A Two Foot High Pineapple Head-dress?

Right before I left the ballet world, at the age of 17, I auditioned for the legendary Alicia Markova for a chance to join the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.

The audition went great and I was told I would definitely have a spot with the company! I was overjoyed at the prospect of dancing with the renowned NYC Metropolitan Opera!

My excitement was short lived. As Alicia Markova stated in her book, "Markova Remembers", 'an unfortunate nine month strike at the Met ended our arrangement.' I was devastated. To make matters worse, we were asked to "help out" the Radio City Ballet at the Radio City Music Hall in the interim. We were assured that our place with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet was safe and as soon as the strike was over we would be back!

I felt dancing for the Radio City Ballet was a major demotion. I thought the Rockettes were incredible, but the ballet company did not enjoy the same kind of reputation. It turned out to be one of the hardest jobs I've ever had and surprisingly a lot of fun! Performing in the Christmas extravaganza at Radio City Music Hall was a humbling experience. There were five shows a day! (out of necessity, napping became a way of life) There were also camels, sheep and all their natural elimination processes and some very challenging Costumes!

The theme of the ballet portion that year was a loose (very loose) variation of "The Nutcracker". We were dressed in kind of boxy yellow tutu with the most humongous pineapple head-dresses you've ever seen! It turned out we were supposed to be pineapple confections or candies. After emerging from a gigantic candy box we performed our little ballet. (praying that the stage had been swept clean of you-no-what) Strategically the triple pirouettes (performed on pointe) had to be downgraded to doubles due to the centrifugal force of the said "pineapples".

Before the nine months were over Alicia Markova left the Met and all bets were off. What could I do but move on to summer stock and eventually audition for Dean Martin's Golddiggers?