As a correction to our current images of Alonso, here's a portion of a review of her Giselle by David Denby (October 24, 1945) which gives a sense of what she was like as a young woman. [Edited: it's Edwin Denby, as rg points out in the next post. Sorry for the slip.]
QUOTE
Alonso is a delightfully young and a very Latin Giselle, quick, clear, direct in her relation to her lover [danced by Andre Eglevsky). She is passionate rather than sensuous. She is brilliant in allegro, not so convincing in sustained grace. Her plie is not yet a soft and subtly modulated one and this weakens her soaring phrases. She has little patience for those slow-motion, vaporous effectgs that we Northerners find so touching. But there is no fake about her, no staginess. Her points, her young high extensions, her clean line, her lightness in speed, her quick balance are of star quality.
Her first act was the more distinguished of the two in its dramatic interpretation,. She is no tubercular ballerina-peasasnt but a spirited girl who stabs herself. The dance-solo was hidden from me by late-comers, but loudly applauded. The confrontation scene and the mad scene were convincing, simple and large in their miming. In the second act the first whirls were thrilling, and the famous passage of lifts with the following solo of echapppes and spins stopped the show by its cumulative bold, clear speed. If there was little wthat was spectral in the second act, there was nothing that was not vividly young and straighforward.
Her first act was the more distinguished of the two in its dramatic interpretation,. She is no tubercular ballerina-peasasnt but a spirited girl who stabs herself. The dance-solo was hidden from me by late-comers, but loudly applauded. The confrontation scene and the mad scene were convincing, simple and large in their miming. In the second act the first whirls were thrilling, and the famous passage of lifts with the following solo of echapppes and spins stopped the show by its cumulative bold, clear speed. If there was little wthat was spectral in the second act, there was nothing that was not vividly young and straighforward.
I haven't seen the Cubans dance in recent years. Is this the effect they still achieve in their Giselles?
(Source: Edwin Denby, Looking at the Dance, a collection of reviews, published in 1968))
I love the Jennifer Dunning story. And I certainly identify. There's something about these slips which, once I've made them, compel me to make them again and again. 