Gelsey Kirkland

Gelsey Kirkland is an American prima ballerina born on December 29, 1952, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her father, Jack Kirkland, was a playwright responsible for the Broadway adaptations of Tobacco Road and Tortilla Flat, and her mother, Nancy Hoardley, was an actress. Her sister, Johnna Kirkland, also trained at the School of American Ballet and performed with the New York City Ballet.

Kirkland received her early training at the School of American Ballet before George Balanchine invited her to join the New York City Ballet in 1968, when she was fifteen years old. She advanced to soloist in 1969 and was promoted to principal dancer in 1972. During her six years with the company, she performed in numerous ballets, among them Concerto Barocco, The Cage, Irish Fantasy, Symphony in C, La Source, Theme and Variations, Tarantella, Harlequinade, The Nutcracker, and Dances at a Gathering. She created leading roles in works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, and Antony Tudor, including Balanchine's revival of The Firebird — which he re-choreographed specifically for her — Robbins' Goldberg Variations, and Tudor's The Leaves are Fading.

In 1974, following Mikhail Baryshnikov's defection, Kirkland joined him for engagements with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet before the two moved together to the American Ballet Theatre, where she became a principal dancer. Her repertoire at ABT encompassed a wide range of classical roles, including the title role in Giselle, Kitri in Don Quixote, Clara in The Nutcracker, Swanilda in Coppélia, Aurora in The Sleeping Beauty, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, the Sylph in La Sylphide, Lise in La Fille Mal Gardée, Odette/Odile in Swan Lake, Nikiya in The Kingdom of the Shades, and the Sleepwalker in La Sonnambula. Kirkland appeared on Broadway in 1975 under the credit Ballet Theatre. In 1977, she portrayed Clara Stahlbaum in Baryshnikov's televised production of The Nutcracker, in which Baryshnikov also performed as the Nutcracker/Prince. The following year, on May 1, 1978, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Kirkland left ABT in 1984, subsequently moving to England to dance with The Royal Ballet. There she performed Romeo and Juliet with Anthony Dowell and The Sleeping Beauty with Stephen Jeffries. She later returned to ABT. In 2007, Kirkland, Michael Chernov, and ABT artistic director Kevin McKenzie choreographed a new production of Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, in which Kirkland danced the role of Carabosse, the Wicked Fairy, marking her return to the stage after more than twenty years away from performing. In 2010, Kirkland and Chernov founded the Gelsey Kirkland Academy of Classical Ballet, where both served as co-Artistic Directors, alongside the associated Gelsey Kirkland Ballet company, which presented classical ballets in New York City before eventually closing.

Kirkland published her first autobiography, Dancing on My Grave, in 1986, co-written with her then-husband Greg Lawrence. The memoir addressed her artistic development, as well as her struggles with anorexia, bulimia, drug addiction, plastic surgeries, and personal relationships. The book was dedicated to Joseph Duell, a New York City Ballet dancer who died by suicide in 1986. Her second autobiography, The Shape of Love, followed in 1990, and in 1993 she and Lawrence co-authored a children's book, The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse. Kirkland received the Dance Magazine Award in 2006. She lives in Maine with her second husband, Michael Chernov, a dancer, choreographer, and teacher who also worked with ABT.