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Finis: Well, that certainly explains why we often see dancers lose their balance and fall all over the stage. What else happened during the season? Michele: I also did Moyna, one of Myrthe's helpers in the second act of Giselle. Finis: How did it go? Michele: First of all, I didn't rehearse it until the day of the show. And that was for a half hour. Finis: You're kidding! How did that happen? Weren't you cast? Michele: Yes, I was cast one performance, but every time they rehearsed it, they rehearsed the other cast. So, the day of the show, I had a half hour rehearsal with the ballet mistress, just by myself. Luckily, I knew the part pretty well, and that night it was a success even though I never had a chance to rehearse it fully on stage with all the dancers. Finis: Boy, you sound like the Perils of Pauline. She was the heroine of the old movie serials who at the end of every weekly chapter, was either tied to the rails with a train coming or being thrown off the cliff into a pool of crocodiles. But the next week she always saved herself and went on to new adventures. Anyway, it seems you're headed for lots of good things with ABT, and I remember two years ago your first appearance with the Company was sitting onstage as a dummy in Coppelia. You must have been wondering then whether that was where you should be, since the summer before you had just won the Gold Medal for Juniors at Varna. I remember seeing the videos of your performances at Varna and thought you danced them better than most ballerinas I had seen. I also recall you had some teary episodes while "breaking into" the corps de ballet. Michele: It was a transitional period for me. I had been at the Kirov Academy of Ballet for six years. I was always told things would fall into place for me right away and I would have lots of attention. But, at ABT, that was not the case. I realized that I would have to depend on myself, there would be no teachers watching over me and pushing me forward. I wouldn't be getting the kind of attention I had while studying at the Kirov. Finis: I also saw you do the most difficult variation from the Shades trio in the famous second act of Bayadere. That has to be one of the most difficult variations ever choreographed. So slow, and requiring so much turn-out, demi-plié and balance. And you made it look easy as pie. You looked so calm and relaxed. How did you feel while performing it? Michele: Oh boy. The first night I was kind of nervous. It's scary, because the Met stage is so big, and we're dancing behind a scrim, and when you look out front all you see is pitch black. So to keep myself from falling over, I looked at the conductor, because he has a light, and that was the only thing I could focus on. That was for the first two diagonals. After that, it was easy, because the remainder of the variation was all jumping and bourrées. Finis: Well, that certainly explains why we often see dancers lose their balance and fall all over the stage. What else happened during the season? Michele: I also did Moyna, one of Myrthe's helpers in the second act of Giselle. Finis: How did it go? Michele: First of all, I didn't rehearse it until the day of the show. And that was for a half hour. Finis: You're kidding! How did that happen? Weren't you cast? Michele: Yes, I was cast one performance, but every time they rehearsed it, they rehearsed the other cast. So, the day of the show, I had a half hour rehearsal with the ballet mistress, just by myself. Luckily, I knew the part pretty well, and that night it was a success even though I never had a chance to rehearse it fully on stage with all the dancers. Finis: Boy, you sound like the Perils of Pauline. She was the heroine of the old movie serials who at the end of every weekly chapter, was either tied to the rails with a train coming or being thrown off the cliff into a pool of crocodiles. But the next week she always saved herself and went on to new adventures. Anyway, it seems you're headed for lots of good things with ABT, and I remember two years ago your first appearance with the Company was sitting onstage as a dummy in Coppelia. You must have been wondering then whether that was where you should be, since the summer before you had just won the Gold Medal for Juniors at Varna. I remember seeing the videos of your performances at Varna and thought you danced them better than most ballerinas I had seen. I also recall you had some teary episodes while "breaking into" the corps de ballet. Michele: It was a transitional period for me. I had been at the Kirov Academy of Ballet for six years. I was always told things would fall into place for me right away and I would have lots of attention. But, at ABT, that was not the case. I realized that I would have to depend on myself, there would be no teachers watching over me and pushing me forward. I wouldn't be getting the kind of attention I had while studying at the Kirov.
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