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Manola Asensio (born 1943 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is a former Swiss ballet dancer. She was born to a Swiss father and an English-born mother. In 1956 she began studying at the ballet school ofLa Scala in Milan, where she stayed until she became a professional in 1964. After a short season with theLa Scala Theatre Ballet, she joined the ballet of theGrand Théâtre de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland where she was directed by Janine Charrat.
In 1966 she joinedHet Nationale Ballet of the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, as a soloist. There she danced important roles inGiselle,The Sleeping Beauty,Swan Lake, and in the balletKing Christian II, created especially for her by Danish choreographerHarald Lander. With the Dutch company she toured extensively in Europe (France, UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal) and South America (Brazil, Argentina, Perú, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico).[1]
From 1968 to 1970 she joined withNew York City Ballet, by invitation of its directorGeorge Balanchine, She danced successfully the main roles inApollo,The Four Temperaments andSymphony in C. From 1971 to 1974 she was invited to be principal dancer with theHarkness Ballet, directed byRebekah Harkness. With them she toured with immense success in the United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, England, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
In 1974 DameBeryl Grey invited her to join theLondon Festival Ballet (LFB) asdanseuse étoile. With this company she danced most of the ballets of the classical repertoire, such asThe Sleeping Beauty,Romeo and Juliet,Giselle (where she excelled in the role of theQueen of the Wilis) choreographed byMary Skeaping,Swan Lake,Raymonda,Les Sylphides,Paquita,La Bayadère,Ronald Hynd'sThe Sanguine Fan,The Seasons andThe Nutcracker,Le Corsairepas de deux, and also in neoclassical ballets asGlen Tetley'sThe Sphynx and Ben Stevenson'sThree Preludes. They toured China (Peking, Shanghai) being the first Western company to perform in Mao's China. In 1981 she dancedThree Preludes in Brussels'Théâtre de la Monnaie in a gala performance with several dancers ofBéjart Ballet du XXè siècle, in the presence ofQueen Fabiola of Belgium andPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
From 1975 to 1983 she successfully danced withRudolf Nureyev, inScheherazade at theMetropolitan Opera House in New York,The Sleeping Beauty at theLondon Coliseum, at several galas and performances of "Nureyev and Friends in Salzburg, Paris, Santander, Madrid (in the presence of theKing and Queen of Spain) and London. In 1976, she danced with immense success "The Golden Cockrel*chor.[clarification needed] Beriozoff. with a 15minute standing ovation at the London Coliseum. In 1980 she successfully toured the USSR for a month by invitation of Swiss dancer Hans Meister. Asensio was hailed as "the WesternPlisetskaya" by Russian critics.
In 1986 Asensio danced her farewell performance as the Queen of the Wilis inGiselle at the London Coliseum. Then in 1987 she received two teaching diplomas from theImperial Society of Teachers of Dancing in London. She was a jury member of thePrix de Lausanne in 1990, in Lausanne and Tokyo. She dedicated the next 20 years to teaching (in her own schools in Córdoba, Spain, and at the Théâtre Municipal in Lausanne, Switzerland), and to research, to production of ballets, music and theatre performances within the structure of the Helios Foundation, which she and her husband created. She gave training courses to dance teachers in the dance conservatories of Cordoba and Seville, she created the choreography for the Cordoba Gran Teatro production ofGluck's operaOrfeo ed Euridice. Asensio was decorated by the Cordoba Ateneo and the regional government of Andalusia for her contributions to culture. Asensio was the first international Swiss dancer of the 20th century and one of the five greatest ballerinas of the 20th.century.
Her portrait with DameBeryl Grey is in theNational Portrait Gallery[2]
