Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Ballerina Swan by Allegra Kent Kent, Allegra (1938—) American ballerina. Born Iris Margo Cohen in Santa Monica, California, on August 11, 1938; youngest of two children of Harry Herschel Cohen and Shirley (Weissman) Cohen; attended the Ojai Valley Boarding School in Southern California; attended Berkley Hall, a private Christian Science school in Los Angeles; attended Beverly Hills High School, Los Angeles; attended the Professional Children's School, New York; briefly attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Utah; studied ballet at the School of American Ballet; married Bert Stern (a photographer) on February 28, 1959 (divorced 1975); married Bob Gurney; children: (first marriage) Trista, Susannah, and Bret. Considered one of the most faithful exponents of famed choreographer George Balan-chine, Allegra Kent achieved ballerina status with the New York City Ballet at the age of 18 and remained a principal in the company for three decades. Her extraordinary career, however, was accompanied by a somewhat disastrous personal life. "In real life," she once said, "I was a sleepwalker—dance my only light." Born Iris Margo Cohen in Santa Monica, California, Allegra was two when her mother Shirley changed the family surname to Kent in hopes of escaping her Jewish identity. Later, Shirley Kent would further distance herself by embracing the Christian Science religion. Kent's parents divorced when she was young, and she and her brother Gary shuttled back and forth between them, attending schools in Miami and California. Her half-sister Barbara Kent , the product of her mother's earlier marriage and substantially older, left home when Kent was still young to pursue an acting career. Kent discovered music and dance at the age of 7, but she was 11 before she took her first ballet lesson. That year, she began calling herself Allegra, a name her sister had discarded from a list of possible stage names. Kent began what was to be a trial period of six months of ballet lessons in California, where she lived with her mother and attended Berkley Hall, a private Christian Science school. Proving to be an eager and talented student, she went on to study with a variety of outstanding teachers, including Bronislava Nijinska, Carmelita Maracci , and Maria Befeke . At 13, Kent and her mother moved to New York, where she entered the School of American Ballet (the training school for the New York City Ballet) on a scholarship. Kent quickly captured the attention of New York City Ballet's director George Balanchine, who offered her an apprenticeship in the company's corps de ballet. In 1953, she became a permanent member of the company and gained her first public notice with a performance of the Viola pas des deux in Fanfare (1954). Later that year, she danced "The Unanswered Question," a segment from Ivesiana choreographed especially for her by Balanchine. While Kent gained stature in the company, her mother kept careful watch, being both wary of Balanchine's libidinous reputation and anxious for her daughter to succeed. She also decided that the time was right for Allegra to undergo plastic surgery to alter her nose and chin. "Then you would be beautiful," she told her daughter, setting aside the Christian Science tenet forbidding surgery. Despite nagging misgivings and her own religious objections, Allegra agreed. The operation was unfortunately botched by a less than competent doctor, and Kent, hating her new face, lapsed into a serious depression, the first of many to come. "For thirty years after this, I struggled with depression and my inability to handle it," Kent wrote in her autobiography Once a Dancer . "I'd fall into the same trap over and over again. Raspberries, whipped cream, ice cream. Exercise would end. I would be embarrassed about my weight, so I'd stop going to class. Sleeping would become a problem.…" In 1955, for unknown reasons, Shirley Kent had a serious change of heart concerning her daughter's career and convinced Allegra to leave dancing and enter college. After brief stays at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the University of Utah, Allegra followed her heart back to the New York City Ballet and, in May 1956, danced a leading role in Divertimento No. 15 at the Mozart Festival in Stratford, Connecticut. During the company's 1956 European tour, she helped to fill the void left when Tanaquil LeClercq , Balanchine's young wife, was stricken with polio. Despite Balanchine's pleas, Kent refused to take polio vaccine to protect her from the disease, claiming that it was against her religion. Gaining status as a full-fledged ballerina, Kent danced solo roles in Serenade, Souvenirs, and Western Symphone . John Martin of The New York Times (January 1, 1957) praised both the newcomer's dancing and personality. "She has a lissome, well-placed body, an innate gift for movement and a warm and simple personal appeal," he wrote. During the 1956–57 season, she also performed in Valse Fantasy, Interplay, Concerto Barocco, and Symphony in C . At the end of the season, she created the role of a woman who comes to the emotional aid of a blind man in Francisco Moncion's Pastorale . After a break in the spring of 1957 to appear in the Broadway musical Shinbone Alley, Kent returned to the New York Ballet, dancing memorably as the Countess in Menotti's The Unicorn, the Dragon and the Manticore, and in a number of new roles, including Jerome Robbins' Afternoon of a Faun . Her repertoire continued to expand with performances as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake (which John Martin praised as "a disarmingly simple and altogether genuine work of art"), the novice in The Cage, leader of the Bacchantes in Orpheus, Terpsichore in Appolo, and the pas de deux in Agon. Kent reached the zenith of her career in January 1959, when she danced the part of Annie II in the Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht ballet The Seven Deadly Sins, choreographed by Balanchine. The role brought Kent new respect as both a dancer and an actress, and made her a national celebrity, although she had little time to bask in the trappings of success. Maintaining a grueling schedule of eight or nine classes a week and half-day practices, her life remained disciplined and controlled by her art. Her dedication paid off. Early in 1960, she created another memorable portrayal as the Sleepwalker in the restaging of The Night Shadow, later titled La Sonnambula . Walter Terry, of the New York Herald Tribune (January 7, 1960), called the dancer "utterly lovely, moving as if she were a disembodied spirit floating across the ground." Preceding her triumph in La Sonnambula, Kent was to marry photographer Bert Stern, with whom she had endured an erratic two-year courtship that left her, at 21, doubtful about the possibilities of their long-term relationship. Urged on by her mother, who was still concerned about her relationship with Balanchine, Allegra went ahead with the wedding. The marriage proved a disaster from the start, and Kent left her husband after less than six months. This established a pattern of separations and reconciliations that lasted until the two finally divorced in 1974. In the meantime, Kent continued with the New York City Ballet, taking maternity leaves for the birth of three children: Trista (b. 1960), Susannah (b. 1964), and Bret (b. 1967). To overcome her weight gains from pregnancy and bouts of overeating caused by depression, Kent discovered the restorative power of water exercises. She eventually wrote a book about it, Allegra Kent's Water Beauty Book, published in 1976. In 1962, the New York City Ballet made a historic eight-week tour of the Soviet Union, where Kent became an immediate favorite, especially for her dancing in Agon . In 1963, the dancer won acclaim in two somewhat exotic creations: Bugaku, a Balanchine work in which she danced with Edward Villella, and The Chase, in which she portrayed a man-chasing vixen that is transformed into an appealing young woman. Kent made a European tour with the company in 1965, and the following year captivated audiences with her performance in the Sylvia Divertissement . "Miss Kent swept through the complexities of Balanchine's choreography… with a swift and sweet efficiency," raved Clive Barnes in The New York Times (April 6, 1966). "More dancers should dance like this. Here is Balanchine as Balanchine should be danced—and throughout the entire dance world there is nothing better." During the 1970s, on advice from a new psychiatrist, Kent sought to supplement her dancing income by opening a school in Scarsdale, New York, where she had moved to facilitate her children's education. At that time, she entered into an agreement with Balanchine to limit her performances with the New York City ballet while continuing to draw a salary. The school eventually became a burden, and Kent returned to her career, though her position with the company had been seriously jeopardized by her absence. She remained with the New York City Ballet until 1982, but in her final years with the company, she only danced on an average of once a season. Just one week after the company let her go, George Balanchine died, marking the end of her career with even greater sadness. "For me, ballet—the continuation of my childhood dreams and the way I chose to rebel against my mother, visually but soundlessly—was over," Kent wrote in her autobiography. After leaving the company, Kent, desperate for income, held a variety of temporary teaching positions. While in Los Angeles auditioning for a teaching job at the University of California, she met John Clifford, an old friend from the New York City Ballet who was teaching and arranging Balanchine's ballets for various dance companies around the world. Clifford cajoled her into dancing in a performance of Apollo at a benefit in Red Bank, New Jersey, and into joining him for later tours. Dancing in Clifford's Notturno, Kent proved that at 50, she had lost none of her personal charisma. "Kent's very special quality, still very much intact, was always an emotional abandon mysteriously and implausibly registered within a classical line of breathtaking perfection," wrote a reviewer for the Washington Post . " Gelsey Kirkland was the only other dancer I've ever seen who could work this particular magic." Allegra Kent finally found regular work as the director of a ballet school in Stamford, Connecticut. A flexible contract allowed her to take on other projects, among them dancing assignments and the role of Cousin Ophelia in the motion picture The Addams Family. By the time she had completed her autobiography, which was published in 1997, Kent was happily remarried and apparently at peace with herself. "What I regret is that it took so long for me to emerge into a somewhat normal person who could handle everyday life with easy grace," she writes. "But it did happen." Allegra Kent. Allegra Kent (CBA ’19) , ballerina and muse of George Balanchine and Joseph Cornell, started studying ballet at 11 with Bronislava Nijinska and Carmelita Maracci. In 1952, Balanchine invited her to New York City Ballet, where she danced for the next 30 years. Her Balanchine roles included the breathtaking airborne figure in “The Unanswered Question” section of Ivesiana. Balanchine created Bugaku for her and Edward Villella, and revived The Seven Deadly Sins and La Sonnambula for her. She also danced leading roles in Apollo , Concerto Barocco , Agon , Scotch Symphony , and Symphony in C , among many others. Jerome Robbins created roles for her in Dances at a Gathering and Dumbarton Oaks, and he cast her in other ballets, including his Afternoon of a Faun and The Concert . Currently a teacher at Barnard College, Allegra is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including her autobiography, Once a Dancer. . . and her first book for children, Ballerina Swan . She is the recipient of a Dance Magazine Award, and she has written for Dance , Vogue, and other publications. She lives in New York City. The Director’s Fellowship gives a CBA residency to artists, scholars, and practitioners who have made significant contributions to the field of ballet. The fellowship will be given at the discretion of CBA’s founder and director, Jennifer Homans. Director’s Fellows will receive access to CBA’s studio and office spaces, NYU’s academic resources, and a stipend to pursue projects of the fellow’s own imagining. While in residence, Director’s Fellows will share their perspective and expertise to further deepen the artistic and scholarly work emerging from CBA. Stage. We've been with you throughout the pandemic , and now as vaccines become more widely available, we are reporting on how our local schools, businesses and communities are returning to a more "normal" future . There's never been more of a need for the kind of local, independent and unbiased journalism that The Day produces. Please support our work by subscribing today. This is NOT Internet Explorer. Eastern Connecticut Ballet debuts ‘Ballerina Swan’ Published May 14. 2013 12:01AM. By Kristina Dorsey Day Arts Editor. Eastern Connecticut Ballet's newest piece, "Ballerina Swan," has quite a lofty pedigree. It's both adapted for the stage and based on a book written by celebrated former New York City Ballet soloists for whom the legendary George Balanchine choreographed roles. Gloria Govrin, who is now ECB's artistic director, created the choreography. Her inspiration was the children's book "Ballerina Swan" by Allegra Kent. Govrin is trying to build a repertory for the students at the East Lyme-based ECB and wanted to put together a children's program. When she read Kent's "Ballerina Swan," she thought it would be the perfect material: she could employ the Tchaikovsky score and could use a lot of children at different levels at the ECB school. She called the New York-based Kent to ask if she could have the rights to do the ballet. Kent says, "I was thrilled out of my mind. . I thought it was a fabulous and very imaginative idea of Gloria's." She put Govrin in touch with her agent, and the process moved on from there - culminating with a premiere performance Sunday at the Garde Arts Center. The two women have known each other for years. Govrin became a member of New York City Ballet in 1959, a few years after Kent. Kent recalls Govrin's dancing being "dynamic, fantastic, (with) fabulous technique. Balanchine used her in such a great way. . Her performances were wonderful, thrilling, gorgeous." It's a mutual admiration society, because Govrin idolized Kent. "She was the person that I wanted to be" Govrin says. "I used to sit and watch when she was in class. I wanted to dress like her in class. I wanted to have the same beautiful feet that she had in class. She was my example. I just loved Allegra. Even all those years in New York City Ballet, if Allegra Kent was dancing, I was standing in the wings, watching, because she was my inspiration. "So for me to do this (adaptation of her book), it means a lot. It has to be good. I want her to like it." In "Ballerina Swan," a swan named Sophie is enchanted by the child dancers she spies in a ballet studio. She enters the studio herself but is chased out by the teacher. That doesn't dissuade her from her dream of becoming a ballerina. Eventually, she returns and auditions to perform in, of course, "Swan Lake." Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully illustrated Kent's book. Using that plot as the starting point came with some challenges. Govrin says, "I am used to choreographing to a piece of music that inspires me. It's usually abstract. I've never done anything like this, which was to follow a storyline and not have a score that was made for it. It's one thing to do 'Hansel and Gretel,' and you can use the music from the opera. But this is something completely different." What she did was write the story out and figure what scenes she wanted. Then, she tried to find music from the Tchaikovsky score to fit those various scenes but ended up borrowing some pieces from "Sleeping Beauty" as well. On a recent Friday night, young ballet dancers gathered in the ECB studio to run through "Ballerina Swan." The piece portrays Sophie the Swan's endearing gawkiness - she occasionally goes pigeon-toed and knock-kneed - and then captures the grace and elegance she eventually achieves. Govrin has created an evocative dance, too, between Sophie (Emily Kramm of Old Lyme) and Sophie's dream of the ballerina she wants to be (Sarah Marsoobian of Guilford). Fun, whimsical scenes appear, too; when Sophie wanders into a ballet studio, girls stand at the barre, stretching their legs in traditional ballet positions and then popping into metronomic, synchronized moves. What follows in the second part of Govrin's "Ballerina Swan" is essentially culled from "Swan Lake" and from what Govrin remembers about dancing the role of a swan. "Once I got the score, putting the ballet together went very, very fast," Govrin says. "It just spoke to me. It told me what to do. It was so much fun. It really was." "Ballerina Swan" will share the bill Sunday with "Carnival of the Animals," which ECB has performed before. Kent will be at Sunday's performance at the Garde and will do a booksigning afterward. She says, "I can't wait to see it." In discussing her impetus to create this children's program, Govrin says she constantly sees younger dancers drawn like little magnets to the classroom where the older - meaning teenage - ballerinas perform. She says the little ones "are so precious. They really are. I want to keep them interested, number one, but I think this is a wonderful thing for them. The world we live in is not always so beautiful. I want them to dream, to dream of tutus and white tulle. That's what attracted me as a kid to the ballet. Even if I didn't become a dancer, I would still love the ballet." What: Eastern Connecticut Ballet's "Ballerina Swan" and "Carnival of the Animals" When: 2 p.m. May 19. Where: Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London. Tickets: $26-$36 adults, $16-$24 kids 12 and under. Contact: (860) 444-7373, gardearts.org. After the performance: Author Allegra Kent will sign copies of her children's book "Ballerina Swan." BALLERINA SWAN. A beautiful swan realizes her dream of dancing when cast in Swan Lake . Sophie is a city swan who watches children in a ballet studio with great longing. She flies in and, after an initial rebuke, summons her courage to return. A new teacher and the students now welcome her as one of their own. Well almost. Sophie’s long neck gives her a naturally elegant line, but her webbed feet make turnout difficult. Then a choreographer creates a special role for Sophie in an end-of-year student performance, and she literally soars to fame as a swan princess. Kent was an acclaimed dancer with New York City Ballet, and in this, her first book for children, she captures the workings of a ballet class with both authority and tenderness. McCully, a Caldecott medalist, uses watercolors and pen-and-ink for delicate and detailed paintings. Sophie is imbued with a winning personality. In a series of close-ups, she displays her determination to hone her technique and style, a drive matched by that of the students, who show off some of the classic Swan Lake moments to great effect—notably the dance for the four cygnets. An enchanting tale for all, especially for lovers of ballet. Read the story, play the music and applaud. (Picture book. 3-8) Pub Date: April 15, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8234-2373-6. Page Count: 32. Publisher: Holiday House. Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2012. Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012. Share your opinion of this book. Did you like this book? More by Allegra Kent. THE WONKY DONKEY. by Craig Smith ; illustrated by Katz Cowley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2010. The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty. In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. It is three-legged, and so a “wonky donkey” that, on further examination, has but one eye and so is a “winky wonky donkey” with a taste for country music and therefore a “honky-tonky winky wonky donkey,” and so on to a final characterization as a “spunky hanky-panky cranky stinky-dinky lanky honky-tonky winky wonky donkey.” A free musical recording (of this version, anyway—the author’s website hints at an adults-only version of the song) is available from the publisher and elsewhere online. Even though the book has no included soundtrack, the sly, high-spirited, eye patch–sporting donkey that grins, winks, farts, and clumps its way through the song on a prosthetic metal hoof in Cowley’s informal watercolors supplies comical visual flourishes for the silly wordplay. Look for ready guffaws from young audiences, whether read or sung, though those attuned to disability stereotypes may find themselves wincing instead or as well. Hee haw. (Picture book. 5-7) Pub Date: May 1, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-545-26124-1. Page Count: 26. Publisher: Scholastic. Review Posted Online: Dec. 29, 2018. Share your opinion of this book. Did you like this book? More by Craig Smith. A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. GOOD NIGHT, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK. by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 22, 2019. Is it a stormy-night scare or a bedtime book? Both! Little Blue Truck and his good friend Toad are heading home when a storm lets loose. Before long, their familiar, now very nervous barnyard friends (Goat, Hen, Goose, Cow, Duck, and Pig) squeeze into the garage. Blue explains that “clouds bump and tumble in the sky, / but here inside we’re warm and dry, / and all the thirsty plants below / will get a drink to help them grow!” The friends begin to relax. “Duck said, loud as he could quack it, / ‘ THUNDER’S JUST A NOISY RACKET! ’ ” In the quiet after the storm, the barnyard friends are sleepy, but the garage is not their home. “ ‘ Beep! ’ said Blue. ‘Just hop inside. / All aboard for the bedtime ride!’ ” Young readers will settle down for their own bedtimes as Blue and Toad drop each friend at home and bid them a good night before returning to the garage and their own beds. “Blue gave one small sleepy ‘ Beep .’ / Then Little Blue Truck fell fast asleep.” Joseph’s rich nighttime-blue illustrations (done “in the style of [series co-creator] Jill McElmurry”) highlight the power of the storm and capture the still serenity that follows. Little Blue Truck has been chugging along since 2008, but there seems to be plenty of gas left in the tank. A sweet reminder that it’s easy to weather a storm with the company and kindness of friends. (Picture book. 3-6) Dance This Week: ‘Ballerina Swan,’ ‘Die Fledermaus’ and the Choreography of Merce Cunningham. Some remember Allegra Kent as the most inspiring of all New York City Ballet’s many ballerinas. In the 1950s and 1960s, she created enduring roles for both George Balanchine (“Ivesiana,” “Episodes,” “Bugaku”) and Jerome Robbins (“Dances at a Gathering”). She subsequently wrote a memorable autobiography, “Once a Dancer” (1997). In a different key, she wrote a funny and touching children’s book “Ballerina Swan” (2012). Only recently did I discover that this has been turned into a theatrical production for children. A performance of “Ballerina Swan” occurs on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the New York City Children’s Theater. The choreography is by Michael McGowan, writing by Barbara Zinn Krieger. Dance in Die Fledermaus. The Metropolitan Opera’s English-language production of “Die Fledermaus,” new on New Year’s Eve 2014, has had a strong British element from the start: its director/translator/adapter is Jeremy Sams, its choreographer Stephen Mear. (There’s a short ballet, for a corps of 12, in Act II.) I enjoyed this year’s revival twice as much, thanks not only to the danciness of James Levine’s conducting. Other welcome new ingredients were the further British additions to the cast — Toby Spence as Eisenstein, Lucy Crowe as Adele, and Alan Opie as Frank. I don’t say this because I’m British, too; but these three, with long records of singing the English language, did so with flair. And Mr. Spence, whom I’ve only seen and heard before in serious roles, proved to contribute the best dancing of the evening; just the way he twirled his cloak in Act I while anticipating the frolics of the evening to come was delicious. Performances continue this week (Wednesday evening, Saturday afternoon) and next. Cunningham in Boston. Before the 2016 season takes off, it’s worth drawing attention to some out-of-town rarities that may need advance planning. “Leap Before You Look,” the exhibition commemorating artistic experimentation at Black Mountain College (at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston through Jan. 24), has a number of live dance performances; those on Jan. 21 and Jan. 23-24 include extremely rare choreography by Merce Cunningham. I reviewed in October Silas Riener’s performance of “Changeling,” a solo hitherto performed solely by Cunningham, in the years 1957-64; in December I saw the no-less-rare performances by students (taught by Mr. Riener) from the Boston Conservatory. The Conservatory’s junior students include some exceptionally gifted dancers (they will be joined in these January performances by senior students). But the great draw are the dances, which include items that, though a Cunningham devotee since 1979, I have never seen in live performance. (Places, most of them standing or on the floor, are on a first-come, first-served basis; space is limited, and early arrival is recommended.) The special highlight is the duet from “Springweather and People” (1955), not complete but reconstructed from a film recently discovered by the filmmaker Alla Kovgan. (Excerpts from Ms. Kovgan’s “Cunningham 3D,” a film-in-progress of his choreography in 3-D can also be seen at the Institute for Contemporary Art.) Originally made by Cunningham for himself and Carolyn Brown, “Springweather” has a sequence that has haunted me since those December performances; let’s hope memory has not played tricks. The woman, on flat foot, takes an arabesque (leg stretched behind her); the line of her neck, torso, and leg are like those of a swan swimming. Then the man joins her and protectively places his arm around her waist. The image seems romantically complete — and then comes the unexpected, as she hops forward, eluding his grasp.