Dancers Sidetracked by Other Careers

Azlan · **Posted:** Thu Oct 24, 2002 6:21 pm

How about Batman and Catwoman's daughter in the new TV show, Birds of Prey?

Quote:

Skarsten Says Ballet Helped Her Act

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Rachel Skarsten says all those bloody toes from practicing ballet were a good thing for her.

Liscarkat · **Posted:** Tue Oct 29, 2002 7:17 pm

I read once that Robert Ito, the actor who played the coroner's assistant on the '70s tv show "Quincy," was once a dancer in the National Ballet of Canada. Agnes Moorhead, who is probably best remembered as the mother witch on the tv sitcom "Bewitched" in the '60s, but was a well-known character actor in movies of the '40s and '50s, danced in the St. Louis Opera Ballet when she was young.

Basheva · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2002 8:57 am

Here's a few more in this short article....

From the Los Angeles Times:

Who knew?

Quote:

With so few musicals being made these days, actors who have musical backgrounds rarely get a chance to show their skills in the movies. When they do, it takes audiences by surprise.

MORE...

Azlan · **Posted:** Sun Nov 03, 2002 1:01 pm

How about Paige Turco of the TV show The Agency?

Quote:

Five Questions With Paige Turco

By SAMANTHA CRITCHELL, Associated Press

... the 37-year-old actress is working to understand Lowell's psyche, including catching up on the news when she's off the set. And, like her character, Turco (a former ballerina) is studying martial arts.

...

Turco ... performed with the New England Dance Conservatory, the Amherst Ballet Theater Company and the Western Massachusetts Ballet Company.

Basheva · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2002 8:34 am

From the Washington Post:

Purely Pleasurable Little 'Nothing'

By Peter Marks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 12, 2002; Page C01

Quote:

Not every top-rank Broadway hoofer can make the shift from legwork to classical work, but that's the leap Karen Ziemba has attempted, putting on a posh British accent and some becoming garden-party dresses in the gentle, genteel new "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Shakespeare Theatre.

Ziemba earned a Tony Award a few years ago for her role in the dance musical "Contact," in which she played an abused housewife from Queens who escapes the horrors of her marriage by losing herself in ornate balletic fantasies. Now she has moved up the social ladder to portray Beatrice, the bruised, bantering heroine of "Much Ado," a woman as deft with words as the Queens housewife proved to be with her feet.

MORE...

angela · **Posted:** Wed Nov 13, 2002 2:11 pm

I just read, in the Chicago Sun Times, that the late-rapper Tupac Shakur trained in ballet and acting.
Maybe he should have stayed there.......

[ 11-13-2002, 15:12: Message edited by: angela ]

Basheva · **Posted:** Wed Nov 13, 2002 4:55 pm

I just finished a book about Marion Davies. She was a very famous actress in the 1920's and '30's - both silent and sound films. She was also the life long mistress (it was a very open relationship) with William Randolph Hearst. For those of you who might not know he owned, among other things like hotels and such, several newspapers and built Hearst Castle - San Simeon.

In the book I read that Marion Davies trained in ballet with Theodore Kosloff, in Southern California. He and his wife, Alexandra Baldina, were part of the original group of dancers who left Russia with Diaghelev. Baldina was the original waltz girl in Fokine's Les Sylphides. My first teacher was a student of the Kosloff's. Agnes De Mille was also a student at that school.

I was really excited to read about this in the book - even just these tidbits. I would like to find out more information about the Kosloff school in LA.

So, I know I got side tracked here, but Marion Davies is another who got side-tracked...

Here's a site about:

Marion Davies

and some about:

Theodore Kosloff

Azlan · **Posted:** Wed Nov 13, 2002 10:08 pm

Author Melissa Sharpe:

Quote:

A Summer of Love and Loss: `Oceanside, Harborside' - A New Novel by Melissa Sharpe

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Nov. 7, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Long Island's once sleepy villages now buzz with activity in summertime when the refined, relaxed lifestyle of the wealthy -- full of boating, swimming, visiting with neighbors -- offers them a break from real-world pressures. Author Melissa Sharpe peels away the veneer and exposes the romance, heartbreak, pain and survival of the island's inhabitants in ``Oceanside, Harborside'' (now available from 1stBooks Library).

...

A tedious research job following college showed her what she didn't want to do in her career, and she turned to modern dance.

<a href=http://biz.yahoo.com/pz/021107/33655.html target=_blank>More</a>, on Yahoo! News

Liscarkat · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 2:05 am

What a coincidence Basheva--my first teacher was also a former student of Kosloff and Baldina. Her name was Irene Wilson (a.k.a. Irene Snow), and she owned the Montmartre School of Imperial Russian Ballet in Tustin and Newport Beach. She was rather eccentric and unorthodox, especially in her training of male students, but the technical things she was strict about paid off when I was studying elsewhere later. For a while I lived in a very tiny room adjoining the studio she had in her house in Newport Beach and took care of her yard in exchange for classes. Was this the same teacher you started with? Sorry this is off the topic, but I had to ask!

"Students of Kosloff & Baldina" thread can be found here

Basheva edited to add the link.

[ 11-16-2002, 19:50: Message edited by: Basheva ]

Gina Ness · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 2:43 am

Don't forget Shirley MacLaine and Leslie Caron!

angela · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 1:47 pm

Classic actresses, Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck also trained( they were 'hoofers').
Vivien Leigh and I believe Myrna Loy had classical training.
And did anyone mention James Cagney( Yankee Doodle Dandy )?
And then theres Gene Kelly's brother,Fred(?)Kelly-before he went behind the scenes in the theater.

[ 11-16-2002, 14:50: Message edited by: angela ]

Liscarkat · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 2:13 pm

This is slightly related. He never was a dancer but I read once that John Wayne was a friend of Natalia Makarova and had been known to attend the ballet. Hard to imagine The Duke in the audience.

angela · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 9:55 pm

Really?
For an actor who showed emotion in films, only when he was stroking his horse........

angela · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 9:55 pm

Really?
For an actor who showed emotion in films, only when he was stroking his horse........

angela · **Posted:** Sat Nov 16, 2002 9:55 pm

Really?
For an actor who showed emotion in films, only when he was stroking his horse........


	public forum

Dancers Sidetracked by Other Careers

Who is online