Amanda McKerrow

[Giselle05]

I'm not a big fan of hers, but as she is nearing to her final performance with ABT I decided to dedicate a topic to her- I searched the Dancers forum and didn't find one. What have you seen her dance, and what did you think of it? Is anyone seeing her Giselle on the 14th?

I'm also wondering- does anyone know how old she is? She seems to have had a remarkably long career- I remember she won at the International Ballet Competition in Moscow in the very early 80s when she was around seventeen...?

[Dansuer85]

Amanda Mckerrow won the Moscow IBC Gold in 1981, she was 17. So that would make her around 41. I have only seen her in an excerpt of Sleeping Beauty. I found her to be quite enjoyable.. It's not really a part that shows alot of depth, atleast in this setting, but I found her to come across with the charcter. I thought she danced beautifuly, still having nice technique. The fish dives bombs, as I like to call them, weren't very exciting, but the stage was small. I was planning on going to see her in her last Giselle, since I've not seen her in anything elese, but my plans changed and I am not coming to NYC, so I will just have to listen to everyones reviews! Here is to what was a long and lustrious career and may her time at Ballet Pacifica be fullfilling!

[mohnurka]

Somewhere there is a video tape with McKerrow in a contemporary ballet piece... I don't remember the name. I'll post it when I get a chance to look at my list of videos, or if someone remembers it sooner.

[Helene]

In the commercially released American Ballet Theater Now!, Amanda McKerrow performs the central pas de deux from Tudor's The Leaves Are Fading with her husband, John Gardner. She was coached by Tudor in the role.

It's available on DVD from amazon.com.

(If you are tempted to order, using this link will earn a small commission to support Ballet Talk.)

[carbro]

I think Amanda also appears in a MacMillan piece on one of the ABT videos.

This is one dancer who never, never, never goes for the Big Effect. She is tasteful to a fault. I have noticed that people respond to her differently, depending on where in the house they see the performance. Invariably, the transporting interpretations seen from mid-orchestra don't make their way to the tiers.

For those of us who prefer seeing ballet from a distance, this can be frustrating. There are dancers who can give very subtle performances without sacrificing projection. Amanda, one of today's most lyrical ballerinas, never quite found that balance.

[drb]

At the very time that Diana Vishneva has resurrected memories of the great Makarova Swan, it is fitting that we will have the last glimpse ever of Natasha's sublime way with Giselle, this Thursday. Has there ever been another ballerina who was simultaneously the world's number 1 in both O/O and Giselle?

Early on I believe Natasha took Amanda under her Wing [she is after all Makarova] in preparing Giselle, and I have treasured McKerrow in this role ever since, as she continued the tradition that holds Giselle to be "The Holy Ballet." I believe her reading of Giselle reached a majestic peak in a pair of matinee [quiet ones dance matinees] performances with Vladimir Malakhov late in the Century. Amanda's performances have always been partner-specific, and thus, for me have been best seen with charismatic and/or intense men, specifically Bocca and Malakhov. Her willi spins that open her appearance in Act 2 have always been powerful, and, pain permitting, may still surprise us in her ABT finale. But it is her incredible focus on the spiritual depth of Giselle, that Redemptive Love, that is the reason to go. In recent years she has had her friend Ethan Stiefel as Albrecht, and he projects a deep tenderness toward her in Act 2. Let us hope his knee is sufficiently healed so that he may see her off in the style she so richly deserves.

[brivagook]

"I think Amanda also appears in a MacMillan piece on one of the ABT videos." 

In "ABT at the Met-- Mixed Bill", she performs a MacMillan piece called Triad. It is a contemporary pas de trois with Robert LaFosse and Johan Renvall. I believe (from studying the back of my video case) that the video was released in 1984.

[cargill]

I remember that Giselle with Malakhov--it is one of my most memorable performances. They were both so attuned to each other's interpretation, it was like watching a play. I remember especially in the first act, during the harvest scene, when my vision was partially blocked, that I could tell from watching her face the instance Albrecht reappeared, it was like a light coming on. Every second was alive and vivid, so much detail and nuance. Her second act was just emotion, you almost didn't see the steps. Malakhov, too, was so vivid in that second act, he was just aching to see Giselle one last time. I remember almost bawling through the whole 2nd act.

I got to do an interview with McKerrow for Ballet Review, and she is a really interesting person to talk to, very intelligent. She talked a lot about working with Tudor, especially Leave are Fading, and what he said about that ballet. She also talked a lot about doing Giselle, and her approach and how she worked through it. Her Giselle is very very special, and I am so glad I get to see it one more time.

[mohnurka]

In "ABT at the Met-- Mixed Bill", she performs a MacMillan piece called Triad.  It is a contemporary pas de trois with Robert LaFosse and Johan Renvall.  I believe (from studying the back of my video case) that the video was released in 1984.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's it! Thank you .

[FauxPas]

Amanda grew on me as a dancer. I always wondered what it might have been like if Amanda joined NYCB. She and Darci have some physical similarities (Amanda had a stronger technique and less injuries) so they might have been too alike. I always wondered what if Kyra Nichols and Amanda swapped companies.

In the beginning of my ABT viewing in college in the late 1980's I saw Amanda for the first time with Wes Chapman in Mikhail Baryshnikov's unsuccessful new production of "Swan Lake" on tour in Chicago. Amanda danced well but projected nothing character-wise. Odile danced in white in that production and I just felt that Odette strayed into Act III's ballroom. I didn't like the production and I wasn't moved by the leads.

In the early 1990's I moved to NYC and saw more of Amanda and I still wasn't impressed. She was just correct but bland - a NY Times critic called her Juliet a "lyrical blur" and that summed up my reaction to her. Tobi Tobias in New York magazine around 1993 wrote an article about Amanda that said basically she was a technique in search of an artistic sensibility and that all the coaching she got from Fonteyn et al. didn't do anything for her interpretive ability. Tobias then felt she was an empty shell in the big classical roles. I started to avoid her, concentrating on Ferri, Jaffe, Cynthia Gregory's last seasons and the emerging Julie Kent and Paloma. Nina A. I never missed but Amanda got the pass.

Then in one season I saw Amanda in Balanchine's "Theme and Variations" (later also in "Symphonie Concertante") and felt she was well suited to Balanchine - she didn't have to act and all her good qualities were fully utilized and Balanchine took care of the interpretation for her. She just had to dance and dance well, which she did. I then started to think she should be at NYCB.

Then one night I went to a mixed bill program to see other people and saw "Etudes" for the first time. Amanda danced the ballerina role. She ran the gamut from lyrical romanticism to classical bravura and nailed each section until she dazzled in the dance-off finale. Amanda was like the spirit of dance in that performance and I really did an 180 degree turn in my estimation of her. I then started to check her out in major roles.

Her collaboration with Vladimir Malakhov drew me to see her in "Giselle" and they were fascinating together. Malakhov played Albrecht as a sensitive philosophic type who impersonated a peasant so that he could bond with Giselle as an equal. He was fascinated by her sensitivity and an otherworldly fragility that mirrored something in himself. Amanda was a delicate soul who seemed unassuming but had a rich inner life. Only someone like this Albrecht could see her special qualities. He had to know her, be with her and be part of her life. So he lied. And got caught and betrayed her. The second act was a true meeting of souls - from either side of the afterlife. Vladimir seemed as otherworldly as Amanda and her technique and lightness were exquisite. Her acting was indeed very restrained and internal but it was there in many subtle details.

Every season brought a threat that "this would be Amanda's last" so I went to see her in Ben Stevenson's "Cinderella" with Ethan as her Prince Charming. Amanda had a desperate vulnerability that made you fear for her Cinderella in Act I. When she was threatened with harm you feared for her. You saw how miserable and alone she was which made her transformation and entrance into the ball a great triumph for her which the viewer shared. No other ballerina at ABT brought out this quality of misery to joy.

Amanda's Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" with Malakhov was also superbly danced and very satisfying. Her Nikiya in "Bayadere" with Julio Bocca also had much of the same nuance and fragility as the above mentioned roles.

Finally I made full circle with Amanda in a "Swan Lake" about 2 or 3 seasons ago with Ethan Stiefel as Siegfried. Her Odette had a combination of deep vulnerability and a quiet strength defying persecution. Her Odile was subtle - the lyrical lines of her Odette has a slight but dexterous angularity as Odile. Her interpretation had a cool calculation mixed with elan that really worked and wasn't vampy, campy or unsubtle. And her fouettes and solos were perfect but not flashy. There was a definite difference now between her Odette and her Odile and it was really a refined finished interpretation. I waited backstage and told her of how much I felt she had grown as an artist from when I first saw her and she told me that that comes with time and experience.

I am looking forward to her final "Giselle" and grateful for other roles I have enjoyed her in like the Girl in Antony Tudor's "Undertow" and Hagar in "Pillar of Fire" and the Pas de Deux in "Leaves are Fading". I also enjoyed her in Ashton's "Symphonic Variations" where her cool understatement so suited the British style of dancing.

Lots of nice memories but it all started with that "Etudes" for me.