Summer 2016 Ballet Review

From the Summer 2016 issue of Ballet Review

A Conversation with Jamie Rae Walker by Michael Popkin

© 2016 Dance Research Foundation, Inc. 4 Violette Verdy – Clement Crisp 5 Toronto – Gary Smith 6 Tokyo – Eva Shan Chou 8 Jacob’s Pillow – Christine Temin 10 London – Nina Alovert 12 Boston – Jeffrey Gantz 13 New York – Eva Shan Chou 15 Hong Kong – Joseph Houseal 16 New York – Karen Greenspan 19 Williamstown, MA – Joel Lobenthal 21 Bhutan – Karen Greenspan 62 22 Paris – Vincent Le Baron 24 Miami – Michael Langlois 25 New York – Harris Green Ballet Review 44.2 26 San Francisco – Rachel Howard Summer 2016 28 Washington, DC – Lisa Traiger Editor and Designer: David Mead Marvin Hoshino 30 Peter Wright on Staging the Classics Managing Editor: Roberta Hellman Susanna Sloat Senior Editor: 40 Garth Fagan Don Daniels 44 Michael Langlois Associate Editors: 44 A Conversation with Gillian Murphy Joel Lobenthal Larry Kaplan Susanna Sloat Alice Helpern 57 José Limón Festival Webmaster: Michael Popkin David S. Weiss 62 A Conversation with Jamie Rae Walker Copy Editor: Naomi Mindlin Karen Greenspan 70 A Path to Extreme Dance Photographers: Tom Brazil 40 Carla DeFord Costas 76 A Conversation with Ashley Ellis Associates: Darrell Wilkins Peter Anastos Robert Greskovic 81 Cross-Genre George Jackson Don Daniels Elizabeth Kendall Paul Parish 92 Fragment and Vessel: Nancy Reynolds A Fractured Sylphide James Sutton David Vaughan Horst Koegler Edward Willinger 30 106 A Conversation with Hans van Manen Sarah C. Woodcock 121 London Reporter – Clement Crisp 126 Music on Disc – George Dorris

Cover photograph from Stuttgart Ballet: Hans van Manen’s Variations forTwo Couples with Anna Osadcenko and Jason Reilly. Jamie Rae Walker in Airs. (Photo: Francisco Graciano, Paul Taylor Dance Company) 62 ballet review A Conversation with path and that was my future, as far as I thought. Until there was a moment when I Jamie Rae Walker knew that something was changing. Edward Villella knew it as well. I loved the jazzy, contemporary Balanchine Michael Popkin ballets that I was doing – and those were the dances – jazzier ballets like Who Cares? – where BR: I understand you started out at Central I mostly had the soloist or principal roles. But Pennsylvania Youth Ballet and then went to we did a lot of Balanchine and even in his more Miami City Ballet before joining Taylor. Can classical work like Concerto Barocco and Sere- you talk about your classical training and your nade, I felt myself gravitating toward wanting transition to modern dance? to explore bigger, fuller movement. And that’s Jamie Rae Walker: It was so organic for me not something you can really do when you’re that I didn’t even think about them as differ- in a corps de ballet. Meanwhile, the more we ent. I did Graham as I was growing up and my did Taylor, the more I felt myself getting first mentor was a Graham dancer who did hooked. Still I didn’t see it coming until liter- ballet as well. Her name was Sharon Filone. ally there was just a complete light-bulb mo- She has passed away but danced for Martha ment in my heart. and also for Pauline Koner before teaching. So BR: Are you talking about an actual time I started out taking both ballet and Graham at and place? once. I knew my path was to be a ballet dancer Walker: Yes, it was really specific. Sandy at that time, even though I loved working on Stone, who was a dancer at Taylor, was stag- the Graham technique. ing Arden Court on us. After a performance one BR: How old were you then? night I came off stage and as I ran past her Walker: I was probably around eight to ten something made me turn around, and I just when I started with Sharon and I took it very wanted to tell her how much it meant to me seriously. Without a doubt ballet had been call- to do his work – to be there and do this dance. ing me from the minute I was born. I just knew It was this perfect marriage of music and I was going to be a dancer. Sharon’s best friend movement that I had never felt quite that much was Melinda Howe, who taught at Central before. So I went up to her and started to speak, Penn sylvania Youth Ballet, and that’s where but my tears came out. I couldn’t even talk and it got stronger. I was going to summer work- she just hugged me and said, “I know, I un- shops and there was no doubt in my mind that derstand.” She said, “there’s nothing” – just I was going to do ballet professionally. basically “follow your heart.” She knew what The day that I graduated from Carlyle High was happening. School I was on a flight to Miami to join the BR: What did you do? company there. But over the years I had had Walker: At first I just thought of Paul and opportunities to work on Paul Taylor’s dances looked at the next year’s Miami repertory. And at summer intensives, and then in Miami it I thought, “Well, maybe I’ll get another Tay- started growing on me. We did Company B, Es- lor to dance,” but there wasn’t anything on the planade, Arden Court, Funny Papers, and Aureole, list. I was looking forward so much to what- dancing them over and over again, so in my ever that Taylor work might be, but there was seven years I got to do many performances of not a single one when I looked through the fol- Paul’s ballets. lowing season. That’s when I knew instantly BR: How did your career develop in Miami? that I had to come to New York. I didn’t know Walker: I was doing soloist roles by the time what was going to happen, but I wanted to I left. A couple of principal roles but those take class at the school and explore modern weren’t as frequent. But I was definitely on a dance. ©2016 Jamie Rae Walker, Michael Popkin 63 Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet’s Nutcracker. (Photo: courtesy of Jamie Rae Walker) Then by coincidence three weeks later, Paul Paul is the best possible place to be in the dance Taylor came to Miami City Ballet to visit us. world. He was coming to Miami to get an award and BR: Besides gravitating toward bigger he visited his old buddy Edward Villella at the move ment with Taylor, you also got to do a studio and watched us dance Arden Court. very wide range of material. Between Compa- By then I had already given my notice and ny B with its Andrews Sisters score and Gos- so Edward was very helpful and told him, “This samer Gallants where you play a whacky bug, is my girl; she’s moving on. She’s going to New and Speaking in Tonguesor the very recent Death York. Keep your eye on her for me.” And Paul and the Damsel, there’s a huge variety, from told me, “I certainly will. I don’t have any open- comedy to drama and everything in between. ings in my company right now, but I’m going Almost all of it is also very different from what to keep my eye on you.” And over the first years you’d been exposed to in ballet. Was the tran- I was here he did that. I knew we had a spe- sition something you consciously worked on? cial connection. He would watch me in class Walker: No, it’s a funny thing. While I don’t and pull me aside and make sure that I was know if it’s a good tie-in or not, all of the staying around. dancers here know me really well, and some- Finally there was a moment when a dancer times they compare me to Lucille Ball, because left Taylor 2 and he called me to join that com- aside from being a comedienne she was also a pany. I was dancing for Twyla Tharp, who had great actress, and the things I do here – the started Movin’ Out, her Broadway show. We physical interpretations – just come natural- were actually about a month out from going ly to me. I’m very interested in body language to Broadway with it when I got the phone call and, watching movies and watching dance, I and there was no question in my mind. It was am observant about what makes people hon- a dream come true and I feel that working with est in an acting way and whether I believe it

64 ballet review or not. I observe that a lot. I also think that dances and I want to do them for real because because I’m small, maybe I just found it chal- in them I’m not only a dancer; I want to be an lenging to do all this. artist. It makes me feel creative to define dif- Still, another big thing is investing truth in ferent aspects of something, to grow into what I’m doing. To let my reactions onstage something, to experiment and change it. And be very real is probably the most important, I guess I have to channel my energy somewhere because finding my truth onstage is what be- [laughing] and I think it’s my best outlet. ing a creative artist is all about for me. Re- BR: But how do you work? Do you have a leasing myself into those moments is the most specific way you repeat in preparing a role? satisfying way for me to live. I love Paul’s Walker: No, in the process of acting I gen-

Arden Court with Michael Novak. (Photo: Paul B. Goode, PTDC) summer 2016 65 erally don’t have a method. The challenge is to have this process with him that was really one- be honest and genuinely invested in my im- on-one. Because often times – usually – when agery of the character. Paul has given me so a dance is made around more than one person many different costumes and roles, and so or with a central group of dancers, there’s usu- many very strange parts over the years, that ally more of that. It’s very rare for it to be one it forces me to be real and just to throw my- person that a dance is about and from that self with abandon into the character com- point of view the process was the best I’ve ever pletely – otherwise it wouldn’t be believable. had with him. And that’s just something that I find really fun BR: Did he give you a scenario at the start to do anyway. I think that he knows that, plus of the work? that it’s also really nice for me to not be put Walker: There was no scenario he explained into any one particular mold, so that’s part of for this one, but he works differently for every the fun about it, too. dance. This one in particular was special for BR: Well this is a good place to ask you specif- how we didn’t count the music. Paul was mak- ically about Death and the Damsel. It was the ing material that felt like it was coming out leading role in the premiere dance at Lincoln of my own head and we were just making it Center last winter. To begin with, how much musical. So that part of it was very unusual time did you have to work on it? and different than almost any other process Walker: Paul took his usual six-week cre- I’ve been involved with. Here it was just that ative process. He gives that amount of time for he simply trusted me to make it work with the each dance and I think he took almost the en- music. tire amount here and finished it in the fifth BR: The critics were rather confused by it. week. He’ll work a couple of days, maybe three The dance starts with you dreamy in bed and days a week, for one or two hours a day in the this crazy group of tough people is behind you, studio. And during the last few years he works and then it looked like you got gang-raped. a little more efficiently and gets a lot done Some of the reviews thought it was about the while he’s feeling vibrant during the day. But sex trade. it took five weeks to do it. Still, he also changed Walker: Oh yes, I think that he loves to keep the ending right after he saw the first per- people guessing [laughing] and maybe even formance. that if people are talking about it, he’s done BR: What was the process like? something right. This was something that was Walker: Well the process for this one was a big conversation piece, controversial. There very close to my heart and special for my con- were so many interesting things I heard about nection with Paul. Because we’ve had a long it afterward. What people thought it was relationship and he’s known me for quite a about. It was fascinating to me. So they’d ask long time. On the first day we began making me and I’d say that “that was even better than it he said, “I haven’t really made anything spe- what I thought it was” [laughing]. cial for you yet, have I?” And then he said, “It’s It was creative what people were coming up about time I did,” and that was a beautiful with. He did not give us a story per se and all thing. So I feel really blessed that he [pauses, the way up until the very last section defi- thinking again] . . . that he thought about what nitely also kept us guessing about what the he was going to do and that this one was specifi- ending was going to be. He kept kind of wink- cally for me. And it felt special that way from ing around the subject but was very specific the very minute it started. in saying it’s death and the damsel. So it isn’t He was incredibly hands on and specific and handed to you but makes you wonder what’s created all of my dancing. He thought it going to happen next. I also think that the am- through, and it was almost like we were read- biguity was set up by the theatrical sets and ing each other’s minds. So it felt amazing to the beginning, with me in front not knowing 66 ballet review Death and the Damsel with Michael Trusnovec. (Photo: Paul B. Goode, PTDC) what’s going on behind me. As a result, it’s al- that’s also the unknown part of this dance. most as if it’s happening in my mind. And then That whole opening scene is a big question the action proceeds to my being manipulated mark, and I left it as a question mark for by death, but I face it in the end. I nearly get myself so that I knew how to navigate the chills thinking about it. through the simplicity of being in the front BR: Well does death then appear in differ- of the stage and not seeing what was going on ent guises? You struggle with a character behind me. played by Michael Trusnovec and then anoth- I wasn’t the person you were necessarily fo- er played by Laura Halzack. Do they both rep- cusing on at that moment and I needed to have resent death? some depth – some part of me lost in that mo- Walker: Death is all of them really and I’m ment. And maybe even how I felt about my fighting with them as if life is always a strug- character changed over time, but definitely I gle with death. Just sustaining one’s self and left it as unknown whether it was happening being alive every day is a balancing act. But in my mind or I’m dreaming. I think I’m awake summer 2016 67 Beloved Renegade with Jamie Rae Walker, Aileen Roehl, and Michelle Fleet. (Photo: Paul B. Goode, PTDC) but not for sure and it’s not very certain that anything that could be going on. There were I’m awake until the very end, and even then I so many possibilities that I heard afterward leave it open. as to what I could represent. People identi- BR: You said Paul changed the end after the fied with it so passionately, as to what they first performance. Can you tell me about that? thought it was, that I definitely don’t want to Walker: We had just finished a full dress re- take that away. hearsal of several other dances at the theater The new ending Paul changed it to, howev- when our stage manager called us to meet Paul er, made it look like they could be consuming onstage in rehearsal clothes. That evening’s me in the end. He kept everything the same performance would be the second time the up until the last few seconds, including my piece was being danced, but he was deter- triumphantly defeating them. But then, right mined to make a change. And the new ending at the end, as they seem to have been con- was much darker than before. quered, he decided to have them turn right When we performed it the first night, back and slowly start coming back toward me death retreated from me at the conclusion, as until the blackout, indicating to the audience if I had conquered it. And those were all the that death might very likely consume me. It other dancers, so that it basically looked like was subtle in movement but also musically far I’d fought and conquered them by kicking, more dramatic than the original ending. Ul- punching, and shoving. It was very physical timately that changed the entire dance for me – a question of physically triumphing over and my reaction onstage was real. So I could death. Or life, depression, or mental illness – be going back to sleep and this was all a dream, 68 ballet review or I never wake up, depending on how you in- now is using the floor to dance with weight. terpret it. Terrifying. And I think what people are slowly becoming BR: What did he say about it? aware of is that modern dance classes are es- Walker: He didn’t say anything. He just sential for a ballet dancer. changed it. BR: But it’s not anti-ballet is it? I mean it’s BR: You teach modern dance at Ballet Acad- not ballet goes up and modern dance goes emy East. What is it like to teach to ballet stu- down, or anything like that. dents? How do you do it? Walker: Not at all; I think it’s a marriage Walker: My goal is to help them combine really. It’s really important to have an under- their ballet technique with a structured mod- standing of both, and I found the more I was ern dance style. So I like them to use a base of doing modern, the stronger my feet became ballet because that way they can still use their and the more control I had in pointe shoes. ballet training to find the right muscles from Had I known how to use the floor back then the inside out and not feel like they’re trying to the extent that I do now, it would have to copy me. I want them to understand that changed my dancing that much sooner. they don’t need to let go of their ballet tech- Having this experience of over twenty years nique and their muscles in order to make this of dancing professionally, I feel like I can in- style happen in their bodies. fluence young dancers to see that I’mstill danc- I tie it all together and make the connection ing, and that theycan use this information now for them right away that their technique is that I had to learn over time. I love sharing important and that they can use combinations that so much. Little things like going through that include their base, allowing them free- their feet more, using their plié, and knowing dom from the waist up, more so than from the how to release into things with a bit more ease waist down. So that’s the starting point – that and efficiency even with their ballet move- they can actually dance stronger based in the ment. center, because they are so used to starting at BR: Finally, has the change over to Paul Tay- the bottom. Then when they come to the cen- lor’s American Modern Dance from the good ter they feel like they can just let it all go, es- old Paul Taylor Dance Company made things pecially in a modern dance class anyway. And any different for you at the dancer level? I think it’s important to make that connection Walker: It’s still the Paul Taylor Dance Com- for them that it’s coming from the floor up. pany within that. We are sixteen very tight Actually that’s also something I remember family members – the company, the work, hearing from Edward Villella and that I’m sure touring, and all that – so we are still the Paul he heard from Stanley [Williams]. Taylor Dance Company within Paul Taylor’s BR: Funny you should mention Stanley American Modern Dance. For right now it’s Williams in connection to this, because push- still an experimental time as to how we’re ing to the floor and developing a strong and working with Paul but also with other chore- deep plié is certainly a hallmark of Danish ographers. We’re still figuring it out. training. BR: But it will be a big difference when oth- Walker: Well it’s a trend in fact – maybe not er choreographers make work on the compa- consciously – but I’m finding that one of the ny. things I feel is important for me and other Walker: Yes. That has started now with Lar- modern dance teachers to emphasize right ry Keigwin, and it’s already been fun.

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