Watch and be amazed: Joyce Cuoco shows off her phenomenal technique in The Flames of Paris pas de deux
Ballerina Joyce Cuoco was famous for her astounding technique. Her long balances, multiple pirouettes and changes of spot can be seen in this new YouTube video clip. While she’s maybe not the most elegant ballerina the world has ever seen, what she does is certainly extraordinary.
Cuoco was born in 1953, and at the age of 13 appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show as a ‘baby ballerina’. She was always something of a phenomenon for her improbable technical feats which even led her to headlining at Radio City Music Hall in New York, but she was also a serious artist and later became a soloist with the Stuttgart Ballet.
This clip is from a 1988 gala performance of The Flames of Paris pas de deux.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
