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Hometown answers dream of dancerMOSCOW (AP) — An American ballet dancer’s dream of performing at the Bolshoi Theater is coming true because his hometown of Hickory, N.C., raised the money to send him to Moscow.Kevin Martin, a 24-year-old soloist who studies in New York City, is one of 13 Americans entered in the two-week Moscow International Ballet Competition starting Friday.More than 120 men and women dancers, soloists and pairs from 23 countries, are competing in the event. It is held every four years and rated the world’s most prestigious ballet competition.Martin began studying ballet when he was 8 and continued through high school in Hickory. He was one of eight children, all of whom studied ballet. “I never got any razzing at all,” he said. ‘‘It was nothing unusual in our town for boys to take ballet.”Martin said his plan to enter the Moscow competition ran into a roadblock when a bank refused to loan him money to pay his way to Moscow. ‘‘I just didn’t have the collateral.”Then his case was presented to Hickory residents in a local newspaper. ‘‘They showed a lot of sympathy and donated the couple of thousand dollars I needed in just a few days,” he said.“Just appearing here will help my career because I’m not a bigname,” Martin said. “I’ve been barnstorming in the United States, doing guest appearances, and if I do well at the competition my stock will go up.”Soviet dancers have taken most of the top awards at the previous four competitions, but a few American, French, Australian and Japanese have gotten big career boosts after winning medals at the event.Russians Nadezhda Pavlova and Vyacheslav Gordeyev, who took the top prizes in 1973 and are now top stars of the Bolshoi Ballet, will dance “Romeo and Juliet” tonight at the opening ceremony, a day before the young dancers begin the first of three rounds of competition.An international jury will cut the field to 36 dancers for the final round, studying performances both live and on videotapes, and then announce prizewinners June 24.“If you come here as a big name and get eliminated in the first round, your career is quashed,” Martin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But if you win a medal, it’s a ticket to success.”Martin and his teacher, John Barker, arrived in Moscow on Monday to prepare for the competition, and the other Americans were arriving Wednesday evening, the Soviet organizers said.
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Thu, Jun 11, 1981
Page 43
Full Page
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USA 24 Mar 2025
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