Question: In which branch of the arts does Allegra Kent work?
Answer: Ballet

Allegra Kent (born August 11, 1937) is an American ballet dancer and actress.

Iris Margo Cohen was born to Jewish parents, Harry Herschel and Shirley (née Weissman) Cohen, and later changed her name to Allegra Kent.  Kent grew up in what she later described as a dysfunctional environment. In Once a Dancer: An Autobiography,Once a Dancer: An Autobiography © 1997, St. Martin's Press; ISBN 0-312-15051-2, 1st edition January 1997. she describes her Texan father ("who liked to substitute 'Cowboy' for Herschel") as having "a gambler's soul and a restless nature" (at pgs 5, 7). She describes her Wisznice (present-day Poland)-born immigrant mother as feeling "neither European nor American; she was ashamed of her [own] parents... she borrowed a neighbor's working papers and took a job at twelve. By fourteen, she was teaching ballroom dancing at night in someone's private home, mostly to Japanese men" (at pg. 6). 

Born in Santa Monica, Kent studied with Bronislava Nijinska and Carmelita Maracci before joining the School of American Ballet. She had completely flat feet as a little girl and consulted a doctor, who prescribed wedges in her shoes to give her arches. She then began taking ballet. 

After graduating, she joined the New York City Ballet in 1953 at the age of 15, and was promoted to principal in 1957. Many roles in George Balanchine's ballets were created for her, including Seven Deadly Sins, Ivesiana and Bugaku. She danced the role of Dewdrop in the 1958 Playhouse 90 telecast of Balanchine's version of The Nutcracker. 

She performed in such ballets as Serenade, Agon and Dances at a Gathering. She retired in 1981, becoming a ballet teacher, and in 1997 published an autobiography, Once a Dancer. In 2012, Kent published her first book for children, Ballerina Swan, with Holiday House Books for Young People, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully.  It has received rave reviews from The New York Times,  Kirkus Reviews,  and School Library Journal.  In Fall of 2013, Ballerina Swan was adapted for the stage as a dance piece by New York City Children's Theater,  featuring choreographer Michael McGowan and artistic director Barbara Zinn Krieger. The adaptation received positive reviews by the New York Times,  Time Out New York Kids,  The Mama Maven,  and many others.  Due to its success, in December 2015, New York City Children's Theater produced a revival of "Ballerina Swan."

Allegra Kent currently teaches ballet at Barnard College. 

Sources

*The Encyclopedia of Dance & Ballet (1977), Rainbird Reference Books Ltd.; ISBN 0-907408-63-X 
*[http://www.ballerinagallery.com/kent.htm Profile], ballerinagallery.com; accessed November 10, 2014.

Intersections: Allegra Kent, Balanchine's Ballerina : NPR
Heard on Morning Edition
Allegra Kent and partner Conrad Ludlow dance a pas de deux in Symphony in C, choreographed by Balanchine, during a 1965 performance in New York. From "Dancing for Mr. B," directed by Anne Belle/Courtesy John Belle hide caption
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From "Dancing for Mr. B," directed by Anne Belle/Courtesy John Belle
One of the most important choreographers of the 20th century, George Balanchine, would have been 100 years old this week. Born in Russia, he made his career in the United States, where he died in 1983. He left behind the New York City Ballet, the company he founded, along with hundreds of original ballets inspired by the unique abilities of his dancers.
In a report for Intersections, a Morning Edition series on artists and their sources of inspiration, Kim Kokich talks with New York City Ballet star Allegra Kent — one of Balanchine's greatest ballerinas — about her relationship with "Mr. B."
Kent was 10 when she first told her mother she wanted to be a ballerina. Soon after, she was taken to the ballet for the first time to see a performance of Night Shadow, a tale of a sleepwalking wife, choreographed by Balanchine. Kent — now in her 60s — remembers the event as a life-defining experience: "After that evening, I did believe that ballet was really what I wanted to pursue, and that ballet was the most exalted form of dance... I still feel that way."
Kent joined the New York City Ballet company in 1952, at age 15. Within a few years, Balanchine began creating ballets inspired by her complexities as a dancer: her otherworldly stage presence, her innocent sensuality, her hyperactivity, her tendency to go outside technique to move in beautiful and strange ways. (In 1958, he even revived Night Shadow, renamed La Sonnambula, for Kent.)
Watch Kent and Ludlow dance. (RealPlayer Required.)
Kent's relationship with Balanchine exemplified his technique: Balanchine saw ways to uncover the gifts of his ballerinas that, in turn, revealed his own talents. They inspired him to challenge ballet's conventions, while he pushed them to work harder than they ever had. Balanchine acknowledged this symbiosis in a 1970s' interview with the BBC.
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Allegra Kent with George Balanchine Courtesy Bert Stern hide caption
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Courtesy Bert Stern
"I try to push people to a certain level that I like. I have to satisfy myself," Balanchine said. "...I look all the time, and I borrow from them. I mean, I use their bodies. I use what they are."
For Kent, the relationship also proved rewarding. She enjoyed a successful 30-year career with the New York City Ballet, and now helps coach a new generation of dancers for The George Balanchine Trust.
Web Extra: Extended Interview with Allegra Kent
Only Available in Archive Formats.

Allegra Kent | Greenwich Ballet Academy
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The My Hero Project - Allegra Kent
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"All we actually have is our body and its muscles that allow us to be under our own power." ~ Allegra Kent
ARTIST HERO:
ALLEGRA KENT
by Mikayla from Glenbrook
When you think about a hero, what comes to mind? It could be many different things like dedication, leadership, being an inspiration to someone, or being courageous. I think being a hero requires all  of that and much more.
Allegra Kent (also known as Iris Margo Cohen), an accomplished ballerina, is a person whom I consider a hero.  She was an inspiration to many who proclaimed her to have muscular lyricism.  She made all of her performances seem unreal.
Allegra realized her dream of being a ballerina at the young age of ten, and started training at eleven. At thirteen she was accepted into the School of American Ballet, on scholarship, and moved to New York. Famed choreographer, George Balanchine, discovered her talent.  Allegra became a permanent member of the New York City Ballet at age fifteen
Allegra became a principal dancer at age 18 and was the star of the New York City Ballet.  She was George Balanchineï¿½s inspiration and was known for her Balanchine style.  Allegra studied dance with many different people and performed many dances for a number of choreographers.
People were mystified by her beautiful dance technique, and when she started to miss shows for the New York City Ballet it added to her mystique. She quietly left the company in the 1980s but never stopped coaching and teaching.
Allegra married Bert Stern in 1959 and they had three children, but they later divorced. Joseph Cornell was an artist who was inspired by Allegra. He dedicated some of his collages to her and her children.
Allegra is an author of two physical therapy books: The Dancersï¿½ Body Book and Allegra Kentï¿½s Water Beauty Book.  Allegra also wrote an autobiography entitled, Once a Dancer.
Allegra is an extremely talented author, dancer, and mother and for that she is my hero.
Bibliography
ï¿½Intersections: Allegra Kent, Balanchineï¿½s Ballerina.ï¿½ Npr.org.   19 January 2004.  February 2008 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1594107
ï¿½Allegra Kent Biography (1938- ).ï¿½ A&E Television Networks. 1996-2007.  February 2008 http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9363185
ï¿½Allegra Kent.ï¿½  Biography Resource Center-Biography Display. 1 January 1993.  15 February 2008 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC?vrsn=149&OP=contain

Once a Dancer... : Allegra Kent : 9780813034409
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One of the greatest of George Balanchine's ballerinas, Allegra Kent joined the New York City Ballet at the age of fifteen and only two years later inspired Balanchine's "The Unanswered Question" (from Ivesiana). Beautiful, sensuous, mysterious, she quickly became an essential Balanchine dancer. He created central roles for her in 'Episodes', 'Bugaku', 'The Seven Deadly Sins, Stars and Stripes', and the 'Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet', as well as reviving 'La Sonnambula' for her. An immense favorite of audiences here and abroad, she had a particularly spectacular success on the company's famous Russian tour in 1962. But the story of her personal life is at least as dramatic as the story of her rise to fame. Raised haphazardly by a mostly absent father and an all-too-present mother, she married the first man she ever dated, the celebrated (and complicated) photographer Bert Stern. And she suspended her career three times to have children, no matter what the cost to her work. Allegra Kent is today a triumphant survivor of a difficult, troubled, yet deeply gratifying life, and her writing reflects the intelligence, grace, and artistry that characterized her dancing. Her account of a bizarre childhood, a magnificent if unusual dance career, a charged, complicated, domestic life, and a never-ending struggle with emotional, physical, and financial pressures is fascinating as are her portraits of the other great dance figures who punctuated her life, from Balanchine to Baryshnikov. show more
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152.4                                     x 228.6                                     x 25.4mm                                                                      | 498.95g
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Leaps and Bounds
Leaps and Bounds
The autobiography of Allegra Kent, one of George Balanchine's finest ballerinas
ONCE A DANCER . . .
Illustrated. 340 pp. New York:
St. Martin's Press. $26.95.
've had a strange career,'' says Allegra Kent. No one who reads her book will disagree. After a childhood that sounds like a dadaist performance, she walked into George Balanchine's life at a time, the mid-1950's, when his genius was undergoing a fabulous reflowering. Together, they made her a great dancer. But from the very beginning, by her account, she sabotaged her own career. At 21, already saddled with a despotic mother who didn't want her to dance, she married Mr. Wrong and quickly had three children. (A ballet dancer! Three children! In her 20's!) But that's not the half of it. Illness, depression, disfiguring facial surgery, bank foreclosures, pursuit through the streets of New York by amphetamine-crazed husband on bicycle: you name it, she experienced it, often by her own arranging.
In 1937 Shirley Cohen, an immigrant from Poland living in Texas, discovered that she was pregnant again. She took ''something strong,'' but it didn't work, and Iris Cohen was born. The Cohens soon became Kents, because why should everyone know they were Jewish? And at 11 Iris became Allegra, because her older sister, Barbara, had become Wendy. The father, Harry (Cowboy) Cohen, was a charming no-account who divided his time between oil deals, gambling and God knows what else. Shirley divorced him and proceeded to drag the family back and forth between Florida and California. Meanwhile, she pursued philosophies. From Christian Science she progressed to Bates eye exercises, then to Krishnamurti.
In her Krishnamurti period, Shirley heard of a boarding school based on that guru's philosophy in Ojai, Calif. But she forgot its name, so she picked a school at random in the Ojai Valley and dropped Allegra off. The child now plotted how to get her mother back. In gym class she discovered she was a great jumper. She wrote her mother that she wanted to become a ballerina -- an idea that must have strummed some chord deep in Shirley's brain, for she fetched Allegra and took her to the two best ballet teachers in Los Angeles, Bronislava Nijinska and Carmelita Maracci. By the age of 12, Allegra was in ballet class nine hours a week. Her future as a dancer was Shirley's new religion, until, pretty soon, it wasn't. Allegra, she now decided, should quit dancing, go to college. But it was too late. Allegra Kent was accepted into the New York City Ballet at age 15.
This childhood section is the best part of the book: witty, fast-paced, full of deft omissions, wonderful catchings-up. It is a comedy born of fear. For Ms. Kent, as for so many autobiographers, childhood, because its circumstances were arranged by others, has a special poetry, on which they can report with disinterestedness and clarity. Only with the later life -- the life, they are told, that was arranged by them -- does the confusion set in.
When Ms. Kent was 17, Balanchine made her her first big role. When she was 19, he promoted her from the corps de ballet to principal dancer, skipping the middle rank of soloist. And over a period of 10 years, ballet by ballet, he created what was to be her unique theatrical image. In ''Ivesiana'' (1954) she was carried aloft on the shoulders of four men -- her feet never touched the ground -- while another man prostrated himself before her. In ''The Seven Deadly Sins'' (revived in 1958) she acted out pride, lust, etc., but almost blindly; she simply obeyed the orders of the singer, Lotte Lenya. In ''La Sonnambula'' (revived in 1960), she was a sleepwalker. In ''Bugaku'' (1963), a Japanese wedding piece, she performed the frankest sex dance Balanchine ever put on stage, but in a blank, ritualized manner.
The idea, throughout, was eroticism coupled with unavailability. She was passive; you could bend her in your hands. (She had a famously pliant body.) Yet she was unresponsive, unconscious, childlike. You had her, but you didn't. In his portrayals of love, Balanchine rarely stooped to psychology, but with Ms. Kent he came close: her image seemed the product of some aching need, some decisive refusal. At the same time, it remained poetic, shedding a moonglow over the desperate dramas that Balanchine conjured around it.
Was the stage image his creation or hers? This question is asked of all Balanchine's ballerinas, and what they answer -- Ms. Kent too -- is that they made it with him. As has often been said, Balanchine's art was the story of his attachment to a series of ballerinas. One by one, these young women came to him. He saw them, understood them and dreamed about them. The dreams became the ballets, imaginary worlds in which they could be themselves but better: artists, symbols.
In psychology, the word for Ms. Kent's stage persona is passive-aggressive, and that is what she was, consistently, in her work. Whatever success she had, she managed to cap it with a compensating failure. After ''Ivesiana'' she let her mother bully her into a nose job, whose results so humiliated her that for months she rarely left home. When she returned to the company, Balanchine put her in ''The Seven Deadly Sins,'' which made her a star; she responded by entering into a loveless marriage with the fashion photographer and fast-tracker Bert Stern, who also makes an unattractive appearance in Claire Bloom's new memoir. (He was soon spending his evenings out. The newspapers kept Ms. Kent posted on his infidelities.) Probably to cheer her up, Balanchine now revived ''La Sonnambula'' for her, another triumph, whereupon she got herself pregnant. Again she returned, and was the sensation of New York City Ballet's historic 1962 Russian tour. At the end of that tour, Balanchine begged her to devote herself to her work. She demurely agreed. The following year, she was pregnant again.
In 1964, after the birth of the second baby, she turned up at the theater one night and greeted Balanchine:
''My hair was caught up in two bunches, one over each shoulder. The style was a bit juvenile, but Mr. B. liked it. He put one palm under each ponytail. For the moment he had me gently in hand. I was in his grasp. . . . He wanted me on stage and dancing because he loved my dancing. . . .
'' 'Now, Allegra, no more babies. Enough is enough.' . . .
''I delivered a soft-spoken and playful 'All right.' ''
And in that moment, she says, she vowed to have another child.
In this creepy little scene -- with its infantilism, its lisped assent, its silent refusal -- Ms. Kent, with great literary skill, sums up her relationship with Balanchine. As she did not realize at the time, the relationship was now over. Balanchine had been in love with her. (Some people believe she had an affair with him. She says no, and I believe her. It fits the pattern.) More than that, he had desperately needed her talents. Hence his willingness, again and again, to lure her back, cajole her, baby her. But in 1963 he had fastened on a new young dancer, this one willing to work: Suzanne Farrell. (Indeed, Balanchine's budding attraction to Ms. Farrell may have been one of Ms. Kent's reasons for retreating into pregnancy a second time.) After 1966, Balanchine never made a ballet for Ms. Kent again. He was loyal, though; he didn't get rid of her. She stayed with the company for 17 more years, often dancing superbly. But she performed less and less. In 1983, when Balanchine lay dying in the hospital and could no longer protect her, the company fired her.
This later period makes for grim reading at times. Ms. Kent has a reputation as an eccentric, and she tries to liven things up with tales of her wacky deeds: how she liked to drive with her left leg sticking out the car window (I hope she had an automatic), how she helped her son set fire to the family living room as part of a school project. But these episodes are not especially cheering. They seem merely the antic face of her habit of self-defeat. Also, eccentricity is less charming when described by the eccentric herself.
To what extent are our lives our fault? This terrible question, never explicitly posed in the book, is nevertheless its theme, and Ms. Kent's answer invites comparison with Gelsey Kirkland's in her 1986 ''Dancing on My Grave,'' the trailblazer in this odd new genre of memoirs by ballerinas who messed up. Ms. Kirkland's account is all dirt and spite. Ms. Kent is noble minded: she takes responsibility.
Maybe too much. She seems to feel that she actually destroyed her career. She didn't, or not quickly. Ten years of growth may seem to her a short time, but it is all that many artists have. The films of her early years are astonishing. I didn't see her till later; still, she was tremendous. She created a kind of hush around herself on the stage. The symbol she placed before us -- this sphinx, this child-idol, this cry in the night -- was perhaps a narrow one, but it was a crucial discovery, irreplaceable.
Joan Acocella, the author of ''Mark Morris,'' is the dance critic of The Wall Street Journal.

Review/Dance -  Allegra Kent With the Ballet of Los Angeles - NYTimes.com
Review/Dance; Allegra Kent With the Ballet of Los Angeles
By JENNIFER DUNNING, Special to the New York Times
Published: March 20, 1989
PURCHASE, N.Y., March 16— John Clifford's Ballet of Los Angeles would have been attraction enough when it appeared Friday night at the Performing Arts Center of the State University College at Purchase. Mr. Clifford was a popular dancer with the New York City Ballet, which he left in 1973. And his company visits New York infrequently. But this visit included Allegra Kent, a former ballerina of the City Ballet, who seldom performs these days, but whose magic is legendary.
Miss Kent is now associate director of the Los Angeles company, formed in 1987 by Mr. Clifford as the successor to his Los Angeles Ballet, which closed in 1985. She is also to become the faculty chairwoman at the Stamford (Conn.) City Ballet school. But the dancer who emerged from the wings in Mr. Clifford's recent ''Notturno'' would probably not be taken for a ballet administrator. Miss Kent, who is 50 years old, is still a ravishingly lovely performer, with all the delicacy, radiance and buried hint of daffiness that made her so beloved at City Ballet.
''Notturno,'' set to a Schubert piano trio, is a chiffon-rippler, a ballet intended to spread an aura of rapture about the stage. And Mr. Clifford's choreogaphy does succeed at that, with a central pas de deux that is a succession of ardent supported turns and swoons and partnered walks. Six dancers serve as a shifting background, flowing back and forth across the stage with an occasional darting run or two. They also pay homage to Miss Kent in one sequence, standing in gentle salute, then kneeling as she crisscrosses through their line.
But Miss Kent is an endearing expert at having and eating her cake, an art she displayed at the curtain calls, when she plucked the traditional flower from her bouquet to give to her partner, then dropped the entire bouquet into his arms and ran offstage. Antonio Lopez was her gracious, solid partner, in a cast completed by Jill Albertson, Cheryl Dickens, Betsy Schamet, Sean Carey, John Ferrare and Georges Vargas.
The years may have fallen away at first sight of Miss Kent, but they seemed curiously unchanged in the balance of the program. For Mr. Clifford's ''Fantasies,'' created in 1969 for City Ballet, and his new ''Songs of a Wayfarer'' seem cut from the same bolt of cloth. It is not that Mr. Clifford is a one-note choreographer. His ballets are unvaryingly well crafted and sometimes too literal a reading of music and theme, but he has taken on a good many kinds of dance in his 21 years as a professional choreographer. But the men and women of both ballets inhabit the same dark and measured landscape.
In ''Fantasies,'' set to Ralph Vaughan Williams's ''Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis,'' young lovers in white and mature lovers in dark green come to terms with their illusions and choose the appropriate mates. It was danced by Karyn Connell and David Rodriguez as the young lovers and Courtland Weaver and the lyrically elegiac Diane Dickson as the older lovers.
Miss Kent, the lone wayfarer of the new ballet, moves through a country peopled with lovers. The ballet, which is set to Mahler songs, opens with a strong image of columnar bodies shifting ranks on a darkened stage, leaving Miss Kent alone at last. Lighthearted peasants, danced by Miss Connell and Mr. Weaver, romp through the second section, but lose each other in the bittersweet final moments. Nancy Davis is the ''glowing dagger'' of the third song, her imperiousness turning to voluptuous abandon as she dances.
Mr. Lopez is Miss Kent's lonely counterpart in the fourth section, juxtaposed against groups of dreamers and strutters, in a portrayal as strong in its way as that of Miss Davis in the previous dance. And then it is Miss Kent's turn again, in the closing section, and she makes the most of the ballet's resonant closing image when, left alone on stage, she walks slowly off.
It is Miss Kent's lyrical arms that stand out in ''Notturno.'' Here, it is her carriage and head and neck so delicately yet intensely expressive of the subtlest degrees of emotion. The 11-member company that complements her so well is still a little short on projected personality. But as one would expect of Mr. Clifford it is an assemblage of forthright and well-trained dancers with strong clean body lines.
George Balanchine's ''Allegro Brillante'' completed the program.

Children's Literature - Meet Allegra Kent
Allegra Kent
Allegra Kent
   Allegra Kent joined the New York City Ballet when she was fifteen years old. Born in Santa Monica, California, she moved to New York when she began studying at the School of American Ballet. Only a few short years after graduating and joining the company, Allegra was promoted to principal. In the era of George Balanchine, the famous choreographer created several roles for Allegra. After a long and impressive career Allegra retired in 1981 and turned to teaching. Today, she is busy teaching at Barnard College and working on her blossoming writing career. Her first children's book, Ballerina Swan, was published by Holiday House in early 2012. Allegra graciously spoke to me about working on her picture book, her life as a ballerina, and her future writing plans.
   Her previous publishing experience came in the form of two books for adults, and she revealed that delving into the world of children's publishing went a little differently. When I asked if the process was different than she expected, she responded that after her manuscript was accepted the task of finding an illustrator was entirely new to her. She had seen Emily Arnold McCully's—the illustrator of Ballerina Swan—amazing work, way before she began the hunt. Specifically, she was familiar with Emily's Caldecott winning picture book Mirette and the High Wire. Funnily enough, when Allegra was in her editor's office looking at a variety of art samples from illustrators, she was excited to discover the illustration she selected was by Emily. Another card fell into place when Allegra's editor discovered Emily was in fact available. With so many details to coordinate, this process does not always run so smoothly. The deal was sealed quickly and Ballerina Swan was produced a full year ahead of schedule. Allegra expressed how thrilled she was to to collaborate with the illustrator of her dreams.
   In Ballerina Swan, Sophie, a New York City swan, dreams of becoming a ballerina. She loves sneaking a look at the young ballerinas in school and desperately wants to join their class. Originally, Allegra says the story was too text heavy and dense. In changing the storyline a bit, Allegra kept Sophie's aspirations to become a dancer because they paralleled her own young dreams. As a child Allegra didn't know what she wanted to do; she had heard of ballet, but never seen one. In boarding school she took a folk dance class, and from there told her mother she wanted to leave boarding school to learn to dance. The first school at which she studied had no beginner classes, another similarity to Sophie—having natural ability but feeling slightly out of your depth in regards to technique.
   The imagery of birds and ballet is nothing new. As Allegra put it, ballerinas always strive to be as beautiful and graceful as birds. The twist here is a swan that yearns to be a ballet star. Sophie's entry into ballet class does not go well—the teacher, the strict Madam Myrtle—does think swans belong in such places. Rejection is something with which all dancers are faced, including Allegra. Hard work is critical, but each person has different strengths to draw upon. Sophie is an example of this; because certain moves and techniques seem to come easily to her while she struggles with others. Allegra drew on her observations of her own and other's dancing strengths and weaknesses in creating Sophie. As she said, there will always be "certain things you have to work harder on." Sophie seems to have mastered the split leap, helped by her instincts to fly high—good DNA. Allegra cheekily noted that she was glad the room had such a high ceiling.
   When the young Miss Willow takes over the dance class one day, she is more tolerant of Sophie's "bird-ness" and allows her in the class. I asked Allegra if she preferred teachers like Madam Myrtle or Miss Willow. She "would have preferred Miss Willow, but for the sake of the story, we need Madam Myrtle." Allegra never had a teacher quite as strict as Madam Myrtle, but never had one exactly like Miss Willow either. She commented on how much she loved the way Emily stylized the two teachers. Giving Madam Myrtle her severe and formidable appearance but also illustrating how she strikes a balance between demanding and caring. Allegra's own teaching style is very different, mostly due to the fact that her students are in college.
   Ballerina Swan shows what hard work and perseverance can do when following your passion. When it comes to advice for others pursuing their dreams Allegra said to "work! And of course don't give up too easily." The mother of three adult children, she feels the rest of her advice would be of the usual grandmother variety. A caring grandmother, she dedicated her book to her grandchildren. At the end of our conversation, I asked Allegra about her ballet past—she listed Red Shoes as her favorite ballet-themed movie and said that her favorite ballet to dance is always the one she's just done. As for future writing plans she would like to write another book for young readers, and if the reviews for Ballerina Swan are any indication, many will be clamoring for more Sophie.
Contributor: Emily Griffin

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By Gia Kourlas Posted: Sunday November 1 2009
Allegra Kent’s scintillating autobiography, Once a Dancer..., begins with these prescient words: “As a child, I knew I had one great possession: my body. It was little and quick. I lived within it.” -This month, Kent, who danced with the New York City Ballet for more than 30 years, celebrates a couple of milestones. The first is the reissue of her memoir, charming and juicy by turns; the second occurs on Monday 9, when Kent is presented with a Dance Magazine Award. In the program, held at Florence Gould Hall, Janie Taylor of NYCB will perform Kent’s original part in “The Unanswered Question,” in which a ballerina is held aloft, her feet never touching the floor. Interviewing Kent is a little like trying to catch a butterfly without a net. Her ballerina days aren’t exactly over; now she dances with words.
For the Dance Magazine ceremony, you requested that Janie Taylor perform “The Unanswered Question” from Ivesiana. Why did you want her?
Well, she’s done it and she’s beautiful. It’s a piece we don’t get to see that often, but it’s also the first piece that Mr. Balanchine did for me. Ivesiana was so unusual, part of his kind of stories about that figure: the unattainable or metaphysical figure. Or, also, totally physical figure.
But what do you admire about Taylor?
She is almost of another world herself, which great ballet dancers are.
What first drew you to her?
Her imagination, her musicality and individuality. Individual peculiarity. That’s what also drew Balanchine to everyone—their individual qualities—and then he’d create a story or a movement or a dance. Or no story. [Laughs]
Can you take me back to—
1954? Of course! How do you want to travel? By chariot? Apollo’s chariot? Well, I was so new in the company and so hopeful, of course. And then, suddenly, there was my name for this dance on the bulletin board. I thought it was going to be jumping, but it wasn’t. Who was in the company? Maria Tallchief. Tanaquil Le Clercq. Melissa Hayden. They were all great individual ballerinas to watch. And also they would come running back and say, “Your eyes are too round!” “Not enough rouge!” [Laughs] They were all very involved with the company and that was wonderful—the input. Not just from the top, from everyone.
Tell me about the rehearsals.
The music! Oh, the music. No one had really heard that. Ives just wasn’t played. Balanchine discovered music and it wasn’t like there were CDs around; he would just play musical scores. He was so informed about what was happening.
So you’re in the rehearsal for Ivesiana—
“Take your shoes off and climb on the barre.” [Happily] Oh, just let me climb on the barre! I climbed mountains in Ojai Valley [California]. I’ll climb anything in front of me. Well, not the subway. [Laughs]
So you climbed on the barre?
Yeah. In the corner. And then got on the boy’s shoulders. Nobody had any idea; [Balanchine] didn’t give a description. “Step on the boy’s back and straighten up and let go. And when you hear the trumpet, that’s your cue.” I was so thrilled that I had Mr. B’s vote of confidence. That, psychologically? Oh my gosh. Because I basically came from nowhere. I wasn’t brought up anywhere. [Pauses] I was the original understudy for Agon. I like being the original understudy. It has a certain ring to it. At that time, no one had done anything like it. People still refer to [Agon] in their choreography. Not directly, but it expanded ideas of choreography.
Which principal part did you understudy?
Both. But I eventually did Diana Adams’s role. More quickly than I thought. Diana was fragile. She’d be out. Well, dancers are fragile. You have to go see them the minute you discover them. Dancers are also generous. When you get on stage and give a performance, that is generosity.
When you’re an understudy—
You’re in the back of the room where you can really think and watch. And also not have a certain amount of tension; although it’s good to be in the front of the room too. It’s good to be in the room. [Laughs]
What did you observe back there?
Maybe sometimes how I’d change something to suit myself more. Or be inspired by what I saw but always with an idea because you have to put everything on your own body a little bit. Like this poncho you’re wearing. Which is fantastic. Get me my crochet hook! [Laughs] I also crochet, but I don’t have time. We mustn’t go off on crocheting too much, but I made this. [She pulls a blue hat out of her bag.] I don’t have that much time.
You were also famously in Seven Deadly Sins, which paired you with the singer Lotte Leyna.
Oh, I love to sin.
What’s your favorite sin?
My gosh. They’re all so much fun. Maybe sloth is not as much fun, but lust is fun. Changing the costumes was fun. Diving through aluminum foil. Eddie Bigalow would catch me—always. [Laughs]
Do you remember much about it?
I do. But they tried to revive it and they waited too long. Well, Balanchine wanted to revive it, but there were always problems because Lenya wasn’t available; then, Barbra Streisand; then, Bette Midler; then, a union strike. I remember gluttony so well: A scale and an ice cream cone and a back walkover, which I didn’t know how to do.  I needed more acrobatic training, but my mother didn’t believe in tap, toe and acrobatic. Those were the schools in those days! But my mother chose really good teachers for me: Carmelita Maracci. Nijinska.
What is a snapshot memory of Nijinska?
Oh! Black pajamas only! In class, she didn’t wear a [Felia] Doubrovska dress. No. There we would go across the room—furious, demonic energy! And she would run over to the pianist and make them do it right when they had the wrong tempo. After class, she was very, very loving. No chewing gum. The other day I was teaching at Barnard and I said to a girl, “Are you chewing gum?” and she said, “No, I’m eating an apple!” I said, “What? Is it green or red?” I didn’t know what to say. No eating apples. No chewing gum. This is an old Russian principle. Not just that. It’s an always principle. But she didn’t know.
Did Nijinska encourage you?
Yeah. And that was wonderful to be encouraged by a teacher. It’s inexplicable why I’m winning this award, but I’m delighted. I got into the ballet company and I watched and watched. I listened. I hadn’t heard any of that music before. I didn’t grow up with classical music; we grew up with the radio. We were a one nutcracker family. And I mean [She cracks a nut with an invisible crank] that kind of nutcracker.