Marta C. Gonzalez's Alzheimer's Swan Lake Video Goes Viral
In 2019, a video of former New York Opera ballerina Marta C. Gonzalez, then suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was filmed. The footage shows her responding to Tchaikovsky's music from Swan Lake, which she performed in 1967 at the New York Opera. The video went viral on social media and moved the international press. It inspired theater critic Georges Banu's column 'Corps vivant et ‘chant du cygne'' in artpress issue 486-487 (March-April 2021, pp. 13-14), paying homage to aged performers still inhabited by their roles. The cover features Kazuo Ohno's 'Argentina' (1977), photo by Claude Bricagne.
Key facts
- Marta C. Gonzalez was a principal dancer at the New York Opera in the 1960s.
- She performed Swan Lake at the New York Opera in 1967.
- The video was made in 2019, shortly before her death from Alzheimer's disease.
- The video shows Tchaikovsky's music reviving memories and movement in the elderly woman.
- The video went viral on social media and moved the global press.
- Georges Banu's theater column in artpress issue 486-487 (March-April 2021) was inspired by the video.
- The column is titled 'Corps vivant et ‘chant du cygne'' and appears on pages 13-14.
- The cover of artpress 486-487 features Kazuo Ohno's 'Argentina' (1977), photographed by Claude Bricagne.
Entities
Artists
- Marta C. Gonzalez
- Georges Banu
- Kazuo Ohno
- Claude Bricagne
Institutions
- New York Opera
- artpress
Locations
- New York
- United States
Sources
- artpress —