Elegy for Tanny - Tanaquil Le Clercq - Obituary

Dance Magazine, April, 2001 by Clive Barnes

What else, apart from works already mentioned, sweeps back to me? Her wit and nutty sophistication in Bourree Fantasque, dancing that crazy first duet with Robbins; her high-grace elegance in Caracole; the fierceness of her Chief Bacchante (a variation on Choleric) in Orpheus; the extraordinary niveous eloquence of her Odette in Balanchine's Swan Lake; the odd poignancy of her "rescue from drowning" duet with Nicholas Magallanes in Jones Beach; the zip of her classicism in a matinee performance of the Glinka Pas de Trois; and the spare musical precision of her Symphonie Concertante. Then there are some of her other Robbins roles: a wistful, Juliet-style heroine in The Guests; the zany leader of the riot in The Pied Piper or that most rapt of nymphs in Afternoon of a Faun.

The performance-image I cherish most? Perhaps in Serenade, as the woman arriving late, full of wonderment, surprise and passion. Tanny, you went too soon. But thank you, with all my heart.

Senior editor Clive Barnes, who covers dance and theater for the New York Post, has contributed to Dance Magazine since 1956.