Hello, this was an odd roundabout way to find this forum but I was curious about a certain dancer, Heather Watts, who I saw was a friend on FB of Jennifer Nairn-Smith who I know from LA. So I googled to see if she was the one who replaced Gelsey Kirkland in An Evenings Waltz's back in the 70's. This forum cam up first so I clicked it. As I was reading thru the string of questions surrounding An Evening's Waltz's I remember it was Christine Redpath, I think. The amazing story is that I was in the audience or should I say just me and my friend who sings in the NYC opera at the time, Michael Devlin, took me to watch a rehearsal. We were the only ones out in the theater. I remember so vividly seeing Gelsey fracture her ankle. She was dancing with John Clifford who I met years later in LA. I always thought it was him throwing her incorrectly that caused the injury. But of course I could be wrong.
I fell in love with the ballet, the music is now some of my favorite by Prokofiev and to watch Jerry Robbins work was such a treat. I went to a performance with a friend to see it in costume. It was magical and I could never understand why it wasn't performed much after that. Well, I love films like Bright Star and My Brilliant Career(works of art) which the public just doesn't get.
So there you have it. My mother was a ballerina in Brazil and danced with the Ballet Russe when they came thru and the Rio de Janiero Opera. I love the ballet even though I was never very good. I ended up doing more Musical Theater because I have a strong, trained voice. Now I'm into film making. I have a lovely friend in the Joffrey, Mahallia Ward, so if you ever see that company, I hope you have the opportunity to see her perform. She's exquisite. Excuse my lenghty post. This experience with the NYC Ballet and GK getting hurt was such a strong memory I had to share it.