About the author
Gelsey Kirkland (b.1952) is an American ballet dancer and author. She was a principal dancer with the New York Ballet, and was well known for her work with Mikhail Baryshnikov. Her career faltered when she suffered from anorexia and drug addiction, though she overcame this and danced with the Royal Ballet in England. With her then husband, Greg Lawrence, she wrote two volumes of autobiography (Dancing on my Grave and The Shape of Love), as well as one children’s book, The Little Ballerina and her Dancing Horse.
Finding the book
Tends to be ex-library, but reasonably easy to find in the USA. It wasn’t published in the UK.
Links and sources
Wikipedia article on Gelsey Kirkland
Clips of Gelsey Kirkland on Dance World
A video of Gelsey Kirkland and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Coppelia on dailymotion.com
Many thanks to Susan Bourgeau for all her help with this section.
Bibliography (horse books only)
The Little Ballerina and Her Dancing Horse
Doubleday, New York, 1993, illus Jacqueline Rogers
“Eleven-year-old Rosalie Daniels (or Rosie, as she likes to be called) faces a terrible decision: whether to give up horseback riding (and her best friend, her horse Sugar) in order to pursue a bright future as a ballerina, or to abandon her ballet aspirations and continue to ride – an activityher ballet teacher has said will develop muscles all wrong for ballet. The situation seems hopeless until a wise uncle suggests an old-fashioned solution to Rosie’s problem.”
