|
Rex
Harrington is internationally renowned as an outstanding partner.
Not long after his retirement last May as a principal dancer with
the National Ballet of Canada, he spoke with Michael Crabb about
his experiences working with many of the leading ballerinas in Canada
and abroad.
MC: How does a male dancer become a good partner?
RH: Obviously, there are things such as physique and training,
but fundamentally I think it is a natural gift you either have or
don't have. Even now it amazes me how some men, really quite experienced,
still struggle to Þnd a woman's balance. With me, it's almost
instinctive. When I was at the National Ballet School, my teacher,
Sergiu Stefanschi, used to pull me out to demonstrate in pas de
deux class. He'd call me "Superman." Partnering is something
I really enjoy. When everything goes well, there is this wonderful
emotional high, this sense that by blending our separate artistic
individualities, my partner and I can achieve something even greater.
MC: You had a long career with the National Ballet - 21 years.
That's a lot of partnering.
RH: At the National Ballet, I danced with just about every
one of its leading ladies and a few extraordinary guest artists
as well, such as Ekaterina Maximova and Susan Jaffe. But I guess
people associate me most with Karen Kain. Karen's husband, Ross
|
|
Petty, likes to recount how he saw me dancing with Martine
Lamy in Rudi van Dantzig's Four Last Songs in an National
Ballet School Showcase and came home to tell Karen that he'd
spotted her next partner. Well, I had a lot to learn before
I could justify Ross' confidence. I can still quote - but
I won't - the awful review Gary Smith gave me years ago when
as a young dancer I partnered Karen in the Romeo and Juliet
Balcony pas de deux with the Hamilton Philharmonic. I was
so nervous then. Now, I'm happy to say, Gary Smith is one
of my kindest critics. And, of course, I also established
an amazing relationship with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Evelyn
Hart. I danced my Þrst Onegin with her when she came
to guest with us. It was really Evelyn, through all the touring
and galas we later danced together, who was responsible for
my international profile. Without that, I'm not sure whether
I'd have been dancing so much in Europe, Australia, South
Africa and Japan.
MC: Any particular favourites?
RH: Each ballerina is so different that I tend not
to think in terms of favourites. I prefer to make the most
of what each experience has to offer. You learn to adapt.
That said, clearly Karen and Evelyn have been very special
partners for me and illustrate just how different two great
ballerinas can be.
Karen likes to joke that she gave me my body. I never went
to a gym
until much later. By ballerina standards, Karen was a "big
girl." I
partnered her through her heaviest period, but later she really
got
quite thin. I like to think I gave Karen a new lease. Her
wonderful
partnership with Frank Augustyn - the one my generation grew
up with
as National Ballet School students - was effectively over.
Then I came along. Karen is a very hard worker and she really
pushed me.I think we had a natural physical compatibility.
For one thing, we both have large heads. More importantly,
we are both instinctively musical. And there was what I can
only describe as a sexual energy we both played off. I think
it made our dancing together incredibly sensuous.
Dancing with Karen was always exciting. She likes to be in
the moment
just as I do and we were both willing to take big risks on
stage. With Karen it always seemed instinctive. Our partnership
began in 1987 with Constantin Patsalas' Oiseaux Exotiques
and from there we danced just about everything together, all
the way up to that amazing farewell tour a decade later. It's
hard to describe what it was like dancing that final pas de
deux with Karen in James Kudelka's The Actress. It was so
emotional. That last performance in Winnipeg was almost like
a death for me, thinking I'd never experience this moment
with Karen again. Yet people are surprised when I tell them
that Karen and I are not particularly close friends in everyday
life. We get along fine, of course. But our true relationship,
as is the case in many partnerships, existed largely on stage.
|
Evelyn is a different matter. We have become very
close, perhaps because we've spent so much time together travelling.
We talk deeply about life and love, about everything. It's common
knowledge that Evelyn can be difficult and exacting. I like to
think I've always understood Evelyn. Dealing with my own insecurities
has helped me accept hers. She can go on and on and I just nod
and smile. I just let her do what she needs to do to get out there.
As a partner she can drive you up a tree but in the end, those
special moments on stage with Evelyn are like no other experience
in life. Deep is a key word with Evelyn. When I'm dancing with
Evelyn, I get totally lost in the drama. But unlike Karen, who
to me often seemed to be a vessel for whomever was choreographing
or coaching, Evelyn comes with very definite, some would say fixed,
ideas of her own. And where Karen's musicality is instinctive,
Evelyn knows and analyses every beat.
MC: What about some of your other National Ballet partners?
RH: Well, there was Kim Glasco. I always loved the Glen
Tetley repertoire. The choreography always feels so organic. Kim
and I
danced most of it together. She was one of the easiest women to
partner. She was so strong. She never pressed or pulled on you.
We never had any problems. In fact, we had a lot of fun together.
It was sad how it all ended for her. I think it had a lot to do
with personalities. Kim had her way and, well, it just wasn't
James' way, I guess.
|
Greta Hodgkinson is another incredibly strong dancer - also
fearless.
I remember a Giselle when she was quite young and then, of
course,
there's the Summer pas de deux from The Four Seasons, that
Greta and
I danced together so much, including at my last performance
as a
National Ballet principal. Ironically, it was not created
on me. I was away when James came to that point and so it
was created on Aleksandar Antonijevic, and I learned it later.
Chan Hon Goh and I danced quite a bit together, especially
the
contemporary repertoire. Chan was terrific to work with. She's
very
sweet as a person and also light and tiny. When we danced
Don
Quixote, I almost bowled her over. I was so used to dancing
it with
Karen.
I'm also a great fan of Xiao Nan Yu. I always felt she had
the same
instinct and passion I had and so much maturity for someone
so young. She has this special kind of feeling for what she's
doing. We did not dance together as much as I would have liked
- Madame Butterþy, The Merry Widow, Elite Syncopations
- really not that much. But I'm so glad I danced my last Toronto
Onegin with her. I had been Nan's first Onegin and she was
so shy then she couldn't even look at me!
|
|
MC: And what about all those ballerinas you partnered in your
guest appearances abroad?
RH: There have been so many I'm not sure I can remember them
all, but I'll mention a few. When I danced with Marilyn Rowe at
the Australian Ballet in The Merry Widow, I thought to myself, she
really knows this stuff. Of course, nobody told me until later that
she'd created the role! As for my Italians, I recall the sheer physical
beauty of Alessandra Ferri when I danced Onegin with her in Milan.
The brooding anti-hero of Cranko's ballet became my signature piece.
In all, I think I danced it with 15 different women. Carla Fracci
was 60 and already a living legend when I Þrst danced it with
her. I was in awe. After all, she'd been Erik Bruhn's partner and
Erik was a god to me - the man who persuaded me to stay in Canada
and thus became my Þrst
artistic director. To be frank, Carla could have been a perfect
bitch with me; I'd heard stories. Instead, she was sweetness itself.
Two years later, we danced Romeo and Juliet. I like to think I gave
her the confidence to throw herself with so much passion into all
those challenging pas de deux. But Carla had this odd way of seeming
to look past you. She'd focus on your forehead and from my vantage,
it made her look cross-eyed - but apparently someone had told her
it gave her a more youthful expression from the audience's perspective.
MC: Do you have any words of advice for the men who'll be following
in your footsteps?
RH: Well, it's important to remember that you learn by doing.
I started out as this precocious kid, thinking I knew everything.
As
you get older, you understand how much there is still to learn and
acquire the humility to be open to it. Early on, I was fortunate
to work with several ballerinas who were older and more experienced
and each of them taught me something different. Then, as a mature
dancer myself, I was able to pass on that experience and was in
a position to take charge. I also learned to accept the basic occupational
hazard of being a partner - dealing with ballerinas. They all know
what they want and they don't mind telling you. And, if anything
goes wrong, it's always your fault!
MC: And the future for you?
RH: Who knows? I'd hoped that perhaps I'd still do a bit
of dancing with the company, but apparently that's not in the cards.
However, not long after my official retirement from the National,
I was dancing with Evelyn again in Trois Rivières at Le Festival
International de Danse Encore. The festival staged a special tribute
to her. I believe those moments with Evelyn are precious to both
of us and I'm hoping we'll still get to work together some more.
It's not over for me yet. After all, partnering is in my blood.
<end>
[top]
|
