Gretchen Warren, life-long summer resident of Woods Hole, former ballerina and dance teacher, will give the next lecture in the Lassalle Dance Series at the Woods Hole Public Library. She has been a Professor of Dance in the College of The Arts at the University of South Florida in Tampa since 1983. Prior to this, she was a Soloist with the Pennsylvania Ballet (1965-76) and Ballet Mistress of American Ballet Theatre II in New York (1978-83). As a dancer, Ms. Warren was trained in New York City and at London’s Royal Ballet School. She is the author of two best-selling books, Classical Ballet Technique and The Art of Teaching Ballet.
She will speak about Rudolf Nureyev, and show clips of him dancing. She remembers “I had several opportunities to be around Nureyev and he was over the top….. Nureyev’s behavior was often notoriously rude and shocking. He was tolerated as no one else would have been only because of his talent and total dedication to ballet.”
In commenting on a recent film biography of Nureyev, she says “There are some excellent dance sequences throughout the movie, beautifully performed by the young actor, who, ironically, is a much better dancer than Nureyev ever was, as are most male ballet stars today. Nureyev is rightly credited with lifting the standard of, and having more influence on, male ballet dancing than anyone else.”
Thanks to the generosity of Nancy Lassalle, Trustee Emerita of both the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet, this series of lectures is free and open to the public.
The lecture about Nureyev will be held on Tuesday evening, July 23, at 7:30. There will be two more dance lectures in this summer series. The speakers are both innovative choreographers who have their own dance companies: Nai-Ni Chen on August 6 and Robert K. Brown on August 13.