Cynthia Gregory stages ‘Swan Lake,’ the ballet that made her a star, in Las Vegas — PHOTOS
After 50 years, Cynthia Gregory may finally be ready for her “Swan Lake” swan song.
She was 20 when she made her American Ballet Theatre debut in “Swan Lake” on tour in San Francisco. A few months later, her New York debut cemented her emergence as a prima ballerina. (Or, as one of her partners — the legendary Rudolf Nureyev — once called her, “America’s prima ballerina assoluta.”)
The Henderson resident is following in the footsteps of generations of ballet greats by sharing her knowledge as she stages “Swan Lake” for Nevada Ballet Theatre this weekend in The Smith Center’s Reynolds Hall.
NBT’s “Swan Lake,” complete with a live orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s score, marks the latest chapter in an odyssey that stretches back to 1877. That first production was a flop, but an 1895 revival began “Swan Lake’s” ascent to its current status as the quintessential classical ballet.
And with Gregory as one of “Swan Lake’s” quintessential ballerinas, NBT’s dancers are learning its secrets from someone who knows them all.
As a timeless art form, ballet relies on experience, observes dancer Stephan Azulay, who’s dancing the role of the evil sorcerer Baron Von Rothbart this weekend. “And Cynthia has the most experience of ‘Swan Lake.’ ”
Former NBT principal dancer Clarice (Geissel) Rathers, who spent 20 years with the company and performed “Swan Lake” in 1993, is back to assist Gregory during “Swan Lake” rehearsals.
“She’s the reason I started dancing,” Rathers says of Gregory, recalling that the ballerina “took my breath away” when she first saw Gregory perform. “Now I’m working with her. It’s truly a gift, from NBT to me.”
The admiration is mutual, as is evident when NBT dancers assemble in their Summerlin studio for an afternoon rehearsal.
“I’m horrible with the corps” de ballet, Gregory confesses. “Clarice is so good — she finds all the mess.”
While Gregory coaches Alissa Dale (who’s dancing “Swan Lake’s” white and black swans, Odette and Odile) and Steven Goforth (alias Prince Siegfried), Rathers oversees the ballet’s other dancing swans as they move in time to Tchaikovsky’s timeless music.
“I think you’re making the circle a little too big,” Rathers advises the dancers, reassuring them, “that’s what rehearsals are for. We’ve got plenty of time. You guys are doing great.”
In between run-throughs, Gregory stands in the middle of the studio floor, surrounded by NBT dancers, adjusting their arm positions and answering their questions.
She laughs when one dancer asks her what she was thinking during one of “Swan Lake’s” dramatic pas de deux lifts.
Gregory has a ready response: “I was so hungry I was thinking what I was going to eat.”
But seriously, “it’s like another lifetime — did I ever do this?” Gregory says of her days as a “Swan Lake” star. Now, she watches NBT’s dancers “and I go, wow, it’s such hard work. I remember that, but when you love it, it’s not hard work.”
At rehearsal’s end, before the company breaks for lunch, Gregory tells her NBT colleagues, “I have to catch that breath — I know you did the dancing, but I see it coming together. And I’m really moved.”
Read more from Carol Cling at reviewjournalcom. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.
Preview
What: "Swan Lake"
Who: Nevada Ballet Theatre
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Reynolds Hall, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 361 Symphony Park Ave.
Tickets: $29-$139 (702-749-2000, www.thesmithcenter.com)
JUST A LITTLE TOUCH OF STAR QUALITY
Staging Nevada Ballet Theatre's "Swan Lake," former prima ballerina Cynthia Gregory showed dancers a step.
" 'The sofa — Rudy called it that,' " dancer Alissa Dale remembers. "Rudy" being the legendary Rudolf Nureyev, one of Gregory's during her equally legendary ballet career.
"It's so amazing that someone who reached the ultimate" is "willing and able to share her information — and not having an ego about anything," dancer Steven Goforth says of NBT artistic coach Gregory, a Henderson resident who's staging "Swan Lake."
When dancer Alissa Dale first met Gregory backstage after an NBT performance, "I remember being starstruck," Dale recalls. "She was so nice and so generous." And when Gregory said "she enjoyed our show, I was like, 'she's lying.' "
But she wasn't. "Her generosity is boundless," Dale says of Gregory, who's coached her in other roles.
"It's really easy to work with her," adds dancer Stephan Azulay. "When someone's that nice and that appreciative, it takes all the fear away."
And though Gregory's "Swan Lake" performance may be considered definitive, "she allows us the opportunity to be ourselves," Dale notes. "She doesn't need me to do what she did."
Throughout rehearsals, "the strongest emphasis is the story," Azulay observes, and "less about amazing tricks."
Or, as Goforth says, "If you're not telling the story, it's a waste of our time."
Even so, "watching (Gregory) do" an arm movement (or, in ballet talk, port de bras) "was mind-blowing," he adds, from "her entire arm and down to her fingers — and her facial expression."
NBT dancers are "so lucky to see that," in Goforth's view. Little wonder he admits to still being "a little starstruck."
