Gelsey Kirkland

Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952) is an American ballerina. She received early ballet training at the School of American Ballet. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet in 1968 at age 15, at the invitation of George Balanchine. She was promoted to soloist in 1969, and principal in 1972. She went on to create leading roles in many of the great twentieth century ballets by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Antony Tudor, including Balanchine's revival of ''The Firebird'', Robbins' ''Goldberg Variations'', and Tudor's ''The Leaves are Fading''. Balanchine re-choreographed his version of Stravinsky's ''The Firebird'' specifically for her. She left the New York City Ballet to join the American Ballet Theatre in 1974 as a principal dancer.

She is perhaps most famous to the general public for dancing the role of Clara Stahlbaum in Baryshnikov's 1977 televised production of ''The Nutcracker''. She left the American Ballet Theatre in 1984.

Personal life

Kirkland was born December 29, 1952 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her father, Jack Kirkland, was a playwright who penned the Broadway adaptations of '' Tobacco Road'' and ''Tortilla Flat''. Her mother, Nancy Hoardley, was an actress. Her older sister, Johnna, also studied at the School of American Ballet and danced with the New York City Ballet, but was fired from the company for allegedly using drugs. Johnna went on to dance with the Los Angeles Ballet, which she helped to co-found, but she retired in 1983 after she broke her foot and the company stopped paying the dancers; Johnna now makes and sells artisan place and floor mats.

Gelsey Kirkland currently lives in Maine with her second husband, dancer, choreographer, and teacher Michael Chernov, who was also with ABT. In 2006, she was awarded the ''Dance Magazine'' Award.

Career

While at the New York City Ballet from 1968-1974, Kirkland performed as a soloist and principal dancer in several ballets including ''Concerto Barocco'', '' The Cage'', ''Irish Fantasy'', '' Symphony in C'', '' La Source'', ''Theme and Variations'', ''Tarantella'', ''Harlequinade'', ''The'' Nutcracker, and ''Dances at a Gathering''.

After joining the American Ballet Theatre in 1974, she performed as a principal dancer in a number of classical ballets including the title role in ''Giselle'', Kitri in ''Don Quixote'', Clara in The ''Nutcracker'', Swanilda in ''Coppélia'', Aurora in ''The Sleeping Beauty'', Juliet in ''Romeo and Juliet'', the Sylph in ''La Sylphide'', Lise in ''La Fille Mal Gardée'', Odette/Odile in ''Swan Lake'', Nikiya in ''The Kingdom of the Shades'', the Mazurka and pas de deux in ''Les Sylphides'', and the Sleepwalker in ''La Sonnambula''.

She was repeatedly fired and rehired by American Ballet Theatre for drug abuse and erratic behavior. It was her partner Patrick Bissell who introduced her to cocaine, which the two did together. Kirkland said many of the dancers in the company were doing all kinds of drugs to cope with the pressures of dancing. She became a prima ballerina.

Kirkland was featured on the May 1, 1978 cover of ''Time''.

She retired from performing in 1986 and became a ballet teacher, choreographer, and coach.

In 2007, Kirkland choreographed (with Chernov and ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie) a new production of Tchaikovsky's '' The Sleeping Beauty'', in which, after a more than 20 years absence from the stage, she danced the role of "Carabosse, the Wicked Fairy." In 2010, Kirkland and Chernov established the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet (GKACB), where they served as co-Artistic Directors. The Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet was accompanied by the Gelsey Kirkland Ballet company. The ballet company presented classical ballets in New York City. The company closed in 2021.

Books

In 1986, Kirkland, along with her then husband Greg Lawrence, published ''Dancing on My Grave,'' a memoir chronicling her artistic transformation from George Balanchine's "baby ballerina" to one of the more acclaimed ballerinas in her generation. The book describes in detail her struggles with her domestic family problems, sibling rivalry, anorexia, bulimia, plastic surgeries, drug addiction, her quest for artistic perfection, and her complicated love affairs with Mikhail Baryshnikov and numerous other men, most of whom she encountered in the ballet world. ''Dancing on My Grave'' was dedicated to Joseph Duell, a dancer with the New York City Ballet who committed suicide in 1986, in hopes "that the cry for help might yet be heard".

Her second autobiography, published in 1990, titled ''The Shape of Love'', dealt with her move to England to dance with The Royal Ballet, her attempts to get a fresh start with her first husband, and her return to American Ballet Theatre with a clean slate and a renewed outlook on life.

She and her husband eventually collaborated again on a children's book titled ''The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse'' in 1993, about a little girl who loves ballet and may not be able to keep dancing if she keeps riding her horse Sugar.

References

Further reading

*Kirkland, Gelsey, and Greg Lawrence. ''Dancing on My Grave''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1986 ().
*Kirkland, Gelsey, and Greg Lawrence. ''The Shape of Love: The Story of Dancing on My Grave Continues''. New York, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1990 ().

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkland, Gelsey
American ballerinas
American expatriates in Australia
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
1952 births
Living people
People from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
New York City Ballet principal dancers
American Ballet Theatre principal dancers
Principal dancers of The Royal Ballet
Prima ballerinas
School of American Ballet alumni