BROWSE PRODUCTS BY:SPECIAL OFFER!Receive 30% Off Pre-Packaged DVDs with free shipping in the USA! NEW PRODUCTS!
|
Finis: Had you done it already? Wendy: I had done it on a gig twice, long before that evening, and it was one of those ballets where I didn't really remember the partnered part of it. So, Peter Martins came up and taught it to me, and was partnering me in the studio. It was hilarious! I was freaking out! Finis: How was it that no one else was around to do it? Don't they have understudies standing by? Wendy: Oh no, not backstage. If you're off that evening, you don't come to the theater. Finis: Well, that explains what happened last Spring. I was at the theatre to see you do Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #2, and we sat, and waited, and waited, and the curtain never went up, and then finally they made an announcement that something had happened to the Male Principal, and that they were only going to do the first of three movements. I felt so bad when you came out, and I thought, how disappointed you must be, to get all revved up for the show, and then it doesn't happen. Actually, the way you danced the first movement, it looked to me as though they just should have let you go on an do the whole ballet by yourself, just improvising. It would have been wonderful to see! Ok, back to your adventure of Tchai Pas . . . Wendy: They called in Damien Woetzel (City Ballet Principal) to dance with me. He wasn't even at the theatre; he had been at a restaurant, and had had some wine, but he was all for it. He was totally into it! And, it went pretty well! (laughter) I remember that Damien walked me home afterwards, and thanked me, because he said it was his best performance of that ballet, ever! Finis: (Laughter) Wendy: Well, it was so scary for me! Damien was talking me through it, telling me "run to the corner." (laughter) .."here comes the lift" ... Finis: (Laughter) So, you got used to being kind of [on call] . . . always there in an emergency and able to come out of it alive and well! Wendy: Yeah! (Laughter) What's interesting, though, is that being somewhat of a "machine" and constantly dancing, I got very comfortable on stage. However, I was really unaware of a lot of my personal needs. I was never in touch with the non-dancing part of myself. I was always happy, but always worn out. I just gave everything I had to the company, and there was not much left for me, as a person. And, I found that having gone through my first couple of injuries in the past few years, I've had to force myself to step back and regain my person. And that was not easy to do. Finis: Not easy for anyone. Wendy: So, when I did come back after an injury, I usually came back more humble and grateful, and I found the beauty of vulnerability, which I really hadn't had to deal with before, because prior to that, I was always just going strong and on automatic. Finis: Yes, sometimes we need an adverse circumstance in order to see things in a different light. Wendy: I basically found the poetry in the choreography, more than the physicality I had known before. Finis: I'm so glad you're saying this, because you're describing what I see in your dancing. When I saw you did Opus 19 and Ballade, I was so impressed with "the poetry" of your movement. Can you give us any insight into the process you go through when you are rehearsing or performing a role? Wendy: Well, it was funny with Ballade. I did not want to do Ballade. I fought to get out of it so badly! Finis: You're kidding! Wendy: Peter Martins said "Just try it. I think you're really right for it." I was learning it from Merrill Ashley, for whom Balanchine had created the ballet. Well, I could not be more different from Merrill, as a dancer. Knowing this, I started to limit myself.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
