Kent will be among those honored by Dance Magazine on November 9, 2009 at Florence Gould Hall in NY (Janie Taylor will be performing in her honor):

http://www.dancemagazine.com/awards

Congrats to Allegra. There's a lovely photo on the zine's site.

Also I noticed a nice article on MCB's " dazzling jewel", Jennifer Kronenberg

Allegra Kent! I wish that more of you could have had the chance to experience just how alluring and riveting she was on stage -- how very, very beautiful. Congratulations to her on this award.

"Alluring" and "riveting" -- yes, both of those were within her range. Not in everybody's, I'd say. I can recall her entrance in Sonnambula, sailing out like gangbusters, and like nobody since, and her eye-popping flexibility in Bugaku, leading someone near me one night to remark afterward, "That woman has been fileted", and now, thanks to video, I've also seen her Symphony in C (with Conrad Ludlow), and... well, words may come later, but right now they fail me. Such fully involved, committed dancing!

I compared online and print versions of the article about Kronenberg in the MCB forum:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...c=30543&hl=

[Edited to move some of my comments into the MCB forum]

Agreed. I only saw her a couple of times at the end of her career when she was not performing much but WOW. It was a great thing, in my opinion, that Balanchine kept her on salary even though she performed so infrequently. I also saw her taking class, even that was special.

BTW I see her often at ballet performance, most recently at Avery for ABT. She is always warm, pleasant and so unconventional!

As I've written before, Allegra Kent was my favorite dancer long before Suzanne Farrell came along. I used to salivate with glee and expectation when I saw her name on the program. She was as unique as a dancer can be, always following the beat of her own drummer. Alluring, indeed, sensuous, stunningly beautiful, instinctive as a ballerina, a dancer of gorgeous line, very musical, and charismatic to the nth degree.

These days, I've bumped into her in the old Ballet Shop, at Steps, of course, and at ABT performances. Takes a little gild off the lily ;) to see her in everyday clothes and such, but she accomplished the ungilding herself with the writing of "Once a Dancer". That's where I found out that she once ran ads in New York Magazine looking for a mate and did other ordinary people things.

She has the amazing gift of still being able to take class and not be bothered by ogling eyes, not at the barre nor in the dressing room. Her eccentricity manifests in her delightful quirky presence.

These days, I've found - to my dismay - that when the doorway buzz is about "Kent" being in class at Steps, they're not talking about Allegra, but Julie, even with Miss Iris standing right in front of them at the end of the barre!

Congratulations on the Dance Magazine honour, Ms. Kent! It is well-earned.
Even your articles at Dance have been wonderful to read! A well-rounded dance career for an iconic ballerina.