Kirsten Long
Actor, Choreographer
Kirsten Long joined the Tucson Community Ballet at the age of 15 when her professional dance career began, by then she had been teaching dance to children for 3 years starting within the Tucson Unified School District, the YWCA, and for her ballet company's conservatory. While a Junior in high school Kirsten made her mark in local television when she choreographed the acclaimed Hat & Cane Dance number for the long running hit commercial Call For Larry. Soon after she headed off to New York City, having graduated high school early and with honors, and studied on a full scholarship with the Joffrey ballet school; at the age of 17 she began landing positions dancing as a Principal and Soloist with such companies as the Garden State Ballet, New York Theater Ballet, Manhattan Festival Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, and at New York City's Lincoln Center with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, as well as making guest appearances as Sugar Plum Fairy in upstate New York productions of the Nutcracker, the principal dancer in Ronald Sequoio's Coriscari with the West Virginia Ballet, and other NYC metropolitan area folk & modern dance companies, as well as gigs from Clowning to the Can Can Dancing! Kirsten is known as The Girl In Lavender in the PBS television production of Ballet Ruse in Peter Anastos' Yes Virginia, Another Piano Ballet where she gracefully and famously gets shoved under the piano by her debonair partner just before dancing her mad solo. Other roles during her 25 year dance career included Pirouette in the international touring production of Pierrot & Pirouette; Madison Square Garden and Alice Tully Hall guest appearances with NYC's Ukrainian folk Dancers; the modern dance solo Triptych created on her by Ana Sokolow; the Assistant to Casey the Chimp; role of Wife in Forgotten Memories; dances in Franco Zeffirelli's Turandot and Hal Prince's Faust, choreographed by Jillian Lynn, with The Metropolitan Opera Ballet at Lincoln Center; an exotic performing career in over a dozen clubs throughout the southwestern United States, and a ballet dancer in the movie Brain Donors directed by Dennis Dugan, starring John Tuturro and Mel Smith for Paramount Pictures. Reviews: "...just the right resonance...mix of mystery, lyricism and dignity by Kirsten Long." The New York Times; "...smooth, resilient, uninsistent..." Village Voice. Kirsten continued her 20 year teaching career throughout the New York City metropolitan area, taught workshops in upstate New York, on tour in the eastern United States, St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and Meherazad, India, and eventually formed and ran her own school of dance & fitness, Movement Longevity in southern New Mexico where many of her students crossed the border of Mexico to attend classes and perform in recitals.
Film credits include various television shows, commercials and such movies as Tank Girl directed by Rachel Talaly for United Artists and Boys On The Side directed by Herbert Ross for Warner Brothers; stage credits include the principal role of Carmela in The Store: One Block East Of Jerome and the role of Lust in Daughter Of The Flood, and her Best Actress Award winning role of Bunny in The Future Of The Female. Kirsten's recent appearance was in the Son of Semele Ensemble 365 Plays In 365 Days Festival by Suzan-Lori Parks in the role of The Witness; she also co-choreographed the productions play First Beginning. Reviews: "Excellent with gifted acting...especially noteworthy for her ability to convey outrageously inappropriate emotion perfectly." The Star-Gazette; "...good, gritty strip-monologue executed by Kirsten Long..." San Francisco Chronicle.
Currently Kirsten coaches and is creating a program to teach sensual movement, is a member of Career Transitions For Dancers in Los Angeles and New York City, has created a line of dolls - Ladies Of Light, and her photographed image, from her modeling days, as the Ballerina in tutu still appears in The New York Times ads, on CD covers, and in editorials & brochures across the nation. Her past time consists of cartooning, from which she built a portfolio when attending cartoon illustration classes at Pratt Manhattan. Kirsten expresses gratitude to all the Greats who taught, coached and mentored her along the way: Fran Cohen, Stephanie Stigers, Mr. & Mrs. Richard France, Vincent Paterson, Bella Lewitsky, Joe Tremaine, Richard Thomas, Ernie Pagnano, Sallie Wilson, James Debolt, Janet Paneta, Margaret Craske, Albert Tavares, Chris Cassell, Herbert Bergohf, and George Zoritch!
