Sallie Wilson
The dance community and New York Theatre Ballet lost a dear friend in 2008.
Sallie Wilson was born in Fort Worth, Texas where she received her early ballet training from Dorothy Colter Edwards. She came to New York at age 16 and studied with Margaret Craske and Antony Tudor, whose teaching remains a lasting influence and inspiration throughout her career. Ms. Wilson enjoyed a performing career that spanned 31 years and five continents. With American Ballet Theatre, she was known as the foremost exponent of the ballets of Antony Tudor and Agnes de Mille, and she also danced the works of Fokine, Robbins, Balanchine, Tetley, Ross, Limón, and Ailey, along with the Petipa classics in that repertoire.
She spent two seasons with the New York City Ballet in the ballets of Balanchine and Robbins; and she danced the role of Queen Elizabeth in the historic Episodes, choreographed there by Martha Graham. Since her retirement from the stage, Miss Wilson was herself a teacher, and was entrusted with the care and setting of Mr. Tudor’s ballets throughout the world. She also restaged other ballets, such as Giselle, Swan Lake, and Agnes de Mille’s Fall River Legend and Three Virgins and a Devil. She was a choreographer in her own right, having created a four-act ballet for Carla Fracci at La Fenice in Venice, and several other works for companies in the U.S., France, and Italy. She was the ballet mistress of New York Theatre Ballet for 22 years.
Photo of Elena Zahlmann and Sallie Wilson rehearsing Jardin aux Lilas in October 2007 at NYTB. Photo by Briana Blasko for The Dance Enthusiast, www.dance-enthusiast.com. Photo at right of Sallie Wilson in Antony Tudor’s Dark Elegies. Photo by Lindquist. Courtesy of Norton Owen and Jacob’s Pillow.
