She is a powerhouse. That’s the word.

Millicent Hodson’s name will be forever attached to and revered for the reconstruction of Le Sacre du Printemps though I am loathe to call it a reconstruction: restored. That’s the word for it but God help anyone who tries to use that word legitimately. Except for me, I use it and I am sort of legitimate, right?

I sometimes forget how graceful she is for example: she mentions only the dancers or companies that produced anything worth seeing – that’s how I see it. Many years ago I asked about the Birmingham Royal Ballet and she brought up working on Riot at the Rite and Zenaida Yanowsky who played the Chosen One in the film (and with the BRB). I heard it as grace. They probably were… awful. I have no proof and no dancers have ever responded to me.

It is possible I am blackballed though I can’t be certain.

I found this old poor quality clip from her rehearsal with the Mariinsky (what?!). I was stunned that it was not perfectly shot but in 2008 Russia, you maybe had to ration film although, again I can’t be certain. I tend forget Millicent is a dancer and my God this clip outdoes even Margarita Simonova with motion of spotting in this wild turn (it’s probably termed another way but, again I can’t be certain).

Millicent Hodson has had one illustrious and industrious career. It’s takes all I have just to turn the laptop on and write meanwhile she is writing books on planes between time zones to work with ballet companies and speak at lectures and that is where I first met this tiny powerhouse.

I had moved that morning and had a tooth extraction the evening before so I think the photos were horrid. Though, yeah I can’t be certain.

Anything historical you wish to know about this ballet is found here in a spectacular interview with Millicent and Kenneth Archer. They met in London while researching the ballet and counting thousands of circles and squares to be accurate with costumes, fell in love and got married. And that was in the 80’s when the world was getting divorced. They are still married and clearly still in love. You can see it when you meet them.

Wrapping this post up makes me realize how jealous of Millicent Hodson I am. She is one of my 4 heroes. Without her, I would not have begin this archive or written this post which feels like a good one though I can’t be certain.

Yours for certain,

Fatova