Ms. Danilova, ballerina, teacher and choreographer, died last Sunday at her Manhattan home. She was 93.
Paquita will be staged by Ms. Danilova's longtime dance partner, Frederic Franklin.
Ms. Danilova was born in Russia and danced with the Maryinsky Ballet (now known as Kirov Ballet.) In 1924, she, George Balanchine and several other dancers left the Soviet Union to dance in Europe with Diaghilev's Ballet Russe. Ms. Danilova and Mr. Balanchine lived together until 1931, but never married. He was still married to dancer Tamara Geva at the time.
After Diaghilev's death, Ms. Danilova joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, and danced in Cincinnati many times, sponsored by local patron Julius Fleischmann. The group performed during the late 1930s to early '50s.
Ms. Danilova received a Dance Magazine Award in 1984. The magazine described her career as having "expanded to mythic proportions and touched almost every aspect of the dance business."
Her exquisite dancing and effervescence, both on- and off-stage, have been talked about throughout her career. She was often described as glamorous and dazzling. Jennifer Dunning, New York Times dance critic, described her as a "legendary, beloved performer."
P.W. Manchester, local dance historian and longtime friend of Ms. Danilova, remembers when Paquita was first taught to Cincinnati Ballet dancers in 1979.
"I remember they came (Ms. Danilova and Mr. Franklin) to set the pas de deux in Paquita and they danced in their ordinary (street) clothes. They were so beautiful that we all cried. She had that ability. If she wanted to make you cry she could, and if she wanted you to laugh she could do that too. She was a wonderful demi-caractere dancer— an actress."
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By JACK ANDERSON
NEW YORK -- Alexandra Danilova, an internationally popular ballet star
known for her vivacity and theatrical flair, died Sunday at her home in
Manhattan. She was 93.
Beloved by audiences in a performing career that extended from the Imperial
Russian Ballet of St. Petersburg to Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes of the
1920s and the various Ballets Russes companies that succeeded it, Danilova
was also a noted teacher and and a faculty member of the School of
American Ballet, the New York City Ballet's school.
She was known to friends by the nickname Choura, and admired for a stage
presence so intense that she could command attention even when she was not
moving. With her heart-shaped face and dark brown hair, she was striking to
behold. She was also celebrated for possessing what were considered the
most beautiful -- and photogenic -- legs in ballet. Lincoln Kirstein, the New
York City Ballet's director, once called them "legs like luminous wax."
Yet Danilova did more than personify glamour. Extraordinarily versatile, she
danced roles that ranged from the passionate Swan Queen in Swan Lake to
the mischievous Swanilda in Coppelia and the worldly heroines of Leonide
Massine's balletic comedies, Le Beau Danube and Gaite Parisienne.
Although she particularly enjoyed dramatic roles, she also danced abstract
ballets. George Balanchine, her schoolmate from St. Petersburg, created
Danses Concertantes in 1944 for her and for Frederic Franklin, the
English-born dancer who was her partner at the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo
from the late 1930s through the early '50s.
Danilova built lasting friendships in Houston while appearing with Sergei
Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
The final performance of her career took place in Houston's Music Hall on
Dec. 30, 1951. She appeared opposite Franklin in the colorful Jacques
Offenbach work Gaite Parisienne. Denham led her forward to make the
announcement, then presented her with a gold bracelet. At the curtain's fall,
the crowd gave her a 10-minute ovation. Many were in tears. Backstage the
ballerina was surrounded by banks of flowers and throngs of Houston fans.
On Nov. 10, 1983, Danilova and other famed dancers who had been
associated with Ballet Russe came to Houston as guests of the Houston
Ballet, which was staging A Tribute to Ballet Russe. The founding of the
Houston Ballet was partly the result of dance enthusiasm generated during the
1940s and '50s by touring companies, most prominently Ballet Russe de
Monte Carlo.
Danilova was born in Peterhof, Russia, near St. Petersburg, on Nov. 20,
1903, and orphaned when she was a small child. She was brought up by
relatives and foster parents. When they discovered the little girl loved to
dance, they wondered if there might be a career in ballet for her, and she was
accepted by the Imperial Ballet School in 1911. In 1920, she entered the
Maryinsky Ballet, the company now known as the Kirov Ballet.
As a young dancer, she was caught up in the artistic ferment after the
Bolshevik Revolution. Not only did she appear in the experiments of Fedor
Lopukhov, but she also became a friend of Balanchine, at that time an
experimental young choreographer. Along with several other dancers, she and
Balanchine left the Soviet Union in 1924 on what was intended to be a tour of
Western Europe. But that same year, she and Balanchine were accepted by
Diaghilev: Danilova as a dancer, Balanchine as a choreographer.
Until 1931, she and Balanchine lived together as husband and wife, although
they were never married. Balanchine was still officially married to another
dancer, Tamara Geva, and he told Danilova that because his marriage papers
had been left behind in Russia, he feared it might be difficult to arrange a legal
separation.
When Diaghilev died in 1929, Danilova said she felt as if the ground had
collapsed beneath her feet. A few years later, however, she danced with the
Ballets Russes, which Col. W. de Basil organized in 1933 as a successor to
the Diaghilev company. In 1938, she became prima ballerina of a rival
company, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in part because its resident
choreographer was Massine, whom she admired only slightly less than
Balanchine.
Danilova, who became an American citizen in 1946, was twice married, to
Giuseppe Massera in 1934 and to Casimir Kokitch in 1941. Both marriages
ended in divorce, and Danilova said in Choura, her autobiography, which
was published in 1986: "I sacrificed marriage, children and country to be a
ballerina, and there was never any misunderstanding on my part: I knew the
price."
Chronicle critic-at-large Ann Holmes also contributed to this report.
New York Times
July 15, 1997