Gelsey Kirkland

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Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952 in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania ) is an American ballet dancer .

Life

Gelsey Kirkland was hired by George Balanchine as a dancer at the New York City Ballet at the age of 15 , after graduating from the School of American Ballet . In 1969 she was made soloist and in 1972 first soloist. Well-known choreographers created roles for her, for example in George Balanchine's revival of “Firebird”, Jerome Robbins in “Goldberg Variations” or Anthony Tudor “The leaves are fading”.

She has a longstanding partnership with Mikhail Baryshnikov ; With him she danced, among other things, the television production of The Nutcracker from 1977.

After the New York City Ballet, she moved to the American Ballet Theater (ABT) and left in 1984, but returned to the stage with the Royal Ballet in London in 1986 before ending her career.

In 2006 she was awarded the Dance Magazine Prize.

Together with Kevin McKenzie and her husband, she staged and choreographed a new production of Sleeping Beauty for the ABT in 2007 ; she was sometimes on stage as a Carabosse .

Gelsey Kirkland lives in New York with her second husband, choreographer and former dancer Michael Chernov. Together they founded and operate the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet (GKA), which began operations in August 2010.

Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet

In 2010 Gelsey Kirkland founded the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet (GKA) with her second husband Michael Chernov. This ballet academy is highly regarded and has made it its mission to train talented dancers from all over the world to become professional ballet dancers. With 500 students a year, the GKA offers an intensive training program that is divided into three main strands: ballet, core dynamics and the dramatic development of the students are expanded into a strict all-day program.

The Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet offers a total of four different training programs in which students are trained according to their age and dance level.

In order to be accepted at the Gelsey Kirkland Academy, either audition in the cities offered or the submission of a video in which the jury carefully assesses the dancing qualities of the applicants is required.

literature

In 1986 Gelsey Kirkland and her first husband Greg Lawrence published their autobiography Dancing on my grave , in which they talked about their difficulties with eating disorders and drugs , the choreographer Georg Balanchine and their relationship with u. a. Mikhail Baryshnikov reports. Her second autobiography, The Shape of Love , was published in 1990. In it she tells of her new beginning and her return to the stage of the Royal Ballet in London. They also published a children's book in 1993 called The little ballerina and her dancing horse .

TV productions

  • 1976 Baryshnikov - Live at Wolf Trap
  • 1977 Nutcracker

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.gelseykirklandballet.org
  2. ^ About - Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. Accessed June 19, 2018 .
  3. ↑ 2018 GKA Summer Intensive National Audition Tour - Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet. Accessed June 19, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Kirkland, Gelsey
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ballet dancer
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Bethlehem, Pennsylvania