Marcia Haydée Salaverry Pereira da Silva (born 18 April 1937) is a Brazilian ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director. She was prima ballerina of the Stuttgart Ballet under John Cranko and succeeded him as the company's director, serving from 1976 to 1995. She has been director of the Santiago Ballet since 1992.
I gave myself to Cranko almost like a virgin: fresh, unformed. Now dancers want to be great in their own right and for their own persona. They don't want to lend themselves as creative vehicles, or be molded by another's inspiration.[2]
A frequent dance partner in Stuttgart was for 30 years Richard Cragun, beginning with Romeo and Juliet.[3] Her performance as Kate received a review in The Times:
It is difficult to believe that Marcia Haydée never played comedy before. She absolutely is the Shrew. As she prepares to pounce (elbows going back, shoulders forward and knees slightly bending) the trepidation of her intended victim is understandable ... Haydée matches him in speed and brilliance, and the duet when they finally admit their love is full of incredibly difficult (but so smoothly done) Bolshoi-style lifts, throws and catches.[4]
Haydée appeared in several films, documentations of her work as well as filmed ballet. She appeared in the dance film Die Kameliendame, directed by John Neumeier and produced by the NDR in 1986–87.[6] She took part in the film Golgotha, filmed in Germany and Bulgaria from 1992 to 1994, directed by Mikhail Pandoursky.[7] She played in the 2000–02 German literary film Poem – Ich setzte den Fuß in die Luft und sie trug [de], directed by Ralf Schmerberg. Jean Christophe Blavier, her partner in ballet for many years, produced in 2006 a documentary DVDM. for Marcia. Marcia Haydée – die Tanzlegende des 20. Jahrhunderts. ( ... the dance legend of the 20th century). He produced the documentary Marcia Haydée – Das Schönste kommt noch! (The best is still to come!) in 2007, first broadcast by 3sat on 15 December 2007.[8]
She published John Cranko (with an introduction by Walter Erich Schäfer) in 1973[9] and Mein Leben für den Tanz (My life for the dance) in 1996.[10]
Cornelia Stilling-Andreoli: Marcia Haydée – Divine. Fotografien von Gundel Kilian, Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 2005, 216 pp. ISBN3-89487-504-6
Felipe J. Alcoceba und Brigitte Schneider: Dance & dancers Stuttgart Ballet. Edition Braus, Heidelberg 1997 Catalogue of an exhibition at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in collaboration with the Stuttgarter Ballett for the Stuttgart Ballet Festival: Hommage à John Cranko and the project TanzRegion of the cultural region Stuttgart 1997), ISBN3-89466-205-0
Hannes Kilian, Heinz-Ludwig Schneiders, Horst Koegler, John Percival: Marcia Haydee. Porträt einer großen Tänzerin. Thorbecke Verlag, Sigmaringen 1975, ISBN3-7995-2002-3