The footage is of the great native American ballerina Rosella Hightower (1920-2008) on stage performing 'Piège de Lumière', a ballet created for her by John Taras. She is on stage with one of the Ballets Russes companies. In the work, she is a butterfly in a tropical forest who enchants a group of escaped convicts. Hightower began her training with Dorothy Perkins in Kansas City. After seeing Léonide Massine performing in that city, she was invited by the Ballets Russes dancer to Monte Carlo to join a new company he was forming there. Arriving in Europe and finding the offer was only for further auditions, Hightower (ultimately) joined the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and it was in that company that she met André Eglevsky, who was later to become her partner. She joined Ballet Theatre in 1941 but returned to the Ballets Russes fold in 1946 to become a member of Colonel de Basil Ballet's Original Ballet Russe. In 1947 she joined the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo also known as the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas or simply the de Cuevas Ballet - a decision taken due to the presence there of Bronislava Nijinska, who was to choreograph the virtuoso 'Rondo Capriccioso' for her. In 1962, Hightower opened the Centre de Danse Classique near her home in Cannes. Later she directed various major ballet companies - the Marseilles Ballet (1969-1972), the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre of Nancy (1973-1974), the Paris Opéra Ballet (1980-1983) and the La Scala Ballet of Milan (1985-1986). Enjoy!

• published: 26 Oct 2013
• views: 56