Ashley Bathgate
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KYRA NICHOLS |
Dear Winger readers, since retiring from New York City Ballet I’ve been enjoying my home life, and coaching some young dancers. I’m thrilled to tell you that an artist that in some small way I may have helped inspire will be having a big performance this coming week. But she’s not a dancer!
In 1991, when I was in Saratoga Springs for New York City Ballet’s summer season, our neighbors in the condo we rented had a 6 year old daughter, Ashley. We got to know Ashley and her parents and later that summer when I was asked to present the trophy for the Ballerina Stakes Race I brought Ashley along. That’s her in the white hat in the photo.
Every summer we spent time with Ashley and her folks. Ashley developed a passion for softball but made an important decision about her lifestyle early on. She told her Dad that she wanted to “live like Kyra” which meant sleeping until 10 am, (this was before I had children) hanging out in the theater much of the day and having dinner at midnight. Ashley didn’t have any particular interest in dance, but she did like the lifestyle…
Somewhere during her childhood Ashley took up the cello. There was a difficult point when she had to make a choice between cello and softball… and cello won.
The picture below is Ashley today…
Ashley apparently made the right choice. 17 years later she is finishing the Yale School of Music graduate program and making her Carnegie Hall debut. Her concert is in Weill Recital Hall on February 9th at 8:30 pm.
I’d like to think that over the course of my career I might have inspired some people to take up dance, or become better dancers. I never expected that in some small way I might have inspired a cellist… and hopefully in ways other than her interest in sleeping late!
You can hear Ashley, or see her in performance video clips at her website, www.AshleyBathgate.net..
Thanks Wingers,
Kyra Nichols (aka Mrs. Gray)
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