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As you all know I look at anything on the shelves that wasn't their the last time I looked in a shop.....picked this up yesterday for 50p.signed by one of the co authors..Inscription reads...
" For Dear Frederick, Remembering your many good deeds!
John Gregory May 1990"... he passed away in 1996.
John Gregory's love of dance was central to his life. In a rare and fruitful career he was a leading dancer, choreographer and teacher, as well as the author of many books on ballet. A prolific writer, he was a regular contributor to this page from 1991.
He began his artistic career not as a dancer, however, but as an actor, turned to painting and only then to dancing - strongly influenced by meeting the love of his life, later his dancing partner and his wife, Barbara Vernon. In 1949 they created the School of Russian Classical Ballet in Chelsea, and ten years later founded and ran the Harlequin Ballet, with the support of illustrious patrons from the ballet and theatrical world, among them Alicia Markova, Diana Menuhin, Dame Sybil Thorndyke, Romola Nijinsky and Anton Dolin.
Not bad for 50p but now for the best bit..inside the book mis a B/W photo with another inscription on the back...I think the top words relate to a ballet Gabriella performed in and the bottom part in biro reads "Gabriella Komleva signed this for me many years ago". Best 50p I've spent in a long time. 2 for the price of one.
Gabriella Komleva was born in Leningrad in 1938. She graduated from the Vaganova Choreographic School (class of Vera Kostrovostkaya) and joined the Kirov Ballet in 1957. Famous for her perfect technique, great expressiveness and versatility. Komleva danced both classical and contemporary roles including Nikiya (La Bayadère), Raymonda (Raymonda), Giselle and Myrtha (Giselle), Odette-Odile (Swan Lake), Kitri (Don Quixote), Aurora (The Sleeping Beauty), Asiat (Gorvanka) and Ophelia (Hamlet).
Komleva left the stage in 1988 and became a coach and repetiteur with the Kirov Ballet. Among her pupils are Daria Pavlenko, Veronika Part, Irina Golub and Ekaterina Osmolkina Awards:
People's Artist of the USSR (1983)
Gabriella Komleva Biography Born in 1938, after training with Vera Kostrovitskaya at the Leningrad Ballet School, Gabriella Komleva graduated from the arduous ballet academy in 1957, where she spent the following 23 years as a dancer before becoming a teacher at the same school. From the early stages of her career, Komleva was embraced as a diverse and complete dancer, able to excel in classical roles and new choreography alike. She danced roles from the traditional repertory such as Odette-Odile from “Swan Lake” or Giselle, from the ballet of the same name, with the same ease she could perform modern roles such as the hopeless girl from “The Coast of Hope,” or Ariadne in “The Mountain Girl.” This ability to dance a variety of styles kept Komleva in high demand, but also allowed her the flexability to choose her projects. Kompleva became the premier interpreter of the complex and difficult genre of dance symphony, where she enhanced her reputation even more, most notably in George Balanchine’s “Le Palais de Cristal.” She also danced in productions by many foreign choreographers, such as Anton Dolin’s “Pas de Quatre,” before retiring from dance in 1980. She was the focus of numerous films such as “Gabriella Komleva Dances,” and the 1979 film version of “La Bayadere.” She continues to live and teach ballet in Russia. After a career in which she openly embraced a diversity of styles in her dancing, Gabriella Komleva gained a reputation as a versatile yet flawless dancer, earning her the highest of accolades. Her legacy is revealed and emboldened in her impressively individual dancing that seemingly inherited the myriad of styles created by the many generations of the Kirov Ballet Company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d1mtWioc0o
this could be the Ballet Gabriella starred in.....
