Nenette Charisse.Nenette Charisse, ballet teacher to the stars for over sixty years in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. , and sister-in-law of Cyd Charisse Cyd Charisse (born Tula Ellice Finklea on March 8, 1921) is an American dancer and actress. She was born in Amarillo, Texas, and reputedly, the name "Cyd" was a nickname taken from a sibling trying to say "Sis". , died December 8, 2000. She was 86. Nenette Charisse was born in Paris and was one of eleven children who toured Europe and Africa with her family as Mme. Charisse and her Children. Her mother, Calliope calliope, in music calliope, in music, an instrument also called steam organ or steam piano in which steam is forced through a series of whistles controlled by a keyboard. Charisse, a friend of Isadora Duncan, insisted that the entire family dance as a diversion from World War I. And dance they did. In 1923, an RKO RKO Radio Keith Orpheum (movie studio) RKO Randy Keith Orton (wrestling) RKO Relativistic Klystron Oscillator RKO Rural King Ohio (farm supply store) talent scout brought the family to America, where they appeared as headliners for the opening of the New York Hippodrome The New York Hippodrome was a theatre in New York City which closed on August 16, 1939. Construction With J. H. Morgan as architect, the Hippodrome first opened in 1905 with a seating capacity of 5,200, and is still considered as one of the true wonders of theatre . Later, they performed for President Calvin Coolidge at the White House. Brother Nico Charisse went on to teach ballet at the Fanchon and Marco school in Hollywood, where he met his wife, dancer Tula Ellice Finklea, a.k.a. Cyd Charisse. On the opposite coast in New York City, Nenette Charisse began to teach ballet and would continue to do so for sixty years. Some of the studios where Charisse taught were New Dance Group, Harkness House, The American Dance Machine, and Steps. She was also a professor of ballet at NYU's Tisch School for the Arts. Most recently she taught at the Coupe Theater Dance Studios in Nanuet, New York Nanuet is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in Rockland County, New York, 19 miles north of Manhattan, and 2 miles north of the New Jersey border. Nanuet is located between West Nyack and Spring Valley to the east and west, respectively, and Pearl River and New City to the . Among her dance students were Jerome Robbins, Doris Duke, Gwen Verdon, Jose Limon, Judy Holliday, Pearl Lang, Mary Martin, Tony Perkins, Rebekah Harkness, Nora Kaye, and Ann Reinking. Former student Rosalind Pierson, an associate professor of dance at Ohio State University Ohio State University, main campus at Columbus; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1873 as Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1878. There are also campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. , remembers her first class with Charisse, in which she proclaimed, "I can teach anybody to dance." Charisse "had a fabulous eye and was a very magical teacher," Pierson says. "She was insightful and humorous and made class fun." Linda Tarnay, assistant chair of dance at Tisch, remembers Charisse's elegance and refers to her as a teacher's teacher: "Nenette taught dancing and ballet was the vehicle. She was one of the first ballet teachers that modern dancers took from. She taught something much larger than steps. She taught [us] how to live life." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion