Ghost Ballet

She was a striking figure: long reddish-black hair, a perfectly upright posture, eloquent, opinionated, and communicative. At the end of last July, Beatrice Cordua (1943–2025), one of the most astonishing dancers between the ballet and performance arts, passed away. The scope of her work is reflected in the obituaries written by two very different choreographers: John Neumeier and Florentina Holzinger.

Artist
Although Beatrice Cordua was already a soloist at the Frankfurt Städtische Bühnen ballet under Todd Bolender when I took over as director in December 1969, she soon became part of the small group, along with Marianne Kruuse, Persephone Samoropolo, and Truman Finney, who diligently worked on new creations with me: in our only ballet studio, without paying attention to ...