Tag: Wendy Whelan

Wendy & Pauline

(Imported from Oberon’s Grove, a 2007 story of one of my most memorable days as a blogger: a chance meeting with New York City Ballet’s Wendy Whelan and Pauline Golbin)

This was my big opportunity as a blogger: having Wendy Whelan and Pauline Golbin and my camera all in the same place at the same time. To be honest, I almost always have my camera with me but I rarely work up the nerve to ask any of the dancers if I can take their picture. However, it was such a gorgeous day (6/23/07) and the girls were in such a great mood that I said ‘what the heck’ and asked them. I just love the results, if I do say so myself. And I will tell you that these two dancers have an awful lot to do with not only my devotion to NYC Ballet but the way I have come to watch the Company.

After going to NYCB pretty often in the late 1970s, I sort of wavered; I was really into opera, and whenever I would come down to NYC from Hartford, opera was my main priority. It’s too bad because every time I did squeeze in a visit to the State Theatre I just loved it. I missed entire careers there, and dancers I really admired came & went without me being aware of it.

In 1996 I was dating a Japanese guy named Toshi who lived on the East Side; he was a textile designer with an incredible eye. One night on a whim, I took him to NYC Ballet. Walking home across Central Park, I asked him if any of the dancers had made an impression. “Wendy Whelan. Can’t you see she is on a whole other level from the other dancers?” I had seen her dance a few times and always really liked her. So we started going pretty frequently and I realized he was right. There seemed to be something almost profound about everything she did – not profound in a weighty sense but in a way of making you feel and think about what she was doing as being more than just dancing.

After I moved here in 1998 there was a season when most of the principal ballerinas were either sick, injured, or pregnant. Wendy, along with Yvonne Borree and Miranda Weese, was carrying the whole season and since there were lots of ballets that Yvonne & Miranda didn’t do, Wendy ended up dancing at literally every performance, and often two – and sometimes three – ballets a night. Far from getting tired of her or craving a different face and body, I became addicted. Wei and I went more and more frequently, just to see what she would do. We fell under her spell. Going so often simply became a habit, and when the other ballerinas rejoined the ranks we found that Wendy had managed to get us hooked on the whole scene.

It was Pauline Golbin who turned me into a corps-watcher. And again it was Toshi who noticed her. I must say that until 1996 I didn’t pay much attention to the corps. I knew they were there and that Mr B had given them plenty to do on any given night, but I couldn’t tell one bun-head from the next, and the boys I hardly ever even noticed. So after one piece, Toshi asked me: “Who is that girl with the black hair and the wonderful smile?” Hmmmm, well there’s about a dozen of ’em onstage; I couldn’t answer his question. We came out the side doors and this very girl dashed past us in a striking coat, scarf, and hat.”That’s her! So chic!!” said Toshi. So next time we went we started looking for her; it became a ritual to find this girl onstage. Then, during an intermission, we scanned thru the season booklet and found her: Pauline Golbin.

By watching for Pauline, I started to notice how demanding the corps work was at NYCB, and that they weren’t just a mass of anonymous bodies but beautiful/handsome people who were doing amazing things. I began matching names to faces and hoping to see certain dancers get some of the featured roles. I began watching the corps much more intensely, and it really gave the performances a whole other dimension. There have been many nights when I have gone to a performance just because someone from the corps that I like had landed a solo. Of course, I love to see them get promoted though I realize not everyone can be a soloist. Though many of them should be.

Pauline is famous for her hats, and I said something about it…and she reached into her bag and pulled one out. In the book ROUND ABOUT THE BALLET, Wendy was asked: “Is there anything people don’t know about you that you’d like them to know?” and she replied: “I’m a funny person! I think I come across as so serious in ballets. But I’m a pretty silly girl. I don’t know if people realize that.” So it didn’t surprise me when she started cutting up and trying to get under Pauline’s hat.

As they strolled into the theatre, I really felt like I’d truly been in the right place at the right time.

September 2, 2025
NYCB Flashback ~ Wendy Whelan’s Farewell

(Bringing this 2014 article forward from the Grove to celebrate the one-and-only Wendy Whelan.)

Above: Wendy Whelan, photographed by Matt Murphy

Saturday October 18th, 2014 – No two ballerina farewells are ever alike. Darci Kistler’s farewell marked the end of an era, as she was considered “the last Balanchine ballerina”. At Heléne Alexopoulos’ gala we celebrated one of the greatest beauties ever to grace the stage. Yvonne Borree’s farewell was the most touching, Kyra Nichols’ the most moving. I missed the farewells of Jenifer Ringer and Janie Taylor, saying ‘goodbye’ to them in the days prior to their final bows, simply because I couldn’t imagine NYCB without them. Miranda Weese wasn’t given the full farewell treatment as she wasn’t retiring, just changing companies. I missed her even before she was gone, and I still miss her.

Tonight, Wendy Whelan’s farewell summoned up an enormous range of emotions, just as her dancing has always done. The programme was well-chosen to underscore her association with four great choreographers, including a complete performance of one of her signature ballets, Balanchine’s LA SONNAMBULA, excerpts from works by Jerome Robbins, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon, plus a special pièce d’occasion: a new pas de trois devised for Wendy, Tyler Angle, and Craig Hall in a choreographic collaboration of Chris Wheeldon and Alexei Ratmansky.

Daniel Capps was on the podium for the opening SONNAMBULA and the concluding Vivaldi/Richter setting for the premiere of BY 2 WITH & FROM; Andrews Sill led the Shostakovich score for CONCERTO DSCH. Throughout the evening, Company musicians were featured: pianist Cameron Grant playing the Chopin for GATHERING; Susan Walters at the keyboard for CONCERTO DSCH; violinist Arturo Delmoni with Cameron Grant for AFTER THE RAIN; and violinist Kurt Nikkanen for the Vivaldi/Richter. For each of them, Wendy had a very cordial greeting, and at the end of the evening she stepped to the edge of the stage and swept into a deep curtsey to thank the NYCB orchestra for their invaluable support throughout her career. That was a particularly lovely moment.

The emotional temperature ran high all evening; in fact several people I talked to spoke of how they had experienced unusual mood swings from giddiness to despair throughout the day, anticipating Wendy’s dancing whilst regretting that it would be her last time on this stage.

Following LA SONNAMBULA‘s opening scene and divertissements, Wendy appeared to the first ovation of the night. She conveyed the mystery of the sleepwalker with her pin-pointe bourrées; in a trance, she managed to totally ignore Robert Fairchild’s endless attempts to intrude on her private world. Earlier in the work, Sara Mearns, Amar Ramasar, Likolani Brown, Megan Mann, Devin Alberda, David Prottas, Lauren King, Antonio Carmena, and Daniel Ulbricht were all vividly present, and they joined in the applause for Wendy during the bows.

In the DANCES AT A GATHERING excerpt, Wendy joined Abi Stafford and Rebecca Krohn in dances of sisterly joy; Jared Angle, Adrian Danchig-Waring and Zachary Catazaro were the handsome cavaliers. In the passage where the girls are flung from one boy to the next, Zachary made an amazing catch of Wendy as she hurtled thru the air into his arms.

It was that poignant piano theme in Shostakovich’s concerto #2 – played with great clarity by Susan Walters – that really put me over the edge. Wendy and Tyler Angle danced the adagio from CONCERTO DSCH luminously, with such expressive lyricism. A beautiful sextette of supporting dancers conveyed the quiet intensity of the little vignette Ratmansky has created for them here: Alina Dronova, Gretchen Smith, Lydia Wellington, Joshua Thew, Justin Peck, and our newly-promoted-to-soloist Russell Janzen. How thrilled they all must have been to share these moments with Wendy one last time.

Wendy and Craig Hall then danced the pas de deux from Wheeldon’s AFTER THE RAIN, holding the audience in an enraptured state as the crystalline purity of the Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ stole thru the silent hall in all its poignant grace. It seemed that time stood still here, allowing us to immerse ourselves in the spell-binding artistry of these immaculate dancers.

In between the three above-listed shorter works, brief films were shown while Wendy changed costumes. In these films, the ballerina I have had the honor to know revealed so many facets of her personality. In one utterly Wendy moment, she played up the mock-jealousy of finding Craig Hall emerging from a rehearsal with ‘another woman’: Rebecca Krohn. That made me laugh out loud.

And all to soon, we had reached the end. The Ratmansky/Wheeldon collaboration provided an excellent setting for Wendy’s last dance on Mr. B’s stage. With her two princes – Tyler Angle and Craig Hall – she conveyed the supple strength, tenderness, gentle wit, and sheer overwhelming beauty that have made her one of the great dance icons of our time. The ballet ends with Wendy reaching for the stars.

At a farewell, the actual dancing often takes a back-seat to the event. The ballerina appears in selections from her cherished roles and as we savor her artistry one last time while secretly we are looking forward to the downpour of rose petals, the flinging of bouquets, the embraces of colleagues, the inevitable “last bow”, and the opportunity to express our admiration in unbridled clapping and shouting.

For Wendy, the huge ovation at the end signified not only our appreciation for all she has accomplished in her magical career to date, but also our plain unvarnished love for her as a human being.

As the applause at long last echoed away, I started walking up Broadway, planning to attend the after-party. But then I just felt a need for solitude and reverie, so I jumped on the train at 72nd Street and came home. I was thinking yet again that it has been my great good fortune to have been in this City at the same time as Wendy Whelan.

LA SONNAMBULA: Whelan, R. Fairchild, Mearns, Ramasar, Mann, Brown, Alberda, Prottas, King, Carmena, Ulbricht

DANCES AT A GATHERING (Excerpt): A. Stafford, Whelan, Krohn, Danchig-Waring, Catazaro, J. Angle [Solo Piano: Grant]

CONCERTO DSCH (Second Movement): Whelan, T. Angle [Solo Piano: Walters]

AFTER THE RAIN Pas de Deux: Whelan, Hall [Solo Piano: Grant; Solo Violin: Delmoni]

NEW WHEELDON/RATMANSKY (World Premiere): *Whelan, *T. Angle, *Hall [Solo Violin: Kurt Nikkanen]

(It took me a long time to settle on a portrait of Wendy to headline this article. Matt Murphy took the picture at the top when Wendy guest-taught a class at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center a couple of years ago. To me, the photo is her…I love the wispy strands of hair at the nape of her neck, and her utterly unique beauty.)

Bringing this story up to date, Wendy is currently the Associate Artistic Director of the New York City Ballet.

August 31, 2025
Claudia Schreier & Company: Gallery

Above: Wendy Whelan and Da’Von Doane in Claudia Schreier’s VIGIL; photo by Ani Collier. VIGIL is danced to a cappella choral music, performed onstage by Tapestry

Here are some images from photographer Ani Collier of Claudia Schreier & Company‘s recent program at The Joyce. Read about the performance here.

Wendy Whelan with Da’Von Doane (of Dance Theatre of Harlem) in VIGIL

Wendy and Da’Von: VIGIL

New York City Ballet’s Cameron Dieck and Jared Angle, with Da’Von Doane and NYCB soloist Unity Phelan in SOLITAIRE

Unity Phelan and Da’Von Doane: SOLITAIRE

New York City Ballet stars Unity Phelan and Jared Angle: SOLITAIRE

Unity & Jared in SOLITAIRE

Unity & Jared in SOLITAIRE

Elizabeth Claire Walker (soloist, Los Angeles Ballet) and Jared Angle in TRANQUIL NIGHT, BRIGHT AND INFINITE

Elizabeth Claire Walker and Jared Angle in TRANQUIL NIGHT, BRIGHT AND INFINITE

Elizabeth Claire Walker in CHARGE; Ms. Walker was recently (and aptly) described by the L.A. Times as “impossibly glamorous” when she danced the Siren in Balanchine’s PRODIGAL SON at Los Angeles Ballet.

Tiffany Mangulabnan with Elizabeth Claire Walker in CHARGE.

And finally, a series of Ani Collier’s images of Wendy Whelan in the mysterious and marvel-filled solo created on her by Claudia Schreier, and danced to music by Marc Mellits: THE TRILLING WIRE.

All choreography by Claudia Schreier; all photography by Ani Collier.

July 25, 2017
Restless Creature: The Film

RESTLESS CREATURE, the documentary about Wendy Whelan that dance lovers everywhere have been waiting for, is now playing (thru June 6th) at Film Forum down on Houston Street in New York City. Since, as most of my readers know by now, I’ve been on the disabled list for several weeks, I had the good fortune of receiving a link to watch the film at home.

Very soon after I moved to New York City and started working at Tower Records, Wendy Whelan came in to shop one afternoon. She had been my dream dancer since I first took note of her as an outstanding, unique ballerina in my favorite dance company: New York City Ballet. Feeling overwhelmingly shy in the presence of my idol, I managed to croak out an uncertain “Hello, Wendy!” Incredibly, she seemed equally shy. We talked about the weather.

From that day on, I ran into her frequently – both at the store and around Lincoln Center, where I loved hanging out for hours in hopes of seeing my beloved dancers coming and going from rehearsals and performances. Whenever Wendy passed by, she always stopped to chat; she has an incredible sense of humor, and a knack for making whoever she’s talking to feel…blessed.

I have a million Wendy Whelan stories, and I’ll put some links to some of my favorites at the end of this article. But right now, it’s showtime! Roll RESTLESS CREATURE…

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Above: Brian Brooks and Wendy Whelan, photo by Christopher Duggan

When I think of Wendy Whelan, the word that always comes to mind is: gratitude. Gratitude, not simply for her sublime artistry as a dancer, or her wit and warmth as a friend, but a true feeling of being thankful that our dance careers – hers performing, mine observing – have dovetailed so perfectly. From the first memories of singling her out on a stageful of magnificent dancers in her early days at New York City Ballet down to this very afternoon – watching her in the strikingly candid and deeply moving documentary RESTLESS CREATURE – Wendy has been one of those people who – quite simply – makes life worth living.

The film opens with some footage from Jerome Robbins’ GLASS PIECES, with Wendy and Adrian Danchig-Waring in the pas de deux. Within seconds, the pristine beauty and ineffable mystique of Wendy Whelan have already moved me to tears. And that’s how I spent the entire 90-minute span of watching this film: on a roller-coaster of emotion as Wendy’s transition from prima ballerina to contemporary dancer de luxe is observed at close range in scene after scene which reveal both a deep vulnerability and a powerful strength of will in this complex and supremely human woman.

“If I don’t dance, I’d rather die!” says Wendy early in the film; we then follow her on her journey beyond classical ballet and into another realm of dance: a journey marked by a surgical intervention with all its attendant hope and despair.

Courageously, Wendy even lets us eavesdrop in the operating room, and we can only marvel at the technological advances that make what once would have been an unthinkable procedure go forward smoothly. From thence, with her handsome husband David Michalek ever a quiet pillar of strength, the ups and downs of recovery are chronicled. “It’s depressing to think of what I can’t do anymore,” Wendy broods, as she works thru physical therapy. Yet all the time, the future beckons.

She speaks of roles having been taken away from her at New York City Ballet and of a conversation with Peter Martins that devastated her when he said, “I don’t want people to see you in decline.” With raw honesty, Wendy admits this episode caused her debilitating pain.

But she carries on; her first gentle barre is an obstacle to be overcome: she is anxious to get back to work. With a focus on what she can do, her RESTLESS CREATURE program has taken shape: she will dance duets – not on pointe – with each of four choreographers. But the recovery process stalls as pain begins to creep back in. When a hawk appears outside her window, Wendy takes it as an omen and postpones the RESTLESS CREATURE tour. The toll this decision takes on her is potent.

But, resilience is in her nature. She works thru the pain and finds her strength again. Wendy plans her farewell program at New York City Ballet, determined to take leave of the House of Mr B during her 30th year with the Company. One last surprise comes her way: Alexei Ratmansky asks her to dance in his new creation PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. She is thrilled by the invitation, and seems to be having a blast doing it. {Wendy is currently staging PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION for Pacific Northwest Ballet.}

The night of the farewell is beautifully documented: Wendy dances with her next-generation partners Tyler Angle and Craig Hall, finishing the evening in a pas de trois specially crafted by Christopher Wheeldon and Akexei Ratmansky which ends with Wendy aloft, leaving the past behind and reaching for the future.

Throughout the film there are delightful glimpses of people I love: Lynne Goldberg, Emily Coates, Sean Stewart, Maria Kowroski and Martin Harvey, Gonzalo Garcia, Edward Watson, Ask LaCour, Chris Bloom, Reid Bartelme, Abi Stafford, Tiler Peck, Sean Suozzi, Joshua Thew, Allegra Kent, Jacques D’Amboise, Wendy Perron, Gillian Murphy, Ethan Stiefel, Gwyneth Muller, Chuck Askegard, and oh-so-many more. Three of Wendy’s most marvelous cavaliers are seen: Jock Soto, Philip Neal, and Peter Boal. Mr. Boal pays Wendy an incredible – and honest – compliment when he says, “You changed how people behave in this profession.”

Watching the film made me think yet again of Wendy as a very special kind of star, for while it is wonderful to be admired, applauded, honored, and revered as an artist, it is even more rewarding to be loved, not only for what you do but for who you are.

At the very end of RESTLESS CREATURE, there is one final tugging of the heartstrings: the film is dedicated to the memory of Albert Evans.

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Here are some past articles from my blog about Wendy Whelan that you might enjoy reading:

Wendy & Pauline

RITE OF SPRING

LABYRINTH WITHIN

Wendy Teaching

Celebrating Wendy Whelan

NYCB Farewell

RESTLESS CREATURE @ The Joyce

Hostess With The Mostess

May 30, 2017
Beloved Albert

Above: Albert Evans with Wendy Whelan in Ratmansky’s RUSSIAN SEASONS, photo by John Ross

Tuesday June 23rd, 2015 – I don’t want to be writing this.

It seems impossible that Albert Evans has passed away. News of his death came this morning in an e-mail from a fellow balletomane; my initial reaction was that it must be some other Albert Evans because our Albert’s life force was too vibrant to have been extinguished.

The news is still sinking in. These days, I am constantly hearing of the passing of dancers, singers, and musicians whose artistry made an impression on my life; but these are people in their 80s and 90s who have lived out their lives to the fullest. One would certainly have expected Albert to be with us for many, many more years. That’s why his passing is so tragic. It reminds us that we must never take for granted the presence of the people in our lives.

It’s true that Albert’s passing brings back a flood of dance memories, and yet – as with all my favorite dancers – recollections of his performances have frequently sprung to mind in the days since his retirement.

Among his most felicitous roles was Puck in Balanchine’s MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (with Arch Higgins and Alexandra Ansanelli, above, in a Paul Kolnik photo). In a role often undertaken by dancers of smaller physical stature, Albert made his own indelible mark with his brilliant characterization and marvelous, cat-like landings. The ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ in WESTERN SYMPHONY was another Evans gem, as were his performances in AGON, THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS, STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO, and EPISODES. Albert frequently appeared in new repertory too, with Dove’s RED ANGELS, Ratmansky’s RUSSIAN SEASONS and Wheeldon’s LITURGY and KLAVIER among the most memorable. And who could forget his epic Rothbart in Peter Martins’ SWAN LAKE?

Above: Albert in Ratmansky’s RUSSIAN SEASONS with NYCB colleagues Jonathan Stafford, Antonio Carmena, Sean Suozzi, and Adam Hendrickson. Photo: John Ross

After his 2010 farewell to dancing at New York City Ballet, Albert continued working there as a ballet master. I would still run into him sometimes in the Lincoln Center area and there was always a smile and a friendly greeting.

Albert was always such a thoughtful person, always illuminating other people’s lives in a special way. After Yvonne Borree’s NYC Ballet farewell, Albert amazed a young dance student outside the stage door by sweeping her up into a pas de deux pose. It was such a happy moment, and that’s how I want to remember him.

Above: curtain call at Albert’s NYCB farewell

June 22, 2015
RESTLESS CREATURE @ The Joyce

Above: the Restless Creature, Wendy Whelan, with her four choreographers; clockwise from top left: Kyle Abraham, Brian Brooks, Josh Beamish, and Alejandro Cerrudo; photo courtesy of Ms. Whelan

Tuesday May 26th, 2015 – Wendy Whelan’s RESTLESS CREATURE arrived at The Joyce this evening after an unforeseen delay: it was postponed from last season as Wendy was recuperating from surgery. In this production, the incomparable ballerina dances duets choreographed by four men – Joshua Beamish, Brian Brooks, Kyle Abraham, and Alejandro Cerrudo – and in each duet, she is partnered by the choreographer.

In July 2014, Wendy invited my friend Joe and I to the studio where she and Josh Beamish were rehearsing Josh’s duet in preparation for the London premiere of RESTLESS CREATURE. Tonight, Joe and I had seats in the front row, the better to savour every moment of this imaginative evening of dance.

Musicians are seated on either side of the hall at audience level: pianist Rachel Kudo to our left and the Bryant Park Quartet to our right. It is a beautiful Max Richter cello solo played by the Quartet’s Tomoko Fujita that opens the evening; as the house lights fade, the tall and charismatic Alejandro Cerrudo starts his 2013 duet EGO ET TU with a sustained solo, the music having passed to the piano. Wendy Whelan, clad in white, makes a modest entry from upstage and dances a pensive solo with a vulnerable aspect. As the music reverts to the strings, Wendy and Alejandro are alternately drawn together and pulled apart. The music, which includes works by Philip Glass and Gavin Bryars in addition to the Richter, provides a gorgeous setting for the silken movement of the two dancers, and – as throughout the evening – Joe Levasseur’s lighting designs are a visual enrichment.

A brief interlude from the Bryant players gives Wendy time for a costume-change, and then we move directly to Joshua Beamish 2015 duet CONDITIONAL SENTENCES with Ms. Kudo at the keyboard for J. S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 in C minor. Both dancers wear red shirts and grey trousers (I rather missed the long red skirt in which Wendy originally danced this piece) and the duet has the air of stylized courtship. Charmingly elusive, they cover the space deftly, ‘speaking’ to us, or to one another, in a wry gestural language. They seem very much like birds of a feather.

Kyle Abraham’s darkly atmospheric duet THE SERPENT AND THE SMOKE begins in gloom with Kyle’s slow solo suddenly erupting in a spastic outburst. Mysterious music – by Hauschka and Hildur Gudnadóttir – creates an ominous expectancy; then, suddenly, there’s intense light. Warily, Wendy approaches Kyle and, to a lamenting theme, tenderness is cautiously explored in movement that is gorgeously stylized. Then silence falls and the dancing becomes more active. A lighting change makes a striking impact, along with a shift of pulse. The dancers pose on the floor as if in a mind-meld, and then, as the scene brightens, they rush about the stage in an enigmatic pursuit as Wendy’s hair comes undone.

Music of Philip Glass ideally serves the Brian Brooks duet FIRST FALL which closes the programme. Reappearing in a daffodil-yellow frock, her hair flowing, Wendy dances a solo in silence. As the Bryant Park Quartet strike up, there’s a fine sense of urgency to the turbulent duet for the two dancers. Being up close gave us an intimate experience as – in the the duet’s most stunning passage – Wendy walks along the lip of the stage leaning on Brian’s bent back. A dancer’s trust in her partner is explored in a series of ‘blind’ fall-backs onto Brian’s hunched body. As the music fades, the dancers walk upstage, Wendy leaning dependently against Brian into a slow collapse.

RESTLESS CREATURE might have been sub-titled “I Could Have Danced All Night” because that’s exactly what Wendy did. It was a tremendous pleasure to watch her take on the variety of movement motifs that the four choreographers asked of her, and to find her so thoroughly invested in dance which speaks a very different dialect from that which she trained and grew up in. As she moves on now to other projects, she remains the fascinating embodiment of everything dance is and can be.

May 26, 2015
All-Robbins @ New York City Ballet

Above: Wendy Whelan, photo by Henry Leutwyler

Saturday May 17th, 2014 (evening) – My first opportunity to see Wendy Whelan dancing since her return to the stage following surgery. She danced tonight in Jerome Robbins’ GLASS PIECES. I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve missed her; at least I had the pleasure of running into her a few times in the interim.

From the moment she appeared tonight, seemingly floating into view in Adrian Danchig-Waring’s big, beautiful hands, everything suddenly seemed right with the world again: the rift in the time-space continuum was sewn up, clocks started ticking again, the lights came back on. This is what’s been missing these past few months, why everything has seemed ever-so-slightly awry. Wendy’s been such a symbol for me of my whole New York Experience, of my dream that came true; seeing her dancing again was like an affirmation of faith.

She and Adrian cast a spell over the crowd in their mesmerizing, other-worldly duet. With their stylized gestures, they speak to us over the trance-like repetitive musical motif. We are drawn into their parallel universe, and it’s breath-taking to behold. Beautiful creatures.

If their pas de deux could have gone on and on I would have been content, but as Wendy is gently borne away the jungle drums begin to beat. And who is this tall, handsome demi-god who comes wheeling into view? It’s Russell Janzen, and he’s coming into his own at NYC Ballet now: Barber Violin Concerto this past February, and now he’s been cast in the lead role of Davidsbundlertanze, which I hope to see in the coming week. He looked fantastic tonight, leading off the third movement of the Glass.

Earlier, in the ballet’s opening segment, the three ‘angels-among-us’ couples were Ashley Laracey with Daniel Applebaum, Meagan Mann with Joseph Gordon, and Emilie Gerrity with Andrew Scordato. They all look wonderful, and Mr. Gordon is stepping up nicely in each assignment.

Clothilde Otranto was on the podium tonight, and for the Prokofiev score of OPUS 19/THE DREAMER, she had City Ballet’s excellent concert-master Kurt Nikkanen spinning out the music, by turns tranquil and restless. Speaking of gods, Gonzalo Garcia certainly looked divine and his dancing was powerfully expressive. Sterling Hyltin has just debuted in this ballet and she makes a vibrant impression; the ballerina here is not always dreamy – she has some jagged, almost harsh moments mixed in – and Sterling handled these transitions with compelling musicality. She and Gonzalo looked superb throughout; the ballet ends in its iconic pose with the dancers resting their heads gently in one another’s open palms. Quiet murmurs from the crowd as the music faded indicated that OPUS 19 had again bewitched us.

Several newcomers to the cast of THE CONCERT were enough to keep me in the theatre for this ballet, one that I often skip out on. Good thing I stayed, because it was a genuinely great performance. Pianist Elaine Chelton not only played the Chopin selections very well indeed, but entered into the drama with gusto. Sterling Hyltin was back in a role as different from OPUS 19 as one could imagine; she is as fine a comic muse as she is a lyrical one. Joaquin de Luz was perfect as the hen-pecked husband who finally rebels, and Lydia Wellington debuted in the role of the wife – which has been so memorably undertaken by Delia Peters and Gwyneth Muller – and made it her own: Lydia’s timing was spot on, and her facial expressions were a characterful delight. I hardly recognized Troy Schumacher, even though I had bumped into him before the show: he had transformed himself into a total nerd. Marika Anderson’s be-spectacled ballerina was another gem; she is so versatile, and – joined by five other off-beat sylphs – drew a prolonged round of applause and laughs as they presented an epically un-coordinated pas de six.

GLASS PIECES: Laracey, *Mann, *Gerrity, Whelan, Applebaum, *Gordon, Scordato, Danchig-Waring

OPUS 19/THE DREAMER: Hyltin, Garcia [Solo Violinist: Nikkanen]

THE CONCERT: Hyltin, *Scordato, *Adams, *Segin, Anderson, De Luz, *Wellington, Schumacher, Peiffer, Nelson

May 17, 2014
She Lights Up My Life

Follow the link to watch a film about Wendy Whelan!

Photo by Matt Murphy.

Follow Wendy’s current project, RESTLESS CREATURE, here.

April 29, 2013
A Dance Experience to Cherish

Above: Attila Joey Csiki and Clifton Brown. Photo by Nir Arieli. Click on the image to enlarge.

Sunday January 27, 2013 – I’ve had the great good fortune in recent years to witness some truly unforgettable moments in dance that the rest of the world isn’t privy to. In the Autumn of 2012 Wendy Whelan gave me a precious gift when she arranged for me to sneak into one of her rehearsals – it was such a transformative experience, though I never wrote about it on my blog for fear of getting her in trouble with the powers that be. I had the memorable opportunity of watching Adrian Danchig-Waring’s first-ever rehearsal of APOLLO. And I was at a MORPHOSES rehearsal when Pontus Lidberg kept dancing after the scheduled studio time had run out. He didn’t ask me to leave, he simply danced on in his own private world and I sat there in a breathless state. Yuan Yuan Tan, Katherine Crockett, Maria Kowroski, Laura Halzack, Veronika Part…I’ve seen them all at their most beautiful – up close and personal – freed from the theatricality of a performance and simply working on their craft, immersed in the music and the movement.

Dancers and choreographers have been so kind and generous, welcoming me into their studios and sharing the creative experience with me. In this way I have gotten as close as one can get to dance without actually dancing. At the end of a rehearsal, the dancers invariably will come up for an embrace and always they will say: “I’m all sweaty!” Your sweat is my holy water, please don’t apologize.

So a week ago Attila Joey Csiki (above) contacted me and invited me to a reherasal of a Lar Lubovitch duet, set to Mozart, to be danced by Attila and Clifton Brown at an upcoming gala in Washington DC. Mozart, Lubovitch, Attila and Clifton…what could be finer? I arranged to meet photographer Nir Arieli at the MMAC studios; it turned out to be an hour of dance that I’ll never forget.

Lar Lubovitch created this dancework in 1986 – when the AIDS epidemic was decimating the world – and he named it CONCERTO 622 after the Mozart work usually referred to as “the Clarinet Concerto”. The pas de deux for two men is danced to the concerto’s adagio, music which became familiar to an audience that stretched far beyond the world’s concert halls when it was played in the epic film OUT OF AFRICA.

We arrived at the studio today for the final hour of the rehearsal; Clifton Brown has danced this work before but Attila Joey Csiki has not. Mr. Lubovitch had them ironing out the timing of certain passages, including a big lift which must be honed to perfection to make its effect. The boys ran thru the segment several times, and Clifton’s keen eye and astute preparation soon had it mastered: his wonderfully deep plié as Attila came hurtling towards him was something to behold, and he swept his fellow danseur overhead in one sweepingly seamless motion.

Then Mr. Lubovitch put the music on and the dancers began the first of two full runnings of the duet. Quite honestly my reaction surprised me: chills ran up my spine, my heart started racing, I could barely keep myself from crying. This is a piece that transcends its components – music, choreography and dancing – and speaks to us of things that can only be felt, not seen. The two men are tender and noble, they console and support one another and their passion pulsates just below the surface. The duet is not sentimental or overtly romantic; it has a luminous purity that springs from the celestial melodies of the genius Mozart. The choreographer has found the heart of the music and exposes it to us in movement that seems inevitable. I’ll never again be able to listen to this adagio without seeing Attila and Clifton in my dreamworld.

After a break and a bit more tweaking of certain partnering elements, the dancers began again and once again they moved me so deeply…words can’t express it. If they are this gorgeous in the studio, what will they be like onstage? I sincerely hope we will have a chance to find out.

I hated to see the hour drawing to its close, and was feeling deeply grateful to Mr. Lubovitch for his kindness in allowing us to be in the studio today. Attila and Clifton were packing up, beautifully drenched in perspiration; their mutual affection and admiration was so evident: “We used to be rivals,” Attila said. “And now we are friends dancing together.”

More images from the rehearsal:

Clifton Brown

All photos by Nir Arieli.

January 28, 2013
Labyrinth Within @ BAC

Tuesday February 21, 2012 – Swedish dancer/choreographer/film-maker Pontus Lidberg (above) created his half-hour film LABYRINTH WITHIN over a four year period; as he revealed at tonight’s showing at Baryshnikov Arts Center, Wendy Whelan was his muse from the start – even before she got involved in the project.

The movie is a fascinating experience on many levels: as a captivating visual work of art; as a choreographic melding of two contrasting pas de deux; as a poignant musical expression; and in its exploration of relationships where ideas about trust, jealousy, and passions real or imagined provide restless, suspenseful undercurrents right from the opening frame. The film also serves as a spine-tingling introduction of a great ballerina to a new medium: Wendy Whelan on-screen is as thoroughly riveting as Wendy Whelan onstage.

The dreamlike atmosphere of the film leaves us to ponder whether the romantic triangle we are watching is real or imagined. LABYRINTH WITHIN wraps themes of infidelity, the allure of sexual enticement, and of escape from the everyday into a passionate dreamworld in a veil of mystery. The realms of reality and fantasy overlap; the viewer can only savour the elements of the film and draw his own conclusions.

The three protagonists draw us into their respective worlds: Giovanni Bucchieri is the darkly handsome husband, Wendy Whelan the evasive and enigmatic wife, and Pontus Lidberg the blonde and beautiful lover. Giovanni seems like a pre-occupied workaholic who has neglected his marriage, yet his sensuous mouth indicates a voluptuous nature under the businessman facade. Wendy, the most intriguing person I have ever encountered, doesn’t need to act; by simply being on-screen her character lives and draws us deeply into the mysterious story and into the secret room where her fantasy becomes flesh. Pontus is the idealized lover, the embodiment of masculine grace and tenderness, his torso a landscape of muscle and fair skin.

In the film’s opening moments, the two men appear to be wrestling with one another in fragmented dream sequences. But once the tale is underway, they meet only fleetingly on a staircase. Wendy dances with both of the men in sharply contrasted styles: with her husband the movement is angluar, cool and detached. Her beautifully-filmed scenes with her beloved are sensuous without being sexual; their passion is urgent yet somehow languid at the same time. Pontus strips down to his black briefs but Wendy keeps her black dress on; the glimpses of thigh, neck, streaming hair and entwined limbs are more evocative than any more blatant sexual scene that might have been crafted.

At the end, Giovanni breaks into the forbidden room. What does he find there? Ah, you must see the film to find out!

Pontus spoke of creating the entire work with composer David Lang’s music in mind but without having the actual pieces from the composer (some already written, some specially created for the film) to work with. Amazing how organic the final fusion of film, dance and music turned out. Maya Beiser’s ravishing cello playing gives an added texture of romance, longing and suspicion to the film.

LABYRINTH WITHIN – both the film and the staged dancework inspired by it – may be seen this Summer at Jacob’s Pillow (details here), followed by a two-week, five-city tour of Sweden as part of Dancenet in October, and then at here in New York City in Autumn 2012.

Tonight’s showing at BAC drew a packed house and many luminaries: NYCB‘s Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici, the radiant Pauline Golbin, ballerina de luxe Alessandra Ferri, photographer/film-maker David Michalek (husband of Ms. Whelan), MORPHOSES‘s lovely Frances Chaverini, choreographer Laura Ward, and my dear friend writer/artist Monica Wellington. NYC Ballet soloist Adrain Danchig-Waring makes a brief appearance in the film.

In 2010 as the film was being completed, both Pontus and Wendy generously contibuted to an article about the project for my blog, and Wendy loaned me her evocative images. You will find the story here.

February 21, 2012