Ballet
As a little girl living in Midtown Manhattan NYC, I fell in love with Ballet. Since I came from an Upper-Class upbringing, my parents insisted I take ballet lessons. Then I went to see The American Ballet Theatre and The New York City Ballet. Being very impressionable, I wanted to become a ballerina.
My parents enrolled me in ballet training and I was taking lessons. I was finally able to get into High School productions which had some dancing and ballet but never was able to become a Ballerina. At fourteen I was too tall and shapely and therefore never able to dance ballet professionally.
The New York City Ballet
The New York City Ballet has it's own training and develops world-class dancers. It was started with George Balanchine, choreographer, and Lincoln Edward Kirstein forming the company in the 20th century. Currently, it conforms to Balanchine's ideas and is under the direction Peter Martin.
Upon invitation from Lincoln Kirstein, a Boston dance connoisseur. George Balanchine collaborated with the idea of forming a Ballet Company in NYC in 1933. The New York City Ballet became just as good as the ones throughout Europe perhaps better.
New York City Ballet often tours with their classical dancers and performs new ballet repertory. The company has more than 90 dancers and over 15 productions. It performs at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, and during the summer the production can be found at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The New York City Ballet is one of the most leading dance companies in the World.
Alexander Godunov
Was one of the most famous Russian Ballet dancers of all time. Alexander was born in Sakhalin, which was a city in the Soviet Union. He began his ballet studies in Riga in 1958 in the same class as his good friend Mikhail Baryshnikov. The Bolshoi Ballet acquired a young Alexander Godunov were he was one of youngest principal dancers in 1971.
In the year of 1973, he achieved a gold medal at the Moscow International Competition. He loved all things American since he was a child, American food, American culture, American Ideas. The Soviet Union was not the place for him to be. On the night of August 23rd, he decided to defect. He was still a dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet at the time. Breaking the strict curfew which was in effect at the time, he "called in" and told them he wanted to defect. Unfortunately, the KGB had Godunov's wife, Ludmila, on the plane which was headed back to Moscow. The plane was stopped and Ludmila Vlasova was asked what she wanted to do by the authorities.
Diplomats arrived at the plane with a passport ready for Vlasova but she declined. She claimed, she wanted to go back to Moscow. Maybe the KGB made up her mind for her. Godunov was crushed that his wife did not stay with him. He suffered great depression about her not coming to the United States with throughout his life. Sometimes he could not sleep at night remembering the Dark Days in the Soviet Union.
Godunov danced for a short time with the with American Ballet Theater he was the principal dancer until 1982. Unfortunately, he had some personal problems with his longtime friend director of the company Mikhail Baryshnikov. The two parted ways and Godunov started traveling with his own troupe and doing some acting in Hollywood. His famous role was the Amish farmer in the movie Witness. His suburb characterization of Karl in Die-Hard was fantastic. He also played Max as the husband of Shelley Long in the movie The Money Pit. He was fabulous as an arrogant successful, rich Music Conductor. His character was intensely funny to watch.
He drank Vodka frequently and unfortunately suffered great depression about his former life in the Soviet Union. Jacqueline Bisset was the actress in his life in Los Angeles. His love affair which unfortunately ended, but he was in love with her. After this period I met Alexander as a teenager myself and he was gorgeous, very artistic and truly intelligent. He looked like a Blond God--Apollo. Due to excessive drinking, he had complications with his health. He will be with all of us in Spirit.
We love you, Sasha.
Tiffany Champagne