"a memoir: Ballet to the Corps" by Marie Paquet-Nesson (Marie Paquet)

This wry memoir, written from the distinctive point of view of a corps de ballet and demi solo dancer, invites the reader to experience the extraordinariness of an ordinary dancer's life.

Performing during the mid 1950s through the 1960s, the author's career encompassed the early introduction of American ballet to American audiences in small towns, as well as in major capitals in the Middle East and the Soviet Union. While with The Robert Joffrey Ballet she danced in Kabul, Afghanistan (Robert Joffrey's ancestral home), in Tehran for the Shah of Iran, and in the Soviet Union where, on November 22, 1963, the company mourned so far from home. She danced both on freshly waxed, slippery auditorium stages and at the foot of the Acropolis. She feared for her job by having upstaged two of The Metropolitan Opera stars and feared for her life while teetering across a catwalk high above an opera house stage. Written primarily for all those who have ever harbored ballet dreams, there is a bonus for those also interested in a personal history of the fledgling Robert Joffrey Ballet.

Marie Paquet-Nesson's thirteen-year professional ballet career began with a three-week replacement job with the Radio City Music Hall Ballet Corps. She went on to dance with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet, The Robert Joffrey Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. She taught for over twenty-five years in the Boston area and now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For more information: contact Marie Paquet-Nesson at berne1995@aol.com

This book is available at Amazon.com

Publisher: Create Space
Publication Date: November 2008
Price $14.95 / 187 pages
ISBN:9781440427145

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Getting Off The Ground.....................1
2. New York City...................................8
3. Seeking My Fortune.........................14
4. Auditions.........................................18
5. Metropolitan Opera Ballet...............26
6. The Masked Ball..............................38
7. Teetering.........................................41
8. Understudy.....................................46
9. Class...............................................55
10. Early Joffrey..................................66
11. More Opera and Brigadoon.............81
12. On the Bus.....................................89
13. American Ballet Theatre................102
14. USSR............................................116
15. Back to Bob...................................131
16. The Middle East............................141
17. India.............................................153
18. Watch Hill....................................163
19. White House.................................172
20. Again, Off to the Soviet Union.......181
21. Cheers..........................................194
22. Tears...........................................203
23. Two Companies...........................214
24. Retired........................................228

ILLUSTRATIONS:

Photo of author, circa 1961......................................... cover
The author taking class at Alicia Langford School of Ballet 1952 ... 10
The Metropolitan Opera, La Traviata, 1955 ..................... 30
The Metropolitan Opera, La Perichole ............................. 37
The Boston Arts Festival, Voyage to the Moon, 1958 ........ 60
The Boston Arts Festival, Pas des Deesses, 1958 ............... 65
The New York City Opera, La Traviata, 1958 ................... 71
"Peasant pas de Deux" from Giselle ................................. 73
Paul Sutherland with the author in Soiree Musicale ........ 76
Joffrey Ballet Program ................................................... 79
On stage in Niles, Michigan, 1958 ................................... 85
Robert Joffrey's Pas de Deesses, circa 1961 .................... 108
In rehersal: Joffrey Ballet Ballet Studios, 1962 ........ 114-115
Kaubl, Afghanistan, 1962 .............................................. 118
Program for performance in Teheran, Iran, 1962 ......... 123
In Amman, Jordan with King Hussein, 1962 ................. 126
Dress rehearsal at the White House, 1963 ...................... 141
Robert Joffrey and dignitaries, White House, 1963 ....... 142
White House Performance, 1963 ................................... 145
Joffrey dancers with President John F. Kennedy and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, 1963 ................................................. 147
Moscow airport, December 1963 .......................................... 159
Closing night in Moscow, curtain call for The Palace, 1963 ... 170
American Ballet Theater in Bogota, Columbia, 1967 ............. 184
Performing at the East Room at the White House, 1963......... back