Rex Harrington: the dark prince of dance - National Ballet of Canada principal dancer who expands his international reputation with guest performances - Cover Story

Dance Magazine, May, 1994 by Paula Citron

The Canadian-born danseur noble guests around in Europe and America, where he has a loyal following among people who know.

National Ballet of Canada's Rex Harrington at thirty-one is among the rarefied coterie of male dancers with international reputations. His smoldering good looks, his brilliant way of blending technique and interpretation into character, and his wonderfully instinctive hands have made him a sought-after partner for such stars as Carla Fracci, Ekaterina Maximova, Susan Jaffe, and Canada's two ballerinas assoluta, Karen Kain and Evelyn Hart. "Rex is an extraordinary partner whose hands are a gift from God," says National's artistic director Reid Anderson. "The ballerina never looks like she's being manipulated because he makes the dance seamless. Even though he takes enormous risks onstage and allows himself to be vulnerable, he is always elegant, poised, and mesmerizing to watch. Rex has charisma - that's the only word for it."

This consummate performer is happiest when he is onstage. "I'm in charge," he says. "I'm controlling that moment." This is a telling statement, because it also gives a glimpse into the offstage Harrington - the loose cannon barreling almost out of control. He is an outrageous tease, and one never knows where he is going to strike next with his devastating barbs. In the rehearsal studio, his temperamental moods cause tremendous frustration among his colleagues and coaches. "Rex can drive you crazy," says Anderson. "He opens his mouth and things just come out, but he is so funny and witty, and because he means no malice, he is instantly forgiven."

Says Magdalena Popa, the National's Romanian-born ballet mistress and one of Harrington's coaches, "Rex is a favorite of mine, but it's like being a psychiatrist to find the right way to handle him. He works much better one-on-one because he becomes shy if someone else is in the room. He's so insecure that he'll play around and make jokes and exaggerate things to cover up his mistakes. Rex has little patience for the endless repeats in the rehearsal process, although he is becoming better disciplined at pushing himself. When he has mastered a role, however, he's like a panther, a beautiful animal moving in space whose whole body is involved in the dance."

Part of Harrington's sensitivity stems from what he perceives as a problem of technique. "Magdalena tells me that I have everything I need to be a great artist," he says. "I know I have technical ability, but I don't believe it. I suppose I got intimidated at the ballet school because I started dance late and I was surrounded by technical monsters. I work on instinct, so it's difficult for me to take a cold, analytical approach to movement. With experience, however, I'm bringing my dancing more under control, and the technical side is finally catching up with the interpretative side."

Being chosen from the corps to partner Kain in Constantin Patsalas's Oiseaux Exotiques shortly after he joined the company in 1983 helped propel Harrington to national attention. As he says, "You can't dance with a Canadian icon and not be noticed." Kain has, over the years, become intimately acquainted with Harrington's strengths as well as his insecurities. "When Rex is at his best, there's no one like him," she says. "It's been wonderful to find a partner who doesn't have to be programmed to the last detail. Dancing with him becomes creative, because you know he's always there for you. But while performances are always exciting, you have to put up with a fair bit in the rehearsal process, and it wears you out. I think, though, that Rex has recently turned a corner. Our Romeo and Juliet last season was the first time that both the rehearsals and the performances were an utter joy."

Like everyone else at the National, Kain has been the butt of Harrington's teasing. "His jabs always hit the mark," she says. "With me, it's my weight. If he senses I've put on one pound, he'll grunt and groan out loud. It used to hurt my feelings until I realized that he doesn't have a cruel bone in his body. He's also more generous in his praise than most, so it balances out. But Rex craves attention and approval so strongly that this need can sometimes get in the way of his dancing. I think a lot of his insecurities stem from his early life. He had a really rough childhood."

Harrington was born in Peterborough, Ontario; his parents divorced when he was young. He and his older brother were raised by their father in Toronto, while his mother moved to Vancouver with his sister and subsequently had another son. When Harrington was fourteen he ran away to his mother. "My father wanted to send me to boarding school," he says, "and I wanted to pursue the arts. My mother was an exceptional woman. She was a manic depressive who had a naivete about things, but she had a lifelong dream that her children would be artists. In Vancouver I started dance classes because I was a natural athlete and movement seemed logical. We were very poor, and my mother used to envision that when I'd be rich and famous, I'd treat her with the same reverence that Liberace showed to his mother. My great sadness is that she is not able to share in my success because we have completely lost touch with one another."