Synchronism. In birth, in dance, in separation: together until the last second, mutually agreed, no matter how much was discussed and finally prepared thoroughly. So, in unison and with methodical organization, the twins Alice and Ellen Kessler left, “German feet” but also a little of Italy, the country that adopted them in 1961, when the legendary choreographer Don Lurio noticed them – very blonde, very tall, identical – on the stage of the Lido in Paris.
Both women were 89 years old: they were found dead yesterday at around 12 o’clock by the police. Each in their own apartment, two adjacent houses, separated only by a sliding wall, in the town of Grünwald, a suburb of Munich, where they have lived since 1986.
DECLARATION
“Assisted suicide” may have been the cause of their deaths, as confirmed by contacts the two women had been in contact with for some time to prepare for their final goodbye. In Italy, in television circles, they call them “two German soldiers”, because of the precision, punctuality and organizational abilities that make their mirror ballet a masterpiece of perfection. Perhaps it was inevitable that they would go together. And they will do it by planning it in detail.
But the synchronism, which became their trademark and made them rich on TV (“We have become sex symbols for our feet and synchronism. Now all you need is big breasts and a calendar, no effort”, they recalled twenty years ago) has deep and painful roots.
She was immersed in a difficult childhood in Nerchau, Saxony (then the German Democratic Republic), where at the age of 6 Alice and Ellen began attending dance school under their father. One brother died of jaundice, another of typhus, the father drank. And he often beat his wife Elsa: “The fear of her intense anger and the feeling of not being able to depend on anyone else created an eternal bond between us”, they recalled. “Our attachment is a survival instinct.”
THE DIFFERENCE
Identical in everything except character: Ellen is more active and aggressive: “I am the machine.” Alice is more rational, her «brake». At the age of 18 they fled communist Germany to pursue a career as dancers at the Palladium in Düsseldorf, but their luck came between 1955 and 1960, when, while performing at the Lido in Paris with the Bluebell Girls dance troupe, they were discovered by Don Lurio. And immediately transported to Italy.
BALLET
In 1961 they made their debut in the show Giardino d’inverno, directed by Antonello Falqui, and it immediately became love: a few months later they were in the cast of Studio Uno, with the ballet Da-da-un-pa that went straight into history (“When we danced together, I reached their hips”, recalls Rita Pavone). One hundred and five centimeter legs, a vulgar sensuality that everyone loved (except the RAI censors, who covered those legs with black stockings): cinema also claimed them, with Mario Bava and Dino Risi, and even the busy Brecht theater. In the sixties, TV was crazy about them: Studio Uno again (La notte è piccolo was their success), then Canzonissima with Johnny Dorelli and Raimondo Vianello (Dorelli: «Addolorato, they were friends»). The peak came in the seventies, Milleluci 1974 with rising stars Raffaella Carrà and Mina, after which the two sisters began to appear less frequently. In 1986 he returned to Germany: his last performances in Italy were in 2011 with the musical Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and in 2014 at the Sanremo Fazio Festival, and in Germany with the series Tatort. The world of entertainment was shaken: «They regretted that in Italy they were always called to do Da-da-un-pa, while in Germany they did cabaret with a capital K», recalls Loretta Goggi. And Mara Venier: «Recently they told me that one of the two is not well. And this makes you think about their sad epilogue.”
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