Kenneth MacMillan biography

Obviously, as I have been almost totally immobile for the 2 weeks following my op, I have had to fill my time with various distractions, one of the obvious ones being reading and - at last - I have 'tackled' the Life of Kenneth Macmillan by Jann Parry. For one thing, I simply must finish it and return it to the person who lent it to me - I should have read it earlier, but it is so huge it was rather daunting and it cannot be carried around, especially since I cannot risk its becoming tatty.

I have read a little more than a quarter - it went pretty fast as the author writes well - and it has thrown up some intersting facts and themes. One is that Ninette de Valois - who we already knew helped to encourage and mentored KM - really took quite some trouble considering details of his new works, sometimes writing detailed letters of advice when they were apart. His early formation was almost totally unknown to me, as were the various twists and turns and different names for the 2nd company of the Royal Ballet in the 40's and 50's. I was entertained reading about Nora Kaye - she was quite a tough nut who seems invariably to have had an affair with the choreographer currently making a work for her ( or who she wanted to make her a ballet!)- these included Jerome Robbins, Roland Petit and K Macmillan. Then, once her interest in them waned, on she would go to the next 'victim'.
Margaret Hill was a great friend of KM. A dancer of great expressive ability, he made several roles for her, including the Girl in Solitaire. (Much later, in our 2nd year at the RBs, I was to dance that role (2nd cast) in one of our end of year shows, but ,unfortunately I now believe, I was taken on tour with the RB company instead. Mariona Linsey was the first cast- very lovely she was in it too. It is a beautiful role and I am sorry not to have had the chance to dance it publically).
The bio gives some sense of the choreographic and other influences on KM and others in the early part of his career as a choreographer and also describes the specific ballets well. More on that later as I progress through.
Meanwhile, I am on tenterhooks about my foot which had its first shower this morning since the op. I was quite nervous in view of last year's scar tearing experience, but I am doing everything I can to avoid that recurring this time..Today, the 2nd day since the foot has been much more exposed, I have been massaging E45 cream near the scar, have iced the foot several times and am not yet pulling and pushing the toe up and down. Much as I want to get on with the 'physio' aspect, it is not worth risking the possible consequent setback. The foot is very bruised and looks a bit gruesome - it is quite green or brown in many areas. I certainly felt the surgeon janking the foot like mad during the op - perhaps when the capsule was released? Also, the injections were a bit roughly done - even the fellow who has seen me for both post-op re-dressings remarked on that! However at the moment the scar is very neat.... I do hope and pray that I can get the foot through these next few days well, and then I will be able to start on the road to mechanical recovery. Patience, patience...