Alexandra Tomalonis

[Jane S]

With deep regret I pass on the news that Alexandra died in her sleep yesterday. She had been in failing health for a long time and had been moved to a nursing facility a few weeks ago.

 

Alexandra will probably be best known in this community for her work in founding the website BalletAlert, closely modelled on Bruce Marriottt's ballet.co but based in the USA and focused mainly on the ballet scene over there. She handed over the management to a younger team years ago but it still runs and her own contributions can still be read there.

 

She lived in Washington, and wrote dance criticism for the Washington Post for many years. She  taught ballet history at the Kirov Academy there  - I remember her joy when she had a partricularly receptive class or a pupil who 'got' Fonteyn, and she would keep me up to date about ex-pupils heading for Europe so that I knew, for instance, to keep a lookout for a boy called Mathias Dingman. She also  founded the magazine Dance Vew, and ran it single-handed for around 20 years till the cost and the effort involved got too much for her.

 

She was a passionate and knowledgeable follower of the Royal Danish Ballet  she wrote a long biography of Henning Kronstam  but above all she cared deeply about Bournonville and his legacy - she was highly critical of how his work was being cared for - or not - in the 1990s and wrote a series of scathing articles for Dance Now under the heading 'Bournonville in Hell'!

 

I owe Alexandra a great deal - she gave me my first opportunity to write, giving me a London Letter spot in Dance View with a completely free hand to cover whatever I liked. We only actually  met once, appropriately enough in Copenhagen at the Bournonville Week in 2000, but for years she would phone me on Sunday afternoons every few weeks and we would spend an hour or so putting the ballet world to rights. I learned so much from her.

 

One of her closest friends is hoping to organise a memorial service for her.

 

A long article about her here

Edited April 9, 2023 by Jane S

[Jan McNulty]

Such sad news Jane.  RIP

[Emeralds]

Oh no...what sad news. 😢 I remember her wonderful articles and reviews in various American publications-she was insightful, informative and wrote with such an appreciation for the art of dance. Also glad to hear she spotted Mathias Dingman’s talent when he was young - he has certainly fulfilled the promise she saw. A great loss to the world of good journalism and insightful writing.  My condolences to you, Jane S, and to all her loved ones. May she rest in peace. 

[Jeannette]

Sad news. May she Rest In Peace. 

[ibrown]

Jane, thank you for passing on this news. I agree with you that Alexandra was a true and loving friend to ballet, and particularly of interest to British dancegoers because she so loved the “English” school - which isn’t so common in the US despite the cultural kinship. Her Kronstam biog and Bournonville expertise are essential sources and though I never met her or had your contact I very much share your sense that she was vital in the chain of passing on nuances, tastes and knowledge. Condolences to her friends and family. Ismene 

[Bruce]

Thank you Jane, and Alexandra's death came as sad news indeed.

 

In the early days of Balletco, back in the 1990s, I had regular contact with Alexandra and she was always thoughtful and supportive. We came from very different backgrounds - I was the fan looking to give the audience/fans a place to strut their stuff about what they were seeing and she an established, pukka, critic wanting to widen the love of ballet. But we faced common problems in trying to run forums and publish things in a world where so much is free (no change there!) and privately swapped ideas and war stories.

 

We met once, when I was in Washington DC on other business - she suggested a local restaurant and, both of us being physically large, I thought we must have appeared a very odd couple, talking animatedly about ballet and its sylph-like world. Certainly nobody would have asked us if we were former dancers...

 

Alexandra was not big on PR for herself or her endeavours - social media was notably shunned. All her effort went into getting good words out there and she had a wonderful roster of dance writers over the years at danceviewtimes (https://danceviewtimes.typepad.com). The need to get good criticism out there was a view I came to understand and share and her loss is a loss of quietly important leadership and emphasis on thoughtful coverage of the art we all love. She will be missed, but wherever she is now I'm sure she will be making it a better place for all