Lauri Stallings & Rosa 'Darcey Bussell' - 14 August 2024

I began to photograph dance (modern and ballet) in 1991. Since then many spectacular dancers have faced my camera.

English Rose Rosa ‘Darcey Bussell’ is one of my two best red roses. She is named after the retired English ballerina of that name.

When I saw the unopened perfection of the rose today, I knew that there was only one dancer in my large collection of dancers that would equate to perfection. She is Florida-born Lauri Stallings. She danced for Ballet BC for many years until she moved to Atlanta where she started her own dance company.

Such was her style, different to all other dancers in Ballet BC, that I could watch just her ankles to her dance shoes and I knew she was the one dancing.

There is one singular performance of hers that happened on January 22, 1988. It was in Serge Bennathan's In and Around Kozla Street. She danced with the electrifying Miroslav Zydowicz. As I watched them dance, they twirled around and around - their lips seemingly glued together - I asked Rosemary how long she thought the kiss was and, I had a revelation, which I whispered to her: "Ballet is about sex." She hushed me, pointing out that Stallings' boyfriend, Rick Carvlin, was sitting next to us. He had heard me. "They kiss for one minute and 58 seconds," he said. "I have timed them before." 

Lauri Stallings,perfection in red hair to match with her fiery passion that of my Rosa 'Darcey Bussell''