Iestyn Edwards is a stage and TV writer/performer, published poet and journalist, best known for character Madame Galina, the Prima Ballerina, who most recently has entertained troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Edwards trained at Southwark Cathedral, London, where he was awarded the Hammerstein Chantership, a medal donated by the widow of Oscar Hammerstein II. He also trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he first played Madame Galina during Rag Week. [1] Seasons followed with British Youth Opera as well as recitals at Southwark Cathedral, Loseley Hall and the Chelsea Arts Club. He held a singing tutorship at the Guildford School of Acting until he performed as Madame Galina at a private party at the Thorpeness Country Club and was spotted by club booker Emily Latham, who arranged for him to audition for Club Kabaret in the West End. [1] Within a week he was onstage in front of Madonna, Jude Law and Kate Moss. [1] Chance sightings of Madame Galina shows by various producers led to Edwards being showcased by Chrysalis TV, winning Busker Of The Year, [1] and to The Big Breakfast covering his first Edinburgh Festival in 2001. He has been touring theatres ever since in Anything For A Tenor, Madame Galina Ballet Star Galactica/The New Forces' Sweetheart and Along Came Bill.
Edwards was featured by Ruby Wax in her BBC Three series Ruby Does The Business, and profiled by Artsworld and in Channel 4's All Sorts, his main TV credit is Madame Galina's Whirlwind Guide To Ballet, also Channel 4, a tie in with the four-part Rough Guide To Choreography, made by Sceptre Productions for Channel 4 and featuring George Piper Dances. [1] His entry in the Rough Guide ToChoreography book describes Madame Galina thus: "This oversized mock-Russian ballerina fabricates lovingly tart send-ups of classical technique, diva-style celebrity and all the attendant pretensions".
On Trafalgar Day 2005, he was asked by Admiral Sir Alan West, First Sea Lord, to sing in the Great Cabin of HMS Victory in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen. [2] This brought him to the attention of Combined Services Entertainment, who took him out to Iraq and Afghanistan to entertain troops as Madame Galina in 2006. [3] [4] These tours were featured in The Times and the Mail On Sunday; and Woman's Hour, Radio 4, featured Madame Galina in a programme tracing the history of the Forces sweetheart. [3]
Edwards' autobiographical play Along Came Bill won a retrospective award at the Bath Festival in 2003.
Libby Purves writing in The Times in 2006 described Edwards's work as a synthesis of art and larkiness, Cirque du Soleil talent scout Waltidor saw Galina as a modern take on the white face circus clown, and author Robert Mawson believes that Edwards suffers from the classic Cinderella Complex and is working this out in his writing and performing.
Anna Pavlovna Pavlova was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating the role of The Dying Swan and, with her own company, being the first ballerina to tour the world, including South America, India, Mexico and Australia.
Oklahoma! is the first musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in farm country outside the town of Claremore, Indian Territory, in 1906, it tells the story of farm girl Laurey Williams and her courtship by two rival suitors, cowboy Curly McLain and the sinister and frightening farmhand Jud Fry. A secondary romance concerns cowboy Will Parker and his flirtatious fiancée, Ado Annie.
The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed Forces and their families. Since 1941, it has worked in partnership with the Department of War, and later with the Department of Defense (DoD), relying heavily on private contributions and on funds, goods, and services from various corporate and individual donors. Although it is congressionally chartered, it is not a government agency.
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Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress. In post-Soviet times, she held both Lithuanian and Spanish citizenship. She danced during the Soviet era at the Bolshoi Theatre under the directorships of Leonid Lavrovsky, then of Yury Grigorovich; later she moved into direct confrontation with him. In 1960, when famed Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova retired, Plisetskaya became prima ballerina assoluta of the company.
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Ekaterina Sergeyevna Maximova was a Soviet and Russian ballerina of the second part of the 20th century who was internationally recognised. She was a prima ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre for 30 years, a ballet pedagogue, winner of international ballet competitions, Laureate of many prestigious International and Russian awards, a professor in GITIS, Honorary professor at the Moscow State University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, and an Executive Committee member of the Russian Center of Counseil International De La Danse, UNESCO.
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