Continuing Cranko’s Legacy - Marcia Haydee speaks


A distinguished visitor to this month's Hong Kong Arts Festival is Marcia Haydee,
former prima ballerina with the Stuttgart Ballet, and one of the most renowned dramatic
ballerinas of the second half of the twentieth century. In Hong Kong last week this Brazilian-born
star gave two performances of "Tristan Isolde", an intense one-hour-long
dance theatre duet based on Wagner's tragic opera. 

Haydee praised Ismael Ivo, her partner, for having given her new inspiration as a dancer. This
tall magnificently built Brazilian dancer is a former dancer of the Alvin Ailey dance company 
in America. "We've known each other for a long time, but we only started dancing together two
years ago. Most of the choreography of "Tristan Isolde" was Ismael's idea, but both of us created
the steps together. I am most impressed by Ismael's energy. When I have a partner that suits me, 
there's a special kind of feeling that I experience. It's something that I can't explain."


Haydee, now in her early sixties, has maintained her star status for nearly four decades. Her 
reputation was associated with the Stuttgart Ballet. In the 1960s the company was under the 
artistic direction of the English choreographer John Cranko, who created a number of full-length 
dramatic ballets which won the company world fame before his tragic death in 1969. The raven-
haired Haydee was his muse, and among her most famous roles in this short but fertile artistic
 partnership are Juliet, Tatiana in "Onegin", and Kate in "The Taming of the Shrew".



Haydee explained to me in her hotel in Hong Kong that "Cranko never really prepared the steps 
till he came to the studio. I always questioned him about what he really wanted, and told him if 
I agreed or not. I always had a dialogue with the choreographer. The important thing for me as 
a ballet dancer was the acting, and now it's also the same. I like to make a character out of my 
dancing. So acting is the main strength for me in dance, I don't like so much the pure dance 
roles without any story."



Not surprisingly she was not enthusiastic about Balanchine's ballets. "I danced many of his 
ballets - "Allegro Brillante", "La Valse", "The Four Temperaments", "Apollo" - because Cranko 
had Balanchine in the company's repertory. But I never liked to dance in them; I think Balanchine 
is a great choreographer, but he's not for me."



In Stuttgart Ballet, Haydee danced mainly with Richard Cragun. "We danced together for 30 
years until 1996." Haydee's partnership with Cragun was illustrious. However Haydee is not 
one to dwell on her glorious past. "That period is over, and I don't even think about it any 
more. I don't worry about age. The older you get, the more you can give. You have to find 
the essence of life - youth, maturity, even ageing. To have true power on stage, one must know 
all of that."



After the performances in Hong Kong, Haydee revealed her future plans with Ismael Ivo: "We 
have plans to do a piece called "Medea" in Ankara, and to have Vladimir Malakhov (the famous 
Russian guest star of the American Ballet Theatre) to join us in another piece."



Last time Haydee performed in the Hong Kong Arts Festival, she was still the artistic director of 
the Stuttgart Ballet, a post that she held from 1976 till 1995. During her long tenure as director, 
Haydee nurtured a new generation of dancers to continue the legacy of John Cranko's ballets, 
as well as a new generation of European choreographers including John Neumeier, Jiri Kylian, 
William Forsythe and Uwe Scholz.



"They all started in Stuttgart as dancers and then became choreographers. No, it wasn't a coincidence. 
It's because we always gave opportunities to new choreographers. Actually it was Cranko who 
started this, and I just continued this policy."



In the last few years, Haydee has returned to the Stuttgart Ballet from time to time to dance the 
character roles, such as Lady Capulet in "Romeo and Juliet" and the evil witch Madge in "La Sylphide". 
But nowadays there is more to her life than dancing.



"Before, dance was everything in my life, and I only lived to dance. But now dance is not the 
most important thing in my life. I have my husband, I have another side of my life, and for me 
it's most important."



Kevin Ng
March, 2001 


courtesy of artbook.com