As a prima ballerina in New York during the 1960s, Marta C. González performed Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake perhaps hundreds of times.

Marta had Alzheimer’s and recently passed away. But in this poignant footage, filmed last year in Valencia, interspersed with clips of her past performances, she is reanimated by the music of the ballet, recalling choreography that she still knew by heart.

kottke

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5 thoughts on “Swansong

  1. Bebe

    Wow … absolutely beautiful – what a performance ! Music is a recognised therapy for people with Alzheimer’s or dementia and the piece obviously transported Marta to her prima ballerina jdays. Sharing with family and friends, Thank you Chompsky

  2. v AKA Frilly Keane

    Amidst it all

    the US elections
    our own daily examples of chaotic benchmarked incompetence and narcissistic unaccountable self-interest
    all with the miserable whinge that is an Irish November

    There is this wonder and beauty still out there
    and a reminder that not all days are like this
    and not everyone is like them I alluded to above
    I feel grubby now, bringing them into this thread,
    Like treading mucky dog pooed footprints onto a pristine polished floor

    Marta, talent that Alzheimer’s couldn’t kill,
    Marta, memorable for all the right reasons,
    Marta, elegant, and forever remembered as just that

    and the caring and kindness of humanity that still lives somewhere among us

    Thank you for finding it for us Broadsheet

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