Love for Yvonne & a bright future for Westside Ballet 1
Jun
12
2019
It was an evening of beaming smiles, prodigious effort, community love, and some real artistry last Saturday at the Broad Stage, as the Westside Ballet staged a impressive Gala fundraising event. Visiting “etoiles,” stars from companies as esteemed as New York City Ballet, Smuin Ballet, The Joffrey, and Miami City Ballet, studded the program, bringing ...
Dance historian Nancy Reynolds to be recognized with Bessie Award
It is with great personal delight that I share the wonderful announcement that the New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies) will honor dance historian Nancy Reynolds with the 2013 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance.The ceremony will take place on Monday, October 7, at the Apollo Theater in New ...
Yvonne Mounsey, 39 others, feted for Jerome Robbins collaboration
Oct
10
2011
In a truly beautiful gesture, on September 30, the 2011 Jerome Robbins Award was dedicated to 30 former or current New York City Ballet principal ballerinas, 4 posthumously, who danced several principal roles in Jerome Robbins’ ballets. Included was Los Angeles’ own Yvonne Mounsey, 92, who danced with City Ballet from 1949 – 1958, and ...
The astronaut and the ballerina 1
Nov
22
2009
Weightlessness has its rewards. In 1950, the ballerina was a featherweight slithering down her partner’s body and marching on her highest pointes as Balanchine’s snaky Siren in “The Prodigal Son.” In 1969 the astronaut, seen at right, clocked in at 35 pounds while padding around the moon’s soft terrain like a stuffed doll. Los Angeles County ...
Ballerina’s beautiful beach birthday bash 1
Last year I wrote an article about former New York City Ballet ballerina Yvonne Mounsey coaching a young dancer, Melissa Barak, in the lead role of George Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son.” Mounsey danced the role in the early 1950s. By all accounts, she was an amazing, full-blooded dancer. She went on to become a great ballet ...