Dancing from the Heart: A Memoir

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. She is the
author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

Sometimes Frank Augustyn would introduce himself as the man who stood
behind Karen Kain. The wry remark about the famous dancing partnership
is typical of Augustyn’s quiet humor, which surfaces frequently in
this very readable memoir of his days at the National Ballet of Canada
and beyond.

In 1965, when he joined the National Ballet School, 12-year-old Frank
was the only boy in his class. Entering a world dominated by
females—including Betty Oliphant at the school, Celia Franca at the
company, and all the ballerinas with whom he would dance—he had many
problems ahead of him. He would have to deal with society’s concept of
a male in the dance world, the disapproval of his father, and the male
role in many ballets that entailed simply lifting the woman. In his
later concern for his own development as an individual dancer and as a
partner, he took time out in 1980 for some contemporary dance in Berlin;
he did so because one of his roles at the National was basically that of
a forklift truck.

Familiar names are part of his story. He worked with many great
ballerinas, and he developed a friendship with Rudolf Nureyev when the
famous Russian worked with the National Ballet. Augustyn expresses his
opinion of them all in words that seem fair but do not shirk unpleasant
truths, some of which he airs in his funny but pertinent Rules for
Ballerinas. One rule is not to announce your pregnancy five minutes
before a performance. (Yes, it happened.) This, he explains, will save
your partner an anxiety attack.

He calls a successful dance partnership “the most valuable prize of
all.” He should know. He partnered all the leading ballerinas at the
National and many elsewhere, but mostly he partnered Karen Kain; for
seven years they were known as The Gold Dust Twins. His description of
their work together is a fascinating insight into the workings of a
partnership, and his eloquent passages on their best performances
together are a moving portrayal of the art.