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279:). She was the middle of three children born to her parents, who bore an ancient German surname and who spoke both Afrikaans and English, as did many residents of Pretoria at the time. Yvonne was raised to be fluent in both languages. When she entered primary school at age 6 or 7, she began taking ballet classes. She begged her parents to send her to England for further training. By 1937, when she was 16, they had saved enough money to grant her wishes.
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Once, after the dancers went on strike, Zarova found herself stranded in Cuba. She created a dance act that proved highly successful with patrons of Havana nightclubs. In 1945, she took her act to Mexico, where she again encountered
Balanchine, who was staging a ballet at the Opera Nacional in Mexico
470:, founded the Johannesburg City Ballet, predecessor to PACT Ballet, named for the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal. She returned to the United States in 1966 and settled briefly in Los Angeles. The next year, she and Rosemary Valaire, a close friend, founded the Westside School of Ballet in
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Leibbrandt joined the company in Monaco in the summber of 1939 and took part in performances in Monte Carlo, Nice, and Cannes. World War II broke out when Hitler's troops invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, and operations were suspended. She then headed for
Australia, via South Africa, to join the
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Mounsey was married three times. Her unions with Duncan
Mounsey and with Albert Hall Hughey both ended in divorce. In 1960, she married Kelvin Clegg (9 September 1920 – 30 June 1993), with whom she had a daughter, Allegra, and two stepsons, Christopher and Stephen. Their marriage lasted until his
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The school became an influential center of training in
Southern California for American dancers, many of whom went on to dance with New York City Ballet. In 2002, Mounsey received the Lester Horton Dance Award for lifetime achievement. In 2011 she was one of the recipients of the Jerome Robbins
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In 1949, she returned to the United States and once again accepted
Balanchine's invitation to join his company, the New York City Ballet, which had just been created as a component of the City Center group of theatrical companies. She would spend the next decade of her dancing career with this
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City. He invited her to join his group of
American dancers there, and she was happy to accept. In 1948, she returned to South Africa, formed her own company, won critical acclaim, and married an American, Duncan Mounsey. Thereafter, she would dance under her married name.
294:, which presented operas in English in London and the British provinces. Having grown too tall for the current standard of British ballerinas — at 5'6 1/2" she stood more than six feet on pointe — she auditioned successfully for the
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After a long ocean voyage, Leibbrandt arrived in
England and went directly to London. There, she attended technique classes in the studio of Igor Schwezoff before going to Paris to study with famed Russian teachers
311:, a separate "Russian" troupe formed by de Basil to compete with the company of Massine and Blum. With that company, Leibbrandt began the second stage of her baller career under the stage name of
237:(2 September 1919 – 29 September 2012) was a South African-American ballet dancer and teacher. Described as "a dancer of glamour, wit, and striking presence," she spent ten years with the
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381:, choreography by Frederick Ashton, music by Arnold Bax. Role: Brangaene, Iseult's maid, with Francisco Moncion as King Mark, Diana Adams as Iseult, and Jacques d'Amboise as Tristram.
352:, choreography by Robbins, music by Igor Stravinsky. Role: The Queen, with Nora Kaye as the Novice, Michael Maule as First Intruder, and Nicholas Magallanes as Second Intruder.
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Her height and statuesque figure also lent much to the effectiveness of the role for which she became best known: The Siren in
Balanchine's 1950 revival of his 1929 ballet
339:, choreography by Balanchine and Robbins, music by Jurriaan Andriessen. Role: Sunday (Allegro), with Melissa Hayden, Beatrice Tompkins, Herbert Bliss, Frank Hobi, and
454:, filmed in 1960 with Nicholas Magallanes, Violette Verdy, Francisco Moncion, Roy Tobias, and Judith Green. Both ballets are complete versions, with the company's
298:, formed in 1937 by Léonide Massine and René Blum after a falling-out with Colonel Wassily de Basil over rights to works created for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
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troupe. Named a soloist after only a year with the company, she created a number of roles in new ballets by
Balanchine, Robbins, and others.
439:, wrote: "She finds it quite her best role in the repertoire. She dances it with a studied voluptuousness that makes it mockingly cold."
435:, but her own interpretation and cool eroticism made an indelible impression on viewers in the 1950s. John Martin, dance critic of the
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Besides these, Mounsey danced leading roles in existing works in the repertory. She was much admired as the Dark Angel in
Balanchine's
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She was then instrumental in the formation of the Johannesburg City Ballet and was influential as an instructor at her own school in
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death in 1993. She lived as a widow for almost another twenty years, until her own death from cancer at age 93.
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David Poole, "The South African Way: Four Professional Ballet Companies Subsidized by the Government",
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After ten years with New York City Ballet, Mounsey returned to South Africa in 1959 and, with
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Award, given to thirty ballerinas who had given unforgettable performances in his ballets.
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Macauley, "Yvonne Mounsey, City Ballet Dancer and a Teacher, Dies at 93", 2 October 2002.
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Laura Bleiberg, "Yvonne Mounsey Dies at 93, Westside School of Ballet Director",
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It may require cleanup to comply with Knowledge's content policies, particularly
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803:"Fast Feet, Collage Troupes Vault to the Top of Horton Awards List"
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323:(1941), his first setting of Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D.
241:(1949–1959), where she created important roles in the works of
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537:"Yvonne Mounsey, City Ballet Dancer and a Teacher, Dies at 93"
420:(Hindemith), and as An Episode in His Past in Antony Tudor's
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Repertory in Review: Forty Years of the New York City Ballet
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Quoted in Bleiberg, "Yvonne Mounsey Dies at 93," obituary,
431:(Prokofiev). She had studied the role with its originator,
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René Blum and the Ballets Russes: In Search of a Lost Life
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Dance for a City: Fifty Years of the New York City Ballet
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Back in London, she found her first dancing job with the
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A major contributor to this article appears to have a
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Debra Craine and Judith Mackrell, "Mounsey, Yvonne",
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668:(Cape Town: Human & Rousseau, 1981), p. 397.
267:was born on a dairy farm on the outskirts of
917:South African emigrants to the United States
681:(New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).
756:The New York City Ballet In Montreal Vol. 1
505:"Date of birth per naturalization petition"
50:Learn how and when to remove these messages
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613:(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
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664:Marina Grut, "Mounsey, Yvonne",
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694:(New York: Dial, 1977).
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260:Early life and training
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