| Gelsey Kirkland |
Website Links For Kirkland |
Information AboutGelsey Kirkland |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GELSEY KIRKLAND | |
| american ballet dancers | |
| kirkland, gelsey | |
| american expatriates | |
| ballerinas | |
| people from the lehigh valley | |
| 1952 births | |
| living people | |
| people from bethlehem, pennsylvania | |
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Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29 1952 ) is an American ballet dancer. She attended the School of American Ballet where she was considered not very flexible for a dancer, but through a stretching routine she achieved the flexibility required to become one of the country's most noted ballerinas. Kirkland joined the New York City Ballet at age fifteen after being invited by George Balanchine and was promoted to Soloist within two years. She went on to create leading roles in many of the great Twentieth Century ballets by George Balanchine , Jerome Robbins , and Antony Tudor . These include Balanchine's Firebird , Robbins' Goldberg Variations , and Tudor's ''Leaves are Fading''. She soon joined American Ballet Theatre after meeting Mikhail Baryshnikov who would become her Perennial partner. In 1986, Kirkland, with Greg Lawrence, published "Dancing on My Grave", a tell-all autobiography detailing her struggles with eating disorders and drug addiction. (ISBN 0-385-19964-3) The book also sharply criticizes George Balanchine and speaks about many of her partnerships, both onstage and off, with some of the most famous dancers of the time, including Baryshnikov. Following "Dancing on My Grave", Kirkland and Lawrence published "The Shape of Love: The Story of 'Dancing on My Grave' Continues" in 1990, which focuses on Kirkland's return to the stage in 1986. (ISBN 0-385-24918-7). FURTHER READING Kirkland, Gelsey, and Greg Lawrence. Dancing on My Grave. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1986. Kirkland, Gelsey, and Greg Lawrence. The Shape of Love: The Story of “Dancing on My Grave” Continues. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1990. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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