“Over the last 15 years I’ve seen the design elements of the Gaynor Minden pointe shoe greatly improved to meet the demands of training and performing for today’s dancers. It’s exciting to see that the Gaynor Minden shoe not only enhances a beautiful line to the leg, but is equally designed to ensure the dancer’s foot is protected and safe. The Gaynor Minden shoe allows the dancer to tombé or “fall” off pointe easily, a transitional movement quality that is so important in Mr. Balanchine’s and Mr. Robbins’ ballets and in the most up-to-date choreography of our time. I also appreciate that Gaynor Minden offers so many choices of flexibility and durability appropriate to each dancer’s foot.”
-Bart Cook, September 2010
As a Principal Dancer at New York City Ballet, Bart Cook was among the foremost interpreters of Balanchine neo-classicism. His extensive repertory included leading roles in the original casts of some of Balanchine’s greatest “black and white” abstract ballets; he also originated major roles in works by Jerome Robbins to whom he became Assistant Ballet Master. He is now a choreographer, a master teacher and coach, a repetiteur for The Balanchine Trust and The Robbins Rights Trust, and co-director of Caleco Ballet Studio.
Photo of Bart Cook courtesy of Steven Caras, 2010. Bart Cook in Agon, choreography by George Balanchine Balanchine® is a Trademark of The George Balanchine Trust.
