A year at a glance
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JUSTIN PECK |
~Heyy~
So I just wanted to post an entry in which I could just blog a bit about my first-year experience with NYCB. It turned out to be an experience jam-packed with excitement, stimulation, diligence, comradery, revelation, and growth (now I understand why they give us a whole year as apprentices—there is so much to absorb and adapt to).
Towards the end of my term as an apprentice, I was asked to write an article (that was eventually published in the Saratogian Newspaper) describing the whole experience. In the article, I focused particularly on how intense it is to get thrown into a ballet at the last minute (which happens very often at NYCB ). Thought I might share my words with you…
On My Toes
Thoughts And Encounters of a Dancer’s First Year with City Ballet
In the blink of an eye, everything can change for a dancer in the New York City Ballet. This is the most valuable perspective that I have learned—through raw experience—from my first year as an apprentice.
After weeks of endless understudying that deceivingly appeared to have no end or promise, I suddenly was catapulted into three ballets (Stravinsky Violin Concerto, Jeu De Cartes, and the Nightingale and the Rose) within three days, as a result of a few male dancers having to take time off due to injuries.
City Ballet puts on such a wide variety of ballets on a tight, back-to-back basis in one of the most demanding markets on the planet. Because of this, I began to realize that their need for understudies to willfully, systematically, and swiftly move into ballets to replace those who get injured is critical. This process is quite different compared to that of the School of American Ballet (SAB), where I, as well as 92% of the dancers that comprise City Ballet, come from.
At SAB, months of rehearsing are spent on just a few ballets for the end-of-the-year Workshop Performance. Such a performance is built brick-by-brick, step-by-step, with everything gradually and methodically staged in order to guarantee a polished performance. In City Ballet, while the same end-result is a foregone conclusion, a ballet can be rehearsed as little as a few times over a couple of days before being performed.
I was therefore rehearsed once or twice per ballet before being “thrown on,” and was expected nothing short of perfection when it came to retaining the choreography, remembering all the counts, and dancing with meticulous musicality.
In my attempt to be true to the ballet works and to come through for the Company, I quickly headed down to the video room, where dancers are able to watch past videos of ballets to assist them with learning those ballets.
After hours in the video room, more hours of constantly reviewing counts in my head, and the few rehearsals the company was able to give me on the short notice, I was able to dance the 3 ballets to City Ballet standards.
Under pressured circumstances like these, City Ballet becomes a team. Everyone involved seems to support each other when it comes to staging and producing each ballet. The ballet masters are easily accessible for last minute questions regarding the counts or the choreography. In addition, fellow dancers (especially the more senior ones, who somehow are able to perform as if they could walk on water) provide the support and guidance needed to help out the new kids on the block, like myself. I found this team-based interaction fundamental. This is what keeps City Ballet delivering on a high-octane level.
With these experiences and newly drawn understandings, I find that it is important for me, as a dancer with New York City Ballet, to always wake up each day with a blank slate of expectation. I’ve found that there are no speed limits on the road to excellence, meaning that it presents me with insurmountable opportunities. As a result, no ballet detail is too small to focus on and no performance is too big to attempt.
~Justin Peck
