ANATOMY OF A STAR-STUDDED DANCE.

A preview of a new autobiography by Luc Louis de Lairesse

The 20th century had turned into the 21^st and in the wink of an eye, our world would change to a quicker pace than ever before. While for decades friends had tried to convince me to write an autobiography, I chose poetry and then a time-travel novel to express many testimonies and adventures, I lived first-hand. “You have so many fun stories about amazing artists you worked with, you have to share” one renown former ballerina said. But I had plenty of doubts about how meaningful it would be to the world at large, and how important I needed to become in writing it. When artists need to shine, I preferred the backstage to the curtain call. Then I considered an alias but that felt untruthful. Yes, many wonderful experiences and encounters, but avoiding politics, manipulation and pretense and the disrespect I witnessed, in silence? There were exceptional, heartfelt moments in a 55-year career, and these moved me and often remained like a masterclass engraved in my mind, I ought to share.

One in particular gave me courage to start writing again. It was a memory of meeting Diana, Princess of Wales. Her eyes translated all the wealth of a benevolent queen to be, one exceptional lady whose heart was as immense as the courage of the eternal survivor. With a simple smile but a real handshake, she lit up an entire world around her and she passed on her courage beyond all the expected glamour she bathed in. (Photo credit: Helen Wilson/Shutterstock - Princess Diana with Wayne Sleep, Principal Dancer Royal Ballet London)

How crucial had it been to participate in truly unique events like television specials with Maria Callas, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa or Fiorenza Cossoto; a film with Rudolph Nureyev, or starring in several ballet productions or later directing major humanitarian projects where the newspapers and magazines praise you and offer more self-importance to overshadow your own soul? This last phrase alone gives me chills. No, I had been proud, and not denying success for a higher purpose to help and serve the community at large, yet personal fame was never the end goal (Photo credit:Francette Levieux; Rudolph Nureyev and the author, during the filming of the Paris Opera Ballet’s production of Serge Golovine’s, Fokine: Petrushka)

Is it unusual to look at life as one great stage where theater of all kinds dictates the beat for an ever-on-going performance? The dance, the music, the vocals, the décor and costuming all but tiny specks in an embroidery of countless human puzzles, all mirroring the limitless options to play a role, if we wish to find the enigmatic truth of the authentic being we all may, or not, want to know about. It is almost beside the point if there ever was a man called Shakespeare, for in the play As you like it our world as history likes to prove, is brilliantly described in one simple phrase: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players". And what a stage indeed, more like a mystery, even a suspenseful story as great authors would pen down for centuries to come.

Shadowy aspects of the well-planned life of the poetic bard had pointed in the direction of espionage and under the Virgin Queen many actors or playwrights were believed to be involved in intelligence work throughout Europe, a real part of political life in the English Renaissance. If one legendary man wrote in less than 25 years, more than two hundred plays, sonnets and poems, he may well be the most admired icon in all literature. His affluent vocabulary painted all of the human emotions with an almost supernatural ease in a language where the most complex of characters could grow into a study of power and love, during wars of jealousy and betrayal, but also peace and fun living, (Photo below by Ken Howard of my friend, Marina Poplavskaya as Violetta, MET production of Verdi’ La Traviata- legendary soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre spoke for colleagues & world audience alike calling her “A superb artist and one of the most magnificent voices of her day”)

Since the birth of humanity, spying has always been a secure, jealous friend of power. A monarch like Elizabeth I knew this well. She ordered the groundwork for modern intelligence practices by giving her principal secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham “carte blanche’’ to conduct his intriguing spy-toolbox by training agents in foreign countries, and enlisting graduates from famed universities like Cambridge or Oxford. So, when the Globe Theatre’s most successful and highly published playwright takes his public on a European tour with the most colorful stories of monarchical power games mirroring the leading political players of that day, we can only imagine why William may have been more than just a friend to Christopher Marlowe, an appointed professional spy. ^{(Letter from Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council reads: Whereas it was reported that Christopher Morley was determined to have gone beyond the seas to Rheims and there to remain, their Lordships’ though good to certify that he had no such intent, but that in all his actions he had behaved himself orderly and discreetly, whereby he had done her Majesty good service, and deserved to be rewarded for his faithful dealing. (Rutter 8) https://kitmarlowe.org/christopher-marlowe-and-espionage/6527/ )}

As suggested by many, the latter may have faked his own death and continued his popular writing under the name of William Shakespeare, with certainly first-hand knowledge to brilliantly manifest amongst the most unique of human portraits ever created on stage. But again, it seems irrelevant as to who authors the book when all elements reflect even the slightest key minor of our own symphony. If we play all the instruments in the orchestra, can we understand the different frequencies of the soul?

The relevance of the monarchy is better on a movie screen and in the performing arts than its true importance in daily life. How rare it is that monarchy bestowed goodness on the people while still calling them subjects! If so, few rulers showed a different attitude. A more experienced and loving Queen Victoria eventually cared more than she could do to bring change to her country. Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire brought education free for every child as he opened schools and educational centers throughout his vast empire. Considered a fair and judicious ruler, the French king Louis IX, and his spouse Queen Margaret of Provence, created considerable reforms to the French legal system, a kind of royal mechanism that allowed petitioners to appeal judgments directly to their monarch. Today, the greater population still battling for freedom of speech, billions fight for the needed food on their family table while every monarchy or wealthy ruler is crowned in corporate coin and diamonds of old. (Queen Victoria-Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II)

The above echoes often loudly in the exciting journey of my life and it has humbled me to witness and report on some of those pages in my own journal of artistic explorations. If I testify that awareness wasn’t initially my best friend, it is my wish to be as accurate and honest with all the players in a playbook I may well have co-written with all of you. We humans are fascinating beings with our own uniquely individual qualities and with enough of the inevitable personal luggage to carry and get rid of.

There are so many amazing people we befriend, even fall in love with. Decades later they may no longer be the same, they may be forgotten and we have not understood why. The human psyche is so rich in creating many versions of individual realities. Human ambition has proven to be a huge challenge and many choose the commercial, monetary outcome whatever it takes. It may seem degrading to acquire power through personal, intimate relationships, often with a political goal or position in mind. But each movie has its heroes and villains or the plot would be uninteresting and void of challenges. Before I was a teenager, I had read so many books and seen so many movies, I thought I was ready for any scenario I needed to learn from. (Below: 1975, the author with ballerina Dominique Khalfouni, France’s international ballet star)

It seems unquestionably peculiar that some young kid hidden in Ghent, a medieval Flemish treasure in the Belgian lower lands, could become a dancer and find a way back to his own soul via so many distinct stages in Europe, and the Orient, the USA, Oceania. Though as a child, I learned from my father that I am the last Flemish descendant of Gerard de Lairesse (the Liege-born, acclaimed painter closest to Wilhelm, the Dutch Emperor who offered him the title of Viscount), why did I become so close with the grandson of a Dutch Prime minister, who then introduced me to the USSSR’s most legendary dancer of the 20st century, while dating the great granddaughter of a legendary American President? Maybe my teen years moved through parallel realities I certainly could not distinguish, and for years I was quite judgmental about. Both joyful and other painful moments taught me alternatives options to better understand intricate situations, and I can conclude that my once slower “moi” was defined by a lack of knowledge about many a subject or person, definitely the weak link in a developing bias.

A brief encounter can often set the tone for the lessons we can teach one another. Yet it does not give us the right to decide who that other person really is or will become. I have been fortunate to learn from many of my colleagues and friends that we are more than often each other’s teachers. For this gift and the fact that it helped to clarify who I really am, my appreciation cannot be expressed in words and as such the book will remain but a lighthearted testimony to the experiences I drew from. (Below: Berlin Ballett Deutche Oper Berlin-Premiere Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen with fabulous dancers Tim Almaas, Pablo Savoye & the magnificent Dana Lewis)

The goal is that this personal journal may entertain the readers, even help recognize parts of our own lives. There will be many colorful or extravagant words to describe the fun and challenges, the many friendships and the fascinating encounters with the artists, the politicians and the aristocracy or even royalty. There are good people in all drawers of this towering chest of our many worlds. It is an overwhelming cast the Universe shared with me in this star-studded movie of a life taking decades to realize I only flirted with humility, while my veins wanted to control, in real time, the curtains I opened.

I have loved this journey, and especially because of the wonderful friendships, Fortunately, many are still here, and some choose to dance between the waves of an ocean of emotion far beyond our planet. My sincere gratitude to this entire cast of teachers and masters making this lifetime the greatest school of learning. My apologies for the names missing, possibly within the parameters of my own senior moments or appearing in between the lines with... HRH Diana, Princess of Wales, Rudolph Nureyev, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Joséphine Baker, Maria Callas, Gerard de Lairesse, Maurice Béjart, Montserat Caballé, Placido Domingo, Astor Piazzolla, George Balanchine, Natalia Makarova, Leonard Bernstein, Princess Grace of Monaco, Alan Bates, Alexander Goudonov, Jacqueline Bissett, Jude Law, Marte Keller, Greta Scacchi, Martin and Benedick Bates, Marius Constant, George Pretre, Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Manos Hadjidakis, Leslie Browne, Ann Marie DeAngelo, Irina Kolpakova, Jean Marais, Jean-Claude Brialy, Suzanne Farrell, Floris Alexander, Jennifer Penny, Erik Bruhn, Wayne Sleep, Michael Denard, Claire Motte, Cyril Lafaurie, Marika Besobrasova, Lucia Chase, Lynn Seymour, Christopher Gable, Melissa Hayden, Michael Baryshnikov, Ninette De Valois, Herbert Ross, Anja Evans-Jones, Mark Baldwin, Christiane Eda-Pierre, Marina Poplavskaya, Susan Jaffe, Alicia Alonso, Loipa Araujo, Vanessa Harwood, Marina Eglevsky, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Mirella Freni, James Levine, Dominique Khalfouni, Janine Charat, Rebekah Harkness, Sir Frederick Ashton, Sir Georg Solti, Julio Arozarena, Constanze Emmerich, Arantxa Arguelles, Antony Tudor, Baroness Chantal De Broqueville and Lord Hasbun, Marquesa Baldaseronni-Corsini, Vannozza Corsini, Knight of Malta; Fabiola di More y Aragon, Queen of Belgium, HRH. Princess Margaretha of Liechtenstein, Mayor Jerry Brown, Princess Lia (Lambrino) Prince Paul of Romania, HRH Princess Marina of Kent, Judith Mann, Sir Frederic Ashton, Neptune Ingwersen, Clark Tippett, Yvan Nagy, Princess Caroline Murat, Melinda Jackson, Sabine Chaland, Pierre Lacotte, Ghislaine Thesmar, Prince Pandolfini, Cyril Lafauri, Bernard and Suzy Lefort, Norbert Schmucki, André Levasseur, Zizi Jeanmaire, Roland Petit, the Rochas and de Rothschild families, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Maya Plissetskaya, Pierre Cardin, Kerry Lyn Cassidy, Juliette Binoche, Klaus and Natasha Kinski, Vladilen Semenov, Truman Finney, Lyn Charles, Christiane Marchant, Heidi Schridde, Francette Levieux, James Fortin III, Professor Alan Howard, Pierre Combescot, and Douce Francois amongst many. (below author after choreographing for his muse one of the greatest ballerinas of all time: Natalia Makarova)

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