Today we are going to be talking about my experience dancing Christopher
Wheeldon's Carousel. I'm going to tell you the story of
how I got cast, the rehearsal process, the performance, and more. So welcome to
another episode of "Once Upon a Pointe". Hi everybody! Today's "Once Upon a Pointe"
takes place right after the "how I was cast as Juliet". So if you haven't seen
that story, I will link it in a card for you guys. But before we get to the story,
I want to just say to you guys: next week I'm going to be starting back with the
ballet and the technique videos. So if there's a barre you want, if there's a
class you want, if there's a step you're having trouble with, leave me a comment
in the box below so I can start filming those. And we will get back to the ballet
videos next week! So that's really exciting! So like I said, this particular
story takes place right after dancing my very first Juliet with New York City
Ballet in Saratoga. If you go back and remember that story, we were rehearsing
in Saratoga. I was gonna perform this role because Yvonne Borree got injured.
During one of the rehearsals, I happened to look out into the audience and see
Christopher Wheeldon just sitting there watching. He was kind of just sitting
there looking. He stayed for maybe a half hour and then left. I didn't really think
anything of it at the time, but as you'll see it had genuine significance. So I
danced the role of Juliet. All was great. Everybody said it was beautiful. I was
very proud of myself. It was a really big deal for an apprentice to dance that
role. So we went on break for the summer, as you do. I think we had five weeks off
at that point. Scheduling is a little bit different now but I think we had five
weeks off. I went home to Mobile, Alabama where I'm from. So we came back for the
fall season, and at that point we weren't doing a fall season. We were going to be
touring to Chicago, and it was my first tour with a company. I didn't know what
to expect. We rehearsed I think maybe two weeks because typically when you go
on tour, at least with New York City Ballet, you do ballets that you do a lot:
Symphony in C, Symphony and Three Movements, Serenade, all these ballets
that you do a lot. So they don't have to be rehearsed for that long
because everybody knows them. It's not some brand new thing that you have to spend
five weeks doing. You can pretty much get them all on and ready in two weeks.
I can't even remember what we did. I know I did the Four Temperaments there. I know
I did Serenade there, and we rehearsed for a couple weeks. We went to Chicago. It
was my first tour, which was nice because it was not out of the country. We'll get
to those in future episodes, but it was in the country. Everybody spoke English!
We were only there a week. It was a perfect first tour. I
didn't have any principal roles so it was really easy for me. The last day
of our Chicago tour, the rehearsal schedule went up for the following week
back in New York because we were going to be rehearsing for the gala and for
the winter season and the gala program. I don't know if it had been announced yet.
Typically, and this it's a little bit different now, but New York City Ballet
opened their season at that point with a gala. I think it was like November gala
and then we started Nutcracker. I think! Okay it has been awhile, but I know we
were doing some sort of opening week gala in November that had nothing
whatsoever to do with Nutcracker. The program came out and it was going to be
Carousel, Walpurgisnacht, Symphony and Three Movements, Symphony in C... all these
kind of big ballets were going to be on this program. It was a truly massive gala
evening that opens the whole year. So I'm thinking "Great! I'll get to do Symphony
in C. You know it'll be a good experience". The last day we're in
Chicago ,the rehearsal sheet comes out. And it the way it works at New York City
Ballet, I don't know if it's how it still works to be honest, but typically you'll
figure out casting on the rehearsal sheet before you'll see it actually
posted. Casting only comes out two weeks before the actual performance.
And this was a good month, month and a half before. So you kind of can get a
sense of casting on the rehearsal sheet. It's not posted until two weeks before,
which makes it very difficult for ticket buyers, by the way. If you want to see a
certain cast of Nutcracker, you have to wait until two weeks before the show
to figure out who's doing what when. So on the rehearsal sheet
it said "Carousel: Hyltin Peck Morgan (Sterling Hyltin, Tiler Peck ,and
myself) and then Andrew Veyette, Seth Orza, and somebody else. I can't for the life
of me remember who it was. So it was the three of us and like Andy, Seth, and it
might have been Amar, but somebody like Amar who was, you know, a big-time dancer.
I looked at that and I was like "oh my goodness". But reading the rehearsal
sheet, it doesn't say 'pas de deux couple' it just says 'Carousel: Hyltin Peck
Morgan Veyette Orza Ramasar". It doesn't say what exactly you're going to
be doing. So they leave you guessing for the week. So I had this mulling over in
my head. And in Christopher Wheeldon's Carousel, there's a principal couple and
two demi couples and a corps. And from reading it, not knowing how the system
worked, I thought "oh Sterling's gonna do the lead and Tiler and I are gonna be
the Demi couples because that would make sense."
I think Sterling was a soloist at the time, Tiler was in the corps. I don't even
think she was a soloist yet.... no she wasn't a soloist. So it made sense that
Sterling was gonna be the principal couple we were gonna be the demis.
I was like "Great this will be wonderful." With the boys,
I remember Andy Veyette was a soloist at the time (he's now principal) and Seth, who
is now principal with PNB, was only in the corps. Whoever the third boy
was (I can't for the life of me remember who was!) was also in the corps. So it just
made sense in my head. So a week goes by. I'm mulling this over. I try and get online to find any glimpse of this ballet and I can, keeping in mind
this was in 2006. So there was not a lot of stuff online about ballet at that
point. I tried to find every little picture that I could. We get to rehearsal
and Chris is there, Chris Wheeldon, with his rehearsal assistant and I think one
other ballet master, I can't remember who it was. He says "all right. So we're
going to learn the pas de deux. You guys are all learning the pas de deux. I was
like, "oh my goodness" and then they paired us up. They put Seth with
Sterling, Tiler with the boy I can't remember who it was, and me with Andy. So
they put the apprentice with Andy. I was still an apprentice at this point. So the
apprentice girl goes with the soloist boy. And even Andy at that
point, Andy (he's such a great really nice guy) but he even was like "I'm dancing
with an apprentice?" Do you remember back in the Juliet video? Tyler Angle who was
a corps dancing with an apprentice. I could see him looking at them like "you
gotta be kidding me". So here's this little tiny apprentice
who "you're putting me with her? I'm a soloist!" So we start the rehearsal process.
And soon I began to realize that the three of us learning this pas de deux-
There's only one show at that point. It was gonna eventually come back in the
winter season in January in February, but at this point all three of us were
learning this for one show. So there was only gonna be one cast. That is the
worst feeling in the world when you know there are three of you in the room all
vying for one spot because there's only be one cast. So automatically it pits
everybody against each other, you know what I mean. So I was like "well it's not
gonna be me." So that kind of relaxed me. All of us thought it was going to be
Sterling because she was the highest ranked out of us. There we are learning
this thing, and I remember Chris the whole time really paying attention to me
and Andy. And I thought "well that's due to Andy. That's not due to me because I'm
the apprentice". So I think a week, maybe two weeks go by. We've learned the whole
thing. We started to rehearse it. We finished rehearsal one day and Chris says
"Thank you very much. Katie, stay for a minute". And I was like, "here we go. He's
gonna kick me out of the rehearsal. He's gonna tell me I'm not good enough and
that I'm not doing this." And he says, "um I just want you to know, casting is going to
come out next week. But you're going to be doing this with Andy. You and
Andy are gonna be doing this." And I literally looked at him like "you have
GOT to be crazy. You are an insane person putting me against a soloist and a corps
member. I'm only an apprentice. You pair me with a soloist?".
This is the first ballet in the gala. It opens the gala in Lincoln
Center start of the New York City Ballet season. You're gonna put a little dinky
apprentice on with Andrew Veyette to open the entire gala in a principal role? And
I was just like "okay". And he said "I really want you to keep working on your
feet and your turnout. You have a beautiful upper body, you have the lovely
stage presence. But keep focusing...." you know. He was giving me things to work on.
I just remember going home and my very first thought was "this is gonna go
over REALLY well with everybody else." because I had already experienced this
once with Juliet. I got lots of snubs lots of backlash, you know. We went through
that in that video. So here we are again going to go through this again. I'm
like, okay.... I mean I was really excited obviously. It was beyond
anything I could have imagined. I was thrilled beyond belief because while
Juliet was in Saratoga, this was gonna be on the New York State Theater stage.
David H. Koch Theater now, but to me it will always be the New York State
Theater Stage. So I went home. Mom was still around, and I was like "Mom, I'm
doing Carousel in the gala. I'm opening the gala." And her thought too,
she was like, "I'm so proud of you but you need to be ready for the backlash!"
We were ready this time! So rehearsals continued on. Andy I think
knew at that point we were gonna do it, and it was a couple days later, Peter
called me into his office. I had no clue why. I thought maybe it was gonna be
about Carousel. But he said, "Katie, there's this award that they are giving this
year to five special talents in the world of arts called the "Movado Future
Legends Award. I'm going to be giving you this award and it's a very
big deal. You're going to get one, I think a Juilliard person's getting one, somebody
who's in the Philharmonic is getting one..." you know. It was five people who are
deemed very talented their fields. So it was like double
whammy. And meanwhile, my personality... my very first thought is
"everyone is gonna hate me". Not "I'm queen of the world". I'm like, "great this is..
I'm so incredibly grateful, but everyone's gonna hate me". So I was
just very, very... just like, "oh my goodness! Thank you so much!" He said "There's
going to be a luncheon next week for your award." I was like "oh my goodness.
okay great". He said, "unfortunately you're going to have to miss some of your
rehearsals for this luncheon. So I will tell the ballet masters why you won't be
there." So in my head I'm thinking "Great. The casting is gonna come out next week
and I'm getting the Movado future legends Award." I was like "oh my goodness.
Thank you so much. I'm so honored that..." it was absolutely huge deal. So next week
comes around, and casting comes out. There it is:
"Gala New York City Ballet. Carousel: Morgan Veyette." All of the
boys were absolutely thrilled for me, and the girls... some of them by this point, the
principals especially, were very kind. I think for this one I had almost proven
myself doing Juliet in Saratoga. So this one wasn't so much of a shock, but you
know people were still not thrilled as I wouldn't have been! I mean
that's a natural human reaction. So I just kind of decided to keep to myself
and rehearsed and not worry too much about it. So two days, two or three days
later, it was this luncheon. And we get to this incredibly swanky restaurant in the
Time Warner Center called 'Per Se'. If you've ever heard of it, which is on 59th
Street in New York. I get to this luncheon. What I didn't realize is that
the entire luncheon was for me. It wasn't for the five of us who were winning this
award. Each of the five were getting their own luncheon. So I walked into this
thing, and there are these high-rollers: Chelsea Clinton is there, this incredibly
famous architect is there, Peter is there. I'm looking around going... and my
parents are with me, and we felt like we were from Red-neck-ville and should not be
mingling with these people! I said "where are the other winners?" and Peter
was like "No no! This is for you! This is your luncheon! I'll insert
some photos here for you. But I won this this award which was so incredible. And I
was sitting at the table with Peter and with these architect people and just
these famous, famous arts names. And Peter, while he's presenting me award, he
says "and just so you know, next week you can see Katie open our gala as an
apprentice in Carousel!" I was like "oh my gosh! Please stop! Please... this is... I
can't handle this!" So he announced it at the luncheon that I was going to be
doing this. So I'm just thinking I have got to... I've got to kill this." So the
luncheon was incredible. I remember so vividly the portions came out... because
it's such like a swanky place. The portions were like this big *holds up small gesture*.
When you get like a big white plate and then tiny little portions! So I
remember so vividly from this luncheon.... We walked out and my dad is
like "All right. I gotta get a burger. Let's go get a burger." Because you know
tiny little thing! So we go get the burger. I had missed class that day and I'd missed
another rehearsal because I was also doing the corps of two other ballets in
the gala. But I was not gonna miss my Carousel rehearsal. So I had a
Carousel rehearsal at like 5 p.m. or something and the luncheon lasted until
3:00, so I knew I had Carousel. So I went early and warmed
myself up because I had missed class for this luncheon. I walk in and there a
lot of people in the hallway and everything, and they're like "oh where
were you?" because I was that kid that never missed class. And apprentices are
not allowed to miss class anyway. You have to take company classes as an
apprentice. So "where were you? Where were you?". And I knew that I had just done
Juliet, the casting had just come out that I was gonna open this gala, I was an
apprentice. I already had so many haters that I was like "you know what? I'm
completely... I can't handle this." So you know what I said? "I had a migraine." I lied
and I told people that I had a migraine instead of going to this luncheon and
getting the Movado Future Legends Award because I just... it was the pressure. And
the the backlash from people was so great, that one more thing on top of
that was just gonna be the you know the last straw.
So I said instead of saying actually I was winning the Movado future legends
award at my own luncheon downtown I said I had a migraine. Meanwhile Andy is
standing amidst this crowd. We're about to go into Carousel rehearsal. So
we walked into rehearsal he goes, "all right. Where were you really?". Like he knew.
He knew that I was just trying to defend myself. and I said, "well actually
Andy I was winning...." I told him about this. and he said "uh-huh yeah. I
thought so." So he got it. We rehearsed the next couple days. The gala I believe
at this point is four or five days away. This was like Thursday I want to say, and
the gala was gonna be the following Tuesday. So the next day after the whole
luncheon thing went down, we are in a massive rehearsal of the full-length
Romeo and Juliet. Peter had already started at that point his full-length
Romeo and Juliet. He hadn't done any of the Romeo and Juliet bits yet. I believe
he had just done the Romeos, Montagues, Capulets sword fighting
because those guys were in sword fighting forever...all the Romeo's, all the
Benvolios all the Mercutio's. The Juliet's had not been cast yet. That was
the weird part, Juliet hadn't been cast yet. He was working on this full length,
which I'll get to in a different story obviously. Andy was, as you've seen in
my Romeo and Juliet commentary videos, he was second cast Mercutio.
So Andy already been cast as Mercutio along with 18 other million
people doing all the roles. So they were in a rehearsal of the Mask Dance, which
was Romeo, Benvolio ,and Mercutio. Andy went to do a big jump,
came down, and tore his ligaments in his ankle. Sprained it, couldn't walk, and I'm
looking at him going "we have four days, five days until the gala. And he cannot
walk. Here we go." And I'm sitting in the back like "oh my goodness".
So Andy was out. Gone. Done. I mean it was a bad injury. So we had, of course,
Carousel rehearsal that afternoon. I go in there, and Chris is like, "what
do you mean he's not doing it?" I said, Andy's out. He's not
doing it." I'm standing there as the only one with no partner. I'm the one that's
cast to do this, but Sterling has a healthy partner and Tiler has a healthy
partner who was Seth Orza. So I'm sitting there going "he's gonna take me out of
this because my partner is done." The thing about Carousel... it's a seven and a
half minute pas de deux and it's so intricate and it's so... I mean...
Christopher's pas de deuxs are just incredible and so complex that if
one partner goes out, to try and do it with a new partner is a nightmare. It's
an absolute positive nightmare. And I just didn't know if with four days to go
to the gala if they were gonna want to take the risk to put me with a new
partner. So Chris was like "well just mark it in rehearsal today,
and I'll work with the other two couples." And I'm thinking, "yeah I'm I'm out
because there's no way." So I went home devastated because Andy went out and
that I was probably not gonna get to do the gala. Totally devastated. So I come in
the next day, and Chris pulls me aside. He says, "all right. I don't typically do this,
but you're going to do the gala still. And I'm going to put you with Seth.
You're gonna have a three hour rehearsal today, a three hour rehearsal
tomorrow, and then we're in the theater. And then we do the completes and the dress
rehearsal. So all you have is today and tomorrow to get it together. He
himself had other ballets he was working on, so I don't think he could come to
all those rehearsals. So Seth and I get in the room. We hadn't even touched each
other all this time. We've probably been rehearsing for five or six weeks at this
point. He's been rehearsing with somebody else.
I've been rehearsing with Andy, and we were like "okay.... let's try!" So the ballet
master was like, "All right. Here's we're gonna do. Start from the beginning and
see how far you can get. Just see what happens." We started and we got through almost
3/4 of the pas de due with no problems. It was like it was it was meant to be. It
was going to be excellent. I could see it in Seth's eyes. I could see the ballet
master was sitting in the front going "this is gonna be good."
Aas we'll go along, Seth ended up being one of my most frequent partners
at New York City Ballet. He ended up leaving for PNB, which is why that didn't
keep going. But he was probably at that point going to be my main partner had he
not left because it worked out so well. So we really didn't need the whole six
hours for the two days to rehearse this thing. And as we'll talk about in
future stories, I ended up doing the full-length Romeo and Juliet with him
because of Carousel... because that worked so well. But that's for another video.
So the ballet master was happy. Chris came in and was like, "yep. This is good to
go." So we get to the... I don't even know if we
had time to run it in the studio. I think the first time we did it with
everybody, Seth and I (Andy and I had been doing it
with everybody in the studio) but I think the first time Seth and I had run the
ballet was on stage in the tech rehearsal. It was going pretty well... a
couple rough places. Whenever you go from studio to stage, the first
rehearsal is always kind of, and you guys probably know this, it's kind of a mess.
That's because there's wings and tape and you know.... you are oriented
differently. You're used to seeing the mirror or you're used to seeing the
pianist right over ther. But once you're on the stage, it's a complete....your just
like "Ugh." So the first tech rehearsal was kind of a mess. And in the last probably
minute of this pas de deux, there's this big lift where you run towards him. You
run facing him, and then all of a sudden before you get to him, you go
backwards and he catches you. It's almost like you do run run run run run and then
flip up into a press lift and he catches you. Well... Katie Morgan
belly-flopped. Right on the stage just like WHAM. We had to stop, the
orchestra had to stop. I don't even know... maybe we weren't with the orchestra.
Maybe it was just a pianist, but you know... one of those belly flops where the wind
gets totally knocked out of you. Just *makes a noise*. I look up and Seth is like, "I'm sorry!".
So I belly-flopped in rehearsal. I will never forget that. I think I
had bruises from how hard I belly-flopped. And I remember Chris was
there and Peter was there. I remember Chris looking at me like *makes a face* . I
could see the second guess coming in his head of like, "here's this little
apprentice and I gave her this principal role to open the gala and she's belly
flopping in reheasal... not good!" But the good thing about
belly flopping is that it kind of..... everything was gonna go up from there. It
could not get any worse than a belly flop. So we got to the performance and it
went beautifully. We got a standing ovation, and it was the first time I got
to go out and bow in front of the golden curtain, which is it's such an incredible
experience. I remember people saying how lovely it was, but I didn't really
have time to revel in it. We went out, we did the ballet, we bowed, we ran offstage,
and I had to book it to the dressing room because I was in not the next piece
but the following in the corps. So I had to literally strip and run
because I think the piece in between was maybe three minutes or four minutes.
The piece I was going to be in was Walpurgisnacht which
is Faust. So Balachine's Faust. So I had to like
run and strip I was like "thanks Seth!" and I had to like.... they were undoing my
costume. So I didn't get to stand there and revel in the glory of Carousel. It
was like "all right. Yeah next. Good job. Go. go to your corps spot." which is one of the
things I like about New York City Ballet. City Ballet is not about
being a diva. You do everything. You do your
principal role. Great. Wonderful. Now go fill in for the corps. As
we'll talk about when I get into or future stories, I have major stories
about that particularly for Nutcracker. So you don't have time to be a diva. You
just have to keep going. I had two other ballets that night: Faust and I
think actually now that I'm remembering correctly, the corps of Stars and Stripes.
I remember people giving me lots of compliments, principals in particular. But
the fact that I did that role for the opening night gala in New York and
it went really well, I think set me up well for future roles. I will forever
be grateful to Christopher Wheeldon for taking that risk on me because you know
I was an apprentice and he's Christopher Wheeldon. He doesn't have to do
that, and he did that. So Chris, thank you so much for that opportunity. I will
never forget that night. The ballet came back several times while I
was there. I ended up doing it with... I think I finally did end up doing it with
Andy. I did it with Seth, and I might have done it with Robbie Fairchild.... maybe. But
anyway, it did come back a lot. So I did get to do it a lot. It's
such an incredibly beautiful ballet. It's an 18 minute version of the famous Rodgers
and Hammerstein film with their music: the Carousel Waltz, the pas de deux is the "If
I Loved You" orchestrated. So it's just gorgeous. If you haven't ever seen it,
it's an 18 minute version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein story. So thank you again
Chris for such an amazing experience. I'm gonna end it there because I've talked
for quite a long time now. Goodness knows how long this video is gonna be!
Again, reminder: I'm going to start filming some ballet technique videos and
barres and stuff again, so leave me a comment in the box below of what you
would like to see or what you need to work on. If you missed the video of the
Romeo and Juliet commentary Bedroom Pas de Deux, it's right down there. You can
click it to watch. Love you guys so so much, and I'll see you next time!
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