Cynthia Gregory with students at the Nevada Ballet Theatre Academy

 
  A performance of The Nutcracker at NBT
 
  Erik Bruhn, Gregory, and Rudolf Nureyev in Raymonda in 1975
 
  Gregory in 1975, during her dancing days, in Raymonda

Forty years ago, Elvis Presley was still shaking, rattling, and rolling in sold-out shows on the International stage and Hunter S. Thompson published Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas about his memorable 1971 trip to the city. The mega-resorts of the Strip were another 18 years in the making, and the now-legendary hot spots Dunes and the Sands dominated the razzle-dazzle.

Amid all of this Wild West hoopla, a group of classically trained dancers headed by Vassili Sulich, the principal dancer in Folies Bergere at the Tropicana, put on a series of ballet concerts at UNLV in what became the first performances of the Nevada Ballet Theatre, in 1972. Today, four decades later, the company looks forward to its future with a celebration of its ruby anniversary and a permanent home in The Smith Center for the Performing Arts come spring.

A Historic Nutcracker
But before any move, NBT celebrates its 30th year of performing The Nutcracker, the company’s grand finale at the Paris Théâtre before moving into The Smith Center, which opens March 10. For the third year, the 10 performances use choreography from Peter Anastos, who has created ballets for national and regional companies. The entire NBT professional company will hit the stage, along with 90 students from the Academy and its education and outreach program, Future Dance.

The legendary Cynthia Gregory, whom Rudolf Nureyev called “America’s Prima Ballerina Assoluta,” came on board as the artistic coach for the company last season and just started working with the children one fall afternoon in October. While she mainly coaches performers in roles such as the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Waltz of the Flowers lead, Gregory pipes in around the younger children as well. “I put my two cents in every once in a while,” she says. “The kids are just adorable, like little sponges.”

A Ballerina's Journey
As a youngster herself, Gregory was offered a chance to go to New York by George Balanchine, but her parents said no. However, when she later received a Ford Foundation scholarship to join the San Francisco Ballet School at age 14, they sold their house to move to the City by the Bay.

Gregory made her first appearance in the American Ballet Theatre in 1965, and just two years later, at age 21, debuted as Odette/Odile in the full-length production of Swan Lake, her most memorable performance that put her at the forefront of ballerinas in the world. Her 26-year career included more than 80 roles in classics including Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Coppélia, and more, as well as modern roles created for her by Eliot Feld in Harbinger and Twyla Tharp’s Bach Partita.

“Dancers from my day are the master coaches of today,” Gregory says, at the offices of NBT’s Academy in Summerlin. “We worked with all of the great choreographers of the 20th century. Now we’re passing that along to this generation.”

Gregory’s passion was to tell a story with her dances, and she admires how Anastos’s choreography showcases The Nutcracker story well and makes full use of the children. As a budding dancer herself, growing up in Hollywood, Gregory didn’t have access to a ballet company until she joined the San Francisco Ballet. When she was nine, the New York City Ballet brought The Nutcracker to Los Angeles, and she tried out for one of the roles, that of a boy since she was tall and not enough boys were available to play the parts. “We got a dollar per performance,” she recalls. “Then I used to stand at the stage door to watch the big ballerinas come out.”

A New Home for NBT
Come March, NBT will make its big move to The Smith Center and debut with a gala May 5 featuring a new as-yet-unrevealed production. Before the big splash, Gregory flexes her dancing prowess March 29 during “Words on Dance,” a conversation with Donald Williams from Phantom—The Las Vegas Spectacular, himself a former principal dancer with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. “It’s educational but fun,” she says, “and shows the joy of the dance that we both share.”

For NBT, Gregory represents a way to elevate dancers to a new level. “When you stop dancing, you still want to pass on what you know,” she says. In that light, she established The Cynthia Gregory Center for Coaching in conjunction with NBT to provide a permanent home for her work with dancers from all over the world. She also works as the chairman emeritus of Career Transition for Dancers, which helps retired dancers with the next phase of their lives. Considering most dancers’ careers end by the time they are 30 and many haven’t attended college, the organization provides a key role for performers making the transition, a familiar role for Gregory both professionally and personally with NBT.

The Nutcracker runs December 17 through 24 at NBT. 702-946-4567