[32/50] Gelsey on the role of Dewdrop:
“When I returned to Balanchine’s stage [following a foot injury], I had the facility to absorb ideas, to move in a truly individual way. I also had the ability to make those ideas speak dramatically within the plastic context of modern ballet. The role that registered this change was Dew Drop in the Nutcracker. […] In order to endow the steps with quality as well as technical precision, I used my imagination taking the name of the character quite literally—Dew Drop. Mr. B never told me that I was supposed to be a piece of candy in the so-called Kingdom of Sweets. I wanted to appear as though a drop of dew had fallen on my cheek. I was going for crystal clarity.”
— Gelsey Kirkland in Dancing on my Grave (affiliate link)
Gelsey Kirkland. Photos by Martha Swope, 1973.
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