A moment to honor Wendy Whelan, a ballerina who very much inspired me as a young dancer. Wendy retired as principal dancer from New York City Ballet on October 18 at age 47 and this past Friday I got the privilege of finally seeing her dance live after almost 30 years of admiration! (and meeting her at a reception afterwards where we had a lovely conversation and she lived up to her reputation of being extremely kind and sincere). She looked on stage as amazing as all the videos Ive seen of her as a younger dancer and even more magnetic in person. Heres an excerpt from an article about her retirement... Whelan was not a beautiful girl, as she freely admits in a film clip screened that night; instead, she had to find her beauty and let the audience acclimate to her unusual looks. It was through her dedication to her artistry that she was able to change the mind of many a balletomane about their aesthetic perceptions. Whelan’s smile is open and inviting, her self-confidence disarmingly contagious. You root for her. Ballet — even with all its body issues — embraced Whelan and her anti-establishment look, which gave the art form a contemporary edge. (In contrast, gorgeous Isabelle Ciaravola, étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet, who retired earlier this year and is the muse of many a couturier, is a classic beauty.) I contend that the change that Whelan brought about could only have happened in New York. In a city that is home to the center of the contemporary dance world, Whelan became the ballerina all dancers who were not perfectly shaped (and who is?), identified with. She symbolized the underdog who made it to the top. The thin and steely muscular legs without an ounce of fat, the boyish hips, the enormous ribcage that protruded in its lower half, the spine deformed by scoliosis, the non-existent chest, and the spindly arms all somehow worked together, and the artist in this body convinced us that what we saw was beautiful. Fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez paid attention, and names Whelan as an inspiration for his clothing compositions. the entire article: dance-enthusiast/features/view/Wendy-Whelan-Farewell
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 15:24:00 +0000
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