Barker to retire
We all knew that this was coming eventually, but Patricia Barker, principal dancer for the PNB, has announced that she will be retiring at the end of the 2006-2007 season [PNB]. She’s been with the company for 26 seasons, and at 43 has continued dancing long past the time when most people would have retired.
I volunteer for the PNB, and the nights that I’m in the gift shops the things people want the most are Patricia Barker memorabilia. She’s even got her own line of dancewear. (If you’re a collector of signed ballet shoes, I imagine they’ll be selling Barker’s shoes again–they were holding off until she announced her retirement.)
To celebrate her career there will be a special lecture on the 6th of June, with film clips and a Q & A session [PNB].
She’s a fantastic dancer, simply brilliant, and so athletic and ‘clean’ of line.
I remember seeing her in performance over 10 years ago, and then recently (last year).
She’s certainly lasted longer than most dancers. I’m wondering if she’ll teach, go into modern dance (like Baryshnikov did) or what…
I saw her last month in Sleeping Beauty, and while she is still amazing, she was obviously having trouble with some of the more difficult steps. (Steps that, granted, the vast majority of dancers would never be able to do, period.)
All I’ve heard so far is that she’s going to teach at the PNB school, and she’s supposed to go to Boston this summer to teach a bit there. But she hasn’t announced any sort of long-term goals yet.