Gelsey Kirkland

Innocent-looking, girlish and pretty, this diminutive and emotional legendary ballerina has had more drama in her real-life than there ever was onstage. While she was called by Mikhail Baryshnikov, himself, "the best of her generation", she was probably more famous for her raging cocaine addiction and off-stage behavior. Daughter of playwright Jack Kirkland, she grew up with a destiny for the theatre. Her father put her and her sister, Johnna Kirkland, into ballet classes. Gelsey was slow to learn, her sister's body was more equipped -- feet, body shape, limbs and all. But Gelsey wasn't about to be stopped. She put everything she had and more into the dance. Soon, Gelsey and Johnna were admitted into the famed School of American Ballet. She became a personal favorite of George Balanchine, who choreographed the piece, "Firebird", for her. She idolized him and made him out to be a kind of father figure. But she was crushed when he belittled her ballet idols, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot F