinion was that she wasn’t significantly better than most of the RB principals.

Well, maybe - but I couldn't disagree more! I saw her as Juliet and in both her Auroras, and I remember coming out at the first interval of her R&J and saying to someone 'So that's what a ballerina looks like!'

Sibley and Park by then were guest artists, and the others - Collier, Penney, Porter, Paisey, Ellis, Brind - each had their own strengths, but to my eyes none of them was anywhere near Kirkland's level.

[Alexandra]

Thank you so much for posting this, tutu, and for telling us about the video on youtube. I think if you watch that, you'll have a very good idea of what Gelsey Kirkland's dancing was like. (Dowell, too, is beautiful here.) I'm especially grateful because I just mentioned to a friend a few days ago that nothing could drag me to see the MacMillan "Romeo and Juliet" again unless Kirkland and Dowell were dancing it! I did not see them in London, but read everything about it. Everything I read said indicated was very well-received.

Kirkland was one of the finest dancers I've ever seen, and she danced a lot in Washington (the company visited here 7 weeks a year then). Her "Giselle" was extraordinarily poetic. She could become a Wili for a split-second in the mad scene (anticipating her fate), and the dancing was as strong as the emotions. She was a very careful artist, preparing her roles and thinking them through as well as working on technical difficulties, and it showed. She was wondferful in "Other Dances" (also with Dowell), and many other roles, and we looked forward to 20 more years of wartching her -- but that was not to be.

[ami1436]

While I was too young to have seen her live.......especially while living in out West -- she inspired quite a few in my generation to start taking ballet lessons. In the televised Nutcracker performance with Baryshnikov, I honestly didn't even register him -- I was entranced by her, and started trying to mimic her on our coffee table! I have many, many friends -- and acquaintances on BT4D -- who also cite that performance as the one that got them into classes.

[Mashinka]

I think that's slightly unfair, Britsh audiences have always had a tendency to take umbrage and be somewhat ungenerous to those they perceive as interlopers; and in this case the civic pride of audience members wasn't in accordance with the critics. Indeed when Kirkland first appeared with the company the RB was definitely heaing towads its most lacklustre state in decades.

Heading towards perhaps, but not quite there. I remember the 80's as a period of upheaval when the most favoured dancer in the company was (God help us), Marguerite Porter, who got the lions share of everything going. The other guest at the time was Markarova, another super-slender dancer but one I consider far superior to Kirkland and she also danced Juliet. As someone who felt ambivalent towards the RB's policy of restricting guests I looked forward to seeing Kirkland, but was disappointed by the reality of her dancing as after having been watching the ballets she danced in for around twenty years at that time, I felt she had nothing special to contribute to those roles. Though I concede that for those used to watching the likes of Porter, Ellis and Paisley she must have looked pretty impressive.

[Jane Simpson]

Maybe I should have made it clearer that my remembered remark about Kirkland was a sort of joke - I was approaching the end of my 3rd decade of RB watching at the time.

[Hans]

I believe several of our members watched Kirkland quite frequently in New York, and I hope they will post their thoughts as well.

[Helene]

I saw her live once, in "The Leaves Are Fading", but she was a shadow of herself then, compared to this.

My favorite parts of this clip are the first 1:50 and the last 1:30. The mime at the beginning and end is so intense from both, and mime is the only place, apart from the solo, that Dowell registers to me, apart from the short snippet where he's on the floor after the lift and is emoting to her. In the solo, to me he only shows up the lack of imagination in the choreography; a less academic approach -- although it was very beautiful -- is the only thing that pushes through it. (It's clear that Dowell would be amazing in a version that had serious choreography.)

Apart from that, Kirkland steals the entire show. I couldn't keep my eyes off her, except when the camera didn't oblige.

[Drew]

The reviews I read of Kirkland in her debut Royal Ballet Romeo and Juliet performances were all raves--these included John Percival who, among other things, praised her run in Act III by invoking Ulanova's; in the same review he also compared her qualities to Fonteyn; in a feature article about those appearances Ninette de Valois was quoted as describing her as "a young Pavlova." So there were at least a few serious ballet observers in London who greatly admired her.

A friend of mine also saw one of those first Juliets and loved it--remarked on her riveting quality when she was just standing atop the balcony at the beginning of the balcony scene.

I saw Kirkland frequently in D.C. and occasionally in New York and once even in Boston (a lusciously free, lyrical and yet sensuous _Three Preludes_). I will try to post more about specific performances (I have done so in the past, so people may be tired of hearing me).

But I will remark here that her combination of liquid flow--one movement melting into the other--with crisp classical line and precision was quite extraordinary. Videos do her no justice though the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene on youtube seems to me to come closest to giving one some hint of her qualities. When her health (and later drug) problems weren't affecting her she was also very impressive technically and capable of dazzling with her speed and strength as well as beauty and intensity.

[Mme. Hermine]

I saw her Sleeping Beauty at Covent Garden, and I know I've written about it before. I don't recall a single review that wasn't a superlative, and she really deserved them all. I only ever saw her twice, and the first had been a particularly terrible Giselle at the Met, so that exquisite Aurora was very very impressive.

[bart]

I LOVE this balcony scene. It was a revelation to watch Kirkland runing across the stage after descending the stairs. For the first time, I really understood: it's DARK in the garden, she can't see him. Yet she runs without any restraint, her head bending back, chest forward, the line of her back a curve, arms stretched out and back. It's all expressed with her body. No restraint, no timidity. She establishes Juliet's rush to touch and hold Romeo as an amazing leap of faith. Everything else in the story follows from that.

Even Anthony Dowell seems to be awakened and seriously impassioned in this performance. And that kiss! Did Dowell ever kiss like this before?

Great stuff, and thank you tutu, for linking us to it.

P.S. In understand the feeling of Helene and others that the MacMillan version is choreographically weak. But, isn't it a wonderful canvas on which great artists can create a character. The relative simplicity and repetition of movement in this scene allows Kirland to move in ways -- arms flying up and down with excitement as she descends the stairs, for instance; the articulation of her leg and foot in the battements as Romeo' carries her aloft; they way impulsive arm movements (so appropriate to a teenager) end in graceful classical flourish -- that I don't think have been done by others, even great interpreters.

Up to this video, Fonteyn has been the peerless Juliet for me. It would be stunning to watch videos side by side of Kirland and Fonteyn, for instance, interpreting the same steps in their own fashion. What one could learn about style from that!

[leonid17]

Yes, I saw her in both R&J and The Dream dancing with Wayne Eagling. Her physical appearance came as something as a shock to most as we’d never seen anyone that thin at the time, she looked rather like an olive on a stick I seem to remember. The general opinion was that she wasn’t significantly better than most of the RB principals.

Mashinka

I think that's slightly unfair, Britsh audiences have always had a tendency to take umbrage and be somewhat ungenerous to those they perceive as interlopers; and in this case the civic pride of audience members wasn't in accordance with the critics. Indeed when Kirkland first appeared with the company the RB was definitely heaing towads its most lacklustre state in decades.

The critics however, didn't agree, having read the reviews from that period they showered her with superlatives and couldn't praise her highly enough. Indeed Ashton and De Valois were of the same opinion, and hoped to form a longterm relationship with her sabotaged by her much publicised problems.

You are right in part that there is an insular section of the London(not British) ballet world that that only admires the Royal Ballet. They are not typical of the Opera House audiences to which I belong, that has in my long period of attending the ballet ( Some years short of Jane Simpson) warmly welcomed and admired a number of overseas guest dancers.

I was reluctant in going to the Royal Opera House on 25th July I980 as London was experiencing a heat wave and the temperature was so high and the air-conditioning in those days was not so efficient.

If I had not attended, I would have missed the opportunity of seeing Gelsey Kirkland with Wayne Eagling in Romeo and Juliet.

Miss Kirkland, my diary tells me, “...revealed the emotional and psychological demands that MacMillan had created in the role in a manner not seen since Lynn Seymour.” I could not imagine such a performance happening with the Royal Ballet as the last nail for its coffin had been forged for some time. With some admirable dancers but no ballerinas in the Royal Ballet in 1980, Miss Kirkland was a startling revelation.

I felt here was an extraordinary performer who carved marvellous emotional shapes in the air with her body and exhibited a plastique hardly ever seen at the RB in those last few years. (The Royal Ballet rarely do plastique).

The cast, a proper one at that time, included Michael Coleman, Derek Rencher, Michael Somes, Leslie Edwards, Gerd Larsen etc, rose dramatically to the occasion. Mr. Eagling was gallant and met the dramatic and technical pitch which Miss Kirkland established.

I was not alone in my admiration for Miss Kirkland amongst a highly receptive audience, on that very hot night.

It was George Balanchine that taught Miss Kirkland to move organically , but it was herself that made the brain/body connection in her later period wherein her commitment to portray rose to a level above most dancers of her era.

Here is one born and bred Londoner who welcomes"interlopers" amongst the Royal Ballet. In fact what would they have done without them in both the recent and distant past.

PS

Watch the aformentioned video again and witness the plastique.

[Alymer]

I think I saw all Kirkland's performances with the Royal Ballet and can only add to the view that she was amazing; outclassing all the home-grown principals of the time by some way. Incidentally, I don't think she ever danced The Dream, simply the final pas de deux from the ballet, partnered by Dowell, for some kind of gala.

The excitement in the house for her two Auroras was palpable - something that hadn't been experienced for years and was fully deserved. The great pity is she never got to dance Ondine which she wanted to do. I think she would have been terrific.

[leonid17]

I think I saw all Kirkland's performances with the Royal Ballet and can only add to the view that she was amazing; outclassing all the home-grown principals of the time by some way. Incidentally, I don't think she ever danced The Dream, simply the final pas de deux from the ballet, partnered by Dowell, for some kind of gala.

The excitement in the house for her two Auroras was palpable - something that hadn't been experienced for years and was fully deserved. The great pity is she never got to dance Ondine which she wanted to do. I think she would have been terrific.

I also think she would have been terrific in Ondine.

The marvel for me of her Aurora was that she made every moment seem spontaneous as if it was all really happening in the now and had never been seen before. Only great artists can achieve such miracles.

[Alexandra]

A colleague of mine told me, in response to my question if Kirkland was like any ballerina before her (people usually said "Sibley") that there was one thing about her that reminded him of Fonteyn, and that was that the dancing of both ballerinas was "as pure and clear as water." I kept thinking of that when I read about the possibility of her dancing "Ondine" and was also sad that she did not.

[bart]

Alexandra mentioned Kirkland's Giselle. Did anyone see her dancing this with Baryshnikov shortly after he arrived at American Ballet Theater. This would have been the early 80s. ?

I remember this especially because we didn't know what the cast was going to be -- and there in the program were Kirkland and Baryshnikov! To be honest, I was more looking forward to Baryshnikov because this was the first time I'd seen him since his departure from New York City Ballet.

The thing that struck me most about Kirkland's Giselle was how emotionally fragile she seemed right from the beginning. Even her entrance had nervous intensity. Responding to the knock, she burst through the door full of pent up energy and expectation.

The strongest visual memory I have is of the petal-plucking episode -- "He loves me; he loves me not." I've never seen a ballerina so grief-stricken when she realized that the flower was telling her "He loves you not." Or so genuinely relieved when Baryshnikov faked a positive response. In the dance that followed, her dancing, though perfect, seemed almost frantic with happiness.

All of this was expressed by movement, not by "acting." Hers was one of those rare Giselles whose sudden slide into madness, when it occurred, was completely believable. She prepared you for it.

I wish I could remember her Act II, but that was Baryshnikov's act, in my memory at least.

This was the only time I saw them dancing together.

[LiLing]

I saw many of Kirkland's performances with both NYCB and ABT. She was a prodigy who attracted attention and speculation while still a student, and joined the co. at fifteen, (looking closer to twelve) with a prodigious technical facility, and a rather reserved stage persona. My earliest memory is of her Firebird, a tiny fragile creature that circled the stage with the highest, fastest, beyond split grand jetes I had ever seen.

When she moved to ABT she made an amazingly quick transition to the dramatic repertoire, so different from the Balanchine she grew up on. Her Giselle was one of the most intense experiences I've had in the theatre. Just one of those transcendental experiences that you never forget, and can't adequately verbalize.

Her La Sylphide was a fey and witty creature, who literally seemed partly of the air. Of course her fragile appearance and powerful technique made her perfect for these rolls, but you were unaware of technique, it was her ability to make these characters real and draw you into the drama that was so wonderful.

[vipa]

The strongest visual memory I have is of the petal-plucking episode -- "He loves me; he loves me not." I've never seen a ballerina so grief-stricken when she realized that the flower was telling her "He loves you not." Or so genuinely relieved when Baryshnikov faked a positive response. In the dance that followed, her dancing, though perfect, seemed almost frantic with happiness.

All of this was expressed by movement, not by "acting." Hers was one of those rare Giselles whose sudden slide into madness, when it occurred, was completely believable. She prepared you for it.

I wish I could remember her Act II, but that's Baryshnikov's act, in my memory at least. It was the only time I saw them dancing together.

Kirkland was a very special ballerina. I saw her dance quite a bit at ABT. I agree that her Giselle was quite moving. I do remember the 2nd act. She was unworldly; she used her amazing lightness, elevation and speed to tremendous effect. I also loved her Don Q. I saw one Swan Lake (not so good). The Theme & Variations, that was on TV as part of the great performances series, has some unbelievable moments of phrasing & speed. She really out did Misha in that ballet (not surprising because she was bred to it). There is a youtube clip of a Coppelia variation that is surprisingly unmusical. Unfortunately I also saw some crazily bad performances, particularly with the Eglevsky Co.

She was a unique talent with a lot to offer. My ballerina of choice, at ABT, was Cynthia Gregory, but I did see Kirkland in many roles.

[Drew]

The Coppelia clip on Youtube that Vipa mentions is from a Wolftrap performance of highlights that Baryshnikov danced with Kirkland and Tcherkassy--if you buy the DVD you will see it includes a note from Kirkland regarding her weight/health at the time (it was poor); in it she urges dancers to follow Baryshnikov's example not hers when it comes to these issues...To my knowledge she only danced Swan Lake the one time--I didn't get to see it; I don't know if it ever would have been "her" role but it would have been interesting to find out.

To respond to Bart's question: During the early fall right after Baryshnikov's defection (mid 70's) I saw them dance a sensational full length Coppelia together. The chemistry between them was palpable with none of the overlay of tension that clouded some of their final performances. The whole performance had an amazing energy and her balances (on the whole not what she was known for) were extraordinarily secure in Act III and seem to go on forever yet playfully as if in a kind of flirtation with both Baryshnikov (who was smiling right at her) and the music. This was the second of two Coppelias in D.C. (as I remember) and Clive Barnes, reviewing this performance, commented on how it was one of those really special nights at the ballet. That same D.C. season I also saw them in a Shades scene from Bayadere that, alas, is something of a blur in my memory.

(Later I saw her do a Coppelia with Charles Ward that I quite enjoyed--from that performance I remember the shifts in tone as she took on each of the "character" style dances in Act II, but also a kind of impudence in her manner to Coppelius as she sunk into a very deep plie on pointe in second position. Also, Ward--who was very tall--and she did gorgeous overhead lifts in Act III from which she seemed to drift down in his arms like a feather.)

Relatively early in Kirkland's partnership with Baryshnikov I also saw Sylphide and Giselle and concur with what has been said above. But I will also mention that they danced Other Dances quite wonderfully in D.C. I am referring to when she first danced the part: her movements were so flowing one could hardly believe one's eyes. She also showed an amazing ability to shift speeds and inflect the movement in all different ways and tonalities. This performance occurred not terribly long after The Turning Point came out and a couple of teenage girls behind me were very eager to see Baryshnikov and...uh...not quiet about it before the ballet started. When the ballet was over, they could not stop talking about Kirkland--and even expressed disappointment (!) when they read the cast for Push Comes to Shove had Baryshnikov but not "her". (By the by, I very much liked Barshnikov in Other Dances--I just tell this story as an example of Kirkland's mesmerizing power on stage.)

I also saw them repeatedly in Baryshnikov's Nutcracker--another case in which video does not remotely do justice to her or them. She seemed to live the ballet with utter joy and spontaneity in performance after performance and in the role of the Nutcracker Prince he always partnered his ballerinas with great tenderness. Her Kitri (which I also saw with Baryshnikov) was similarly terrific--it was usually more fun to watch her pantomime a response to dancing when she was on the side of the stage than to watch whoever was dancing.

[leonid17]

Drew, thank you for your post which I really enjoyed reading.

I wish I had seen half of the performances that you saw.

[bart]

This is to Drew (and others who saw K and B dance together): I was wondering whether Baryshnikov's classical aplomb and really security in his technique somehow freed Kirkland's to let go, releasing her more emotional style in this Giselle and possibly in other ballets. (I can't find the word for the effect: febrile?)

I certainly have this feeling about the way she plays off Dowell -- like B, a very secure classicist not known for his generating emotionality on his own -- in the R&J clip. Baryshnikov, to me, was so secure in his own dancing that he seems to be able to respond to, and re-adjust for, his partner. You see this in the Tchaikovsky pdd with McBride that we've been discussing on another thread.

This is just a thought, but sometimes people write about the inconsistencies in Kirkland's performances in this period. Could this possibly have to do with her intuitive response to her various partners?

By the way, who WERE the partners with whom she danced best? Or worst?

[rg]

besides A.Dowell the partner/danseur who seemed most welcome in Kirkland's time by ballerinas, including i believe, GK herself, was often Ivan Nagy.

[OKOK]

I just watched the PDD with Dowell and while there were some beautiful moments, on the whole I did not find it as appealing as others I have seen. I strongly preferred Dowell's performance to Kirkland's. Her's seemed a combination of spastic and affected. I did not think of a young and naive girl making a leap of faith. Rather, I just saw a very affected ballerina.