I'm interested in assessments of Maina Gielgud's tenure(s) as artistic director, at both Australian Ballet and Royal Danish Ballet. Does anyone have the impression that she is occasionally given a bad rap? I have spoken with people who went to school with her (at Rosella Hightower's in Cannes), who find her contemporary characterizations incongruous and out-of-step with what they know about her.

Francis - do you think that it will be good for the Danish Royal Ballet to be under the direction of someone who, as I understand it, does not have a Bournonville base?<P>Of course the Danish Company needs to dance many other things - but they also have a unique heritage that needs to be handled with love and care.

If you mean *was* it good to have a non-Bournonville AD (since she is no longer there), the consensus seems to be no. However, the issue I had hoped to elicit discussion on (14 years as AD in Melbourne; additional time at RDB) is apart from the question of whether she was the right choice for RDB at that point in RDB's history. It appears to me that she was used by managers with another agenda, and forced out when she had run her course of usefulness for them. Inasmuch as she has now been appointed AD in Boston, clamor is arising over her record and rumblings of gloom and doom for Boston are heard in the air. I only wonder if there is anyone to speak in her favor....

I know very little about Maina Geilgud. However, I do share your concern Francis about the bad press she is getting, part of it through the Internet.<P>Well you don't get to where she is without being tough. I hope she has that bit of luck that we all need from time to time and that the initial productions under her management go well.<P>

Stuart, you're not alone. So many people I've talked to had not heard of Maina Gielgud before her appointment at Boston Ballet. Until I saw your post, I thought it was just a US West Coast thing. Curious, isn't it?

Where can I find more information on the career of Maina Gielgud, where she danced and her posts as director? Is she related to the actor?<P>She seems a curious choice for Boston Ballet. Is she a champion of the vaganova system?

Here is a direct link: <A HREF="http://www.boston.com/bostonballet/mediainfo/artistic.shtml" TARGET=_blank>http://www.boston.com/bostonballet/mediainfo/artistic.shtml</A>

To 'Ballet Fan' : Maina Gielgud is Sir John Gielgud's niece, as I recall.<P>She presented me with my Teaching Diploma years ago. Just name-dropping a bit

Just in case anyone gets a little confused here, this is an old thread. Maina Gielgud and Boston Ballet have since parted. Here are some relevant threads discussing that:<P><a href=../../../ubb/Forum4/HTML/000712.html target=_blank>Boston Ballet and Maina Gielgud Part</a><P><a href=../../../ubb/Forum4/HTML/000699.html target=_blank>Boston Ballet Firings</a><p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited March 30, 2001).]

<B>The prime of Miss Gielgud</B><BR>By Neil Jillett<BR>The Age<BR>March 12 2002<P> <BR><small>Maina Gielgud: "The Australian Ballet is still, as I always said it was, a very special company."</small> <BR> <BR>At the age of 57 and after battling a hip injury, Maina Gielgud, the Australian Ballet's longest-serving artistic director, is not just staging a comeback as a ballerina. She will simultaneously make her acting debut, in a play by the Nobel prize-winning Irishman, Samuel Beckett. And, just to underline her versatility, Gielgud will speak her lines in French or English, depending on the country where the show, Happy Days/ Oh! les beaux jours, is being performed.<P>It will open in Lausanne in May and then tour other Swiss cities before going to France. There are tentative proposals for it to be staged in England, Japan and Australia.<P>Before she starts Happy Days rehearsals, Gielgud is back in her old stamping ground, the Australian Ballet's headquarters at Southgate.<P><A HREF="http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/03/12/1015881948184.html" TARGET=_blank><B>More</B></A><BR><p>[This message has been edited by Malcolm Tay (edited March 14, 2002).]

I didn't notice this thread the first time around. I have a theory that she gets bad press because she treats "the little people" very poorly. She is quite a diva, in my experience, and that can really put off the press if she has abused them in any way.

After further reflection on this subject, I came to the revelation that this woman keeps getting used by the Board of Directors that hire. They seem to think she will give them something they think they want, and when she starts doing things the way she sees fit (as an AD and a strong woman should), they can her. This doesn't seem fair. I do wonder what would have happened if Ms. Gielgud had been allowed to do what she had been hired to do at Boston Ballet.