Gelsey Kirkland
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Gelsey Kirkland (born December 29, 1952) is an American ballet dancer. Through a focus and intensity deemed rare even in the world of ballet, including becoming one of the first Ballet dancers to embrace plastic surgery to improve her on-stage 'line' and working herself literally almost to death, she became known as the greatest ballerina of her time in America, if not the world.
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 version of Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird, Robbins' Goldberg Variations, and Tudor's Leaves are Fading. She 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).
Kirkland has since departed from the stage. She currently lives in Australia.
[edit] 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.
