Richard Cragun
| Richard Cragun | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
5 October 1944 Sacramento, California, United States |
| Died | 6 August 2012 (aged 67) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Cause of death | Seizure |
| Education |
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| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1962–2012 |
| Known for | Stuttgart Ballet |
| Partner(s) | Roberto de Oliveira (1998–2012 (Cragun's death)) |
Richard Cragun (5 October 1944 – 6 August 2012) was an American ballet dancer who rose to international fame with the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany. He has been called a "prince of the ballet world" and "one of the most important dancers of the twentieth century."
Richard Alan Cragun was born in Sacramento, the state capital of California. One of three sons in a family where academic achievement was prized, he was obsessed with music and dance from his earliest years. As a boy of 5, he began taking tap dance lessons from Jean Lucille in his hometown. A few years later, he decided to make dancing his profession after his father, a college librarian, took him to see Singin' in the Rain (1952), a Hollywood film musical. Donald O'Connor, one of the stars of the film, became his "first, absolute idol." Inspired to emulate O'Connor's lyrical, balletic style of tap dancing, Cragun took up ballet classes with Barbara Briggs, soon showing talent for classical dance. As a teenager, having begun to realize the expressive possibilities of ballet, he persuaded his parents to let him accept a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts in Alberta, Canada, an internationally recognized center of creativity in the visual and performing arts. After a period of study there with Betty Farraly and Gweneth Lloyd, he was seen by visiting Royal Ballet star Alexander Grant, who suggested that he apply to the Royal Ballet School in London. During the year that he spent there, his teachers were Errol Addison and Harold Turner. At age 17, Cragun went to Copenhagen, Denmark, to continue training in private classes with Vera Volkova, who was responsible for polishing his remarkable classical technique.
In 1962, Volkova recommended Cragun to John Cranko, director of the Stuttgart Ballet in Germany, who engaged him, sight unseen, as a member of his corps de ballet. Barely 18 years old, Cragun took his first steps in a rapid rise toward stardom. In 1965, soon after his appointment as principal dancer, he began his legendary partnership with Marcia Haydée, a Brazilian dancer of marked dramatic ability. A big, handsome man, with a powerful physique, Cragun was a dancer of dazzling virtuosity and distinct virility, a perfect foil for the brilliant technique and delicate femininity of Haydée. The two of them had great success with German audiences in a wide range of works in the Stuttgart repertory, from the classical purity of Swan Lake to the passionate romanticism of Onegin to the rambunctious humor of The Taming of the Shrew. Their professional partnership endured for more than thirty years, from 1965 until Cragun's retirement in 1996, making it one of the longest lasting in ballet history.
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