Seven years ago I had never heard of New York City Ballet. 7 years ago I had the chance to see a working rehearsal of Robbins’ The Concert at NYCB. A few days later I stumbled upon Allegra Kent’s autobiography at West Side Records and thought “hey, it says she danced with that company I saw last week.” It was through her eyes that I fell in love with Balanchine and NYCB. She was my introduction to this whole world. And this week I got to have lunch with her. All thanks to my dear friend Rosalie O'Connor (more on that friend later!) If you know how much I love the history of dance and passing it on, then you know how special it was to meet such a legendary link to the past. I’m just really grateful to live in this city and be a part of this community.
Here are a few moments from our time together:
Did this really happen??
I think you can see the stars popping out of my eyes as I listened to her speak.
Allegra signing my book. The one that started it all. The reason I work at the theater now.
She brought me her brand new picture book “Grand Jeté and Me” and had already inscribed it to me
She was pointing out one of the pictures of herself in the illustrations. It’s the famous photo of her and Edward Villella. You can see we are both saying “Bugaku”
(right) The Bugaku picture by Bert Stern.
I brought her one of my ornaments of the theater that’s so special to us all
Pictures by Rosalie O'Connor.
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