SHIRLEY MACLAINE, ONE-TIME BABY BALLERINA by Dane Youssef
SHIRLEY MACLAINE, ONE-TIME BABY BALLERINA by Dane Youssef
Shirley MacLaine is one of my favorites in the business. I have liked her from the longest time. She's so... elaborate and strange. She does so much and so often. She's danced on Broadway. She's acted in countless Oscar-caliber films. She always bring compassion and humanity to every single role she does. Because she doesn't seem like a true movie star.
She has a way that seems natural. She loves to perform. But she's not really a prima donna.
As a little girl, she had very weak ankles would fall over if she so much as misstepped in the slightest. So at the twee age of tres, her mother put here in ballet class. In an instant, it was her life goal.
But after an injury she realized that the ballet was "too stifling." She wasn't allowed to speak onstage or do too much outside the box. And in ballet, in a way--you kind of have to be born to do it. She never had the exact body type for it. She claimed that she didn't have what they considered the "beautifully constructed" ideal ballet feet (incredibly high arches and insteps). So she took off her ballet tights and slippers, bowed out... and said her last curtain call...
She decided not to pursue a professional career in the ballet. Not only because of her towering height--a whopping 5'7", she stood eye-to-eye with Mikhail Baryshnikov in their stocking feet. They had the best rapport when working together. Since Shirley herself has had ballet training (from three to her teens), she even made it all the way to taking pointe and performing it onstage--they spent a lot of time discussing what ballet did for you--physically, emotionally and spiritually. MacLaine herself is very spiritual and has even cranked out books on the damn subject.
When she got her big comeback in 1977 "The Turning Point," it was so cathartic for her. It not only revitalized her entire career, it was like going back to the well. And seeing her alternate life, what might have been. MacLaine once said if she had given up on her life-long goal, she believed that "Turning Point" was a look about what her life might have been...
--A Fan and a fellow follower of the ballet, Dane Youssef
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