As promised, I’m delivering the detailed account of last Friday, Nov. 2. When I interviewed all of the NYCB dancers for the Mobile Press-Register! Related posts: click here.
The story begins as all good tales do in Downtown Mobile. A little after rush hour I dressed and fought nerves on an interstate drive to the Mobile Civic Center Theatre. I parked right behind my sister Dione, who I thought was already in a warm-up company class. Armed with my digital recorder (which handily turns all recorded interviews into computer sound files), my notebook, ink pen and Press-Register press pass, I entered the stage door of the theatre—but no one was there.
I caught Mr. Corey, the artistic director, sitting on a chair in the concrete storage room (where they keep some of the large props). In the middle of chatting on his iphone he gave me a little wave.
“The dancers aren’t here,” he said. “But when they come, just talk to them if they don’t look busy, do you know what I mean?” he said. I did. I thanked him and decided to wait in the audience. The crew was on stage setting up for Act II from “Swan Lake.” Mr. Corey paced the stage and directed the lighting tech to add more blues and reds to the stage. Gage Bush Englund and a friend were seated in the audience as well.
While I waited, my nerves began to taunt me more. Knowing that I’d have to approach the dancers without introduction was a little daunting. I had to remind myself that I AM a journalist, they do such bold things every day. It took a little less than an hour before they all arrived, and I headed backstage to see who I could speak with. All of the dancers were seated together in the wings on the floor, and stretching on the barre there. I swear I probably peeked at them from the storage room door about five times before taking a deep breath, and squatting near Daniel Ulbricht and Amanda Edge.
I introduced myself and Amanda said she could talk. So we walked to the band room, where some of the dancers were autographing photos, and we sat on the floor so she could stretch while we talked. She was amazingly nice and bubbly. When I asked her about her appointment as Associate Artistic director of Longview Ballet Theatre, she said “Oh my gosh! Where did you hear that?”
“It’s from my research,” I said.
“It’s so neat that you know that!” she kept saying.
When we finished, one of the Mobile Ballet employees told me that Rachel Rutherford was in the Green room stretching, so I walked there, and she was doing a couple of tondu’s to warm up. When I told her about the interview we sat on the floor, and she stretched and told me all about her life. She seems so happy. I’ve never met anyone who’s ever been that pleased with their life. I thought about that many times after we finished talking.
I walked back to the wings, and watched a little more of the rehearsal. Dione had finished running “Swans” with Nilas and Abi,who were now backstage too. Nilas was pacing and text-messaging, and Abi was now working at the barree. Albert Evans was everywhere, on stage, off, joking and dancing around. Dione came to the wings to say hello to Albert—but before she even spoke he threw his arms around her.
“There’s my little ballerina!” he said.
“You were so awesome, I saw you perform once in Middle…” I saw Dione searching for the words. I mouthed “Duet” across the room. “’Middle Duet’ you were great,” she said. He thanked her and she waved goodbye to me.
When all eight dancers were finally all in the wings it was a little daunting. Charles Askegard and Abi were practicing lifts, Yvonne was sitting on the floor, Rachel was stretching again, Albert was in and out of the wings, and Nilas kept disappearing and reappearing but always with his cell phone. Albert rubbed his stomach. “I’m ready to go so we can eat. I want my po-boy,” he said.
“A po-boy won’t stick to your stomach,” Amanda said.
“A po-boy wouldn’t stick to the frying pan,” Daniel said. As if on cue, Abi reached into her bag and started munching on a snack.
“That was smart,” Amanda said. “You know, bringing a snack.” I thought it was funny that they were all discussing food—there’s a small stereotype that NYCB dancers are overly food conscious.
Albert’s cue came, so he waited in the wings. “I’m going to mark running,” he laughed. “Marking” in dance is only doing the minimum steps but not exactly doing them full out. I tried to imagine how one would mark running—but Albert then turned and shook his head as if he heard my thoughts. “How can somebody mark running!?”
When his piece was over, he returned and pulled out a chair for me.
“Do you want to sit?” he asked.
“Oh no thank you,” I said. I asked him if we could chat for the paper.
“After the dance after this one,” he said. We stood in silence until Nilas appeared and pointed at him.
“Albert,” he said with a thick accent. “Let’s go outside.” So they left the backstage area and went into the audience to watch.
On stage, they’d flown through almost the entire second half, and Daniel was rehearsing for “Gopak.” During a brief break, he executed a bunch of impromptu and showy jumps. The Mobile Ballet girls cat-called, and in response, he started doing coffee-grinders. Backstage he smiled and rifled through his dance bag, took out his iPhone and laughed a funny voice-mail message he received.
“Did you get all your interviews done?” he asked. I had done two by then, and needed three for the article, and planned on a fourth just in case.
“I need just one more,” I told him. So we walked to the storage room and looked around for a place to sit. There was a huge stack of chairs in the middle of the room, too tall and too heavy for me to attempt to pick up. So he, being a gentleman, (and a strong one at that) picked up two chairs and set them up for us. Our interview was brief and we shook hands, I mentioned that I saw him in “La Sonnambula,” and he nodded. “Thanks.” [Over the course of the weekend, he’d have to teach me how to correctly pronounce “Sonnambula” two more times before I got it right.]
Back in the wings Albert returned. We had a jovial chat and when I mentioned “Middle Duet” he smiled.
“Are you related?” he said, mentioning my sister. I told him we were. “You both look alike.” We walked to the wings. Albert asked Amanda if she’d spoken to me yet.
“Yeah I did,” she said.
“She knew stuff about me I didn’t know about myself!” Albert laughed. I was glad that they liked all of the research I’d put into it.
“Me too,” said Amanda. “She knew all about that jail time.”
“Gurllllll” Albert said and narrowed his eyes at Amanda. She was joking, of course, so we all had a laugh. I only stayed a few moments after that, then slipped out the backstage door and rushed home to begin transcriptions of the interviews. I remember going to sleep that night and replaying the story in my head forever.
