Playbill

Welcome x 2

Hi, Playbill. Welcome to Wikipedia and WikiProject Opera. Here are some pages that new editors often find helpful:

• Introduction
• The five pillars of Wikipedia
• How to edit a page
• Help
• How to write a great article
• Manual of Style
• Biographies of living persons guidelines
• Conflict of interest guidelines
• WikiProject Opera copyright guidelines

Be sure to sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~). This will automatically produce your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} here on your talk page and ask your question. Someone will come along to help.

I've replied to your message at the Opera Project here. I'll be away for the next week, but if you have any queries, I'm sure another project member will be happy to help. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 17:14, 29 December 2010 (UTC)

Hi Voceditenore! Thanks so much for the kind welcome and the helpful instructions. That will really help me get started. Saw your reply to my post and noticed you already got around to creating an entry for Ricardo Llorca. I am impressed! All good wishes for the new year. Playbill (talk) 09:01, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

Speedy deletion nomination of Leslie Wildman

If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.

You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.

A tag has been placed on Leslie Wildman requesting that it be speedily deleted from Wikipedia. This has been done under section A7 of the criteria for speedy deletion, because the article appears to be about a person or group of people, but it does not indicate how or why the subject is important or significant: that is, why an article about that subject should be included in an encyclopedia. Under the criteria for speedy deletion, such articles may be deleted at any time. Please see the guidelines for what is generally accepted as notable.

If you think that this notice was placed here in error, you may contest the deletion by adding {{hang on}} to the top of the page that has been nominated for deletion (just below the existing speedy deletion, or "db", tag; if no such tag exists, then the page is no longer a speedy delete candidate and adding a hang-on tag is unnecessary), coupled with adding a note on the talk page explaining your position, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. ttonyb (talk) 04:28, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Your username

Please note that a concern has been expressed that your username may not meet our username policy as "Playbill" is the name of a magazine, which suggests that you may be editing on behalf of this publication or that the username is intended to promote it. However since your contributions so far appear to have been made in good faith, I'd invite you to either change your username to something which isn't related to the publication (and represents only you, as an individual), or if you feel that your username is not a violation of our username policy, please explain why here. Thanks in advance. GiftigerWunsch [TALK] 17:14, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Dear "Giftiger wunsch" - Thank you for writing and expressing your concern about my username. Since I live in New York City for most of the year and have been going to all kinds of performing arts (music, theater, dance etc.) for decades, I thought that "Playbill" was a fitting name. I certainly did not intend to promote the publication or violate a policy. If I indeed violate a policy and you still feel I need to change my username, I will certainly do so. Please keep me posted. All best for 2011! Playbill (talk) 21:51, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply, and all the best for 2011 to you as well. Your explanation is good enough for me and discussion so far seems to have agreed that it's not especially problematic, but I've indicated your response to other involved users and it's possible someone may wish to open a request for comment from the community to discuss whether or not to allow your username. If you wish to change your username you can do so by requesting the change at WP:CHU, but if you'd prefer to keep your current one you can assume that's fine unless the community indicates otherwise. GiftigerWunsch [TALK] 00:22, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks again for the speedy reply. Glad my explanation was satisfactory to you. I hope it will suffice for other users. Playbill (talk) 04:53, 2 January 2011 (UTC)

collecting information for article entry on BELINDA WRIGHT (ballerina).

Belinda Wright (Brenda Wright), (b. Jan. 18, 1929 , Southport, Lancashire [now in Merseyside], Eng.—d. April 1, 2007 , Zürich, Switz.), British ballerina who excelled in classical roles, in which she was known for her sparkling technique and lightness in jumps. She was most associated with the ballets Harlequinade and Giselle. Wright joined Ballet Rambert (now Rambert Dance Company) in 1945 and first gained attention there in the so-called peasant pas de deux in Giselle. After two years with Roland Petit’s Ballet de Paris, Wright joined London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), where she created the lead roles in Frederick Ashton’s Vision of Marguerite, Michael Charnley’s Alice in Wonderland, and Vladimir Bourmeister’s The Snow Maiden. She danced in 1956 for the celebration of the marriage of Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Kelly. After she left Festival Ballet in 1962, Wright was a guest with several companies and toured the world under the auspices of the British Council.

A beautifully romantic British ballerina, Belinda Wright died in April. She had a style very much in the Cecchetti tradition of Alicia Markova fast, feathery, and often ethereal, yet backed with superb technical precision.

Born in Lancashire, she studied with Marie Rambert and in Paris with Olga Preobrajenska, and she joined Ballet Rambert in 1946. She was soon partnered by John Gilpin, and in 1949 they joined Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris, where she danced the Fonteyn role in Les Demoiselles de la Nuit. She returned to Britain in 1952 to join London Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet), where she met her mentor Anton Dolin and resumed her partnership with Gilpin.

Among the finest Giselles of her generation, Wright also excelled in Dolin's The Pas de Quatre. Replacing Markova, she created Vision of Marguerite with Gilpin and Oleg Briansky for Frederick Ashton. During the 1964-65 season she joined her second husband, Jelko Yuresha, in what became the Birmingham Royal Ballet, and they toured internationally. Her last performance was in Tokyo in 1977--dancing, of course, Giselle.

Belinda Wright, the English dancer whose quality of ballerina status was recognised and encouraged by Anton Dolin, has died at the age of 80 after a period of ill health due to a coronary ailment. Born in Southport, Merseyside, the daughter of a coal merchant, she was a delicate child and her doctor advised her to study dance. She studied at the Rambert school, with Olga Preobrajenska in Paris and with Kathleen Crofton in London, and joined Ballet Rambert in 1945. There she was entrusted (her name changed to Belinda from the more prosaic Brenda) with classical solos, which Marie Rambert always included in the repertory of her small company, as well as roles in the indigenous repertory, notably in Andrée Howard's pathetic little charmer, Mermaid. "Sweet and youthful" was how I described her performance of the "peasant" pas de deux from Giselle, which she danced with her contemporary John Gilpin for Rambert - later Wright and Gilpin were to enjoy a fruitful partnership with Festival (now English National) Ballet. She went with Ballet Rambert on their hugely successful yet financially disastrous tour of Australia, 1947-48, then danced with Roland Petit's Ballet de Paris before joining Festival Ballet in 1951.

Although she had founded the company, with Dolin, Alicia Markova left in 1952, thus freeing many ballerina roles for younger dancers. Dolin had been quick to appreciate Wright's potential and gave her the premiere of Frederick Ashton's Vision of Marguerite (to Liszt's Mephisto Waltz, designed by James Bailey) on April 3 1952. She was paired with Gilpin, soon to become the company's premier danseur, and over the next decade they won a devoted following. Wright created an adorable Alice in Michael Charnley's Alice in Wonderland (1953; Gilpin was the White Rabbit), and created the title role in The Snow Maiden (1961) choreographed by Vladimir Bourmeister, which was the first Soviet/British collaboration in ballet.

Wright left Festival Ballet in 1962 to dance with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas, with which she danced in 1956 in Monte Carlo at a gala celebrating the marriage of Prince Rainier of Monaco to Grace Kelly, but often returned as a guest. She also guested, frequently partnered by her husband, the Zagreb-born dancer Jelko Yuresha, with a number of companies, among them the Royal Ballet, and toured widely and internationally under the auspices of the British Council. She danced all the major classical roles, combining a pure, unforced technique with a gentle manner and dark, expressive eyes. Partnered by Yuresha, she gave her farewell performance as Giselle, her favourite role, with a Japanese ballet company in Tokyo in 1977.

After retiring from the stage, she devoted herself to teaching and to staging works by Dolin, which he had bequeathed to her in his will (he died in 1983), namely his Pas de Quatre and Variations for Four and his production of Giselle.

In his 1960 autobiography, Dolin called Wright "the perfect dancer". He continued, "she has beautiful legs and feet and a body of wonderful proportion, is as light as Markova, with the same ethereal quality and the strange inner emotion of the real artist".

In 2000 she took final retirement and went to live in Switzerland.

She is survived by her husband and their daughter, and by a son from her first marriage, to the dancer and choreographer Wolfgang Brunner.

· Belinda (Brenda) Wright, ballerina, born January 18 1927; died April 1 2007

Brenda Wright (Belinda Wright), ballerina: born Southport, Lancashire 18 January 1929; married first Wolfgang Brunner (one son; marriage dissolved 1960), second 1961 Jelko Kuresha (one daughter); died Zurich 1 April 2007.

Belinda Wright was a Lancashire girl, born and bred in Southport, who became a ballerina of great distinction. In a career noteworthy for its wide itinerancy, she danced with many leading companies in Britain and abroad; she took ballet to untried countries; and later, after retiring from performance, she taught and mounted ballets worldwide. Dark-haired, slender and supple and perfectly proportioned, she was admired for her dancing more than her acting. "She had a brilliant technique, with a notably light jump and good musicality," said the critic John Percival. "She was fortunate not only to be coached by very good people but to have the facility to take in what they told her."

Perhaps she inherited her athletic talent from her father, a coal merchant, James Harold ("Dossy") Wright, who achieved local fame as a gifted amateur footballer. Brenda (she became Belinda on becoming a professional dancer) was born in 1929, one of five children. Frail in childhood, she began dance classes at three on medical advice and became increasingly interested, encouraged by her father. Her teacher was Dorothea Halliwell, accredited by the Royal Academy of Dancing, and Brenda won several important awards.

When she was 16, she saw Ballet Rambert perform in Manchester. Marie Rambert, in turn, recognised her as an exceptional pupil and invited her into the company as an apprentice. Soon she was dancing featured roles, starting with the peasant pas de deux in Giselle with John Gilpin (another star in the making) and following on with one of the great ballerina roles, Odette-Odile in Swan Lake. In 1947 she danced her first Giselle during Ballet Rambert's groundbreaking tour of Australia. The same year she was on the cover of the Dancing Times.

All this exposure brought her to the attention of Ninette de Valois, Director of the Royal Ballet, who invited her into the company. But Wright, a person of enormous humility, was intimidated. Instead, in 1949, she accepted Roland Petit's invitation into the Ballets de Paris where she was Agathe in his Les Demoiselles de la nuit. She also studied with the famous Russian Olga Preobrajenska, who had a studio in Paris.

With Petit she went to Hollywood, where he was trying to put together a film of Carmen. The project didn't materialise, but she came to the notice of Charlie Chaplin, who wanted her for Limelight (1952), for the role that Claire Bloom would later play. She again refused (not a good decision), having decided to join Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet).

She started with Festival in 1952, but continued appearances as a guest with the Ballets de Paris and took a year out to dance with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas. With Festival she created the lead in Frederick Ashton's Vision of Marguerite (1952), replacing Alicia Markova. She was in Les Deux errants, the choreographic début of her first husband, the Swiss dancer Wolfgang Brunner. She created the title role in Michael Charnley's Alice in Wonderland (1953), the part of Fleur de Lys in Nicholas Beriozoff's Esmeralda (1954) and the title role in Bourmeister's Snow Maiden (1961). She also danced the girl in Spectre de la rose, where she was coached by the role's creator, Tamara Karsavina. She danced many other ballets, including Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, Harlequinade pas de deux and David Lichine's Concerto Grosso and Symphonic Impressions.

During that time her stage partnership with John Gilpin became a famous fixture; and she also danced Giselle, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake Act 2 with Anton Dolin, the co-founder of Festival Ballet. In 1956 she was one of the leads in Charnley's Homage to a Princess, devised for the wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Kelly.

In 1959 she danced in a Royal Command Performance in Manchester, for Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. For this, she had had to find a partner - and she chose a student from Croatia called Jelko Yuresha. It was his stage début; she was already a star; and he became her second husband in 1961. (Later, when he asked why she had chosen him, she replied: "Because you looked hungry.")

She left Festival Ballet in 1962 and soon after gave birth to a daughter, Annabel. (She already had a son, Christopher, by her first marriage.) The same year, Yuresha accepted an invitation to join the Royal Ballet; and in 1963 Wright appeared as a guest artist dancing Les Sylphides and the Flower Festival in Genzano pas de deux with the touring company of the Royal Ballet on the Covent Garden stage. From 1964 to 1965 she toured England with the same company, appearing in The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Swan Lake Act 2 with Yuresha.

She and Yuresha left the Royal Ballet and undertook an exhausting series of performances round the UK, appearing in large theatres as part of a variety programme, with the aim of bringing ballet to new audiences. "It was such a problem persuading my husband to come to your show," said the letter of one spectator, "but when he saw Belinda, he was bewitched, so now I have another problem . . ."

Alerted to this work, the British Council approached Wright and her husband with the idea that they spread classical ballet to the far corners of the world. And so they embarked on international travels which brought ballet to largely virgin territories such as the Caribbean, South America, Bombay, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Their performances may not have been widely reported in the metropolitan circles of Europe; but they had a huge impact on the small municipalities where they appeared.

They also guested with many companies, including the Royal Danish Ballet and, performing Giselle, the National Ballet of Cuba. Belinda Wright's farewell performance was in Giselle, dancing with Yuresha in Tokyo, in 1977.

Thereafter she and Yuresha taught and mounted ballets. They spent much time in Panama, teaching the national company. As beneficiary (with Yuresha) of Sir Anton Dolin's productions, Wright staged his production of Giselle for the National Ballet of China in 1984 and his Variations for Four for American Ballet Theatre at the New York Met in 2000.

As well as a remarkably talented artist, Belinda Wright was a person of extraordinary integrity, always loyal, never malicious. Status did not impress her, only excellence in work. She herself stopped working in 2000 and moved with her husband to Rüschlikon near Zurich. As she was one of an eminent generation of dancers who did not have provisions for retirement, the Swiss offer of a small pension (thanks to her first marriage to a Swiss) was a godsend.

Note: above is cut and pasted from outside source and is not meant to be published yet. I am collecting background information on Belinda Wright. Playbill (talk) 12:34, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

I started an article already on Belinda Wright, but you can add to it. Pkeets (talk) 18:50, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Dear Pkeets! Your article looks good! Thank you for doing it. Playbill (talk) 16:51, 9 March 2012 (UTC)