A Dancer's Dilemma

An excerpt from Kalliopi's memoirs

As I walked onto the empty stage of the Champs Elysées Theater in Paris in avenue Montaigne, my intention was to work on some difficult steps and try to make them my own. We were the Grand Ballet of the Marquis de Cuevas, performing our Paris winter season with the full length version of Sleeping Beauty. Suddenly our director Raymundo de Larraín appeared: “Kalliopi, I’d like you to start working on the leading role in Sleeping Beauty, Aurora. Begin on the solo variations and when you feel ready let me know! I’ll tell you then who your male partner will be”. And so it was. 

I worked in between performances and rehearsals day after day watching the great ballerinas performing the role. This new task was very difficult for me, because a big company's schedule is incredibly busy; to find time to prepare those solos was extremely demanding. Still, I was so happy with the idea that it didn't affect me!  After some time I felt ready and asked Raymundo to come and see me in the solos. He said they looked fine, so I asked him whom I would be dancing with? “Rudi Nureyev” he said. “You must be kidding me!” I said. “No no, I’m not kidding at all. I talked to Rudi and he agreed that you should have an opportunity to do leading parts. So that will be in a matinee, some time when you both feel you are ready!” 

It was such a pleasant surprise to me; at the same time I immediately felt the weight of a difficult task on my agenda: having to be in command of the role and dancing with Rudi! I was almost sure that Rudi was going to be a great help and teacher to me for my debut in the leading role! 

But then a few days later I had a call from Peter Van Dyk, a brilliant German dancer, one of the leading stars of the Ballet of the Paris Opera. At the same time he was ballet director and star dancer at the Hamburg Opera. He invited me to a snack lunch at the Café de l'Opera where he talked to me about Rainer Kochermann. Rainer was perhaps the greatest German classical dancer (according to Mr George Balanchine, Rainer and Vaslav Nijinsky were the only two Danseurs Nobles he had met in his life). Rainer was married to Maria Friss. They were partners, very popular and famous, especially in Germany. Maria Friss had been found dead on the stage of the Hamburg opera house. The investigators couldn't find out if she had been thrown or simply fallen from high above onto that stage; her body was in such a state that it was difficult to say if it was suicide, accident or murder. Maria was beautiful as a woman and as a dancer in all the photos I've seen of her. After Peter Van Dyk told me all this dramatic story of Maria Friss over our lunch, he said: 

“We desperately need a ballerina for Rainer Kochermann for our next ballet season. Mr Balanchine is coming from New York to put on some of his ballets like Apollo Musagete, Orfeo, Raimondaand The Four Temperaments, plus he will do all the mise-en-scene for Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin - and of course you and Rainer would be dancing most of the leading roles! I need your answer as soon as possible, and if you accept, you must go to Hamburg immediately.”

I thanked him for choosing me and promised to answer him as soon as I could. What a dilemma! In the following days I had to think really hard to make the difficult decision: to dance a matinee with Rudolf Nureyev or to go as guest to Hamburg and be coached by one of the world’s greatest choreographers, George Balanchine! My intuition told me "Go to Hamburg!". And that turned out to be one of the highlights of my dancing career.

The Spirit of the Dance

An excerpt from Kalliopi's memoirs

Performing for a few days with a revue in Buenos Aires, I was fourteen years old. There I saw posters announcing that the American Ballet Theater was in town. Immediately next morning I went to the theatre where they were performing, entered the stage door and looked for someone to give me information. No one was around, but everything was wide open. I searched for a few minutes - still nobody. So I decided to look inside the open dressing rooms. They were full of wigs, hats, shoes and the dancers’ beautiful costumes in every colour; the tables were covered with theatrical make up. I almost tried a costume on, but didn’t quite dare. I sat down on a chair, looked at myself in the mirror and made a wish: to be dancing with them later in my life! 

Suddenly an elegant gentleman appeared behind me. I scrambled to my feet, a bit scared. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” he asked. “My name is Kalliopi Venieri. I came to ask for an audition in the company; do you know whom I can ask?”  He then said, “Let me introduce myself: my name is Antony Tudor.” as he offered his hand to greet me, “I am the ballet master of the company. Glad to meet you, young lady!”

I blurted out “Are you the world-famous choreographer, Antony Tudor, who created ballets like Lilac Garden, Pillars of Fire, Gala Performance, Romeo and Juliet and all those beautiful choreographies I’ve seen in dance books and magazines?”  “That’s me all right! By the way, I am giving a warm-up class for the company at 4.00 pm. Come and join it and I’ll tell you if you are accepted to be with us in the future!” I made him a small curtsey as a thank you, and he walked out, disappearing in the corridors of the theatre, as if he had been sent by the spirit of dance, and had kept his appointment with me.

My eyes opened wide as I waited for the class to start, and in came some of the greatest international dance stars, like Rosella Hightower, Erik Bruhn, Lupe Serrano, Nora Kay, Ruth Ann Cosset, John Kritsa, Michael Land, Scott Douglas (who was later my partner in Amsterdam with the Dutch National Ballet) and more wonderful dancers I didn’t know.  Mr Antony Tudor started the lesson. During the whole class he paid me no attention at all; at a certain moment he passed me and gave me a brief glance, that’s all. To my astonishment, when the class was over he addressed me: “You are engaged; please go to the company secretary and give your name, address and telephone and we will contact you as soon as I’ve spoken about you to Mrs Lucia Chase, the owner of the company.”

Back home to Rio de Janeiro from Buenos Aires, and still beginning my professional activities with the local company, all my thoughts were on the American Ballet Theater. Mr Leonide Massine was still showing a vivid interest in me. He asked again if I would be interested to join his ballet company in Europe.  I told him seriously that I had applied for the American Ballet Theater. “Mr. Tudor has auditioned me and accepted me; so I’m expecting my contract any time to join them in New York”. Mr Massine never asked me again!   

Meanwhile, my family was beginning to worry. I was so young, used to being with a large family; I shouldn’t go off alone in the world. Perhaps they were right, but I insisted and said through my tears “ It’s the opportunity of a lifetime to be a dancer.”

More about Kalliopi Venieri

”Sculpture enables me to continue my work as a dancer in a new medium. I feel the movements of the dance in my fingers as I work the clay.”

Kalliopi’s talent was first discovered by Anthony Tudor. She went on to perform with American Ballet Theater and the Marquis de Cuevas Company, then became Principal Dancer at Dutch National Ballet, Hamburg Opera and Geneva Opera House.  She worked with some of the 20th century’s greatest artists such as George Balanchine, Leonid Massine, Serge Lifar, Marcia Haydée and Rosella Hightower. 

Leonidas de Pian, Dance Director of Liriki Skini and Megaron Musikis, knew Kalliopi’s career from the start; he wrote (in Fessa, Dance & Theatre, 2003): “I met her when she was 15 on tour in Argentina with the Rio ballet. Then again in Brazil where her style and technique were immensely appreciated by Leonid Massine [....] He invited her to join his group in Europe, but the American Ballet Theater made her an offer which she chose instead. With them she danced solo roles which were very demanding technically. Then she joined Dutch National Ballet, and danced Swan Lake, where she was considered the best Black Swan in Europe and received congratulations from Galina Ulanova”

Until recently Kalliopi ran La Danse, a classical ballet school in Agia Paraskevi, Athens; there she choreographed more than 50 new ballets. She now works full-time as a sculptor.