Sallie Wilson (April 18, 1932,

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

– April 27, 2008) was a ballerina who appeared with

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

where she danced opposite

Martha Graham Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American modern dancer and choreographer. Her style, the Graham technique, reshaped American dance and is still taught worldwide. Graham danced and taught for over seventy years. She wa ...

in the premiere of Graham and

George Balanchine George Balanchine (; Various sources: * * * * born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze; ka, გიორგი მელიტონის ძე ბალანჩივაძე; January 22, 1904 (O. S. January 9) – April 30, 1983) was ...

's collaboration at NYCB, ''

Episodes Episodes may refer to: * Episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a series intended for radio, television or streaming consumption. The noun ''episode'' is derived from the Gree ...

'' in May, 1959, and subsequently with

American Ballet Theatre American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...

, where she was associated with several ballets created by

Antony Tudor Antony Tudor (born William Cook; 4 April 1908 – 19 April 1987) was an English ballet choreographer, teacher and dancer. He founded the London Ballet, and later the Philadelphia Ballet Guild in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., in the mid-1950 ...

. In 1966, she achieved a triumph as Hagar in ABT's revival of Tudor's ballet '' Pillar of Fire'', set to the music of

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

's ''

Transfigured Night Transfiguration(s) or The Transfiguration may refer to: Religion * Transfiguration of Jesus, an event in the Bible * Feast of the Transfiguration, a Christian holiday celebrating the Transfiguration of Jesus * Transfiguration (religion), a mom ...

''. The ballet is loosely based on the poem that inspired the Schoenberg piece (although rather loosely) rather than the Biblical story of Hagar. Wilson made one television appearance, as Mrs. Stahlbaum, the mother of Clara (

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 p ...

), in

Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Барышников, p=mʲɪxɐˈil bɐ'rɨʂnʲɪkəf; lv, Mihails Barišņikovs; born January 28, 1948) is a Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Latvian-born R ...

's television version of

Tschaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaiko ...

'', and one film appearance, in the 1973

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documentary ''American Ballet Theatre: A Close-Up in Time''. She also appeared on Merv Griffin's television special "Sidewalks of New England" in 1968, performing a dance from

Agnes DeMille Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993) was an American dancer and choreographer. Early years Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille ...

's "

Fall River Legend ''Fall River Legend'' is a ballet by American choreographer Agnes de Mille. While the ballet tells the infamous story of Lizzie Borden, it notably alters the outcome of court case, with Borden receiving a guilty verdict rather than an acquittal. D ...

". Wilson was a ballet mistress for

New York Theatre Ballet New York Theatre Ballet or NYTB was founded in 1978 by Diana Byer, who became its artistic director. Dedicated to the principles of the Cecchetti-Diaghilev tradition, the company both reprises classic masterworks and produces original ballets. New ...

when she died of cancer in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, on April 27, 2008.

Choreography

Wilson choreographed several ballets. Her first two choreographic works, ''Liederspiel'' (1978) and ''Fête'' (1979) were created on the Arlington Dance Theater (Arlington, Virginia), under the direction of Carmen Mathé (former ballerina with London Festival Ballet, National Ballet of Washington, and Ballet Chicago). She cast Ken Ludden as the lead male in both of those works. She then choreographed two ballets, ''Pandora's Box'' and ''Eve'', in Italy for her fellow ballerina and longtime friend

Carla Fracci Carolina "Carla" Fracci (; 20 August 1936 – 27 May 2021) was an Italian ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form ...

. Back in New York, she became an artistic consultant with the Poughkeepsie Ballet Theatre, and formed a dance partnership with Ludden, who was a principal dancer with that company. Wilson and Ludden danced a reworking of Gilbert Reed's ''Fiddler's Child'' (1981 at the Bardavon Theater), a role Wilson had premiered earlier at the

Spoleto Festival The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...

with ballet star Lawrence Rhodes. Wilson and Ludden also appeared in Reed's ''Romance'' (1982), a duet created specifically for them. Wilson's next work was "Piazza San Marco" (1983) which she choreographed for herself and Ludden. Also in 1983, Wilson appeared in the title role of Ludden's ''Royal Invitation: Homage to the Queen of Tonga'' at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. After that, Wilson went on to create two more works ''Idyll'' (1983) and ''Cheri'' (1985), again featuring Ludden in all but the final work. In 1986 the Riverside Dance Festival presented ''Dances by Sallie Wilson and Ken Ludden'' in which the pair presented a mixed program of works they had choreographed.

References

External links

Sallie Wilson, 76, Dramatic Ballerina Famed for Antony Tudor Roles – ''New York Times'' obituary
by Jack Anderson, April 29, 2008
Internet Movie Database entry, ''The Nutcracker''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Sallie American Ballet Theatre dancers American ballerinas 1932 births 2008 deaths New York City Ballet dancers 20th-century American ballet dancers